Get Out of Your Own Way

I have been a producer for more than 35 years. In that time I have met just about every kind of person you can imagine. The brilliant ones. The kind ones. The ones who show up on time with coffee for the whole crew. And then there is my personal favorite, the person who walks into the room absolutely convinced that everything they touch turns to gold.

You know the type. Their script is perfect. Their audition was flawless. Their idea is the best idea anyone has ever had, and if you disagree, well, you clearly just do not get it. I call it the God Complex, and I have seen it sink more careers than bad luck, bad timing, and bad haircuts combined.

Here is the thing nobody wants to hear. Your talent is not the problem. Your attitude is.

Let Me Tell You About The Scripts

Over the years I have had a mountain of scripts land on my desk. And I mean a mountain. If I stacked them all up I could probably build a second office. Most of them, and I say this with love, are terrible. Out of every hundred scripts I read, maybe one or two are actually decent. The rest need work. Some need a lot of work. Some need a match and a quiet field.

Recently I started working with a company that analyzes screenplays. We give writers a genuinely in-depth evaluation. We are not talking about a quick note that says “nice job, needs polish.” We break down structure, character development, plot, dialogue, pacing, all of it. Then we rate the script honestly. And that is where things get interesting.

The moment of Truth

When we send back the analysis, you would think we had insulted their mother. A good number of writers get upset. Some fire back a full page of comments explaining, in great detail, why we are wrong about their masterpiece. Every single point. Line by line. It is almost impressive, the energy people will spend defending a script instead of fixing it.

So we made them an offer. We rewrite the first 20 pages. No lecture, no theory, just a side by side so they can see the difference for themselves. Show, do not tell, right? We are in the movie business after all.

And here is the beautiful part. After reading the rewrite, some of them come around. They admit the new version is better. Stronger. Tighter. They can feel it working. Those are the writers I get excited about, because a writer who can look at their own work honestly is a writer who can grow.

But then there is the other group. They read the rewrite, and they still want to argue. They still dispute the evaluation. They will die on that hill in the first act, and they will take their script down with them.

What is actually blocking them

So I got curious. I started noticing a pattern with the writers who fight the hardest. Many of them have been writing for years. Not months. Years. And in all that time, not one of them has ever had a screenplay optioned, sold, or produced. Not one.

Let that sink in for a second. Years of writing. Zero breaks. And their explanation for it is always that everyone else is wrong.

The agents are wrong. The producers are wrong. The evaluations are wrong. The whole industry apparently just cannot see the genius sitting right in front of it. It is a giant conspiracy of people with bad taste, and they are the lone hero who sees the truth.

I promise you, it is not a conspiracy. It is a mirror they are refusing to look into.

Their belief that everyone else is wrong and they alone are right is the exact thing standing between them and the career they say they want. It is not the market. It is not their luck. It is the arrogant, unrealistic attitude they carry into every room and every rejection.

This is Not Just a Hollywood Thing

Now, I am telling you all this through the lens of the entertainment business because that is my world. But do not for one second think this only applies to writers and actors.

This is a career thing. A human thing.

I have seen it in every industry. The salesperson who never hits their number but insists the leads are bad. The employee who gets passed over every year and blames the boss, the company, the office politics, anyone but the person in the reflection. The entrepreneur whose product keeps flopping but who is certain the customers just do not understand it yet.

Talent gets you in the door. Attitude decides whether you get to stay. I would rather work with a coachable person who is a seven out of ten than an unbearable genius who is a ten, and I say that as someone who has hired plenty of both. The genius is exhausting. The seven who listens becomes a ten eventually, and you actually enjoy the ride.

The Definition of Stuck

There is that old line, usually blamed on Einstein, that doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. Whether he actually said it or not, it is painfully true.

If you have been submitting the same kind of work for years, getting the same kind of no, and reacting the same defensive way every single time, the common thread is not the industry. The common thread is you.

That is not an insult. That is actually the best news you will hear all week. Because if the problem is out there in the universe, you are powerless. But if the problem is your attitude, congratulations, that is the one thing on this entire planet you have full control over.

So Here is My Honest Advice

If any part of this is making you a little uncomfortable, and you are already drafting the page of comments explaining why I am wrong about you specifically, pause for a second. That reaction, right there, is the whole point of this article.

Take a hard look at yourself and at your work. Not a defensive look. A real one. If you have been at this for years and the break keeps not coming, stop pointing at the door and check whether you are the one blocking it.

Open your mind to a genuinely radical idea. Maybe the feedback is not an attack. Maybe it is a gift. Maybe the note you hate the most is the note you need the most. The people giving you honest criticism are usually the ones who think you are worth the effort. The ones who do not care just smile and say “great job” and move on with their day.

Get out of your own way. Drop the ego. Trade the God Complex for a growth mindset. Listen more than you argue. Rewrite the thing. Then rewrite it again.

I have watched people make this exact shift, and it changes everything. The same person, same talent, same script, but a whole new attitude, and suddenly doors that were nailed shut swing wide open.

You have the talent. You would not have stuck with this for years if you did not love it. Now go match that talent with the humility to keep getting better.

I know you can do it. I have seen it happen too many times to believe otherwise.

Now get to work.