A big part of the actor’s life hustle is being surrounded by others who are experiencing the journey right alongside you.

You’re going to hear a lot of outside noise of everyone else’s trajectory, their advice, woes of their shortcomings, success stories, and different methods to climb the ladder. A big lesson here is that while you’re all in this together, everyone is moving at different speeds, everyone is on a different path, and comparing your success to that of others can land you in a confused and unsatisfied place.

A recent article by our friends at BACKSTAGE highlights 5 reasons why tuning too much into the ongoings of other actors could be potentially detrimental to your progress. One of our favorite excerpts highlights the constraints of narrowing into personal accounts and losing sight of the big picture:

It can make you believe in a narrow existence and even narrower possibilities. The main problem of all this fear-based, actor-to-actor advice is seen in its trite quality: Nearly all of it is tired, overused, and markedly lacking courage. Listen for the fear. If you hear any fear in their advice, it’s probably not advice worth taking. Much of this advice believes in constraints and narrowness rather than a wide range of possibilities. For example, actors will say:

  • You can’t compete for major film and TV roles because you don’t have enough credits or the “right” credits.
  • You can’t be signed by a top-tier agent or manager if you’re not SAG-AFTRA.
  • Casting directors have the final say in casting.

Statements like these are false and serve only to prevent you from getting anywhere in this business. 

Read the rest of the article to find out more. Remember – it’s all about the journey, and it varies for everyone! Influence is all relative. Use good judgment and keep your eye on the horizon.