The Hollywood Commandments Page 5

  Doesn’t this get you hyped!? What would happen if all of us projected this level of confidence even before we were certain of the outcome!? It was this mentality that contributed to his eventual defeat of Goliath because he thought like a giant slayer even before he became one!

  If you take nothing else from this chapter, know that even if you don’t see or feel it right now, God made you an extraordinary, consequential, important talent destined to do great and life-changing things.

  3.You either are talent or you service talent. Talent calls the shots in Hollywood. It’s the ultimate arbiter of opportunity. Talent creates opportunities and opens doors. The entertainment industry is divided into two categories: those who are talent and those who service talent. Period. However, this isn’t limited to Hollywood; in any profession, those who run the company or the division heads are considered the talent while those who work for them are servicing their talent. No matter your field, you must recognize the value of what you do, who you are, and who you really aspire to be. Are you content with servicing talent the rest of your life? Or are you determined to become the talent?

  Let me be clear: even if your life’s calling is to service others’ talent, if you never come into a talent mentality, you may service talent for the rest of your life without ever claiming the talent within you. That would be tragic.

  4.You can serve talent and be talent at the same time. This might seem to contradict what I just wrote, but if you have a talent mentality, it doesn’t. Suppose you’re working at Google as a software developer. You could have incredible programming and development talents, and you know that they make you unique and valuable. But at the same time, you’re low on the ladder. To get anywhere, you have to serve people. But because you have a talent mentality, you don’t chafe at serving. You know that the only way to learn, achieve mastery, and get opportunities to advance is to do your apprenticeship, learn, and climb up through the organization. So, you most certainly can serve talent and be talent at the same time.

  God puts you in positions not to frustrate you but to give you the opportunity to hone your talent. This is an important spiritual principle to apply in the secular world. To be both servant and master is to be like Jesus, who was both humble healer and teacher and the bold, politically savvy, warrior-like Son of God. We can be these two things at the same time.

  False Idols

  Sometimes we wish with all our hearts that we had talent in an area where we just don’t have it. God has given each of us talent, but maybe you’re pursuing an area that He has not ordained for you. The key to understanding the difference is to seek confirmation of your gift over a period of time. Try what you believe you’re supposed to do, but be open to the feedback you get from professionals and be careful not to delude yourself into thinking that you’re good at something if you’ve gotten feedback to the contrary. Better to have a little disappointment that clears the way for what God really wants you to do than to waste your life chasing something you were never meant to do.

  YOU ARE A VALUE CREATOR

  None of us live on an island. We depend on each other for support, help, and the services we need. Since you’re talent, you have the ability to create value. The greater the value you create, and the fewer people who can do what you can do, the greater compensation you will receive. That’s why superstar professional athletes like Clayton Kershaw and LeBron James make salaries of more than $30 million per year: they attract huge numbers of fans for their teams, and they can do things that few other human beings on the planet can do.

  Talent is about value creation.

  However, it’s vitally important that you not allow yourself to be blinded by the entertainment and sports paradigms of talent. Yes, great rappers, singers, actors, and athletes are wildly gifted talents and might be compensated for their abilities at levels greater than most people will ever see. But almost any gift, no matter the size, can create value.

  At the churches across the country where I have spoken, I have heard musicians—singers, choirs, and instrumentalists—who made my spirit soar or, alternately, made me weep with their gifts. For the most part, these were not people who were playing on a big stage. They weren’t playing to a concert stadium or to a megachurch crowd of thousands of ecstatic worshippers. They were playing for just a few people, yet their gift was powerful and palpable. It didn’t matter that the audience was small; in those moments of transcendent music, God was singing and playing through them. You could feel the Holy Spirit fill the space. It was amazing. Talk about intensity and impact! Their gifts were creating incredible value for everyone who heard them, and it didn’t matter that they didn’t have songs for sale on iTunes. Talents can be anything. Value can come from anywhere.

  If your customer service skills keep a retail business running smoothly and profitably, you’re creating value, and you are a talent.

  If your experience as a contractor helps people keep their homes in great repair and earns you a six-month backlog of referrals, you’re creating value, and you are a talent.

  If you’re a home healthcare worker who helps elderly individuals remain in their homes so they can enjoy their independence and families as long as possible, you’re creating value, and you are a talent.

  If you’re the Uber driver who’s decorated his vehicle, knows every great hole-in-the-wall restaurant in your city, and has such a great sense of humor that passengers specifically request rides with you even when they have to wait, you’re creating value, and you are a talent.

  Talent is what creates value for others. It’s that simple. These are some other ways to know if what you’re pursuing is truly a talent from God:

  1.You love doing it. Do you hate numbers and accounting and wonder how in the world anyone could do that boring, repetitive work and not lose their minds? I completely understand. But there are some people who love figures and bookkeeping and profit and loss statements and would rather be working with them than doing whatever you’re doing. If you love what you do, even if you don’t get paid for it, it’s likely to be a talent. God places that love in our hearts because He knows that the more we love what He asks us to do, the more likely we are to do it and to excel at it.

