Writing a book, making a film, creating any kind of art is about being a leader. The task is the same: making something happen that wasn’t going to happen anyway.
The chief challenge is also the same: being with the breakdowns, ie, everything that is not the finished book, the finished film, the accomplished project.
One leader I’ve interviewed, a filmmaker, when asked for her inspirations, promptly nominated a former mentor, the movie producer, Jan Chapman, maker of such highly successful films as The Piano, Lantana, Last Days of Chez Nous.
She said this of Jan:
Jan inspires me for her connectedness, her great listening and what she provides in her films. She’s always speaking from the heart. And she’s strong. Because making films goes like this … it doesn’t work … it doesn’t work … it doesn’t work … and then, suddenly … it works! Jan stands firm in the face of all the not-working.
This is the challenge of the leader and the artist: being with the not-itness.
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I never looked at these positions being similar…Food for thought.
It’s startled me as well, and yet it holds I reckon.
Very interesting insight–and also very helpful in dealing with leaving some of my greatest bon mots on the cutting room floor as I edit!
Oh, it hurts, doesn’t it? Cutting off one’s little gems. One of the reasons why only a leader is up to the task.
BTW, can you say what you’re writing?
I love the notion of standing firm in the face of all the not-working. Must remember, especially on the days when nothing is working!
It’s a good one to remember, and I love one of its implications: that the not-working gives the working, or, the working wouldn’t be possible without the not-working.
–I love the idea of standing firm…especially when I believe in what I am doing. xx
It’s the only thing that makes it possible, yes? x
I have been…I am…both. I hadn’t considered that these two gifts parallel. I just felt that what I learned in leadership helps my pursuits in creativity in unique ways. So I don’t have the disease of eternal uniqueness? :D
haha, no, you don’t have the disease of eternal uniqueness. Aren’t you lucky? :)
So true!
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