Are You An Ambitious Artist?
It could dominate you or consume you. Usually that happens because you don’t see it coming.
There are many I remember learning in school that I cared about only to pass a test. But there are others, like anthropology, which were fascinating to me.
I remember when I worked in sales, there were many people talking about ambition. Throwing it around like an ingredient for getting more sales. It’s needed to keep you chasing the top of the ladder. To be on top!
But ambition is a human trait, in my opinion. Everyone has it. Just like everyone has good stories to tell that should be told.
Recognizing our ambition will help guide us no matter what road we take.
The way of the journey is the journey. There is no destination except your own end.
As long as you breathe you will continue your journey in this life. Life is a journey where the scene changes for the protagonist, who is also the director. Your journey brings you a unique perspective that not a single other being has experienced.
Ambition matters personally because it gives you a sense of determination. Your ambition can lead you to achieve a life’s legacy. It can also make a positive impact within others or in the world.
You don’t realize you have an ambition until it’s been fed and it’s growing. At least that’s been my experience. For me, it’s all about connections.
How I feed my ambition is easier than you may imagine. It bring a sense of happiness and confidence about yourself, your existence and your sense of purpose.
What I sometimes do, to connect with my ambition is take time to myself to think back on my experiences and my journey. To do this consciously.
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Our memories play in our minds like an iTunes playlist.
But the algorithm that grabs them and turns them into a list is the connections between each memory. Just playing the list and doing this a few times through time can trigger or carve a deeper connection between two things in your life and then these things spark something between them when you realize it.
That’s how it was for me. It was about all I was learning in my media communications major in college on 9/11 which all of a sudden rubbed up against my life long fascination with storytelling.
Suddenly it seemed, what I learned in school about film and video, as the ultimate medium for storytelling, made sense. I clearly understood the manufacturers of cell phones would create mobile phones in the future which could access the internet like on a computer (2001).
But I was 99.999% convinced they would include a camera that, at one point, could be used to make movies you could play in the cinema screen at your local theater.
My excitement was over giving access to everyone in the world to the film industry. In other words, democratizing storytelling in the best medium for all humans around the world.
By the way, although I’ve not had had such a “vision” since then, there have been times like creating my podcast where this process connected my podcast to my passion for mobile filmmaking. That caused me to spend over a year researching it and finally launching the SBP Podcast Mobile Filmmaking in 2017. It’s still going strong, including our bi-weekly panel show “Fade In To Film.”
Art matters.
Storytelling is an art, such as many other things like writing, photography, filmmaking, painting, drawing, composing…etc. As an artist at heart, I was convinced by society, and my own parents, that art was not something to realistically pursue as a career.
I was lost for a long time from around the time I was nine. But I continued to accept the opportunities that came to me. Then I realized, much later, how they were all connected. And I am realizing how ambition played a big part in it.
The horizon before you is always there.
It doesn’t matter which direction you turn…don’t let anyone tell you differently. It’s all one and the same horizon wrapped around all of us, all around the earth. The distance to reach around the entire globe is the same from any point you stand.
When you’re looking ahead to the horizon it’s the same as looking at what you want to achieve straight in the face. When your ambition is looking at the horizon it’s your guide to not letting it consume you.
Let the magic in your creativity shine and guide you forward once you are aware of your ambition.
You’ll then be able to see connections sooner than later. Imagine seeing the path forward, in an open field, illuminated before you. That’s a consequence of seeing the connections that are not just behind you, but ahead of you—heading into the horizon. Don’t misunderstand me though.
There will be obstacles and challenges along the way, your ambition will bring power and determination to any obstruction in your path.
The stories inside you are about the moments that brought you here. They’re about the challenges you encountered to get here and what lies ahead. All you’ve learned in life makes you a better collector of stories, and also a better connector.
When you share a good story in a film format, even if you’ve never ever made a film before, you’re going to witness the most exciting thing happen to you. You will learn more about yourself than you can ever imagine.
Warning: You may fall in love with how you inspired yourself. Maybe even share it, and receive feedback that it helped touch someone in a way that changed their perspective or life. We witness these moments during our film festival during Q&A sessions between filmmakers and attendees.
I give strength to the things I learn through my ambition.
Everything that is connected in your mind through your conscious awareness is stronger. It feeds your drive and determination.
I spent a good year or so without a defined major in college. I lacked ambition because I had been told by many, not just discouraged by my parents, not to pursue art in any form.
Had I not experienced the opportunities presented to me, I would not have changed my major in college. I would not then, have realized my fate that this industry was a good fit for me. That’s because a school counselor insisted I apply to work for a friend in video production.
I always consider that I had to be where I was on September 11 to have experienced that vision of the future. I had to walk into a class as a student of the history of media course, with a scheduled radio announcing lab, announcing the news, afterwards. I had to witness the event on TV inside that classroom, with my mind prepped for that day’s lecture.
These events at their precise space and time in my life, when they occurred, were very necessary for me to realize my ambition for storytelling and later, smartphone filmmaking. Today, my ambition is something I refer to as part of my passion for filmmaking and storytelling.
Setting the distance.
Years later after realizing that vision was too far from realizing itself I felt it needed a driver to take it further faster: Me. But I wanted a race car and I drove a Honda. I could not see anything bringing that vision of movies shot with phones on a cinema screen for years to come.
Realizing that a challenge was necessary and that it would be me to bring the challenge forward, since no one else I could find shared the same vision as ardently as I did— it happened. My ambition broke through the surface. That was in 2004-05.
Ambition brought me the determination to take action with the ultimate challenge for filmmakers, a film festival that made a risky statement in early 2009. I tossed the challenge to the entire world back then: if they made a movie with their phone they would be respected as a genuine filmmaker through our film festival in San Diego.
We promised to screen their movies on a big screen and roll out the red carpet for them. In April, we’ll be celebrating our 13th edition.
Ambition keeps me working hard to make it a better platform every year to bring a global community of filmmakers together to inspire one another.
Mark the dates for the International Mobile Film Festival where all films are shot with smartphones for the 13th Edition April 26-28. This year’s theme: Illuminate.
If you feel like you lack ambition in life, or simply need a refresh, take the time to connect to your own ambition because it’s there. It is the seed inside you waiting to be fed and grow and enrich your life.
No matter what you do, however, know this: Never ever let your ambition for something get in the way of your ambition to spend time with those you love and love you. Genuine ambitions do good things in the world. Your story can make the world better.
I hope reading this gave you a new insight in a way that makes you realize something wonderful about yourself.
In case you’re wondering about my own ambition…yeah, I still have it. Can you tell?
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