Are You “Slow and Steady” or a “Safety Net and The Big Score” type?

So which are you?  Do you even know?  This month, I had more than one discussion in this area and it got me thinking, that most people don’t even know!  they can’t see the signs that they are suffering in a safety net with the hope of the “big score”.

Since humans are logical, you would think that these two different approaches to life and success would be easy to see, and yet it apparently isn’t to most people, and I’ll use actors as an example.

In acting I have found that there are two basic approaches.  First is the formal school approach where you start young, apply to a conservatory or a well known school, hope to graduate, hope to get an agent and hope to get work.  Mel Gibson, Even then only a small percentage of graduates are the names you would recognize.  My current acting instructor, Harli Ames is probably a name you have never heard of, and yet he made it through of of the toughest schools in Australia.

The next approach is what I call the dive right in approach.  You just start applying to everything and anything you can get, and take some classes along the way.  Brad Pitt left college and moved to LA to start acting, taking classes from an independent coach.  Most will start out as “background” or “extras” and work to move up to featured and then hope to get some better paying commercials and speaking parts.  Others will start in unpaid community theater or non-union work.

So of these two groups, which is the slow and steady, and which is the Safety Net and The Big Score?  The answer is most of neither and many of both.

The slow and steady group who go to the formal acting programs usually make it big or branch out in to the multiple income stream program.  They will write, direct, produce and act, rarely becoming well known for any of them and still generating a nice income when you put them all together.  Some will teach to generate a steady base income and most will realize that the big score may not happen so they start to leverage a host of “little scores”.  

Think of it like a shower head with a bunch of little holes v a hose with one giant hole.  Either one will get you wet, and most people find the shower head more comfortable.

Life is very transitional so people don’t always stay on one side or the other their entire carrear.  Having kids for instance can cause an instant shift in outlook the first time you can’t buy formula.  When the safety net isn’t enough, some people step off and go do something else entirely.  

The second group, of which I am much more familiar is the dive right in group.  They will do anything to keep working.  Some will get the Safety Net disease, others will realize how much work it is an quit, and two small groups will appear.  Those that become “hobby actors” like me who are just having a great time doing it and don’t worry about not having work because we have a very large safety net, and those who keep going trying to do it full time.

So am I a “Safety Net and Big Score” type or “Slow and Steady”?  

The Safety Net group generally feels more “entitled” like they deserve to get the big score and that someone should take care of them until it happens.  I met a girl who was 24, living at home, driving a very nice Mercedes SLK and working background two days a week until her “Big Break”.  It makes her crazy that I get principle work without trying and told me that the classes I am taking are a “waste of time” - Safety Net and Big Score may as well be tattooed on her forehead.

It amazes me how quickly the safety net group finds each other on set and starts trading notes on how to collect unemployment and work for cash until the next job in background.  Sitting and listening in has been an eye opening experience.  Once they find out anything about me I am kicked out of the group.  It has become my challenge of silence to see how long I can sit with them.

Of that group I haven’t seen a single “upgrade” yet.  They are usually too busy talking about how to use the safety net and can’t see the opportunity right in front of them.

Now back to the Slow and Steady types.  Many have good paying day jobs, take night acting classes and are generally looking forward in some way.  The day job isn’t a “minimum” fall back position, and they are always negotiating to get flexible schedules to work as an actor.  Several I know are real estate agents, and have continued to work as real estate agents through the downturn because the schedules are flexible.

Now you would think from this that the trained actors would be in the slow and steady, and the dive right in would mostly fit in the safety net and big score group.  You would be wrong.

I have met professionally trained actors with multiple credits who are broke and living day to day.  They refuse to take “background” or “extra” work because it is beneath them even though it is union work and adds to their pension and health benefits.  Instead they work for cash and collect unemployment.

At the same time I have met several full time “background” actors with no formal training who are in the top 10% of earnings, maintain their pension growth and health benefits every year.  They are at work ready willing and able. If they get an “upgrade” and speak, great, if not, great.  You don’t know any of their names, and they don’t care.

I don’t know about you, but sitting around in a safety net waiting for the “Big Score” sounds boring to me, I would rather go to work, keep my life and investments growing and have fun.

So which one are you?