An old friend sent her daughter to meet with me about getting into acting.  After the meeting, my friend told me her daughter was disappointed and sad that the idea of acting now felt a lot harder and more challenging than she had envisioned.

Acting looks like an awfully easy career path these days, doesn’t it? People who make all those videos on youtubeinstagramtwittersnapchatvine get amazing opportunities. Why work hard at something unbelievably challenging like math or science when it appears that you can make some videos, have fun and get famous with a lot less effort and study? And while that’s clearly not the norm, it IS happening out there.  So you’d have to be a fool not to want to give that a try, right?

The problem is that most people who do all that Social Media stuff actually don’t become famous. (Indeed, most people who pursue an acting career, in any form, don’t become famous.) I work with a number of said sensations. They are obviously great at social media.  They are courted by reps and offered pilots and promised the moon. But what happens most of the time? They fail. Why? Because they haven’t learned how to act. They can make a mean video, but they are not so great at believably being someone other than themselves.  They haven’t developed the skill set that today’s film and television industry demands of them. They go on to continue to make great stuff on social media, but they don’t work as actors.

It reminds me of the days when people would come to Hollywood and expect to be discovered in a Coffee Shop. Social media is today’s coffee shop. And look, I hope it happens for you. I hope you are discovered today (whether on Vine or at Starbucks)!  But while we are waiting for that to happen, why don’t we spend our time (a) making sure that you have the skills you’ll need if and when the big opportunities arise as a result of your social media presence, and (b) learning all of the other things you need to know just in case you aren’t discovered and you have to make it the ol’ fashioned way – by hard work.

Being discovered is lightning in a bottle. It’s rare. It’s a fool’s game to make that your career strategy. Do the work, put in the 10,000 hours, do it for the love of it and do your best not to worry about fame and fortune. Then, instead of relying on the one option of being discovered, you’ll have a couple of different options: either you’ll be discovered and not blow that extraordinary bit of luck, or you’ll find your way to success through your sheer persistence, patience, hard work, skill and grit. The second option, at least, allows you some control over the situation, so why not embrace it?

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