Last Exit To Hollywood
November 8th, 2007
Everyone wants to go to Hollywood. To make a movie, be a star or tell a story. To get rich and famous and change the world.
Instead, only a handful of people we write off as wanna-bees, unless they actually make it, wind up going anywhere near Sunset and Vine.
No, we just talk and dream of the what if’s and reject the high risk and walk instead to the ticket booth to sit down and watch George Clooney play Michael Clayton. George actually went to Hollywood before he was George Clooney. He doesn’t buy tickets; he sells ideas.
It all boils down to the roles we will all play in the film of our lives, which is being shot right now. Will we be extras, passives, unknowns carried by the script or will we be activists who write and direct and star? Will we be popcorn chomping spectators or the royalty we are watching from the dark of our seats? Will we read John Krakauers’ book, “Into the Wild” and place it back on the library shelf or “Sean Penn” it into a tour de force of a young man who sets out to poke a stick in every life assumption handed to us as gospel?
For every Sean Penn, there are a million passives. For every George Clooney, there are legion of dreamers.
All of my life, I have heard people say “I want to write a children’s book.” “I want to start a business.” “I wish I went to business school.” “I am sorry I never learned to play the drums.” “I want to run a division in my company.”
I used to say, “Why don’t you? What’s in your way?” But I don’t say a word now. I know the answer.
They have a path they ride. They get in their cars, turn on the Sirius, listen to Mayer, Madonna, Matchbox and watch the
streets go buy. Alone, driving along, they think of what was and what will be from point A to point B and back again. This is good. This is safe. This is what the people who paint by numbers want us to do.
It is so neat; it is an insult to God.
The map of my life looks like a toddler finger-painted it. It drips all over the floor. It takes detours to Paris. It writes odes to God. But it is always that of an activist, with a gun at my own head, reminding me to find what no one has yet discovered. And once I do that, or fail at it, to search for something else, for another treasure.
Tomorrow, when I cruise down the road, I will look for the sign that reads “Last Exit To Hollywood” I will turn the wheel.
And I will disappear there.
Mark Stevens
CEO
What role do you play in your life?
November 8th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Mark,
I love this post and your writing style. Life is an adventure not a wish list. I wake up everyday wondering what opportunity awaits. If we aren’t looking, we won’t see; if we aren’t open to yes, even if we see, we won’t do.
November 8th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
You wake up with adventure in your eyes. The rest wake up with stop signs.
I will wave to you on the exit ramp. That’s Uma sitting next to me.
Mark Stevens
CEO
November 9th, 2007 at 9:28 am
Great post…the challenge in life, in this world, in this time is that mediocrity is rewarded, ingnorance is tolerated, and integrity is scoffed at. When you have the chance, look at a child interact with their parents and see how many times they are told “NO” – even if the child is just being curious or even creative. That child is conditioned, as we are all conditioned, to do just enough not to be told “no” – what does that translate to? Adults that live in the boxes we build around ourselves, to protect us from hearing “NO”. These boxes have thick, high walls – that’s why you hear many people feeling “trapped” in their lives. It’s time the yet “CUT!” in this take in the filming of our lives and be ready – really ready – to take chances, make mistakes, leave it all on the field with our blood and sweat, when we, the true directors of our lives, say to ourselves and those close to us…”ACTION!”.
November 9th, 2007 at 10:49 am
Michael,
You are so right. The fear of life, the intellectual suffocation, starts at childhood. What a waste!
Mark Stevens
CEO
November 13th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Great post – doing what is right for yourself and not worrying about what others will say is very difficult for many. Add on a fear of failure and people become totally risk averse.
“if you knew that today was the last day of your life – what would you choose to do?”