One person that I really like listening to for entrepreneurial knowledge is Sam Altman. This morning, I was trying to recall some thing he said in his Y Combinator sessions at Stanford and I ended up landing on this tweet made by him.
The home run theory of careers:
What matters is eventually hitting a home run, and the way to do that is training hard and a lot of at-bats. You only have to be right once, and it's ok to be wrong a lot of times.
Be bold. Move fast. Work hard. Ignore haters. Keep swinging.
It's a beautiful thought, isn't it? You only have to be right once.
It can be applied anywhere. It can be applied in the filmmaking world as well.
It reminds me on something Sydney Lumet said - All great work is preparing yourself for the accident to happen.
Now I am sure Sam and Sydney never met each other but they are talking about the same thing.
Sydney is talking about that accident which will lead to things being right. One movie, after a dozen failed movies, where you just get everything right. He says accident but what he means is a good accident.
It is also very much prevalent for an actor's life where you get discovered after years or a creator who gets a viral video after putting out thousands of videos..
I find a lot of comfort in knowing that I would only have to be right once. And I am one hundred percent sure that will happen because I am working towards it every day. I have seen teasers of it here and there when some of our strategies work, and it does change the complete course of things. For instance, when we decided Chaclhitra talks won't be just about films but about all art-forms. That one decision led to many great things over the last one year. But again, in larger scheme of things, it's still a small victory. We still have get things right so accurately for once, that it will become a BC to AD event of our calendar.
I also like this phrase because it takes the pressure off my shoulders to be relevant with every action. It adds fuel for trying new things. And I am not chasing the idea of "that one time" all the time, I just know if I keep working with the speed with which I am working, it will happen. But it's such a beautiful thought. You only have to be right once. Things like these keep you going. Thanks for giving me another reason to keep going, Sam.