Getting Started as a Creator Part 3: Facing Fear, Embracing Risk
Fear is the enemy of creativity. Don't let it run you.
Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
–Lady Jessica Atreides, Dune
If you’ve read the book or seen Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s Dune, you’ll recognize that quote. At its core, the quote is about fear hindering our decision-making capabilities, and the power of rising above fear.
In the world of Dune, there are a thousand hostile forces working against the Atreides family, including the terrors of the Arrakis desert. But you don’t have to be going toe-to-toe with a mile-long sandworm to feel it.
Every Creative will be afraid at some point in their career. I’ve felt that fear myself. I’ve seen others succumbing to it. As we speak, that fear is coursing through the halls of development departments and undermining the creative pursuits of countless executives in Hollywood. These people came to this town with a dream to tell beautiful stories and - through no fault of their own - have instead ended up bowing to a very real fear of failure.
This matters now because the battle between creativity and fear is existential. Hollywood will die if we can’t confront - and overcome - our fear.
And while so many in Film & TV obsess over navigating the safest possible route for their career, I’ve come to realize just how counterproductive this mindset is, and why it is the exact thing that will get a lot of people fired.
In a world where fear and risk aversion run rampant, I’ve found that the people who find success have an entirely different approach.
Fear: A Universal Creative Experience
I’ve never met a Creative who hasn’t at some point made decisions out of fear. Whether it’s the decision to hold off on sending a project for notes until it’s “perfect” or not introducing themselves to someone important-looking at a mixer, or avoiding that hard conversation with your Showrunner, everyone is guilty of making decisions based on misplaced fear.
In film school I remember the dread I’d feel when screening one of my dramatic student films and thinking: “What if people laugh?” Then, later, when screening one of my comedic student films: “What if no one laughs?”
Recently, I’ve witnessed people putting barriers in their own way when talking about making their own projects. I mention this in my post on gatekeepers:
When I had a script I was happy with, I would say: “If only I had representation, I would be able to sell my scripts.”
Then, when I had representation: “If only I had a major actor attached to my project, I could sell the packaged project.”
Then, after managing to attach a major actor: “If only I had $100,000, I could film the pilot and then I would be able to sell to a streaming platform.”
I realized after spending my career complaining about gatekeepers, I had become my own gatekeeper.
It’s only recently that I’ve recognized this as stemming from a place of fear. Fear of “not being taken seriously.” Fear of failure. Fear of success.
Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull warned that the instinct to avoid failure is anathema to creativity:
“Mistakes aren’t a necessary evil. They aren’t evil at all. They are an inevitable consequence of doing something new.”
I’ve since shed a lot of (but not all) that fear, and I’m a lot more inclined to make an ass out of myself publicly.
That’s the whole reason I’m willing to share the work I do on my social media channel LoFi Comedy Collective (TikTok | Instagram | YouTube). That and the shameless self-promotion.
Hope Vs. Fear
In a promising turn of events, I’ve seen a lot of other people in the industry shed their own fear in pursuit of their creative ambitions.
These people are taking more creative risks, they’re trying new things, they’re making their own stuff without fear of judgment.
While these people may appear fearless, they likely feel the same way you feel when trying something new, but their optimism outweighs that fear.
Because the opposite of fear isn’t bravery. It’s hope. And - if you didn’t read Barack Obama’s bestselling memoir - I can prove it logically and intuitively:
Fear isn’t about the present negative state of things; That’s Suffering. It’s also not about the past negative state of things; That’s Despair. Fear is about an unknowable future. It’s about projecting the worst possible outcomes on a screen in our minds and letting those projections overtake our faculties.
Hope is the exact opposite. A hopeful mindset projects an outcome of possibility, of triumph. It views the unknown future not with dread but with excitement.
It requires a reframing of the problem as a challenge worth pursuing. Something that will make us stronger by the time we get to the other side.
This is something that we all strive for, and it’s really really really hard. It requires a rewiring of the way we think. That’s because of the 150,000 year-old operating system running inside our 21st Century brains.
The Biology of Fear
Fear is a natural function of being a living organism with a developed nervous system. It’s a protective mechanism developed over millions of years of evolution to keep us from wandering into a bear’s cave or playing with venomous snakes or climbing a steep cliff face without a rope.
When an average human encounters a truly dangerous situation, their heart rate rises, their blood vessels constrict, tension tightens muscles and adrenaline courses through their body, preparing them to freeze, flee or fight. This was an incredibly valuable reaction for our ancestors when they faced a stalking sabertooth tiger or a charging mastodon.
This fear served as a warning system alerting us to potential danger, an avoidance system to help us run faster and retain better focus, and finally a defensive system to - I guess - fight a literal tiger?
But most of those very real dangers are no longer relevant in today’s society.
In place of tigers and venomous snakes, we get high-functioning anxiety, fear of public speaking, and the Sunday Scaries1. And our brains simply can’t distinguish between threats that are life-threatening and those that are mere inconveniences.
