| [BACK]
There's a saying in legal circles that a judge is a lawyer with a politician for a friend. A lot of people who work in the entertainment industry are clerks at Banana Republic with a friend or relative in the movie business.
This isn't such a bad thing. When I was first starting out I wished I had connections from birth, my father's country club or college. I had to make mine inch by inch. I took a writing class that led me to another, better, writing class that took me somewhere else and on and on until I got my first agent and started getting things done.
But even despite the fact that I had my foot in the door and had a pretty good agent, I still had to keep on hustling and schmoozing and making fresh connections. Ironically, things got to a point where I actually became a connection for other people. Know what? I was (and am) happy to do it.
I like helping people hook up with agents or producers (or anyone who can help them). Not because I'm this great guy, but because I believe in the whole Karma thing. I help somebody. Somebody helps me down the road. It's worked. I've been very fortunate in this area and I encourage everyone writer I know to be generous.
Not that everyone is. There are a number of people I've encountered who will not help someone else. Even by allowing a person to use their name as a referral to an agent or producer. I don't get this. Maybe it's my midwestern, Catholic upbringing.
Maybe some people are just selfish or self-centered or so into themselves that they don't have the internal mechanism to remember when they needed help.
I'm writing about this because somebody helped me recently, simply by recommending me for a writing assignment. The person didn't have to, but she did because she said that I had helped her years ago on a project. My help consisted of simply reading her script and giving her some suggestions. She never forgot that. And when a situation arose in which a writer had to be recommended, she gave the people my name.
So be generous. Be helpful. It may not pay off all of the time, but sometimes it will. |
