So, I am in the shower. Reaching up to pump some shampoo, I see a sizable bug – prehistoric looking – staring at me from the shower caddy. #Ew
I am annoyed and grossed-out: now I have to find some sanitary way to kill this thing. Or leave my warm shower and take it elsewhere. Boo. As I reach out to remove him, alive, (karma, ya know), I stop. Why did I feel I should remove him? There’s no way he could get near me. What would happen if I just accepted that he wanted to shower, too? What if I changed my whole world-view on bugs? What if – think about it – I had grown up to revere such slow, water-loving critters as bearers of good luck and was honored he graced my morning with his presence?
Sometimes when you give up your “shoulds” – change up your perspective – the thing you’ve been struggling toward happens, in an unexpected way.
So my big news: I recently sold a show to a large studio production company! Awesome, right? I’ve been in entertainment for years. But this deal happened out of the blue, and super randomly.
I’ve acted for years professionally and focused my every effort on the industry. I attended one of the most prestigious drama schools in the nation. After graduation, I refused to have another job. Entertainment only. I was 100% on lockdown. I did what a good actress “should.” I successfully booked films, sold some commercial campaigns, and a show or two, but man, was it hard, grueling work!
Then 6 months ago, inspired by my entrepreneurial friends at Omaze (they’re rad, check em!), and Warby Parker, and, frankly, a terrible breakup, I had an epiphany. I started my own tech company!
And my gosh was it a freaky transition. I felt like maybe I failed at acting. Like maybe I was giving up. Like maybe I was throwing away 12 years of work! Like maybe I was letting down my parents. Wait, what!? Yeah, it was some messed up, silly-Cooper thinking there. The reality was: my new endeavor was epic and awesome, and I felt free and inspired like never before. I was a Female Tech CEO! #heckyeah #buckthetrend #realrolemodel
While I was still getting acting offers and bookings, I found myself less and less interested in auditioning, parading around in bikinis, reading insipid 2-pg scenes as the damsel in distress in the latest TV series that glorifies a 50 year old man having sex with as many skinny actresses as the producers can humanly fit into the now-downsized-to-half-hour episodes.
So I got hooked on my tech startup, obsessively taking meetings with huge companies, celebs, and retailers! It was a blast.
One of the meetings I took was with a well-known production company. They happen to have 3 current primetime TV shows on air. But, let’s be clear, I was pitching them my technology, wearing my nerd glasses and all. In the meeting, to give them some background, I showed them a trailer of a show I’d produced and starred in. They were hooked. On the show.
Then stuff happened quick! They – in that meeting – asked to produce the show. It was awesome. They were as excited about the geeky, cool, superpower element, as I had always been. So that was it; we flew through the legal process. I met with 5 execs to brainstorm! We locked it down.
And I learned: follow the yes, woman!
How ironic that after years of work, struggle, toil, pain, insert-other-labor-intensive-noun-here, I had to step away, change my perspective, lessen my deathgrip on my ‘career,’ in order to really create some massive success.
So I invite you: reassess how you approach things, change up your perspective, follow the ‘yes,’ eschew the “shoulds.” It will be refreshing, fun, and potentially really rewarding. You’ll know you’re there when your work feels alluring, less dusty, and you start having radical ideas like allowing bugs to shower with you.
What happened to that bug? Well I left him on the shower caddy. I figure, in most countries, I’d be bathing in much more unsanitary bodies of water, containing much bigger, water-dwelling critters. So yeah. I’m lucky. And little dude got a free shower. And a peep show. #score
