The Tenacity Payoff

Patience gets its reward during awards season

There were a lot of themes during last night’s Golden Globes ceremony (fake tans, red dresses, gender bending) but the most common I saw was this: the tenacity payoff.

The projects that won awards were not quick hits with formulaic scripts, but films that got a lot of “No”s before someone said “Yes.” During his acceptance speech, Matthew McConaughey shared that Dallas Buyers Club was passed on 86 times before being produced, while Leonardo DiCaprio gave an emotional speech about the eight-years it took to bring Wolf of Wall Street to the big screen. Gravity, too, was a project that had been passed over time and time again, before getting such a beautiful final treatment.

Maybe it’s always been this way, but never so vocally. More and more, the entertainment industry is as much about tenacity as it is talent. With traditional revenue streams drying up, this business is one in which the artistic project is a tough bet until enough people have stood up to champion it.

It’s something I’ve been watching unfold in the music industry, too. When pop radio played more than 20 songs a week, and labels had larger A&R budgets, it was easier to throw money at a variety of projects, whereas now the investments are more calculated. From the artists’ end, that means more patience before pay out.

Take Fun., for example. While “We Are Young” burst onto the scene quickly, the band had been working for over a decade before winning the Grammy for Best New Artist. The band explained to MTV News, “It’s been a 12-year journey to get to where we’ve gotten to this year, and to be recognized with the nomination, it’s a crazy rush of images and experiences in your head. All of the things like… literally eating out of dumpsters, sleeping on floors, playing shows and asking people if they had a room we could sleep in … and it all got us to this point.”

The story is similar for bands like The Lumineers, who were writing together for seven years before their album was released; Phoenix, who had three studio albums before breaking through with Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix; and Katy Perry, who cycled through every major label before “I Kissed a Girl” got airplay.

The cynic in me used to think these stories have been exaggerated for better press releases, but I’ve seen too many play out in real life. In 2004, I was on a cruise and heard a Georgia-bred musician singing a song about fried chicken and cold beer on a Friday night. He was only playing for a crowd of about 15 people, right next to a sushi stand, but it’s clear that song would be a hit. Zac Brown Band later accepted the Grammy for Best New Artist thanks to the success of that song, but it took six years to get there from the Lido Deck.

As production and distribution become more and more democratized, it’s easier for artists to take fate into their own hands and try to go it alone. But just because you have that option doesn’t mean it’s the right one, tempting as it can be. If you really believe in the star-power of your project, and that faith is founded, be patient and find the right partners. Fight for your project and remember you might hear 86 “No”s before you get a “Yes.”

When it comes to awards like the Golden Globes or the Grammys, none of the honors bestowed upon tenacious artists should be a surprise. When you’ve fought a long fight to bring your work to life, the passion comes through in the product and gives it something no manufacturing can produce: heart.