Right Way and Your Way

Officer Tom Hanson

 If you are like me or like most people, you start every project knowing how you want it to be done.  A project can be as all-encompassing as life itself, or making or buying a welcome mat for your front door.  Not everyone researches a planned project on Google and then follows the plan exactly, after all there is always room for improvement.

This post is triggered by the fact that a very popular and famous actor is in the news because he has reached the landmark age of 50.  His path to success has been very quick because of decisions that he made along the way.  The scripts that he chose to participate in were not typical of the industry; he is even described as eccentric. 

• "21 Jump Street" (1987-1990): This 1980s pop equivalent to "The Mod Squad" gave Depp his first starring role as Officer Tom Hanson, a rookie cop placed in a special undercover unit dealing with teen crime and high school assignments.

I am talking about Johnny Depp, from his youthful beginnings on 21 Jump Street (1987) to Pirates of the Caribbean, and many other successful projects in-between (I can’t think of any of his works that might have failed).  If you have your own way of doing things, and you won’t be deterred by facts, have at it. Time will vindicate you or not, but it doesn’t matter, because the pleasure of doing it your ways is the reward.

Jack Sparrow

I’ve always thought of my style in everything I do as visionary.  I have the ability to visualize a project from start to finish, before it even gets down on paper. When you have that approach in life it is very difficult to defend it because people prefer to think of you as a now-it-all.  That is until you develop a proven record.  The best strength that you can have when you are driven by your own confidence and commitment to your projects is salesmanship.  You will need to sell every project in way that comes across as other people’s ideas, to avoid coming across as an egomaniac.  I know that egomaniac is a harsh word, but if you are that committed to doing it your way, you will at times wonder if in fact you might be an egomaniac.

Life is too short for constant compromise; compromise is great but not 100% of the time.  At some point you have to leave your mark in this world, and there is no time like the present to start.  The best is yet to come…