161. SHONDA RHIMES: A screenwriter’s advice
Shonda Rhimes is a screenwriter, director and television producer. She is the creator and showrunner of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, and executive producer of the new drama How To Get Away With Murder.
This quote is from the commencement speech Rhimes gave at her alma mater Dartmouth earlier this year. I highly recommend you listen to the entire talk for more of her no-nonsense advice. Credit to the always-enlightening Brain Pickings for bringing it to my attention.
Positive quotes and mantras are obviously extremely popular at the moment (and duh, I’ve managed to build a whole website around them) but I try very hard to not just blindly preach the ‘follow your dreams’ rhetoric. As Rhimes puts so well, behind the decision to follow your bliss lies years of hard work, sacrifice, grit and determination. Talking about it accomplishes nothing.
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Discussion (113) ¬
I really like this one. But I think the dream is important too. The dream is what fuels the doing. Dreaming without doing results in never getting anything done, but doing without dreaming is just senseless busywork.
I agree with ya, Erik, but I think this comic (and speech) is simply focusing on the side that only dreams. It’s clear the lady working hard in the comic also has dreams.
I agree with both. The best thing is to have a dream or a vision and to work hard for it… but not so hard that you die for stress, anxiety or depression, maybe: there is a balance and a right measure in everything.
Eric, You just can’t dream and do nothing about it…..Months before i had an idea and trust me i am still working my bottom off to make it better so it should be useful and it isn’t just about my glory. Dreaming is great but Only Dreaming does not get you anywhere but regretting.
I say, dreaming is only half the battle. If we act on it, that’s when the battle is won.
Love this. I love that you included ‘zen pencils’ among the books that the dreamers are reading. Nice touch 😉
Great touch as it also challenges the readers of zen pencils to not be just dreamers.
Woo! I’m finally caught up through the archives, and it felt like such a long wait between the last comic and this one, but was totally worth it. I probably needed to read this more than anything else right now. I’ve been insanely guilty of “I’m gonna get around to it soon” the last few years. Far more than at any other point in my life. The years keep moving forward, but I’ve been failing to progress with them. Time to change that. Time to start a new band, eat cleaner, drink less, and get what I want out of life by making it happen.
Thanks for the inspiration, Gav!
This one hit home.
As Edison(?) put it: “Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.”
In an era that celebrates thinking big rather than “doing big,” this is important to remember. It states the obvious, but it’s an obvious we could all do with being reminded of from time to time.
Thanks – this was a great pick!
It’s strange how those who encourage big dreams keep forgetting to mention the hard work.
Unfortunately, the hard work part doesn’t sell books. And sadly, a tremendous number of people don’t want to work hard in ways that change them – because that’s a big part of the secret. It’s not that nobody wants to work. Many of the dreamers are energetic. They WOULD work at something. It’s not simply that most people are “too lazy” to get anything done.
But the deeper secret is that truly becoming someone who achieves an ambition changes you. It involves discarding illusions, accepting new truths, altering your perspective. In a culture that is often unreflective, that isn’t something people are taught about. People are, in general, told that they simply are one thing, born as they are, unchanging. The thing about dreams by themselves is that they reassure. They let someone imagine they can have many things while remaining just as they are and that’s comforting.
But in the end, progress means change. Most people don’t want to change, it’s uncomfortable and strange, and those who write books know they’ve got to appeal to the widest audience possible. That means not talking about genuinely uncomfortable things. It means not rocking the boat for popular culture.
First, that dog is awesome.
Second, I love this on all levels. It isn’t just about dreaming though; it parallels well with whining about things too. Do something about it instead of just talking about it!
I’m glad you went out and made Zen Pencils instead of just dreaming about it!
Hi Gav,
Great work as always. Been a fan for a while, this comic sounds a bit autobiographical 🙂 But I so agree, I’ve been both of these people in this comic and it’s so easy to dream dream dream, without putting in the work work work.
Nice!
Many times a person need words to help you, motivate you and drive to realize your dreams. Obviously, you have to work to realize your dreams. She said: “…I think that’s crap…”
I disagree with what Shonda Rhimes said. I didn’t like at all.
As I understand, for her, much of the content of Zen Pencils is totally crap. And it isn’t. I’m sorry but I don’t like this quote. Little things add up for a person to get closer to fulfilling his dreams. Your drawings are awesome, but the quote… I don’t like it entirely. It sounds like mildly crap.
