Advice — Blog — Healy Chen

Do what you love, even if it's for free

I‘m receiving a lot of questions from writers asking where to submit scripts or how to sell them. Others ask how to sign an agent, attach directors or producers, etc.

You won’t like the answer, but here it is:

You’re asking the wrong questions. (Thread)
— Christopher McQuarrie (@chrismcquarrie) October 23, 2019

Last evening, I encountered this golden nugget of a twitter thread by Christopher McQuarrie (yes, that Christopher McQuarrie.) In the thread, he answers the question of how to become a successful writer in Hollywood by saying that there aren’t any shortcuts: you have to do the work. Keep making stuff and show it to the world; have a portfolio of done and complete things that fully represents you. McQuarrie calls the act of pitching scripts to producers and various gatekeepers as “playing the lottery”, and it’s not advisable to have that as your sole focus. Clever metaphor, because I’m sure we all understand the futile odds of playing the lottery.

The director’s sound advice reminded of Charlie Munger (yes, that Charlie Munger) answering the question of how to become as accomplished as him by playfully scorning the questioner that he simply wanted Munger’s success, but far quicker - essentially asking for shortcuts. McQuarrie alluded to the same idea in one of his tweets, stating people are tacitly asking “What is the shortest route to [McQuarrie’s] career?" Indeed; to quote the great Jocko Willink: There is no shortcut. There is no hack. There's only one way. So get after it.

We should be happy to do the work anyways, because it’s what we love to do, right? Even if the end product leads nowhere and it pays nothing, the satisfaction of having created something is what really matters. That’s exactly what passion is about. The people asking for McQuarrie’s advice are looking at it from the monetary perspective, which the director cautions is the wrong lens to look from. The tools are out there - more than ever - for us to do the work and produce stuff, and if you’re truly serious about your particular craft, just go ahead and do it, without permission, and without thinking of some advancement endgame.

You have to ]detach from the results, and simply make the art for art’s sake. Produce or participate, then iterate and improve, and most importantly, put you and your work out there into the ether. The Internet has democratize and flatten many of the hierarchies and barriers that are no longer there, so there’s no excuse. It’s the reason this website of mine exist, and I shall continue to put out stuff, because it’s what I’m passionate about.

Thank you for coming to McQuarrie’s TED Talk.

Why do I bother

My main passion is automobiles, and I’ve been ensconced in the car culture for over two decades now. People around me know this, so I sometimes get asked for my advice on purchasing. The problem is, and this is shared with many people who are into cars, my recommendations often get ignored, and the person asking ends up going with a counter option. Not that I’m so high up into my ego that I get hurt when people don’t listen to what I say, mind you. The bottom line is that car buying is highly emotional, so the logical minds of car enthusiasts like me don’t quite fit that mold.

I still continue to give advice, though, because that’s called being nice.

The latest such episode is when my cousin asked me what car he should buy. His criteria is a sedan that’s reliable, and something he can own for at least the next 10 years reliably. He doesn’t care about driving dynamics; just a decent runabout for city driving.

For me, the solution for such criteria is obvious: buy a sedan from either Honda or Toyota, the two Japanese brands famous for utmost reliability and super low cost of ownership. To drill down further, I recommended to my cousin the latest Toyota Corolla Hybrid, a fabulous compact sedan that gets 50 miles to the gallon, all for the going price of low $20,000s. It’s a lot of car for the money, and on sheer reputation alone, the new Corolla will run easily run trouble free for the next decade. Plus, the first two years’ maintenance is free.

Whenever someone is looking to buy a car to keep for a very long time, my suggestion is always to buy new. Not only do you get to fart in the seats before anyone else, but more importantly, you get the peace of mind from knowing the entire history of the car, something you can’t say for certain when buying used.

So what does my cousin do? Of course he ignored my advice, and instead bought a slightly used Mazda 3 sedan, for a savings of $6,000 compared to buying the Corolla Hybrid new. No arguments from me; he’s free to do what makes him happy.