Gary W. Goldstein Shares His 10 Essential Ingredients for Success

BLOGGER: Gary W. Goldstein
Producer of Pretty Woman, Under Siege, Under Siege 2, and the Mothman Prophecies

What are the 10 essential ingredients for success ?

#1: Integrity
#2: Authentic Talent (raw AND learned talent, expressed with a commitment to being
deeply authentic)
#3: Smart Business Strategies (simple, easy, quick, daily ‘do-able’ in 20-30 minutes)
#4: Mentor(s)

The other 6 don’t matter!

Creativity, on the other hand, has only 3 ingredients:

• Courage
• Commitment
• Communication

1) COURAGE

If you truly desire a long-term meaningful career in the business of entertainment – as actor, filmmaker, producer, writer, or otherwise - then you must commit to taking a deeper cut, make a full on commitment to yourself to take daily action, and do whatever it takes.

Do you have the courage to play a bigger game, and take consistent action that makes you uncomfortable? This isn’t about acting class or the easy stuff. It’s about a deeply honest internal conversation that you then act out in profoundly effective ways with all around you and those you target.

That Greek chorus of little voices (doubt, insecurity, the “I can’t” voices) must be appreciated, thanked and then habitually ignored, as you take bigger actions, set and continuously revisit and revise your goals, expand your networks and make it happen. Do you have the courage to overcome your doubts? Are your dreams more powerful than your fears? Are you willing to change behaviors and live your dharma as an artist, taking real steps every single day to advance and make real your goals?

2) COMMITMENT

If you commit to no more than 30 minutes a day to plan and execute smart, concrete business strategies, you’ll stop focusing on how far the distance between where you are and where you desire to be. As Dag Hammarskjold once suggested, don’t judge the height of a mountain till you’re standing on top of it. You’ll realize it wasn’t so high, after all.

Taking result-oriented, positive daily action is one of the golden keys to success. Every few months, you’ll look back and be astonished at your progress, the core professional relationships you’ve nurtured, the marketing tools you’ve created that you’d not even been aware were possible, and so much more.

Critical to the above is knowing the best, smartest, result-yielding tactics and strategies that actually work. The strategies that require the least time and effort; the ones that don’t have an expensive price tag, but consistently deliver the quality of result that will make you feel positive and in your ‘flow’ and – most importantly – create concrete, measurable results.

For whatever reason, these skills are not taught, and there’s no central training ground or source. But they are time-tested and so sensible, effective, and logical that it surprises most people when they first have it laid out for them.

3) COMMUNICATION

And what about communication? Do you wake up each day and express your gratitude, reaffirm your intentions, focus your attention on your intention, and decide how and with whom you need to align and communicate on this particular day to add value to others, while enriching yourself, advancing your career and objectives, and creating a win-win that is in perfect lock-step with your short and long-term goals?

Feeling deeply connected with yourself is crucial, so that each conversation (with a friend, professional acquaintance, or someone you’ve targeted as a key influencer you want in your network) becomes grounded in a way that is undeniable, that distinguishes you, that is rooted in absolute authenticity and truth, and that makes each of you leave that moment better off, having learned something, and having connected with ‘value’.

Here’s the truth: I have failed all my life.

Here’s my other little secret: I love failure.

Failure and success are the same damn thing. We just malign failure and celebrate success. We’re judgmental creatures. We live by a system of weights and measures. We’re in denial.

Looking back, my pattern is simple: failure, failure, persistence, failure, stubborn persistence, failure, rejection, failure, persistence, mentor, persistence, more mentoring, success, a little more failure, more mentoring, even more success (the hard work is a given, a constant, never forget that), and a dash of failure again, always leading to more mentoring and bigger successes.

Failure has energized me, taught me my most valuable lessons, made me re-commit to belief in self, to internal and external goals. Failure is an essential ingredient to enduring success. They live in the same house, always will.

Being a product of the 60s in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury and graduating Berkeley in the early 70s, I had fantasies of becoming a great criminal defense lawyer handling the hot political cases of the day. Instead, I ended up representing the indigent adults in a very large and problem-ridden ghetto and my clients were far from politicos. But even that wasn't an easy accomplishment: a few years earlier, I was rejected outright from law school--a 'failure' I had to overcome by finding another way into my law school of choice, and a harbinger of what awaited me in LA (yes, every single film is a failure many times over before it becomes a success).

I quickly realized the harsh day-to-day reality of legal defense was not well-suited to my temperament, so I ran away to Los Angeles at age 31, to the fantasy world of storytelling and film. Norman Mailer had described filmmaking as "a combination circus, military campaign, nightmare, orgy, and a high" and that sounded right up my alley.

So I arrived, knowing nothing and nobody, proceeded to rent offices, and launched a literary management firm, with zero clients. I went to every screening, gathering, party, joined every organization I could find. And played tennis. Turns out that was my best strategy. In the middle of the afternoon, LA’s tennis courts were filled with writers. Who else would be playing at that hour?

Well, ignorance does turn out to be bliss, so long as it’s accompanied by a very stubborn streak and a daily regimen of persistence. With talented writers and well-crafted screenplays, I was able to ‘up my game’ and begin producing with and for major studios. One of the keys to playing in that arena is to forge relationships with bigger name actors and their agents, managers, attorneys, publicists -- anyone close enough that you can get them to read and attach to your project.

I found Julia Roberts by attending a pre-release screening of ‘Mystic Pizza’. By merely accepting an invitation from the producers of that indie film, I struck gold and they were kind enough to introduce me to Julia and her agent.

I’d sold ‘Under Siege’ as a script to New Regency who, at the time, had a deal at Warner Bros. Knowing the studio had just signed a deal with a then up-and-coming Steven Seagal (after his success with smaller films like ‘Hard to Kill’ and ‘Above the Law’, etc), I encouraged everyone to get the script into his hands as his first project with the studio. And it worked.

Sometimes an actor responds well, other times you have to be persistent beyond reason. Richard Gere loved ‘The Mothman Prophecies’ and tracked the project as we were developing it. But earlier, he’d turned down ‘Pretty Woman’ on multiple occasions. He just wasn’t interested.

But after I’d submitted the script to Touchstone (Disney) and it finally got set up at the studio, we were able to convince the executives Gere was the best choice and to make him an irresistible offer. And the rest, as they say, is history.

The lesson learned is simple: trust your instincts and then just become single-focused in your determination and advocacy and pursuit. Hopefully, it works out.

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NOTE: Gary W. Goldstein wrote this blog entry to accompany his appearance on the celebrity talk-show, "Before the Big Break with Monroe Mann". A new episode airs on the 1st and 15th of every month exclusively at www.BeforeTheBigBreak.com. Watch Gary's inspiring interview today!