In Creatives, this fear manifests as a number of things:
The sweaty palms a Writer gets going into a pitch meeting
The tension after sending a query letter to a possible rep
The dread you feel when you have to fire your agent / assistant / a writer on your staff
We’ve all said this before:
“It’s not ready yet.”
And that might be true. But also: Is that just the new version of: (Panicked Scream while fleeing from dire wolf).
Side Note: Apparently, there are some people who literally cannot feel fear, and it’s a fascinating subject to read about.
Fear and Risk in Entertainment
Unfortunately, the current creative landscape in Hollywood reinforces these fearful attitudes. Because one bad bet could cost an Executive their job, Executives operate from a position of fear, which leads to safer, less innovative creative decisions, which trickles down to the Creatives who are pitching them.
In a risk-averse climate, writers are too fearful to pitch their wildest, most risky ideas. And that fear isn’t misplaced. What’s selling is safe, less-innovative entertainment, and the appetite for that middle-of-the-road stuff is declining, leading to revenue drain, and increased fear of job cuts, and increased risk-aversion and on and on until the industry collapses or something changes.
We’re in a self-perpetuating fear cycle.
And by the way, that extends down the hierarchy of creative organizations. Showrunners operate from a position of fear: The shrinking number of multi-season shows means they have to kowtow to network notes and take fewer creative risks themselves. And so it goes for their writing staffs and so on.
Not terribly long ago,
at wrote extensively about the fear that executives are feeling up and down hierarchies.“The word I keep hearing now is ‘fear’ and if you’re afraid you can’t hit a backhand down the line.”
I played tennis in high school so I intuitively understand this analogy, but you can probably figure it out even if you didn’t:
A winning shot requires confidence; If you’re not confident, you’re either not going to take the shot at all or all that stiffness (remember fear leading to muscle tension above?) is going to send the shot into the bleachers.
And if you know nothing about tennis, sending a ball into the bleachers is a bad thing.
Speaking from personal experience working in writers’ rooms, when people are confident, happy, loose, that’s when they pitch their best stuff.
When things are stressful and fear permeates… not so much.
“Nothing will stop you being creative so effectively as the fear of making a mistake.”
The Greatest Risk Is No Risk At All
I spent the early part of my career pursuing “the right things” in “the right order.” I listened to writers who had come before me who told me: “Keep your head down. Work hard. Write a few good samples. Keep going.”
It all made sense at the time. Coming off of The Great Financial Crisis, risk was a dirty word, and it made sense to play it safe. But as time went on, the number of opportunities began contracting and fewer and fewer roles were given to early-career writers.
More recently, I’ve seen the most opportunities going to people who take risks and stand out. Things are more competitive than ever, and you have to get noticed if you want to advance in your career. And that inherently involves taking calculated risks.
In a real way, that makes perfect sense: Pursuing safety in an inherently risky industry is paradoxical. Millionaires (who don’t come from a rich background) rarely get wealthy by opening a savings account.
Risk comes with the territory of pursuing a career in entertainment. If you can’t embrace that, you’re not going to get far in your career. Especially now.
That’s why I advocate for Creatives to go out on a limb and tell their stories in whatever way they can, even if they feel “it’s not ready yet.”
Taking calculated risks bestows enormous advantages:
Sharing your work with established professionals gets you feedback, which makes you a better Creative.
As mentioned above, taking a big creative swing will help you stand out while others blend in.
Going out on a limb helps you meet more like-minded people, which expands your creative network (which I explained the benefits of in my last post)
I would add that some companies have become over-reliant on data-driven decision-making that ends up sanding off all the rough edges of truly unique ideas (*cough* Netflix *cough*).
Snow White: A Risk-Reward Case Study
Do yourself a favor and read this story from Cinemablend, which I pull from below.
Snow White was Disney’s first feature film, and it was unequivocally a roaring success for the still-nascent company in 1937.
But that success did not come without enormous risk, and for an animation company with zero feature films under its belt, the path was never crystal clear. In fact, critics referred to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as “Disney’s Folly.” They believed that a feature length animated picture would never make its money back.
And there was a lot of money to not make back. The film cost 1.5 million dollars, much of which came from Walt Disney himself, who mortgaged his house to help finance it. The studio took out multiple loans with Bank of America to cover the costs, which ran multiple times over the original budget.
In the middle of production, Joseph Rosenberg - a Bank of America VP - visited the studio to watch an unfinished cut that included both finished animation and pencil sketches. Rosenberg was silent for the entire screening and left without saying a word. Disney of course was panicked, assuming the worst, before escorting the VP out to the parking lot.
Rosenberg then got in his car and left Disney with one parting statement:
"That thing is going to make a hatful of money."
Disney got his loan.
Now “a hatful” might not seem like that much money, but you have to remember: Hats were A LOT bigger back then. In fact, the standard measure of currency from 1935-1939 was indeed, a hat. A large bowler to be specific.
Breaking Through Fear: Practical Approaches
Before you get started, understand that there is always risk of failure when pursuing creative things. This failure takes many forms including embarrassment, lost time or money, and you have to be okay with these things if you want a career being creative.
