2022 Year In Review: The Year of Perseverance
I’m not going to lie to you… 2022 was a fucking hard year. It was my second full year of building a film and television writing business in Hollywood with my wife, and it was a year that kept on asking us: “are you sure you want to do this…?? Are you really SURE!?”
When I quit my job in February of 2021, I was just beginning the Year of Enthusiasm. I had boundless energy and optimism, learning the craft of screenwriting and enjoying owning my own time. And I had so much fun.
But in 2022, that raw enthusiasm started to wane. My wife and I began to face the stark reality of the difficult task we’ve taken on. And I learned this great rule of thumb:
Whatever you’re trying to do will be 10x harder than you thought it would be and will take 10x longer. Anything less is a pleasant surprise.
That’s why I’m calling 2022 the Year of Perseverance.
We didn’t have any big wins this year - no massive breakthroughs or career-changing strokes of luck. My wife and I just showed up every day to do the work. Day after day. And you trust, just like Charlie Munger says, that over a long enough time period, people get what they deserve.
Because we’re not going anywhere. We’re still writing and building and coming up with ideas. And we’re not going to stop. Perseverance, baby.
The Year of Perseverance.
This year was hard in part because I dealt with a lot of rejection. When you pitch projects as much as we do, you get a lot of “no’s” despite the work being quality.
Success involves a lot of luck (more on that below) and the right timing. And the only way to get the timing right is to keep pitching. Keep selling. To stay in the game.
But it takes a lot out of you to continually put yourself out there after facing rejection. It’s like a muscle you workout. It does get stronger, but it’s never quite as strong as you want it to be.
It was also tough because I learned this year that commercial screenwriting isn’t an exact science. Some of our projects went in the wrong direction, despite the best intentions of everyone involved. It was a one-step forward, two-steps back kind of year.
I was tested physically this year too. One of my big goals was to get back to playing ice hockey, and in my second game back I pulled my hamstring pretty good. That led to months of physiotherapy and rehab to get back on the ice. It was grueling.
Here’s the good news: while it feels like we didn’t make much progress, we did. That’s the power of compounding and non-linear success. You don’t get out one little unit of success for every unit of hard work you put in, but you are making progress.
People read our work and liked it. We made fans, connections, and opened new doors. And most importantly, we showed people that we are long-term players in a long-term game. That matters.
Measure Years In Leverage, Not Time.
I was talking to Tara yesterday about writing this year in review article, and I realized that I’m now automatically measuring the year not in time, but in the amount of leverage we built. In my mind, the success of a year is determined by the number of assets you create that work for you after you’re finished working on them.
So here’s a quick overview of the assets I built. On the film and TV side, that includes two television pilot scripts and a movie script, with a second feature script on the way. So three finished products that are out there creating opportunities for Tara and me as we sleep.
For Wealest, I wrote 14 original articles, adding to the 128 or so already published on the site. Despite adding far fewer articles, pageviews still grew 23% YoY, while unique visitors grew 41%.
All in all, not terrible. But I finished 2022 with gas in the tank - feeling like I could have produced more. Much of that comes back to what I wrote about in my newsletter a few weeks ago about trying to write for this blog:
“I haven’t sent an email in a long while because every time I sit down to write something for Wealest, the fire hasn’t been there. For three years it was. But this year, I’ve been putting so much energy into trying to break into a very tough industry as a screenwriter, that I didn’t have anything left. I’ve been so focused on timelines I can’t control, that I forget about effectively using the time I can control.”
I don’t know what changed for me, but the fire is back. I’m excited to write for this site, and serve the thousands of readers who find this content useful.
Six Things I’m Leaving Behind In The New Year.
Inversion is always useful, so here are some things I’m looking to stay away from in 2023:
“Relaxing guilt.”
This is that constant niggle in the back of my mind that I should stop relaxing and get back to work.
The great gift and curse of self-employment is that there’s no one to tell you to start and stop working. So it’s easy to be so preoccupied with work that it eats into your relaxing time. But I’m not going to let that happen. Yes, the internet is always on, but that doesn’t mean you have to be.
An “All in” mentality.
I’ve been so focused on breaking into a tough industry, that I’ve neglected to spread my bets out across platforms and niches. That’s changing this year.
I’m going to put a lot more effort into growing Wealest and will develop my first product for my audience. I can’t wait to share it with you!
“Wait mode.”
It’s so easy to just sit and twiddle your thumbs as you wait for your bets to pay off. But no more. I’m going to stop waiting for things I can’t control before starting my next project.
“Imposter syndrome.”
Fear kept me back from creating online in 2022 - fear that I had nothing of value to offer. But of course I do! It’s just about packaging it for others to easily digest. That’s my plan for 2023.
“Comparison game.”
Twitter is the ultimate comparison battleground. I’m going to closely monitor how I use it, and more importantly, how I feel after I’m done.
Keep reminding yourself that we’re all on our own journey. You don’t need to compare what you’ve accomplished against anyone else. Do your own thing.
“Why not me?”
I felt a lot of envy in 2022. A lot of “why isn’t it happening for me when it’s happening to all these other people?”
But it’s a useless game to play. You have no idea the journey other people have taken to get where they are. And unless you were in the trenches with them, you have no idea how hard it was.
So, I’m going to stop wondering why things aren’t going exactly as planned. On a long enough time horizon, you eventually get the one thing you want.
2023: The Year of Ease.
Tara came up with this great exercise where we each chose a single word to define the energy we want to bring into the New Year. Tara chose luck. And I chose ease.
Tara’s put as much work as anyone into her acting career. She’s a great actor and has been doing it for a decade, and now it’s time for luck to play its role!
For me, I want to let go of the struggle. When you’re self-employed, you latch onto this idea of “grinding in the trenches.” And sometimes that’s based on necessity - like a project that needs to get done ASAP.
But often, this mentality is counter productive. It convinces you that unless things are hard, you’re not making progress. Look at professional athletes. There’s an ease when they perform - a grace. Yes, there’s an incredible amount of hard work behind the scenes, but the performance looks easy.
That’s what I want to bring into 2023. A sense of ease and grace where things just flow - the good and bad. What word would you choose? Hit me up on Twitter and let me know.
As always, thanks for reading. And all the best in 2023. Onwards and upward!