You’re not going to change anything by not going

Two actors were chatting on the subway seat next me, so I decided to eavesdrop on their conversation.

The older man told the younger one a story about his early career. He talked about how he used to work nights at some shitty restaurant, and spend his days trying to get acting gigs for film and television.

Pretty standard plot for a young actor.

But what stood out the most was what the man said he told himself anytime he felt resistance to leaving the house:

You’re not going to change anything by not going to this audition.

Don’t you love how simple but powerful his message is? Here’s an artist who knew that the secret to gaining traction in his creative career was volume. Saying yes to every opportunity to practice his craft in front of a real audience, albeit a small one, trusting that it would only be a matter of time before something somewhere clicked.

How many creative opportunities did you say no to last month? How many times did you convince yourself to stay home rather than plying your creative trade in public?

Look, in the life of any artist, there’s almost zero upside to not betting on yourself. It’s true that you might show up and not get the gig, but your chances of getting it are disproportionately higher than if you had just stayed home, complained about the stupid industry, compared yourself to the competition, and brooded about how what you wanted wasn’t available.

That’s not betting on yourself, that’s beating up yourself. Not helpful.

To quote that actor once again, you’re not going to change anything by not going.

We all have our own version of that. We all have some kind of venue where we’re given permission to display our wares.

Why not say yes? Why not decide that by simply showing up and doing what we do, there is nobody who can spin that moment into us losing?

Forget about fairness. We can decide before we even walk in the door that no matter what happens, we are not going to be unfairly treated. What’s more, there are tons tools out there to help make the whole process less threatening and more efficient.

Callback comes to mind, which is an amazing digital content management system that helps artists keep track of their auditions in a simple, organized, strategic way. After all, most creative people are not the most organized people. But they can’t afford to avoid missing critical career opportunities.

Callback finally launched a system that works. It helps artists document all of that priceless feedback from talentless hiring managers who wouldn’t know human emotion if it sat on their faces. Now it’s available at your fingertips. Callback manages the art, and you get the part.

Okay, full disclosure, that tool doesn’t really exist. It’s another one of my fake inventions.

But that only proves my point more. Instead of waiting for some faceless corporation to hire me to come up with innovative ideas, I just hired myself and started publishing them for my innovation podcast and card game.

As my personal mantra stateS, keep doing things worth writing about, and keep writing things worth talking about.

Next time you feel resistance to leaving the house, let those immortal words chime like church bells.

You’re not going to change anything by not going to this audition.

What opportunity should you have said yes to last week?