Hi Gav,
I am silent spectator of your site for many months now. But, this one – I cannot help but writing something about it. This is exactly what I am going through now. Zen pencils have given me new perspectives about thrashing the cozy “dreaming” part and get to work ASAP. I am not sure whether I will ever be successful and achieve what I dream, but Zen pencils have made me believe that at least I need to try. I owe you big Gav!
Salini
Cute. The dog crapping. 🙂
With features of Tintin’s dog.
Request: please do feature Dogmatix (of Asterix comics) too sometime, if you get another opportunity.
Gav, U nailed it, Exactly there are many people talking about their dream rather than working towards it. To achieve ur dream U have to sacrifice many things- partying – clubbing – and all to just concentrate and focus on ur Ultimate Dream………
rather Than just talking about it……
Thanks
I would love this to be a poster on my wall. It really hit me, and I would love to be reminded by this in my room whenever I see it.
Wow, Gavin! As a die-hard fan of Shonda Rhimes and a regular visitor to Shondaland, you made my day! You keep getting better & better day by day!
I agree with the first few comments in that you do need both but what I have taken away from this is that it should be about 20% dreaming and 80% work, and just dream when you are not working, not the other way around.
But it’s not about working for workings sake, theres no point in saying you’ve worked 7 days this week if you are not much further forward than at the start of the week, it has to be towards a goal … a dream.
‘Dream’ is just another word for result, so ther’s nothing wrong in figuring out what your result is and how you are going to get there.
Great one Gav.
I’m glad that you’ve made one for Shonda Rhimes – one of my favorite lady screenwriters! Will put this one next to Amy Poehler.
Hope you make one for Tina Fey, Mindy Kaling and Aaron Sorkin! (Not a lady screenwriter, but a fave nonetheless.)
Keep on inspirong!
So very true. Dreams are great but actions are what make the dreams come true.
Very nice! Just what I need. Love your work man! 🙂
I usually read comments on your comics which always start with “this one totally resonates with me” and I always feel like that’s a corny thing to say. But this comic really resonated with me Gav!
It’s all wordplay really. Dreams are important too. You don’t wanna be someone who has no dreams. And you do need to dream big too. I used to be someone who was scared of dreaming. I was stuck in the ‘normal’ life. Trying to just get by. Survive. Exist. Till I die.
At that time I needed the inspiration to dream. But now I’ve quit my job and I’m chasing my dream of being a writer. And after almost 3 years, I’ve come a long way but I’ve reached a kind of level from where I need to stop dreaming too much and start working harder. Now I needed this exact comic. I have a dream. I need to stop daydreaming about it and start doing it. Start living the dream.
Thanks for the great comic!
I have read each and every one of your pieces of art at zen pencils. And may I say, you keep getting better with time. This one’s one of the best till date! My other favourite one is Invictus with Nelson Mandela ????
Those were !!* :p
Wow.
I’ve never understood the necessity of these quotes. Are there actually people who think they can want something hard enough and magically get it? Everyone I know either has no grand ambition (which is fine, there’s nothing wrong with wanting a small, happy life) or are working hard towards their goals. Days when I can’t take a step forward towards my goals make me depressed and frustrated. I have never met a sit-around-and-talk-about-dreams kind of person. Are they real?
Judging by the popularity of crap like The Secret and the law of attraction, yes. Way too many motivational speakers and books focus on the dream part, not the doing part.
Yes. In a sense I am one of them. I realize that I will never magically become a best selling, well paid author/writer. My problem has been waiting for “one day” to have enough time/inspiration/energy to work on my dreams. But I have a hard time working towards it. There are student loans and medical bills to pay off. I got stuck in a number of low paying, dead end jobs that required long days of work and left me with little energy to work towards my dreams. There were years when I had to decide between following my dreams and surviving. Then there was the time when the hard work and dedication left me with my dreams crumbled around my feet because I got screwed over (no nicer way to say it) twice. This left me questioning, confused and scared. Add to that the semi-crippling Depression and Anxiety and yeah, I did spend a lot of time looking for inspirational quotes like the ones at the top of this panel.
But this isn’t about people who’ve been beaten down. This is about people who haven’t tried.
