I recently read a short story by Jacob M. Braude about a young man who applied for a sketch artist job at a Kansas City newspaper. The editor turned him down, saying he had no talent. Still, the young man believed in himself and kept going. After some time, he found work drawing publicity materials for churches. He needed a place to live, but the only option was a garage full of mice. Despite this, he worked hard, created a lot of freelance art, and slowly built a fan base. Not long after, he became world famous.
Many might have seen that garage as a low point. But it did offer him a place to stay, a roof over his head, and inspired Walt Disney to create one of his most famous characters: a mouse he named Mickey.
That story reminded me of a recent interview with Sylvester Stallone, who just wrote a new memoir. He talked about how hard it was to build a career in acting and screenwriting. He started writing scripts because he thought his chances as an actor were slim. With a young family to support, he took on different jobs, like delivering pizzas and working as an usher in a movie theater. Years later, a fan heard about his time as an usher and felt sorry for him, thinking it was a sad job. But Stallone explained that he learned more about screenplays as an usher than in any class. Working in a movie theater gave him access to movies. He watched all kinds of films and learned what worked and what didn’t. He paid attention, studied, and picked up key lessons about writing screenplays.
Both Walt Disney and Sylvester Stallone turned seemingly negative situations into openings and found the resources for greatness in them. Is there something in your life that others might see as desperate, like living in a garage with mice or working as an usher? Maybe greatness is hidden in it.
Mark
Dr. Mark Edge
The WorkEdge Company
Telephone: 903-245-7851
Email: workedgetexas@gmail.com
Website: www.workedgetexas.com
Author of Holy Chaos How To Walk with God in a Frenzied World
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=mark+edge&crid=3B1BM6W3LHOG0&sprefix=%2Caps%2C137&ref=nb_sb_ss_recent_2_0_recent
WorkEdge leverages Grammarly as a resource. While this material was not written or generated by AI, some editing was informed by Grammarly.