ABSTRACT
Success comes after real work, real life, real grief, real mistakes, and real love. A person simply can't find true success without first surviving the devastation of real failure. Here's a secret the author has learned in 20 years as a screenwriter: Failure is constant, for everyone. And the author means it. Everybody fails at this all the time. Not just screenwriters, but the author thinks anyone who tries to illuminate the human experience in an authentic way. There's another thing about success that a person probably intuitively knows: It often comes with a price. There are lost friendships, lost working relationships, and lost marriages. There is competition, backstabbing, undermining, and bullying. There are the inherent threats that money and respect bring—addiction, greed, fame, and a loss of privacy. The opportunity to work with legends, to create art with people a person admires, to be a part of something bigger than them.