  2.It stretches you. God isn’t interested in your comfort zone if it doesn’t serve Him. His gift to you is His gift whether you’re comfortable with it or not—but if you’re not, that’s a great sign that it is something that makes you talent. If nurturing this God-given ability pushes you to test yourself or leads you down career paths that you’re not completely comfortable with, embrace it. God wants us all to stretch and grow beyond what we believe we can do today and to turn that slight current of fear into exultation.

  3.It validates you. If what you’re spending your time doing, whether it’s your career or currently just a hobby, makes you feel like your days have meaning and that you’re adding something important to the world, that’s important validation. Even if only you and God see that it’s meaningful, that’s enough. There’s nobility, even divinity, in humble, simple work done well and with dignity.

  Exodus

  If you’ve been doing exemplary work year after year at your workplace, and new opportunities still aren’t coming your way, it might be time to move on. Value yourself and your talent highly, and at the right time, ask for the opportunities you’ve earned. If your boss isn’t listening, don’t be afraid to head for the door. If nothing else, it’s a terrific negotiating tactic.

  NO DISCIPLINE, NO DESTINY

  Three-time heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, commonly referred to as “The Greatest of All Time,” didn’t earn that moniker because of what he did in the ring. He earned it because of how he trained. Ali was famously quoted as saying, “I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.’” He also said, “The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses—behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.”
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  Angelo Dundee, Ali’s trainer, told Muscle & Performance magazine, “I never had to ask him to come to the gym . . . He was there before I even got there . . . He was always first in and last to leave. He’d even come to train when he wasn’t fighting.” Greatness can only show up in the ring of life when you’ve practiced greatness outside the ring of life. Do an assessment of your discipline and look for areas where you are not as disciplined as you need to be, and then make adjustments immediately. What if your prayers for career advancement have already been answered but they have not manifested because you aren’t displaying the discipline required to handle the opportunity?

  Stephen King once wrote, “Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” As you either begin to determine what your talent is or, having identified the way in which you are talent, try to develop your talent into a lifelong career path, remember this:

  Talent alone is never enough.

  In the last chapter, I encouraged you to make this your motto: Pray and Prepare. When it comes to using your talent, study and preparation are just as important as God-given ability. There is no amount of raw talent, no matter how prodigious or historically great, that will vault you to the top of whatever profession you choose. You’re a naturally God-gifted surgeon? That’s wonderful, but you’ll never get a license or be allowed to bring a scalpel near a patient unless you graduate from medical school. You’re brilliant at the piano? Congratulations. However, if you wish to play Lincoln Center, you’ll need years and years of lessons and practice. It’s the same with any profession.

  From a young age, I had a natural talent for speaking and teaching and an intense passion for working in Hollywood. But just because I had talent and passion for something didn’t mean I knew how to do it! I spent years refining every aspect of my gifts. I spoke and preached in many churches, first up and down California and then all around the U.S. I went to college and used my internship to absorb every bit of knowledge I could.

  I studied great preachers and motivational speakers. I also took classes to understand the Bible better so I could prepare more dynamic messages. I immersed myself in the entertainment industry, learned how the business worked, and dug into information about marketing and publicity. I’ve spent hundreds of hours reading scripts and spent many hours more on movie sets watching directors, cinematographers, lighting designers, sound recorders, stunt doubles, and dozens of other movie professionals ply their trade. In other words, knowing that I had talent drove me to learn and work nonstop to develop that talent to its fullest potential: mastery.

  If you want a career that lasts for decades, brings you financial rewards, and fills your spirit with the joy of God’s purpose, strive for mastery. I’m not there myself yet; I might never get there . . . and it doesn’t matter. It’s the pursuit of mastery, not its achievement, that is important. Mastery is when you become preeminent in your field. For example, most people struggle to play decent chords on the guitar, but there are a few who can pick up the instrument and make it sing with ease. That ease is an illusion; they have talent, of course, but the reason their playing is so flawless is because of all the effort that went into endless practice. That’s what it takes to reach mastery.

  Wherever you are in developing your talent, be prepared with the discipline needed to harness your gift. Discipline—the will and persistence to work and practice every day—is the key to unlocking your destiny. Have the discipline to walk the path set down for you by God and try not to veer away from it. There’s no substitute for this. Also, don’t let yourself be seduced into laziness by your talent. If you’re really gifted in something, it can be easy to take shortcuts and skimp on the work, study, and preparation. But that’s a trap.

