The Most Important Thing

You know, I've been doing my best to be consistent with coming up with ideas. Any idea. One idea a day since 2007.

It's been rough sometimes.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

I like to plan out how the ideas get executed. I always told myself that if I wasn't loyal, the idea well will dry up.

But at this time, I notice that not everything works all of the time. Sometimes, it doesn't work out.

You move onto other things. You live. You learn.

But, I notice that a good eighty percent of the time, you need to work on the idea and finish it when the passion comes in.

That can be hard for those endurance runs. Those multi-day film shoots. Those multi-month editing sessions. Those yearlong distribution deals.

That's why what you're working on has to be good. You have to respect yourself as an artist in that way. You gotta call people on their bullshit when they give you some whack shit that they themselves have no financial responsibility in. Your sanity is not worth giving up for a minor role that probably won't get your foot in the door.

Next time a child star goes crazy, look at the last movie they were in. If I was in So Undercover or Shipwrecked, I'd lose my fucking mind too.

So many people would rather kill themselves than speak in public. Let alone speaking in public when they're ten. 

Not just speaking in public, making people laugh in public. Shit's hard boo.

And you keep doing it until you're in your late twenties. Laugh Factory. Stress Factory. Feeling like a depressed product. Of course you do.

People are full of shit. If you make complaints, I'm bringing up your resume. Complaining about Christopher Nolan when you shoot cell phone videos vertically, go fuck yourself.

Don't give in to validation. Validation is overrated.

Whatever, fuck your friends and your retweets. No one is going to give it, you're going to have to take it.

No one wants to be criticized over a piece of shit they weren't even a smidge passionate about.

And if your friends are doing you a favor and working on your thing, you have to make it meaningful. You have to be Phil Jackson about it. James Cameron, Napoleon. Be in the trenches with your boys.

If you're the leader of a project, you gotta be passionate. This might be my opinion, but I think the passion overrides everything. I think you have to be smart and literate about what you're working on too, but the passion has to come through. It comes through in the little things. You listen to people. You figure out what your team's strengths are and try to accommodate for it.

A lot of people don't care. And then everything falls apart. They don't listen to people. There's something off about what they're working on and they think they can deflect blame onto everybody else. Nobody wants to work on it because deep down they think it sucks, but you're not doing anything to make it suck less.

Don't be offended. I did that too. Learn from it.

Budget is always gonna be an issue. Always will be. But if your enthusiasm comes through, you can overrule that.

Enthusiasm comes from truth.

It's that joke that addresses something "that's so true".

Not a lot of rock stars have gotten in trouble lately. But a lot of comedians have.

Because it's a comedian's job to tell the truth. Truth scares people.

Anything that lasts the test of time speaks to a truth. A vibe.

Something that makes you give a fuck.