Still, there are a few ways to help push through the fear and get creating:
1. Start Small to De-Risk Creative Endeavors
You don’t have to dive into the deep end when pursuing creative risks. In fact, it often pays to start with small risks and work your way up. Think of Billie Eilish and Finneas who started by uploading their music onto Soundcloud before Billie became the pop icon she is today.
Think of ways to dip your toe into the process of self-distribution before immersing yourself:
Publish a short story somewhere like Substack to get a sense of character/world
Pitch your pilot to a small writing group before sending the idea to someone big and scary
Test your jokes at an open mic event before diving into drafting
Launch a crowdfunding campaign for a small project before pursuing bigger investors
Giving yourself permission to fail means not betting the farm on a creative pursuit.
2. Leverage the Tools at Your Disposal
Making calculated risks means using the resources you have at your disposal.
Do you have cool sound or camera gear you could use to shoot something? Great. Are you a terrific actor or do you know any who live nearby? Perfect. Do you already have a social media following? Use it!
If you live in a cool apartment or have a supportive partner or have access to a mummy, these are all things you can use to make really interesting entertainment.
Does this mean that you sometimes have to create something that isn’t the exact thing that you have in your head? Yes. See below:
3. Embrace Constraints
You are (almost) never going to be able to get all the things you want to make the thing you want to make. Ask even the most established writers, directors, producers, and they’ll say the same thing. Working within constraints is an inherent part of the creative process, and you’d better get used to it, because it does not go away, not even for the most celebrated and well-paid creatives.
Learn to embrace the constraints placed on creation and not only will you be happier, you’ll also probably make better stuff!
Do you think The Blair Witch Project or Paranormal Activity would have been half as successful if they had hundred million dollar budgets? Just look at the sequels.
The stakes (and the fear) are a lot lower when you’re making do with less. Failure is a lot more tolerable when you’re not working with a huge amount of resources.
4. Lean on Others
Collaborating with other emerging creators on joint projects is a great way to offset risk. Shared credit - and shared blame - means you can take bigger swings on your creative pursuits.
An added bonus is that this provides a support structure for you to keep making stuff. Keep pushing past any anxiety or fear you’d otherwise face if it was just you staring down a blank page or a rolling camera.
Plus, there are a ton of other benefits of working with others, as I outline in my post on finding your tribe:
5. Just Go For It
If you’ve ever written anything, you know that the first step is to just start typing. The more you think about it, the more time you give your demons to start criticizing you for all the reasons that it won’t work.
It’s the same with creating video for UGC / Social platforms.
One thing I’ve found works for me when planning material for LoFi: Set a shoot date. It can be arbitrary, but if you and your collaborators agree to it, you probably won’t give yourself the opportunity to chicken out.
Trust me on this one. Putting something in a shared calendar is a powerful way to “make it work.”
Once you get past your first fear barrier, the next one is smaller, and the one after that is smaller still and so on.
You’ll quickly find that small successes lead to growing confidence to take bigger risks. You’re more emboldened to take bigger swings when the last risk you took paid off, and if you keep at it, eventually it will.
Building Your Fear Muscle
I’m sure you’ve seen or heard the aphorism: "Do something that scares you every day."
If you make confronting your fear part of your daily ritual, you grow the muscle that lets you do more of it in the future.
This can take many forms, but below are a few examples:
Introduce yourself to someone new
Share vulnerable work on social media
Send projects to people you admire
Pitch ideas in meetings
The more you do these things, the more risk tolerance you gain, and the more deftly you’ll be able to navigate career setbacks. Having a thick skin in entertainment isn’t about taking shit from an abusive boss (or at least, it shouldn’t be). Having a thick skin means handling rejection and failure with grace and determination.
Small acts of courage compound over time, and creating an environment that rewards risk will draw others to you. These people may end up becoming the tribe with whom you collaborate on creative endeavors.
I encourage everyone reading this to confront one of their fears and take at least one calculated risk this week. Reach out to someone you haven’t spoken with in a long time, even if it’s slightly awkward. Publish something you’ve been too afraid of publishing. Tell someone your joke even if you’re worried they might hate it.
If they don’t laugh, fuck ‘em. Try it on someone else. If that person doesn’t laugh, it might be the joke. Maybe rewrite the joke.
The key is to not let a negative experience scare you away from doing it again next week.
Remember: Risk is a natural part of the creative process. If you want a safe career, go into accounting. As for me, I chose entertainment exactly because it is big and thrilling and life-affirming, and yes - scary.
But facing those fears isn’t just worth it; It’s what makes life worth living.
And relax! You’re not facing sandworms.
Or are you…?
No. You’re not.
Next time, we’ll talk about Art vs. Commerce.
Stay tuned,
Jon
Roughly defined as feelings of anxiety and dread that happen on Sundays before returning to work.
Just like "Finding Your Tribe" this is also tremendously helpful Jon. Thanks for your thoughtful exploration of fear. I'm keeping this close as I continue my journey making my first documentary at 62 with zero experience (other than my kid Ray who's an amazing young filmmaker).