  Here’s why. Let’s say you’re a young lawyer, and when it comes to drafting legal briefs, you are pure superstar talent. But while you have a once-in-a-generation talent for legal writing, you’re lazy about studying case law. You rely on the work of other lawyers in writing your briefs and coast on your raw ability. But as your work keeps getting results, your firm throws you more and more responsibility. You try to bluff your way with raw talent, but your lack of study of the law starts to show. Finally, you’re named the lead lawyer on a big case and, since you’re unprepared to handle the responsibility, the likelihood is that you’ll blow it.

  You are talent, but you’re not necessarily prepared—yet. That comes when you mix talent with hard work and discipline. Do not let your ability make you complacent.

  TALENT IS ON LOAN; STAY HUMBLE

  For perspective, read what Paul wrote in the first part of the verse from Romans 12:3–5 (NIV): “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.”

  At the time he wrote his famous letters to the Romans, Paul was about to leave for Jerusalem to aid poor Christians and then head for Rome where he hoped to gain support for a mission to Spain. He knew the journey to Rome, where Christians were few and persecuted, might be hazardous. But in his letter, he isn’t concerned with the dangers. Instead, he encourages Roman believers not only to embrace their gifts but to remember that they come from God, who wants them to use their gifts wisely and well.

  Paul’s letter is a beautiful example of a vital principle surrounding talent, that it is not ours. Talent is only on loan from the Lord. It’s important not to let even great talent lead to arrogance or the presumption that because you have it, you don’t need God. As great UCLA basketball coach John Wooden once said, “Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.”

  It’s important to remember why you have this gift: to serve God and fulfill the destiny for which He has chosen you. Humility should always accompany talent. The word humility means “to go low.” To experience the power of God, you must go under his mighty hand. He didn’t say, “Stand on my hand, and I will prop you up”; He said, “I will put my hand over you.” God did not grant you talent for your purposes, but for His.

  Part of humility is admitting, “I’m not where I want to be in my career.” In our social media–driven culture, that’s not something you might like to admit. Maybe you’d rather fake it. You present a public image that says, “I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing,” but the reality is that you’re not. If you have great talent, perhaps you feel even worse: “How can I not have the career I want—the life I want—when I have this talent?”

  There are many reasons. God’s appointed time for your rise may not have come yet. You may not have put in enough work. Or maybe you’ve been proud and forgotten what your talent is for. Remember, God opposes the proud and shows favor to the humble. We often look at humility as being the opposite of strength, but it’s not. Many of the most influential and powerful people in the world are also the humblest. They recognize that this not about them; it’s about what God does through them. As a result, they are blessed.

  Away from the Workplace

  When you’re just starting out in a career, you don’t want to be patient. You know you’re going to be at the bottom of the flowchart, and it stinks. How will anybody know what you can do if you can’t show them? I get it. Know what I did? I kept my mouth shut and worked harder. I knew I had to prove myself, so I went about it. That’s good advice in any career. Pay your dues. Keep your mouth closed and your ears open. Read. Learn. Listen. Eventually, you’ll get a chance to show your talent—and you’ll be ready.

  HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR TALENT

  With hard work, humility, and practice, you can achieve mastery in your talent. But it isn’t that easy. If it were, then more people would be enjoying ful
filling, prosperous lives. They’re not. Too many people, even if they’ve found the courage to take their talent out of its box, still struggle to stay the course and endure until success happens. If you’re frustrated in your work, if you feel like you’re going nowhere, here are some things to try:

  •Become indispensable. As talent, you might have an ability nobody else possesses, but that doesn’t make you indispensable. Doing things no one else can is called applied talent, and that will make you impossible to replace or live without. Later in this book, we’ll devote a whole chapter to this idea when we explore the Commandment Your Difference Is Your Destiny, but for now the key question is, what can you do to create value in a way nobody else can? My key to indispensability has been my faith background, which gives me a unique perspective on different types of projects that other filmmakers weren’t making. It gives me insight on different strategies for reaching people of faith. This has helped me stand out among other executives, and now it helps me stand out among other producers because I understand the faith-based audience in a way that they don’t. I can do something they can’t. Use your talent to discover what you can do in a way others can’t, and you will become indispensable.

  •Use “virtual mentors.” Make a list of the leaders in your field. Now, in some instances, if you reach out to these leaders, they might respond, and that would be an ideal way to try and attain their mentorship. However, we become frustrated if we can’t reach the people we most admire because their schedules are too busy. But you can still get that person as a mentor, even if you never meet them. Study their careers, follow their social media posts, research the projects they are working on—you can learn a tremendous amount about how to navigate your career by studying theirs. I wish I had the time to personally mentor all the people who come to me, but I don’t have the capacity. That’s why I write books and speak—so, even if you never meet me, you still can have a way to find the knowledge you seek. Make a list of your virtual mentors ASAP, and start immersing yourself in what they are doing.