The Road To Success

A dear friend of mine accused me of not updating my journal enough. Of course, she was right. At the same time, I accused her of sheltering her xanga posts by not importing them to Facebook. So Trinh, I'm going to update, but in return, my faithful readers are going to know you exist. All's fair in love and online journals.

I was reading Trinh's xanga about her non-profit work in the Gulf Coast. Trinh and our mutual friend, Lynne (and yes, that rhymes), have been in Biloxi, Mississippi for the past month helping the Vietnamese community there recover from Hurricane Katrina. Although the media has moved on to sexier stories, the struggle to rebuild the Gulf Coast continues, and there is still much work to be done. Trinh's pictures in her xanga tell the story far better than my words every could, so I will leave that story to her. But as I finished reading Trinh's entry, her last line had struck a chord:

"It's been overwhelming, and the work is draining, no doubt. I've outreached to at least 120 houses in four days, so it's no surprise that I'm constantly tired. What surprises me though is that I already feel like my morale is low, and it's only the beginning..." - Trinh's Xanga

My first reaction was to immediately post a comment about how Trinh should keep her head up and how her work was truly making a difference. The world needed more people like Trinh and Lynne, people who dreamed of a better world and took action, and all I could think of was the tragedy it would be if either of them had lost hope! But as her words and my thoughts sank in, I started to think about my own dreams of becoming a great actor, and how my experience will be littered with obstacles and failures. Such is the universal human struggle: how do you succeed when the obstacles seem insurmountable?

When you have a destination, but the path is unfamiliar, you seek people who have taken the path before you. Thus, if I were to desire success, I must seek the successful. Enter Thomas Keller, executive chef and proprietor of the world-renowned French Laundry. After watching the amazing film Ratatouille, of which Keller served as a consultant, I was compelled to better understand Keller's love of food and its preparation. I started reading The French Laundry Cookbook, and within the first sentence of his introduction, Keller gets right to the point; great food starts with understanding its (and thus, the chef's) main purpose: to make people happy. But if you want to make others happy, you must find happiness yourself:

"For me, it's the satisfaction of cooking every day: tournéing a carrot, or cutting salmon, or portioning foie gras - the mechanical jobs I do daily, year after year. This is the great challenge: to maintain passion for the everyday routine and the endlessly repeated act, to drive deep gratification from the mundane."

- Thomas Keller, The French Laundry Cookbook

Reading the first paragraph alone got me thinking about love, and I came to a two revelations:

1. Love is NOT a more intense version of like.

I don't always like the people I love, and some of the things I love to do require things I'd rather do without. So LIKING something is not a prerequisite for LOVING something.

2. Love is about truly understanding the necessity of an action to accomplish a greater dream.

The true struggle of love lies in connecting our actions with the unrealized result. I may not like sitting in front of a computer for 30 minutes submitting to casting calls, nor do I like driving 30 minutes out of my way for an audition, nor do I like juggling two part-time jobs in order to keep a flexible schedule, but if I truly love acting, then I know all of this will lead to the realization of my dream. The better I connect these actions to my dream, the closer I reach Keller's ideal: that I will appreciate submitting to casting calls, and driving, and juggling the part-time jobs. (The great irony is that in indulging in the appreciation of the actions leading to success, you actually realize success in the present. In other words, taking the actions to be successful BECOMES SUCCESS ITSELF.)

So maybe the key to success is appreciating what we are doing now, and having faith that our actions will lead us to greater successes. Biloxi may have a long way to go, but Trinh and Lynne, you have my faith. And just maybe, you might find success sooner than you think.