Haha, that’s a funny one! My first reaction was:
– NO, THIS IS WRONG! We need those Inspirational and Self-help books and seminars. Creatives DO get stuck, Genius does get dull and tired, everyone needs a reset, restart, renewal.
-But yeah, there are people who get stuck in the ‘dreamland’ and refuse to hear anything about work or effort.
-And then, there are people who don’t even care about all this. So I guess, it’s up to each one of us to decide who we want to be.
I totally agree with this comment.
I’ve become frustrated with myself as I’ve come to realize that the big dreams, the ideas, are by far the easy part.
Done some Russian translation for that:
http://blog.wtigga.com/zenpencils-161/
Thank you extremely much for inspiration!
This is totally my favourite one. Is it in the store or download-able yet?
Thanks, DanC
I’d really like this to be in poster form so I can get a copy!!!
I liked the way you drew “T” as a dagger in Back Stab. 🙂
I have some very important thoughts to share. Hope you don’t mind.
People have a strange tendency to undermine something that they don’t understand. I have seen many people making fun of the “dreaming” or “thinking” and claiming that “hard work” is what makes you successful.
Then tell me something, why so many hard working people in the world aren’t successful? The illustration showed a bunch of people who went to the Motivational seminar and did nothing and obviously became nothing. But a person who just kept working hard, kept publishing her novels one after another.
But what about those screen writers who keep working hard all their lives and never succeed? Look around you Maddy. Why the most hardworking class of people are least paid and most frustrated ?
I am not saying that successful people don’t work hard, my point is many non-successful people work harder than them. Then how can you attribute “hard work” as the recipe of for success?
“Follow your dreams” – > When you are at a crossroad of life, you need to dare to follow your dream. If you don’t, not matter how hard you work, the success won’t taste sweet.
“Listen to your spirit” – > Everyone of us faces situations in life, where our knowledge or hardwork fails to show us direction, but if we can listen to our spirit, we’ll walk towards the path that will either take us to success or teach us some lesson.
“Change the World” – > Check the most successful people in the world. They did change the world in someway or another, on the way to their personal success.
“Make your mark” – > It’s not about being known to everyone in the world or being popular. It’s about doing something for some people or atleast someone that doesn’t die with you. And that gives an immense satisfaction beyond any material success.
“Find your inner voice and make it sing” – > You can be good in whatever you do through hard work. But to be world class, to be phenomenal … you need to be on the path where your inner voice led you to.
“Embrace failure” – > Imagine a person with a dream to be an Entrepreneur or artist fails to make money in first few years. Not knowing the importance of embracing failure, they turn to a Govt. job and kept working hard all their lives and kept getting secure monthly salary. Will you call it success?
“Dream and dream big” – > Why dream big? When we dream big, we push our boundaries and reach upto our fullest potential. There is nothing wrong being an Engineer, but if I settled for that then I couldn’t have learned so many lessons in life or couldn’t have met so many amazing people that I could because of my dream of being an Entrepreneur (even when most people haven’t heard the term where I live).
… so these are not just words, but important life lessons that are as much important as hard work.
‘Dreaming’ , ‘Positive thinking’ or ‘law of attraction’ these concepts are often misunderstood and underestimated. Actually understanding and practicing science of mind takes more time and effort than understanding and practicing hard work. That’s why many people avoid the path of mind. But if you study the lives of successful people from different field, you’ll see that their “way of thinking” or “the mindset” that made them apart from the rest. Some of them attributed their success to the power of thoughts, but rest didn’t as it came so naturally to them that they think it’s a common quality for everyone.
Dreaming is not wishful thinking. It’s a creative visualization process. Imagining things as you want to be in as vivid manner as possible. And not just imagining, experiencing the ‘feeling’ associates with it. And when you direct your thoughts and feelings towards something deliberately, you start attracting people and circumstances that are of same vibration. You are shown ways, given tools … then comes the role of hard work. And if you really have a dream, you can’t resist yourself from working for it. Neither the work will ever seem ‘hard’ for you.
Take any example. Say J. K. Rowling … she worked hard once she had the idea of the Harry Potter story in her mind. Worked hard for years, overcame all challenges. But where did the idea of the story come, the idea that made her first novel a Global phenomenon? If you listen to her interviews, she always wanted to be a writer. She had no idea about “how” but had a fierce willingness to be a writer. And she is a dreamer that is obvious from her writing. And she attracted the life experiences (even bitter ones) that gave her the idea of the story suddenly one day while travelling. And she listened to her instinct and followed her inner voice, did everything she could to bring that story to the world.
