REINVENTING OURSELVES

Yesterday I had a text message exchange with a former assistant of mine who became AN IMPORTANT personality in our business (at least in his mind).

I have to add for personal history that for the past few years, he was calling me PAPA and had been always looking for my advice, input, and guidance in his life, professional life and private life.

Anyway, in that exchange of texts, he told me that:

It was a conflict of interest for me to be a manager and a stage director, that I was pressuring people and companies for my own interest as a director and it was bothering him (I have to add that I NEVER asked him to hire me as a director, I was just asking him if he had chosen a director for a specific production).

Then, he added that I was hated in the business by many, many people, and he was very critical of all of my professional activities by saying that I was not a success in most of my endeavors.

His tone was aggressive and full of hate and I was really overwhelmed by sadness to hear him saying all this.

Where did all this came from? I know, but will not express it since as you all know I am a generous person (laughing).

It took me some time to think about this painful exchange and brought to my mind a few thoughts:

I know that some people do not like a lot of people for any number of reasons, and, most of the time, based on personal issues, personal headaches, lack of self-confidence and sometimes reputation based on rumors and invented stories… If I had lived 10% of the stories said about me, about what I did or did not do, I would be considered a giant or a legend…

 Sometimes I wish people knew more of the true stories in my life--it would be more interesting.

I know that in my long life, I am now 72 years old, I have done a lot of different things and many times things I did not necessarily want to do but I had to survive! But guess what? I am now happy I did them. They made me a man with experiences, sometimes painful experiences, painful memories, and painful background, but even with all that I am still open to new experiences even if I do not know if I can really deal with it at my age or if I have the strength to deal with the new ways.

I did not have the luck or the result of Fate to be born in a stable family in a stable country and I had to reinvent myself all my life to stay sane and to continue to want to conquer the world despite all the handicaps I had to overcome.

Did I conquer the world? NO I did not, but I went all the way to try.

And guess what? I STILL DO!                                                                      

Nobody made me change my mind, and nobody will be able to sway me from my desire to succeed, even if it did not happen and will not happen in the ways people expect.

But I am still alive and trying to be creative and all the negative feedbacks will not stop me.

Yes, I know, I have been and sometimes still am: a theater director, a theater actor and creator of a French theater company in America, a professional gambler, a university professor, a garbage collector, a writer, an opera general and artistic director, a packing person in a supermarket, a librettist for opera, a designer, an artist’s manager, an opera stage director, a lecturer, a movie and television actor etc... etc.…

I believe I did, and continue to do all this with full responsibility and full dedication, and never sacrifice one aspect for the other… I was always and still being totally honest in my actions and sometimes maybe too honest in my ideas, judgements, or opinions.

BUT ISN’T THAT THE ONLY WAY TO STAY ALIVE?

To reinvent our lives all the time in order to be creative, full of ideas, excited by the next experiences, and ready to go for new adventures and challenges?

Isn’t experimenting with new things the best way to stay alive?

To approach challenges with a new mind, a new thought, a new self?

YES, I am still a director and a designer, an actor (sometimes), a writer, AND A MANAGER!!! So what?

Where is the conflict of interest?

The interest of whom?

Of my artists in my roster? When actually I know a lot of our business from every side?

Of artistic directors of companies? When actually I know a lot of our business from every side?

All this opens the major theme...

REINVENTING OURSELVES…

We live in a time when IT IS A NEED!!!

In the generation before mine, when people were changing careers during their lifetime it was suspicious, something was wrong, something did not work…

These days are over, we have to stay open all the time to new challenges, new adventures, new possibilities. IT IS THE ONLY WAY to grow and progress and be ALIVE AND GIVE BACK WHAT WE KNOW! AND TO GIVE BACK IS TOTAL PLEASURE.

If our mind and our energy can be concentrating on a new adventure without neglecting the existing ones… why not? On the contrary, it will bring new assets and new vision.

Please keep your eyes open, your energy open, your creativity open…Your desire to grow open to new challenges!

Do not be complacent in your life when you appear to be in control of your destiny. If your dreams are fulfilled, DO NOT CLOSE THE DOOR TO REINVENTING YOURSELF, THIS HAS TO BE A PERPETUAL AIM OF LIFE!

My dear FORMER assistant, do not rest on your so called successes…soon, they will be the past, and today the past is today.

Yes, I am still a director and a manager and a million other things, SO WHAT?

Yes, I love what I do, being a director, being a manager, being a writer etc.… BECAUSE IT IS ALWAYS A CHALLENGE AND I DO NOT FALL ASLEEP IN THE ARMS OF COMFORT OR BOREDOM… and I sincerely hope I will be able to find the strength to go on until my last breath, even if some hate that in the name of a so-called CONFLICT OF INTEREST!!!! And I will continue to stay open to new adventures and new challenges….

My dear former assistant, I still love you as a son, please do not fall in the trap of being successful, success is only an image to your own VISION. Keep your eyes and your entire you open to new challenges, reinvent yourself all the time and your present work will benefit tremendously, even if you believe that you have reached the top of the tree... Remember there are always bigger trees and different kind or trees…And to advance in our own quest YOU have to try to claim new trees!!!

And keep in mind: Do not fall in the trap of those who may misguide you in trying to deny the people of significance in your past, because those people deserve to be appreciated today for their so-called “achievements.”

Remember the unfortunate line: They do not want to know me now because I knew them when they were nobody!!!

Also, now that you have responsibilities and people reporting to and relying on you, do not close their minds to appreciating exciting possible experiences because you believe you know it all…. Tell them that life is perpetually a new beginning, a new adventure, a new challenge, and ignore the ones who want to put you down for reasons I do not need to express.

I wish you the best my son!!!!