DAILY DOSE OF HOPE – BLOG – NAIMA LETT
Hollywood’s Drive
© NaimaLett.com/blog
© NaimaLett.com, Hollywood Sign, Oscar & Walk of Fame
The drive to “make it” in Hollywood is very powerful.
And let’s be clear, nobody “makes it” without that drive…
and a great public relations team. :=)
Celebrity Is Created
I read an article many years ago, I wish I could find it for you, in which an executive explained how celebrities are created through millions of dollars spent on P.R. Of course, there must be talent, but talent is not enough to become a household name, he shared. Nobody simply “ends up” in celebrity news or on covers splashed across international magazine stands. An artist must first decide that celebrity is what they want, pursue it doggedly, and employ high level teams at top dollar to secure such valuable public real estate space and to create brands that keep the whole team working for years to come.
Folks seemed shocked to learn that celebrities’ managers were daily informing paparazzi where their clients would be in order to get the “money shot”. Even more strange, some of the same celebrities who staged photo ops, are now complaining that the photographers don’t respect their privacy. They worked so hard, relentlessly for years, to get in the magazines. Now, when TMZ needs new stories every 24 hours and the paps start going through people’s trash and harassing their kids, it’s all too much.
There are hundreds of celebrities that quietly move around these Hills, living their life, raising their children, and we never hear a peep from them until the studios ask them to promote their latest television show or film. They go out on the press junket and then return to normalcy. They don’t travel with an entourage. The paparazzi don’t run them off the road because their photos aren’t worth it. I’ve worked with some of them. We see others around town. As the article said, the celebrities who want non-stop attention pay lots of money for it.
In The Beginning
But nobody starts with a $5,000/month P.R. team.
Thousands move here every year in pursuit of the Hollywood dream to make a living working in our craft. Yet, according to union workshops, only about 1% of professional actors actually make more than $10,000 per year. That means 99% fall below last year’s U.S. poverty line of $11,790. The Hollywood majority struggles to make ends meet.
I’ve known artists who have moved to L.A. and lived in their cars, crashed on couches, slept on the beaches, and gone to homeless shelters, all in pursuit of their dream. It’s a really hard path to choose, but people do it. I spend a lot of time counseling artists and encouraging them not to move to LaLa Land until they have savings, a safe and secure place to sleep, a solid resume and reel, and possible survival work. And even then, with all these factors in place, that Hollywood Hill can still be a beast to climb.
Only the artists who learn to adapt, create opportunities and prove that they can make others in the biz lots of money survive long term. How? That’s where drive comes in.
Drive
One definition of drive is “to strive vigorously toward a goal or objective; to work, play, or try wholeheartedly and with determination.”
In and of itself, I don’t believe that drive is a bad thing. But hey, I’m driven. I think I popped out that way. And when I search through the Bible, I see lots of driven examples. When Jesus prayed before His betrayal, He reminded His Father that He brought Him glory by finishing the work God gave Him to do, John 17:4. He was driven to finish the work of His Father.
As followers of Christ, we too are encouraged to press toward our goal. Isn’t that what Paul says he did? He strained and pressed, with single-minded, laser focus toward his goal.
In Philippians 3:13-14, Paul says, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Being driven ain’t bad.
The question is what are we driven for?
What Drives You?
So, what drives you? Why do you do what you do?
I am now digging into the research for my doctoral dissertation where I get to discover what drives Hollywood, what we value, what our beliefs are. I’ll spend the next year pouring over lots of data and doing interviews. I look forward with excitement to share my findings with you at the end of the journey.
But in the meantime, I hope that you’ll take a moment and ask yourself these very questions.
If you’re here in Hollywood or not, what drives you?
Pursuit of fame, fortune, power, success?
Security, marriage, family, friends?
God’s calling? Glorifying Him? Finishing His work?
Something to think about.
Onward & Upward,
Naima
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