One of the greatest sacrifices you can ask of another artist is to follow your vision.
Most won’t. Not because they’re selfish, because it costs something real. Time. Energy. The quiet setting-aside of their own creative sovereignty to serve yours. If someone does that for you, it isn’t because of your credits or your logline. It’s because they know you. The real version. The one that exists outside the page.
For a long time I operated as a man behind glass. Comfortable with the work. Less comfortable with the person doing it. I told myself the work would speak, and it does, eventually. But you can’t ask anyone to follow you through glass. They have to be able to find you first.
What I’m learning is that the adage it’s all about who you know isn’t cynical. At its best it means: the people who will make your vision real will do so because they trust you. And trust doesn’t come from performance. It comes from meeting people where they are and letting them see where you actually are. No facade. No pitch mode. Just two people in a conversation about something that matters.
Connection first. Not as a tactic but as a truth. From truth, if you’re willing to be found, communion. From communion, if you’re both ready, collaboration. That’s the sequence. There isn’t another one.
Amen. Too many words but Amen.