There's Plenty Of Room At The Top

A very close friend told me this when I asked her about her success in life. Youngest exec at a massive company. And a woman.
It wasn't because she was a woman that she got the job, it's that when you meet her you know EXACTLY why she got the job.

For most of us in the film industry, we're a bunch of jackasses who speak in platitudes like the one above. None really digest the real meaning. I didn't. Until she told me it, and I finally listened.

What it means (in the context of our conversation)...no one does what is required to get to the top. It involves a lot of work, a lot of sacrifice, a lot of patience and doing what no one else is willing to do. In the case of working in this business, no one is willing to do what needs to be done. Instead, people make stupid mistakes based on what they want...NOW.
I worked with a model back in the early 2000's who continues to make the same dumb mistakes. Chances are, her mind is melted with the drugs she's done and she keeps going back to complete losers. She's isolated now...a bit mental and hard to talk to. I would not doubt she could share some really grim stories of her travels. But stories like hers are in the shadows, whereas Cindy Crawford stories seem to let people believe they can be that (by the way, after the modeling career, Cindy married wealth and disappeared).

When she told me there was plenty of room at the top, what she was really telling me was...the place at the top is what you make of it. I put it in context of Fortune 500 CEOs. What she was saying was the top is full of people who are ambitious driven and focused. She never mentioned the financial part. Only that sacrifice will put you there.

I go to work at 5 in the morning and continue to work when I get home. Are you willing to do that? (not to say I'm on top of the world, but I am at the top of my game). Are you willing to study hard, give up good times, work, sweat, invest, and push yourself to that top echelon. Then you will meet others who did the same...
...at the top.

The bottom is full. Because, look around, no one is willing to do that.
That should give you hope. Because if you are the ambitious type...you will get there.