Why Your Career is like a Movie

Some people do too much creative stuff and other people don't. Most business executives don't and most liberal arts grads do. Being both at various times, an executive and a liberal arts grad, I decided I wasn't doing enough creative stuff so I went to a seminar on screenwriting.

The guy giving the seminar was James V. Hart who actually has been successful at it. And he is a Fort Worth boy so all the better. His credits include Hook, A Muppet's Treasure Island and Bram Stocker's Dracula. Liked Hook, love anything with the Muppets and kind of sat through Dracula.

But Hart knows his business and he knows his crowd. The group of 100 included a lot of middle aged women who drive Volvos, a gathering of about 15 teen age boys that want to write anything a lot darker than Spider Man, and a fair number of Nora Ephron wannabees. Offsetting the middle age women were a fair number of teen age girls that we used to consider 'artistic' in high school.

Not sure where I fit in but probably didn't so no loss. But like I said Hart knew his crowd and his business so he started out with what the 'crowd' wanted to hear--why do people go to the movies? Escape, inspiration, adventure and on and on. What do you dream about? This really unlocked the box, had to put my fingers in my ears a couple of times. Flying--since he wrote Hook-is pretty big in his world.

That, interspersed with some inside stories about Robin William, Francis Ford Coppola, and Steven Spielberg, had the crowd in the palm of his hand. Which was good because after lunch he was going to lose them and he knew it. Because that is when the work started.

Because screenwriting (and most things in life) from what I have seen and from what Hart said is hard work, it is structure. But these people on Saturday and people that want to accomplish things in life but don't want to think about structure. They just want to be famous. Or lucky and become famous which leads us to golfer Gary Player who said "The harder I work, the luckier I get."

But first, some facts about screenwriting and movies that will explain the discussion on structure--

A screenplay is to be no more or less than 120 pages,

That is because a movie, the average movie, is about 2 hours long,

Thus a movie is 120 minutes long and movie making shorthand says each page of a script should equal one minute on the screen thus the 120 pages,

A movie is made up of three acts like a play--the first act is 30 pages, the second act is 60 pages and the last act is 30 pages of script.

So that is the structure of a movie. Now we adapt this process to your career and your abilities to problem solve.

Again, Hart made a good attempt at telling the audience of screenwriting wannabees that 'structure is easy'. He likened it to changing a tire which is pretty hard if you've ever had to do it.

What is hard about it (screenwriting, not changing a tire) is the merger of the creative and the flatness, lifeless thing that is the script. But you can't have one without the other. Which also makes work so frustrating because the flat, lifeless details keep getting in the way. The best executives I ever saw were the people that could grasp a concept and see that concept through to reality by 'connecting the dots' and making sure the little things got done.

A movie is such a thing. So if you go to the movies just to be entertained, quit reading. If you want to know how a movie moves its story along, here are the 'signposts' as Hart called them.

1) Set the world. The viewer has to know where they are. In 'Saving Private Ryan' it didn't take long to figure out that it was not going to be a fun day storming the beach. (If you want to read a horrible script, check out 'Saving Private Ryan.' To see scripts for free just Google 'screenplays' and a bunch of sites pop up.)

But setting the world is important as many people don't know what their role in an organization is or how they can contribute. One executive that I felt was great was a master at setting the world--he would grab a marketing guy, a finance guy being me, an operations guy and we would visit a subsidiary. We would sit in a room and review the plan for the coming year. None of 'the finance guys talk to the finance guys and the marketing guys talk to the marketing guys'--we all sat in the room together and molded a plan, a world , that worked for everybody.

Setting the world is 5% of the movie, or about 6 minutes of film.

2) The next step in a movie is The First Opportunity. The First Opportunity for what? To put the plan or project into action. In the 'Wedding Crashers' the first opportunity is the season of weddings. The two heroes, or scoundrels, look at the calendar and know it is May--spring training time for wedding crashers.

In careers most people wait for the First Opportunity to find them. It doesn't happen, you have to go look for the opportunity. In any organization, there are centers of activity that other people want to get into or think they want to get into. Look around and try to find the opportunity. Look at what other people do and see if you can help or even want to do that. Successful executives have a lot of different jobs--they cultivate first opportunities.

3) Second Opportunity--one down, one to go. Most people stop trying when they get the First Opportunity or when the First Opportunity blows up in their face. Getting things done is an ongoing process which sounds pretty self evident but most people flat out quit. The second opportunity in 'Little Miss Sunshine' comes after the call from the beauty pageant AND when the father agrees to drive to California. The drive is the second opportunity. The second opportunity in business is convincing bosses up the line that you can do the job, again and again. The second opportunity is an ongoing process.

The fourth signpost is The Visible Tangible Goal. You set the world, you bounced off a few walls looking for opportunity, you've learned a lot and now you determine the Visible Tangible Goal. This is no different from your career and something most people never figure out. They never determine their goal in a job. They just do their job, they think. Figure out the goal--it makes the little stuff easier to tolerate and gives meaning to getting up in the morning.

In a movie script that is page 30, thirty minutes into the movie--the end of Act 1. In a career it should be the first year or two.

Getting through Act I is easy. Most movies can hold your attention for 30 minutes but then the tough sledding starts. Act II is sixty pages or sixty minutes on the screen. Act II in careers is usually the twenty years between the first five years of your career and the last ten when you're going down hill.

Act II in a project at work is also the hard part when you are trying to get the stupid thing off the ground.

So think of your career or work project as Act II. It is where people lose interest and lose their way unless you pay attention.

The most interesting thing James Hart said at the screenwriting seminar (at least the most interesting to me) was that most screenwriters don't think Act II even needs to be there so they try to get through it as quick as possible. Whether it is a screenplay, career or project at work; Act II is the long desert to be crossed.

The four parts are

1) Progress and then setback,

2) Top of the mountain where one has a glimpse of success,

3) Point of no return, followed closely by

4) The plan falls apart.

And all this takes 60 pages. Or most of the time you have to finish a project. Or the middle section of your career.

As with any struggle, the secret to winning the stuggle is to confront the parts, break them down into manageable bits and keep failures to a minimum.

Shakespeare said (this is getting a bit deep when I quote Shakespeare) that all of life is but a stage. We may not be action heroes but the movies do give clues and examples of success in life--rent Wedding Crashers as an example.

Act III has only three parts. Act III in a project has only three parts as well, as does a career.

The three parts according to Jame V. Hart, and I'll take his word for it, are--

1) The Resurrection Opportunity

2) Conflict and Resolution

3) Finale

Probably the best example of a third act done well is The Wizard of Oz where everybody gets what they want. Another is the original Star Wars where Luke and Harrison Ford get their medals. For examples of bad endings (plus beginnings and middles) go to any Star Wars after the first one. The second one did have the Ewoks but that was about it.

Resurrection opportunities are big in business and do happen. One happened when Michael Dell kicked out the current CEO and took over himself. An even tougher Resurrection was Steven Jobs who had been fired as CEO and fought his way back in.

Resurrection is needed in most careers--if you're deadended, you better study your options before your boss does. Either become invaluable in your current job or start looking around.

Conflict and resolution is pretty straight forward--fight or roll over. The resolution will take care of itself.

The ending of any movie, project, career must have one outstanding aspect--it can be happy or sad but it must be fulfilling. In other words, don't go out in a whimper