In my fifteen plus years in the industry, I've had plenty of fails and plenty of opportunities to make mistakes. We grow by learning from our mistakes time and time again. Sometimes you just have to grow that thick skin and roll with the punches. There's a line from the In The Heights adaptation that I vibed with recently that goes something along the lines of "You take all the bruises, but you stay in the ring".
My biggest fail came as a result of my greatest strength. Back in the early days of my career, working in the UK, my business partner had a rather dramatic falling-out with an executive producer, who told him they could make having a career in the screen trade "very difficult" for him...a declaration that was a hackneyed reworking of that "you'll never work in this town again" cliché.
We were due to work with this EP on a significantly-long network show, and I was told by someone at one point to stop bringing my business partner to meetings. My greatest strength - my uncompromising moral backbone - had me side with my business partner, and long-story short, we lost out on that show. The deal went away before it was ever signed.
This was in our first year or business, and we bumped along the bottom trying to make ends meet. By the end of that year I suffered a mental breakdown and was suicidal. They were dark times, but I didn't call it quits. I'm still here, after almost sixteen years, having survived that experience, made it through the credit crunch and following recession, Brexit uncertainty in the UK, Trumpism, and now muddling on through the pandemic.
My biggest fail became my greatest victory. Because you can take the work away, you can take the money away, you can take my health away, but still I bounce back. Due to that uncompromising moral backbone - that ethical compass that guides me - I'm still going. Now, almost sixteen years on from that "fail" I'm at the point where I've just priced up office space to open a branch in LA in the new year, and have created the opportunity to potentially pitch to a household streaming service, all off my own steam.
Mine is but one story, and it doesn't compare to some of the stories that have come to light through the MeToo and Time'sUp movements of recent years, but it's still significant. The lesson I learned early on, and it's driven me through all the years since, is not to compromise my standards for anyone. Stick to your guns. Follow your ethical compass. Take strength from your moral core.
Take all the bruises, stay in the ring.
Failure is but one step on the road to victory.
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Thank you so much for sharing Daniel Lyddon! Wow, what a story! I am beyond happy to hear you made it through those tough times and came out on the other end in such a great space! Congrats on the future LA branch, how exciting! It is truly inspiring to see you sticking to your guns and standing by your friend and business partner "Take all the bruises, stay in the ring."
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My friend, you are in itself a inspiration. What a story! By you also being a screenwriter, you must bring your story to the big screen. And for the record. If you look back on your life. Do you know why you were never a failure? Because simply put, when you fell, you didn't stay down.
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Thanks both - my tenacity is literally the thing that drives me sometimes. It's not enough to have talent, not enough to have passion - you have to have that bounceback quality to get up every time you get knocked down!
Well said. My greatest mistake as an Independent Author was going at it on my own. Not wanting to get advice. And catering towards everyone. As well as selling out towards anyone who promised to sell my books. Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.