“Bueller…Bueller…Bueller…” That was the most famous line uttered by character actor Ben Stein. His line was from the 80s teen comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Sometime ago, Stein gave a very good video essay on CBS Sunday Morning on the difference between those people that excelled and those that didn’t.
He said:
“A few days ago, I asked my shrink, a super-smart guy, how he would generally divide up the people who were happy in life from those who where not. He answered like a shot.
The unhappy ones, he said, are people who let their parents or their family talk them into doing something for a career that wasn’t really them. They are people who wanted to be writers or performers, and decided instead to take the cautious route and go to accountancy school or law school or dental school.
Now, he said, they are well into their middle age and they make a decent living, but they just don’t like what they do…So he said, ‘they just come in to my office and complain.’
‘And what about the happy ones?” I asked him. ‘What did they do?’
My shrink answered that, again, like a shot. ‘They made a decision to live,’ he said, and those were his exact words.
They decided to do what their hearts told them to do, to do what was in them to do. They took risks and they took chances, and they tried a lot of different things until they got to where they wanted to be.
This often means working incredibly hard and living on the edge. But it gets you to where you can look back on your life and say it wasn’t wasted.
That’s it. Choose to live a life you want to live, not one that’s safe or what someone else thinks you should do.
Decide to live.
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WORKSHOP Alert
Yours Truly will be teaching “Networking Tricks for Actors” at PATStudio (6925 Willow Street, NW, 1st Floor, Washington, DC 20012) on Monday evenings from 7:45 – 8:45pm March 19 & 26, and April 2, 9 & 16. The workshop is $25 a night. Each workshop is self-contained.
Here is a testimonial:
“Hi William,
I just want to thank you, and let you know that your networking class was very informative. I am already starting to think like a celebrity, working on business cards and trusting myself, you call it, Speed of Implementation. Hope to see you in more workshops. Thanks again
Erika jones”
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John Pallotta teaches two classes Monday afternoons and evenings, from 4:30 to 6:30 and 6:30 to 9pm respectively at The Source Theatre (1835 14th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20009). Bringing you over 30 years experience on “The Craft of Acting”. To get in this special class, which I attend, please text or call 646.619.7777 and register today at www.dcacting.com
John Pallotta Studio
http://www.dcacting.com/
www.dcacting.com
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Yours Truly has launched a podcast! It’s called Inside Acting! Listen here!
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