Watch the video interview on Youtube here
Gary W. Goldstein: Before I moved to LA, I was an attorney in San Francisco. It was a very respected position. It was a beautiful city. I had a great life. I had a nice income. I was set and I was deeply comfortable. And it scared the hell out of me.
Had I stayed, I knew for certain (about me), not true of all lawyers, not true of all people, what have you. I knew for me, I was going to wither from the inside. But that was not the right life choice for me on a soul level, on a spirit level, not a role level or a goal level but on a soul level it was…I had to leave. I had to flee. I had to run away, literally.
And so I did. I ran away and I wasn’t sure exactly how it was going to work out but I thought, I’m going to go to the far end of the state to this crazy place called LA where I knew nobody and I was going to pursue getting into the film business because I so love storytelling. I’d grown up inside of books, I was a lover of story. And most of my friends and colleagues and certainly the other attorneys at the firm I worked at they all wagged their finger at me and said “How can you do that?” “That’s so brave.” “That’s so crazy.” Or something? “We don’t understand?”
And I said to them it’s not brave. It’s the opposite. It’s…it’s…it’s survival. That for me to survive and thrive, I can’t stay here. This is unsafe for me and it’s unsafe because it’s so comfortable. I need to go to this foreign land called Los Angeles. I need to go to a place where I am anonymous and know nobody. I need to stretch my limbs and I need to see if I can make it in this very highly-competitive unknown world of filmmaking. Because that lights me up, from the inside out.
I may fail. I may come crawling back on my knees begging you to take me back Oh Friends of San Francisco. But on the other hand if I don’t do it, I will never know and I’ll always regret it.
That’s one version of many, many, many stories I could tell about…and that’s just me. But I’ve seen it across most of the people…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
Check out Gary’s book Conquering Hollywood here
CHECK OUT GARY’S BOOK!
Writer’s Guide To Hollywood
CONNECT WITH GARY W. GOLDSTEIN
Garywgoldstein.com
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