Moments of Conception 194: The Voice Scene from Field of Dreams

December 02, 2015 2:55 PM

All creativity begins with the moment of conception.

That little piece of kindling that gets the fire going. That initial source of inspiration that takes on a life of its own. That single note from which the entire symphony grows. That single spark of life that signals an idea’s movement value, almost screaming to us, something wants to be built here.

Based on my books in The Prolific Series, I’m going to be deconstructing my favorite moments of conception from popular movies. Each post will contain a video clip from a different film, along with a series of lessons we can learn from the characters.

Today’s clip comes from the voice scene from Field of Dreams:

When you make anything, you compete with everything. It used to be so simple. Create something worth
talking about, and people will talk about it. If you build it, they will come.
Piece of cake. I almost laugh at the number of times the story about my nametag went viral. I barely had to lift a finger. Because in
the beginning of the digital revolution, news outlets and publications and
other media properties didn’t perceive an interesting story as something that
competed with their own content. I was never a threat to their business model.
So they gave me tons of ink. Fast forward to today, now everyone runs their own
media company. Everyone is an artist, everyone is publisher, and everyone is in
the ears and eyeballs business. Everyone. Attention has become the most scarce
commodity on the planet, and we’re all vying for it. And the scary part is,
since anybody can create anything for nothing, everybody is competing with
everyone, from everywhere, for everything. The age of compartmentalized
competition is over. The primary currency is keeping the audience’s eyes glued
to the screen. Anything that diverts that precious attention is the enemy. This
bothers me. Every time I launch a new project, I can’t help but think I’m just
throwing another frisbee out the window. Because most people are just not
paying attention. I suppose, then, the answer is to go where the door is
already open. To feed those who are already paying attention so that they will spread
the word for me. It’s horizontal marketing. Side to side, person to person, not
top down. Do you have a
tribe or a group you think you’re marketing to?

Nobody wants hear stories about trouble in paradise.My favoriteauthorhas a great passage about dreams. He writes about
blinking in disbelief, feeling the first rush of euphoria that comes with the
knowledge that life is granting you the grace of a dream realized. It’s divine
experience. Unfortunately, life has a way of taking those fleeting moments of
excitement, those ephemeral senses of wonder, those brilliant flashes of
satisfaction, and replacing them with something called reality. Ugh. Because
once your dream comes true, not only do you have to learn to live with it, you
also have to learn to deal with people who resent you for having and following it.
I have a friend whose lifelong ambition was to relocate to the city of love and
light. Paris.But when she finally
stepped into her dream, she quickly learned that the fantasy of moving there
was vastly different than the reality of living there. Turns out, as romantic
and artistic and beautiful as the city was, it could also be lonely and
isolating and hard to meet people. And to make matters more difficult, she
couldn’t complain about that struggle with anybody. Because her friends and
family weren’t interested hearing the downside of her dream. What the hell. Why
is it that the moment life exceeds your wildest dreams, a knife appears at your
back? Sounds like a country song to me. Dolly Parton said it best herself.
Don’t ask me how I feel about dreaming unless you really have time to listen. Who feels disenfranchised by your dream?

Make use of everything you are. In order to feel fully expressed, to feel that I’m
creating the most value in the world, I constantly ask myself a few questions.
Are there are hidden gifts and talents that deserve a more prominent place in
my life? What personal skills have I not yet tapped into to improve people’s
lives? And might there be unique strategies for contributing to the world that
I have not yet taken advantage of? The answer is always yes. Because on the
mixing console of life, there are always more tracks available than we realize.
But it’s up to us to plug them in. It’s up to us to listen for the whitespace,
consider our ever growing set of assets and imagine what else is there for us
to bring. I once came across a job application for a consulting company. The
agency evaluated candidates on something called a skills maturity matrix.
Pretty inspiring stuff. But when I read their framework, a switch turned on
inside my head.Oh my god.Somebody
else actually has a name for what I’ve been trying to explain. Are these people
psychic? Because under the category calledcounsel,
the framework literally listed every skill I was good at, but wasn’t currently
taking advantage of. Providing feedback that inspires action. Contributing to
the growth of every person connected to you. Offering meaningful, off the cuff
advisement to people. Unearthing valuable new opportunities in the midst of a
conversation. Providing counsel that has an impact.Wow. It’s like they printed my resume for me. That matrix described
my skills perfectly. It gave me clarity and encouragement around my value as a
professional. It helped me understood which tracks on my mixing console needed
to have their levels raised. And it
inspired me to relaunch mymentoring
program.Are you making use of everything you are?