Take some time to read Think and Grow Rich book (pick the 21st Century Edition) . You’ll better understand what I am trying to say.
Try it for yourself. Study and implement science of mind, and then work as hard as your are working right now. See the difference.
*** Sorry for so long comment ***
Poster… Poster… Poster… (Just trying to start a chant going, please don’t make me print it out on my old Canon @ A4 size 😛 )
Why is it always, that when people from the western world try to “PROVE A POINT” they always use extremes? Here we have one side that doesn’t do anything… at all, and the other side that busts her butt. If one understands the concept of life as a force, one knows that there is nothing to really want that much. The woman with the movie series may be so much more unhappy than her two friends (in any case). In the end, what you do doesn’t really matter to anyone but you – you might do nothing and be content. The material world is one of deception, and while we are given the freedom to act through it as we will, it is best that we don’t take it that seriously.
I like this and I don’t like this. Don’t get me wrong, the art is fantastic, as always. But I know kids who have their dreams beaten out of them. In America everyone is talking about doing, do this, do that, and if you’re not doing, well, what are you doing? Don’t dream! That’s a waste of time, don’t reflect, don’t question, don’t revolutionize, just work within the system to create positive enough changes that let you sleep at night. This is what we’re feeding children. We teach them methods, and we teach them to apply them, but we don’t teach them to question, to dream up another one. Einstein said his imagination, his dreaming, was more important than everything else he knew how to do, and I guarantee you he changed the world more. He changed the entire paradigm of physics- by dreaming. Yes, he did hard work, but he had to dream first. Dreaming is the necessary condition for realizing fantastic new ideas- because you have to have them first, you see, the ideas I mean. I think we have to make sure that we’re inspiring the right things in the right ways and for the right reasons.
I know what you mean, but i think it has to be a bit of both. Too many people seem to think of themselves as writers and artists but then never actually sit down and get to work on it.
I had similar pains in my old karate class. There they only taught the techniques of karate and how to fight other karate practitioners. At no point in my seven years there did there ever seem to expand the curriculum to think outside of karate. Then, when i started to try applying other styles to incorporate them into my own fighting repertoire (such as kicks from Taekwondo and movements from boxing) rather than being acknowledge they actually told me to cut that shit out, even when the techniques were effective. And when i tried to create variations of moves taken from karate, they just viewed it as improper technique. They didn’t let me try anything new within the class and any attempts at doing so were basically ignored or just seen as wrong.
However, i do still believe you do need to be taught/teach the current methods of your particular discipline and teach them how to apply these methods because relying on skills and methods we’ve already designed will allow you to get become skilled at something quicker than if you started off completely from scratch. You need to teach the methods and how to apply them, but you still need to give the freedom for the person to take that information and change it based on their own imagination.
And it’s not like this isn’t happening. Music and art and comics constantly mutate and become something different with each generation. Sure a lot of crap gets made and a lot of the same standardised stuff gets churned up by big companies but we still get unique stuff coming out all the time. The problem is those people who become trapped in their creative pursuits because others force them down particular paths, or they get stuck with a problem that they don’t know how to get out of and before they know it they’re stuck in an admin job that they hate.
But on top of all that, people need to know that if they spend all their time just sitting round with their head in the clouds then none of the brilliant things that go through their imagination will ever wind up where others can see them and that would be a great loss. It needs to be both hard work and dreaming. You can’t get away with just one.
ahhhhhhh i want to buy this for my girlfriend so badly
Is it wrong to just let someone get lost in their dreams like this? My girlfriend tends to be the dreamer while I’m more of the doer and it frustrates the crap out of me at times. She’s talking about ideas for her stories all the time and goes into great detail about them but she’s been literally talking about them for years now and seems to have gotten no further than writing a few pages for any of them.
I’ve asked her about it and her response has been that she believes she should only write whenever she’s really in the mood, which i suppose is fair enough. The problem is that the urge only seems to hit her once every couple of months and then dissipates after about half an hour. In comparison i focus on creative endevours for two hours every day. She then gets annoyed at me when i try to talk about the things I’ve written/drawn because it seems like I’m boasting. I guess in the end it’s her choice, but it still feels like she’s wasting her talent.
