The shortest definition I can give for paradigm (pair-a-dime) shift is: A complete rethinking of a problem. A good example of which is the embracing of evolution as a scientific fact. For almost two thousand years (or perhaps longer) humans believed that they had been created by God - then along comes Darwin and in the course of about 50 years, human thinking had a huge paradigm shift to the point where Evolution usually wins out in people's thinking. But this is not an article about evolution, nor where I stand on it. This is about a personal paradigm shift that I've been going through in the past couple of weeks.
I started out wanting to be an astronaut (who didn't?) then, after Star Wars, I wanted to be an actor, then a director, then a producer, then some sort of media god like Walt Disney - all in the space of about three months. I've been working towards that goal ever since. But working is perhaps too generous a description of what I've been doing.
Working implies that the method for completion of this task has already been figured out. Working towards an Olympic Gold Medal, for instance, implies that you know the sport and that you are practicing, practicing, practicing and competing with the eventual goal of being the best in the world. But there isn't exactly a simple path to media god. I've checked. Its not even on Google.
Presumably one might become the next Walt Disney by being a great animator... except that animated movies cost so much to create and, well, Disney already has that area pretty much sown up. But Walt Disney was also a great storyteller, so one might reach that goal by becoming a great storyteller - which implies that one knows how to tell a story and has some means for conveying that story to an audience. That would mean trying for a career in film making or writing or... well, you get the idea. So, that's what I've been up to - trying to become the next Walt Disney one story at a time.
Of course, my results thus far have been non-existent. Its not easy dreaming big - there's too much reality to overcome.
Ironically, it was after the completion of my film (by no assessment is it a great film) that I came upon this paradigm shift. You see, in the end Disney wasn't really all that great an animator and he wasn't a great architect or writer. What he was good at was bringing together great animators and storytellers and film makers and getting them to make great movies bearing Walt's name. He provided the inspiration, they provided the perspiration - which is, of course, a great oversimplification. But the Walt Disney Company wasn't an afterthought in Walt's mind - an apparatus constructed after the fact to spend all the money he'd made as a great animator - the Walt Disney Company was what Walt wanted in the first place. He wasn't creating animation or storytelling, he was creating a company - a company that created animation and storytelling. And so, after the completion of my film instead of focusing on the next film and figuring out how I was going to rake in the dough and then create this masterful company from the profits, I suddenly realized that I FIRST needed to create the company to make the movie. I realized that I needed to work on the film from the context of it being a project for my company and not a project to make my company.
For my entire life, I've been creating products and then assigning them to the company. I've been a writer first and a President second. I realize now that I need to be a President first and a writer second - that I need to get my company off the ground so that I can get my films and books and other projects off the ground.
I've been the defacto head of my company now for 25 years and I've never once thought in these terms before. Its been a bit unusual in my head these last couple of weeks as my mind turns away from plotting the next script (which is a good one) to figuring out how to raise funds for my next script. In the end I will be just as creative as before, but with an emphasis first on making the creativity happen rather than on being creative and then figuring out how to make it happen.
So, I ask you all for prayers as I try to make an old endeavor new again.
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