The Hollywood Commandments Page 4
Prayer is communication. Prayer is connection. The more you pray, the more you become aligned with God and have a better relationship with Him. First, you will begin to better understand who you are. Second, you will have more peace. Third, you will have more power because you will be in communion with the One who created you. Those are the reasons for prayer.
The Bible assures us that God will give you your heart’s desire if you ask in the name of Jesus. God does not expect us to just believe in Him. He understands that He created us in the flesh, and our flesh needs reassurance and reaffirmation of His existence and power. God is always a God of demonstration. He will demonstrate who He is and will reward those who believe in Him, as He did from Moses all the way to Paul and Peter.
God does not hold it against us that we ask Him for things. But if we only relegate our prayer life to asking for things, we will never understand everything that prayer can do. Prayer is about the relationship, the connection, and the alignment. When I get up from praying, I feel like I’m connected, have a greater understanding of my life, and am aligned with fulfilling my purpose. Then I have to go into the field and get the job done. Some answers to prayers don’t even happen until you’re taking action.
Sometimes, an answer to a prayer will come in the moment while you’re doing the job. You’ll be in a meeting and think, “This person just said something that was an answer to my prayer. God, this is fascinating. Here I am on the job, and look what You’re doing.”
These are some other tips for practical prayer that help your life goals:
•Pray from a place of humility. You understand that God is all-powerful. You understand that you come to God humble, grateful for life, grateful for the opportunity to communicate, grateful for the opportunity to come before Him. Humility is a big part of praying.
•Don’t immediately get into, “Lord, this is what I want.” It’s more about cleansing. Is there excessive ego in you? Is there negativity in you? Say, “I want to be the best person I can be, so whatever is not aligned with that, Lord, take that away. Show me what needs work. How can I be more effective in serving You?”
•Pray every day when you get up. Before you check Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or email, have you checked in with God? We tend to be more concerned with our social media connections than we really are with God. We are addicted to our phones and what others are doing as well as other people’s perceptions of us, and we want to make sure we’re staying connected and don’t miss anything. But what if we’re missing what God has for us? In order to have a successful day, you have to get plugged in with who God wants you to be today.
•End the day with prayer. Thanking God for what He did during the day, clearing your mind of what you didn’t get done, and preparing yourself for what’s going to happen tomorrow will produce tremendous change in your life.
•During the day, pray as needed. If prayer is a conversation, we should be engaging in that conversation throughout the day. For example, I pray before big meetings—even while I’m in meetings—that God will tell me the right things to say. I pray before speaking engagements. I pray before television appearances. I incorporate prayer into my entire day, asking God for courage, wisdom, eloquence, or insight.
•Finally, after you pray, become a beast. Humility ends when you get off your knees. Get out there and go to war to fulfill your purpose and pursue excellence while you do. Say, “God has great things in mind for me, and He’s put me in this job. Whom do I need to call today? What connections do I need to make? How do I become better at the job I’m doing?” Go after your goal in a way that is focused and controlled but ambitious and aggressive. Don’t allow yourself to live at a standard that’s less than you’re capable of.
In the morning after I pray, I go to the gym, come home, switch clothes, go to the office, figure out whom I need to call, which emails I need to return, review my schedule for the day, and make sure I have what I need so I’m prepared for my meetings. I have a plan and put it into action. Instead of letting the day happen to you, happen to the day!
If all you’ve got is yourself, your job, and your relationship with God, you’ve got enough. The question is, what are you going to do with it?
THOU SHALT
»Develop a daily prayer practice and stick with it no matter what.
»Prepare and study. Learn everything you can about the business you’re in—or the one you want to be in. Learn the people, the trends, the technology, everything. Become an expert.
»Find mentors and other resources to learn everything you can about the work you do today and the work you want to be doing.
»Remember that if you give everything you have to reach your goals, God will manifest them when the time is right.
THOU SHALT NOT
»Lose your intensity or desire.
»Allow any career pressure to dissuade you from God’s purpose, even if others think your goals are unrealistic.
»Pray to God for things that you don’t need His help to do.
2
YOU ARE THE TALENT
Your talent is God’s gift to you.
What you do with it is your gift back to God.
—Leo Buscaglia
Everyone has talent, and church was the incubator for mine. Church was the place where I began to speak and harness my ability to communicate in public. When I was fifteen years old, we were having Youth Day at Wings of Love, and out of the blue, I was asked to speak. My older brother had been the speaker the year before, but I had never preached before. I had run for the student body president at school, and that was about it. But I said I’d try.
The sermon went very well, and after I finished, everyone told me, “You should go into ministry. You should become a pastor.”
