Like when you hear some remarkable detail about a certain kind of car and that afternoon you notice a whole lot of people driving it, I've suddenly been surrounded by articles about agency. It's not even a word I like, but I'll grudgingly accept that we don't have a better word to identify the you-can-just-do-things-ness abilities some have and others ignore.
This is just another such piece on agency, but it's better than most and a little inspiring. Particularly useful was the emphasis on end-state of your goal versus what you assume is the path to your goal. Really try to describe what it is you want to do, not way it's perceived or the path you assume you'll need to take. Don't be "a filmmaker," make this film.
I had conflated “being a writer” with “having a publisher” and “getting a salary from my writing.” These are not the same thing.
And this, quoted from Werner Hezog
Beware of useless, bottom-rung secretarial jobs in film-production companies. Instead, so long as you are able-bodied, head out to where the real world is. Roll up your sleeves and work as a bouncer in a sex club or a warden in a lunatic asylum or a machine operator in a slaughterhouse. Drive a taxi for six months and you’ll have enough money to make a film.
The moral of the story may simply be: you can do pretty much anything...if you're willing to try pretty much anything to get it done -- which sounds like something I've heard a number of times. But hearing it isn't the same as understanding it, and I think this article helped me get closer to understanding it.
If you're going to spend some time reading this weekend, read this.