BBC made a behind the scenes documentary called Unlocking Sherlock, about the making of Sherlock. Sherlock is a worldwide hit and the best visual representation of the stories of Sherlock Holmes.
What struck me while I was watching the documentary was how deeply passionate every single person was. From the show creators, through all of the actors, and crew. Every one of them had deep knowledge about Sherlock Holmes, about the history of Sherlock Holmes movies, and the nuances between the countless portrayals of Sherlock, Watson, and other characters over the past century.
Watching this reminded me of a story that Page Kennedy (Blue Mountain State, Weeds, and a whole bunch of other popular shows) told us in a Praxis group discussion. Once a month, as a part of the Praxis program we do a group discussion with someone interesting.
When Page was starting out in LA, trying to become an actor, he decided that he would study ALL the shows that were on cable at the time. Not watch, study. All of them. This was before streaming, so he had four tv’s set up in his apartment, all with VCR’s, and he would record all the shows that were on, and then watch them. He did it from then, all the way up to today. Studying what made shows successful, what made shows fail, what the great actors were doing that the other actors weren’t doing.
I had personally never thought much about the craft of acting. From the outside, watching the finished product, it doesn’t appear to be that hard. You get lost in the world that the show has created, and all you see is people.
In the past, I’ve looked at the young, beautiful, successful people who are starring in movies and tv shows and thought “aren’t they lucky.” To be picked out of a crowd, given this role, and now to make millions of dollars playing pretend.
As Page told his story, I was struck by his dedication, by the work that he put in to get where he is. He dedicated his life to his craft, and that is why he is successful.
I couldn’t help but think about the things that I wanted from my life. Was I truly putting in the work?
Probably not.
Watching Unlocking Sherlock, seeing all of these people who are so deeply dedicated to their craft, reminded me of Page’s story.
When you watch a movie, or a tv show. It is easy to get lost in the finished product. To ignore, and discount the immense amount of work that went into creating it. It’s not simply the money from the studio and the year of time that actors, directors, editors, and others spend making it. What is impressive is the lifetime of effort and dedication that people put in. Way before any of them knew that they would have this opportunity to make a massively popular TV show, they worked, they studied, they practiced.
They didn’t wait for an opportunity to be given to them before they started working. They just started to work at it. Not knowing for sure if the opportunity would ever come, but working, knowing that if the opportunity ever did arise, they would be ready to seize it.
True and lasting success in any field requires a massive amount of hard work.
It requires hard work when no one is watching and when there is no guarantee of success. It requires the commitment of a lifetime.
Long-term Fulfilment Over Short Term Rewards
The skills you need to be truly elite require a commitment of time and energy that goes way beyond your ability to predict opportunities in the future. So, when deciding what skills to pursue you don’t look at the things that might be valuable in the present moment, you look at the things you want to do with your time.
So many of us look around at successful people and see privilege instead of hard work. Luck instead of a fair reward.
We think, “well if I had that opportunity I would have succeeded.”
We look at a show like Sherlock, and think, “if I had a chance to be on that show then I would be willing to put in the work.” We forget, that to be in a position to seize a great opportunity you have to be willing to put in the work with NO guarantee that the opportunity will ever arise.
There is a recent interview with Matt Leblanc about his new gig as a host on Top Gear. He told a story about it.
Matt had always been a car fanatic. He subscribes to almost every car magazine there is. His table in his house is littered with them.
One of his friends was over at his house, and he told him about the new job. His friend looked down at the car magazines all over the house and said, “well it all paid off!”
All the money, time, and energy he spent buying and reading car magazines had paid off. His lifelong passion for cars resulted in a dream job; hosting the most popular car show in history.
Matt Leblanc is a well-known actor, had a history with the show, and knew as much about cars as almost anyone. He was the perfect person for the job. He was ready for the job, not because he ever could have seen the opportunity coming, but simply because he pursued his passions.
The great opportunities that you want in the future require dedication from you that money and status can’t motivate you to give.
Why Don’t We Pursue Mastery?
Getting to the point of being able to seize great opportunities also requires long-term vision. Long term vision that is trained out of us on the conventional educational conveyor belt.
K-12 school and College distort our view of reality. We are split up into a group of people born in the same year as us. We spend almost all of our time with people our age and grow in a culture that frowns upon people who socialize with kids in other grades (Zak Slayback has a great post with visualizations on how this “horizontal” network affects our career development).
You are aware and probably know a few people in the grades on each side of your own. A few less the grades above. To a kid in grade 4, with no older sibling, a 17-year-old grade eleven is almost like a mythical creature. The fifth grader has no insight into what it is like to be in grade eleven.
To a 17-year-old in grade eleven, the twenty-year-old college junior is almost as incomprehensible.
To the college junior, the 26-year-old professional is similarly detached.
Being sectioned off by age, and separated from older and younger kids, our views of what it must be like to be that age are completely detached from reality.
College offers the promise of figuring out your life course, so we imagine that the 26-year-old must have their shit together. We learn that education is like a staircase, with about 17 steps for each grade. Kindergarten to your senior year of college. Then you will arrive at the main floor of your life.
This distorted view of time is extremely detrimental to our pursuit of skills, and the journey to eventual success with those skills.
Without an accurate vision of life outside the education system, we favour short-term rewards like entry level salary or status amongst friends over the long term fulfillment of pursuing a craft to mastery.
Without an accurate vision of life outside the education system, we view success as a destination, a place you arrive at when you are a partner in a law firm, or a VP of something, or a doctor. We ignore the reality that success is a deeply personal and individual thing. Much more of a direction than a destination. Something that you achieve daily by slowly moving towards your ideals. Something that you can achieve today by choosing to be the best version of yourself.
It is summed up beautifully in a quote Robert Greene uses in Mastery.
“It’s like chopping down a huge tree of immense girth. You won’t accomplish it with one swing of the axe. If you keep chopping away at it, though, and do not let up, eventually, whether it wants to or not, it will suddenly topple down.
When that time comes, you could round up everyone you could find and pay them to hold the tree up, but they wouldn’t be able to do it. It would still come crashing to the ground.
But if the woodcutter stopped after one or two strokes of his axe to ask the third son of M. Chang, “Why doesn’t this tree fall?” And after three or four more strokes stopped again to ask the fourth son of Mr. Li, “Why doesn’t this tree fall?” He would never succeed in felling the tree. It is no different for someone who is practicing the Way.” — Zen Master Hakuin
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