But even at fifteen, I knew what my calling was. “No,” I said. “My goal is to be in Hollywood. I want to work on films, I want to work in television, and I want to be a part of entertainment.” Nobody understood. Because they could see I had the gift of preaching, they thought that my desire to go to Hollywood was a rebuke of my spiritual gift.
I wish people would have said to me, “DeVon, you can be whoever you want to be, so keep praying, keep working, and let God determine where your gifts will take you.” But that type of encouragement was rare. As a result, when I started my career in Hollywood years later, I didn’t think of myself as someone who had talent. At that time, I only thought of myself as someone who would be fortunate if I got the opportunity to service those who had the real talent.
Most people I knew didn’t believe that my desired career path was the “right” one. Most didn’t see how it would lead me closer to God. As they saw it, there is a wall between the sacred and the secular. Many people still believe to this day that Hollywood is not the place for a person of faith. While growing up and even today, I fight those views so I can pursue what I believe God wants me to do.
This chapter’s Commandment is that you are not just a vessel for talent:
You Are the Talent
God gifts us each with unique talents and calls us to use them to fulfill some part of His purpose. Remember what Paul said in Romans 12:6–8 (NIV): “We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.”
Paul was right. We’ve all been gifted with a variety of unique skills and talents. But talent is more than just a set of skills. It’s who we are—who you are. You are an agent of change, a force for good in the world. Looking at talent this way means your value in the eyes of God and man is about more than what you do—it’s about who you are. Let’s take a closer look at this idea.
DEFINITION OF TALENT 1.0
The common definition of the word talent is an ability in which someone
shows unusual proficiency. People can have talent in almost anything, from singing and cooking to shooting three-pointers or fixing cars. Talent is the most important commodity in any field. It’s what employers pay for and sports franchises draft for. In Hollywood, talent is currency. It doesn’t guarantee you a career, because hard work and so many other factors go into success apart from natural ability. But if you believe you are uniquely talented, you have a big advantage over the competition, which is fierce.
Because for years I didn’t think of myself as possessing talent, it took me a long time to realize that I actually did. I had a real talent for communicating, motivating, and inspiring people, not just through making movies and TV shows but through preaching and speaking. When I saw this, I said, “This is what will set me apart. This is the foundation of my life, and I’d better start using it intentionally so I can harness the thing that makes me distinctive and propels my success.”
My true talent is as a coach. I coach people into spiritual success. I exist to motivate people with the urge, information, or ability to do something positive in their lives by creating a feeling of hope. Because if you don’t have hope, nothing else happens. Whether it’s a book, a movie, a television appearance, or a social media post, everything I do is knit together by that mission statement. Humbly, and by the grace of God, I point their hope in a direction that helps them begin to make the changes that success requires. That’s the talent that defines me—to cut through the noise, be a sympathetic, empathetic voice, and have the information to help someone, no matter where they may be in their life.
I believe that’s what made me stand out as an executive. That’s what helped me create a business inside Sony. That’s what gave me the platform to start my own company. That’s what gave me the platform to write my first book. That’s what got me on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday. That’s what allows me to travel around the world and speak. That’s what got me on The Dr. Oz Show. The same gift I discovered at fifteen is flourishing now that I’m thirty-eight, in ways that no one could have imagined. Why? Because I recognized that God did not just gift me with a talent but with an even greater revelation: I am talent . . . and you are, too.
However, there’s a second definition of talent that’s even more important. Yes, talent is what you can do. But talent is also who you are.
DEFINITION OF TALENT 2.0
Embracing the idea that you are talent means you must embrace the fact that you have star power. The dictionary defines a star as an outstandingly talented performer, and while people around the world are obsessed with Hollywood stars, their obsession often obscures the star that lies within themselves. As a Christian, I believe and acknowledge that Jesus is the star of my life, but this does not negate the fact that we are all fearfully and wonderfully made for a divine purpose. We have to walk in the confidence of this revelation in order to succeed.
In Hollywood, talent is what we call the people who drive the industry as a whole. Hollywood is an industry driven by content. So, “the talent” are the ones that create the content (writers, directors, producers, and certain agents) or bring the content to life (actors, musicians). In the business, when we talk about those people in shorthand, they are referred to as “the talent.” Who they are, not what they do. Without them harnessing their abilities in unique and dynamic ways, there is no Hollywood. They are talent. And whether you realize it or not, so are you.
I believe that God sees each one of us as “the talent,” which not only means having a special gift but also having the desire to develop and use it. For example, God might gift one person with the talent of playing a musical instrument and the passion to be a professional musician while gifting someone else not only with the talent to train dogs but also with a deep love of them. In every case, he wants to nurture those talents. But why don’t we hear this more? Why aren’t our pastors and leaders in our churches helping us more often to recognize our talent and to nurture it?
