Summary: Over the last 6 months I have become an avid fan of Sam Jones' podcast, Off Camera. Sam interviews many Hollywood celebrities and as each of them open up about their personal stories of triumph and tragedy I can't help but notice one common and powerful similarity – they never had a backup plan. ← Previous Episode Next Episode → Photo Credit: SkydiveAndes via Compfight cc In fact, nearly every successful actor, director, or producer that Sam has brought onto his show started with nothing more than a fantasy to make it big in Hollywood. That's all they had. Many had very little money, zero connections, and nothing more than the determination to succeed without even considering what they would do if they failed. Pushing forward without a Plan B is undeniably scary, and that's the point. This is What Fear Looks Like I wish I could say that the picture above is from my first skydiving experience 2 years ago, but there's no way I would have been able to smile that big. In fact, this is how my face looked: Here's a closer look: Notice anything different about my face compared with the guy in the picture above? What you see on my face is the realization that I too had no Plan B. There was no turning back and no way I could talk my skydiving instructor out of jumping. The insanity was going to happen whether I liked it or not. How to Succeed With Only One Goal in Mind The good news about my skydiving experience was that it worked. I jumped and didn't die. In fact, by facing my fear without an option to escape at the last second I was able to accomplish my goal and prove to myself that it's possible. Forgoing a backup plan is not necessary to succeed in every scenario, but my guess is that we all need to embrace this methodology way more often than we're comfortable with. Here are a few tips to succeed when you are tempted to fall back on Plan B, but know in your gut that you're only planning to fail. 1. Don't Give Yourself the Chance to Bail It might sound far fetched to pursue the stereotypical American dream of becoming a Hollywood celebrity, or an astronaut, or ___________ [fill in the blank with hopes and dreams that sound wonderful but have been squelched by years of doubt and ridicule]. How unrealistic are ambitious goals? As a guy who has a college degree in Theatre & Psychology I know what it's like to be questioned about your future. Are you planning to move to Los Angeles? Do you think you can make it as an actor? How long can you survive before you end up working as a waiter? I never planned on becoming a professional actor, but these questions and others like them only filled my mind with doubt, fear, and skepticism about my own abilities. In other words, I was already bailing on a dream that I didn't even have. I was letting myself believe the crowd mentality that only a select few peop...
