Is It Really One Shot, One Opportunity?
If you had one chance, one opportunity to get everything you ever wanted…
Eminem is one of my favorite rappers, musicians, and all-around rap icons. I am constantly in awe of his flow, masterful lyrics, and overall his transition as an artist through the years. However, while I would love to write about Eminem and his enduring albeit still controversial legacy, that’s not this piece today.
Today’s piece starts with another question: When we make it, is it only ever because of that one opportunity?
You know the one I’m talking about. Whether it’s music, filmmaking, acting, writing, cooking, research, tattooing, boxing, or accounting, we’re all waiting for that one moment, that one opportunity where someone notices and everything changes. We go from writing in the back of a Starbucks during closing time to signing book copies in closed-out book stores. We go from writing rhymes in our bedrooms with the door closed to stepping onto a stage to perform for thousands of people. We go from trying to catch the bus from work to make it to those night classes to opening the doors of your own 5-star restaurant.
We’re all waiting for that one moment where we say yes to the right question, make the right connection, hit the send button at the right time and we get a phone call telling us it’s time to level up.
But what if there is no one shot? What if it really is all luck and a shot in the dark? What if it’s about hearing no more times than you will ever hear yes?
Let’s pause here: I don't have the answers. Hell, my anxiety makes me think about these questions almost every other day to almost no avail. As someone who still struggles to say out loud he is a writer, it’s even harder to think about what it would even mean to “make it” because it seems so unlikely. Not because I (or anyone) can’t put in the work, but because we are all too familiar with the success stories.
We know how long J.K. Rowling struggled until Harry Potter first went to print. We know how long Oprah worked before she broke into media to create her own show, then network. We know how long Harrison Ford worked did odd jobs as a carpenter before seeing any traction in the acting world.
We know the stories of legends and we know struggle seems to be such an inherent part of that story that we begin to think we have to struggle too in hopes of that one opportunity that will pull us out. What if there is no one opportunity waiting for us? What happens if it is all luck? What happens if it’s not one big victory but a bunch of small wins that sustain us through this long marathon?
Again, I say this not because I have the answer or this thought makes it easier to sleep at night (it doesn’t) rather in an attempt to find solace. Writing, while a form of art and joy for many of us, is still held in the grip of business and that means we fight for our voice to be heard and our words to be read. Many of us are still waiting for that one moment to break through whether it be to finish our project, to see our book published, or to sneak a peek at someone copping our book at the bookstore.
I guess, where I’m going with this is that success seems to be a moving target in this world. External and internal forces tell us when we need to hit that target, and that failure is imminent if we don’t. I don’t believe that. One of the things I plan to work on this year is redefining what success means and what it can look like, not for the benefit of anyone else but rather for myself. To enjoy the small victories that seem so inconsequential to some but can mean the world to others. I don’t think it’s only one shot, one opportunity to “get everything you ever wanted” but I do think there are small cobblestone victories waiting to be noticed on a long winding path for all of us and that’s where you’ll find me.
