My wife introduced me to the work of Mike Birbiglia. He’s done writing for This American Life, and created a slew of finely-crafted off-Broadway stand-up specials. More recently, he has ventured into screenwriting and film acting. All to say, Birbigs is a very creative guy.
On his website, Birbiglia has a section called Advice. He offers “6 Tips for Getting Your Solo Play to Broadway,” and “6 Tips for Making it Small in Hollywood.”
I really like what he says. He says, “Fail.” Then he says, “Learn from the failure.” This is speaking my language (because things worth doing are worth doing badly).
My favorite part, though, is when Birbiglia says Work outside the system. Listen, my head is full of gatekeepers. I have narratives and scripts that tell me again and again that what I am doing is worthless or dumb. And that’s in my own skull. It’s bad enough that I tell myself these things, but it is especially a bummer when I have encountered folks outside my skull telling me these things.
Working outside the systems and away from the gatekeepers takes time. It means building your own networks and relying on relationships that take time and trust.
A lot of us want the quick fix. We want someone to give us the thumbs up and open the gate. But when that happened to Birbiglia, he discovered that what was on the other side of the gate wasn’t as great as he’d hoped it would be.
What he figured out was that he got more satisfaction if he built things himself.
I had intended to have this just be a short post, but I’m realizing I want to write more about this idea in posts to come. I want to talk about my experiences of working outside the system, and what I have learned from others who — like Birbiglia — have done it as well.
But for now, Thanks, Mike. And thank you, dear readers. Thank you.