A Quote by Sal Khan
My personal narrative - I was lucky early on in my career to have some really strong mentors. I didn't realize it at the time, but that's what really built me up.
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No matter what level you're starting at, it's about not only utilizing your time, but your resources and network. For me, I started my company with a small amount of savings; I never had investors and I was lucky in the sense that I had models and connections in the fashion industry who were willing to give me advice early on. So really, for anyone starting a new business, it's really important to seek out mentors and knowledge from those who have come before you. And to not let that be discouraging, but to take that advice and really learn from it and mold it to what you're trying to do.
I have so many mentors. I'm really lucky to be surrounded by incredible mentors, whether it be Solange Knowles or Gloria Steinem or Ava DuVernay, there are so many awesome people in my life, and so I'm lucky for them to kind of have fostered my identity as I grow into myself.
I've been really lucky to spend some time around actors and artists I really admire. One thing I gathered from asking a lot of questions is that part of this job and this life we've chosen is doing personal exploration in front of an audience. In a lot of ways, that's what art is: personal searching with people watching.
I'm really lucky. I never really felt like LA was the Mecca, that you "made it" if you made it somewhere else. I've been a journeyman actor for my whole career. I just sort of went where I was invited. I worked the early part of my career in Canada before I had the luxury of doing an American series, which brought me down to LA.
One thing that I've been doing for a long time is to wake up really early. I try to get up around 4 or 5 in the morning, long before most of my lab members are up, which gives me some quiet time to really think without distraction. I think that's important.
It was a lovely opportunity for the first time in my whole career to stand up and thank people who are really responsible for me getting to realize my dreams.
I'm really kind of boring - I'd rather go to bed early and get up early because I really value my time off, my time away from work.
When I had my daughter, I'd been chugging along in my career and had great mentors and success, but it was the first time it hit me that I really loved working and having that professional outlet.
I got involved in the Surrey Country youth theatre which led me to go to drama school where I realised that this was going to have to be my career, and I was really lucky to get big breaks early on.
There are some fabulous treasures of photos of me during the early days of my career; there are these pin-up photos that make me laugh: I look like the poor man's Maria Montez. But there are some I look at, and I didn't realize how sexy I looked back then.
I've certainly done some turkeys along the way and made some dumb choices in my career, mostly early on. I'm one of the lucky ones who got to make a lot of mistakes very early when no one was paying attention.
I was really lucky to have been raised in this really powerful matriarchy where my dad was around, but I was with my mom and my grandma most of the time. They were heavy influences on me. My mother has a career in technology; my grandma sold real estate.
My career has been very good to me, but really, the odds are really slim. It's a tough life, and you deal with a lot of rejection and unemployment, and if you're lucky to have a career, it's not easy. So you just want to protect your kids from the pain of rejection.
I'm in love with artists that are really difficult to cover or to copy. You can only try to copy them, but you will never succeed because it's intertwined with really personal references and really personal ways to exist on stage. They are really strong individuals, and are writing their own songs and know where they want to go.
Throughout my 20s I spent a lot of time just playing and not really working, but fortunately for me I continued to get just enough work, and have a reason to wake up in the morning. I really empathize with some of my peers who had success in the early years then it dries up, and so there's no reason to get up in the morning.
As an actor, you have to give up all control to the director. He's the boss and has all the power. I'm a control freak, so that's really hard for me. Then when you see a film later, it can be infuriating, really disappointing. I've been very lucky, though, and so many of my early experiences were great.
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