Growing up in the church I found that certain talents and gifts were anointed, ones that could be used within the church, or for a directly Christian purpose, like singing, playing music, or preaching. If you can play, sing, preach, or teach a good Bible study or children’s program, others will smile upon your talent.
But what about the gifts that don’t fit into the often narrow definition of what a Christian should be doing? I’ve seen people discouraged or put into a box or even ridiculed. There are infinite ways to serve God, and God has given out a multitude of gifts that don’t always fit within the confines of what is traditionally accepted within the church. Within the church, some expressions of talent make people uncomfortable (because they go against the norm) about encouraging others to develop their true talents.
More often than not, the leaders in our churches want the people in their congregations to live by following the example set for them by Jesus. That’s admirable, but sometimes they miss the mark because they forget who Jesus really was. He wasn’t a conformist. He was radically talented and spent his adult life exercising his gifts and talents in ways that the church leaders of his time disagreed with. As I mentioned in the previous chapter, Jesus spent years learning about the political and social fabric of the world in which he lived and in many ways disrupting that fabric with the power of his message and his talent. To truly live like Jesus means to be a bold, out-of-the-box thinker—a voracious disrupter of societal norms that go against the fullness of who God created you to be.
(This is another time when prayer becomes important. When you talk to God about what he has called you to do and how he has gifted you, you can know that you are moving forward anointed, even if those around you disagree.)
In entertainment, talent is everything. If you are an extraordinary talent, and you have developed your gifts to a professional level, doors open for you. Yes, it’s important to have a good agent and team, but the talent is the team leader and necessary for the team to win. The thing is, it’s not just that way in the movie and television business but in every business. If you are talented at attending to the needs of others, eventually you might be called to go into the customer service field, and one day that might lead to running a successful company. If you are talented at managing people, eventually you might be called to become an executive at a major corporation and one day, perhaps even start your own company. If you’re such a gifted baker that your pies leave people speechless, a world of opportunity is open to you, from pastry chef at a fine restaurant to your own bakery.
Talent is the bottom line. Talent reshapes the world, shows us new things we couldn’t have imagined, and inspires us to live boldly and joyously. But people of faith—and the churches that help shape us—often badly misunderstand the nature of talent. We fail to grasp these four key ideas:
1.You can recycle the box that people try to put you in. People are often uncomfortable around great talent. It may make them self-conscious that they haven’t found or developed their own talent, they might be afraid of what they don’t understand, they could fear that pursuing one’s true calling as a career means winding up broke and miserable, or maybe a combination of all three. Whatever the reason, I know from my own experience that people will often try to put your talent into a box—to confine it, limit it, and shape it into something they can make sense of.
Here’s the truth: the church can teach and equip you, but there’s a limit to what the church can do for you as it relates to your God-given gift. If you’ve been called to pursue a career outside the church, then it’s especially important to put yourself in secular environments where you can begin to incubate your talent—discover its levers, boundaries, and potential.
Recycling the box means throwing away the box that others try to put you in. It is not your responsibility to make other people comfortable with your talent. If they want to put your talent in a box out of fear or discomfort, that’s their problem, not yours. As people of faith, we toss aside those boxes with integrity and honor and remember it’s the people who wo
n’t let their gifts be tamed or discouraged who change the world.
2.You need a talent mentality. When I say that everyone is a talent, I mean that everyone has been gifted by God with a consequential ability—a gift that, when used properly, makes a difference in the world. That’s important to remember because church teachings can sometimes be misinterpreted into living a life of passivity—just sitting back and waiting for God to make important things happen in our lives. But if that were true, why would he have made us talent and gifted us with unique abilities if he didn’t expect us to play an active role in our own talent development?
God made you talent so you could be confident in your gift and what you can do. The scope of that gift doesn’t matter; what you do with it does. You must have a talent mentality. It all starts in the mind with your belief in who you were created to be. Let’s say you’re a teacher. If you inspire students to love learning, it doesn’t matter if you impact one student a year or ten thousand. Your belief that you are talent will change not only your life but the lives of everyone you come in contact with.
Having a talent mentality means that you project a confidence based on knowing who you are and what you have to offer. I have seen people with limited experience excel above those with more experience because they possessed this talent mentality, and the more experienced people did not. Confidence is a fragrance everyone wants to smell. When you feel good about who you are, and you know what you can do and you own it, you position yourself to become unstoppable.
David had a talent mentality before he ever became king. Before he fought Goliath, he projected a confidence and an authority that was essential to his success. He was the only one in the kingdom of Israel brave enough to face the giant. All he had was a slingshot and five stones, yet he didn’t have a “slingshot-and-five-stones” mentality. He proclaimed to Goliath,
You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the god of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands!” (1 Samuel 17:45-47, NIV)