I never knew I was a hippie! I have vision boards for my career, love life and more. But I whole heartedly believe in dreams + focused action + timing = success. And timing also matters – timing is where preparation meets opportunity. I’m no flake and currently live like a hermit to write and create my career:) Cheers to all creatives who struggle and persevere!
Brilliant work Gav!
Indeed, the text remembered me an old book from my scholar stage: “Life Is A Dream” by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, a spanish poet from the 17th century.
The most emblematic part of the book is the “Segimundo’s monologue” (final part, Act I). This is the full translated text:
“We live, while we see the sun,
Where life and dreams are as one;
And living has taught me this,
Man dreams the life that is his,
Until his living is done.
The king dreams he is king, and he lives
In the deceit of a king,
Commanding and governing;
And all the praise he receives
Is written in wind, and leaves
A little dust on the way
When death ends all with a breath.
Where then is the gain of a throne,
That shall perish and not be known
In the other dream that is death?
Dreams the rich man of riches and fears,
The fears that his riches breed;
The poor man dreams of his need,
And all his sorrows and tears;
Dreams he that prospers with years,
Dreams he that feigns and foregoes,
Dreams he that rails on his foes;
And in all the world, I see,
Man dreams whatever he be,
And his own dream no man knows.
And I too dream and behold,
I dream I am bound with chains,
And I dreamed that these present pains
Were fortunate ways of old.
What is life? a tale that is told;
What is life? a frenzy extreme,
A shadow of things that seem;
And the greatest good is but small,
That all life is a dream to all,
And that dreams themselves are a dream.”
I have actually found that most people I have met with unconventional career dreams do often follow through. Or at least are in the process of working toward converting a dream into a real plan of action. Sure, there are people who do have vague notions of becoming ‘something’ but I often chalk it up as mere fantasy. I have similar fantasies too, y’know. It’s just that I’d like to think that at my advancing age, I now know the difference between actually ‘trying’ to become something and a Walter Mitty-esque daydream.
In short, people who have sorted out the difference between dreams, fantasies, and real, actual plans, may not really need this advice.
If anything, the greatest annoyance I have right now are for those who live outside of my world of whatever it is I’m trying to be. THEY are the ones who need a serious lesson in differentiating between real tangible plans of action and a vague notion.
For instance, a LOT of people, upon my informing them that “I’m making a documentary”, would try and give unsolicited advice that they so obviously just came up with on the spot. While we all could benefit from good advice, and sometimes good ideas are good ideas no matter where they originate, I must therefore listen to all of them, right? Sure, why not.
However, I am at that stage where I am ALREADY taking a plan of action. Normally, suggestions and unsolicited advice are great, but for some reason, the people who give me these tend to really genuinely expect me to drop everything I have, derail my own plans, and pursue their idea. Seriously! I’ve met so many people like this, it makes me want to go on a killing spree.
Like I said, it’s great to be given a lead, to be introduced to people who could actually help me in furthering the story, to be given the specific information I am actually looking for.. etc… these are suggestions and advice that I truly like and appreciate.
On the other hand, there are people out there who really seem to have it in their heads that the path to filmmaking, the path to writing, the path to music, to great art, is just the idea itself. That once you have an idea, that everything will be ok. Everything is done for you.
Well screw them.
An idea needs to be matured in the form of research and trial and error. The good ones need to be sorted from the stupid ones. The doable ones from the pie and the sky ones. And the ones that ‘need doing now’ to the ones that need to be filed away for future reference.
It takes real work to make art…. and a LOT of people just don’t get that.
I wrote: “That once you have an idea, that everything will be ok. Everything is done for you.”
To that, I would like to add: “And that because THEY are giving you their idea, that you SHOULD be thankful.”
Nice work Gav!! Keep up the good work 🙂 hope to see this on the store. :))
My friend referred me to your page and this is totally awesome! loving your work 🙂
Some commentators may take the quote to mean more than it does. It’s not slagging on the idea of creative visualization or the basic concept of dreaming. It’s understandable, in a western society that is frequently anti-intellectual, that one might assume the quote goes too far, and speaks out against the world of the mind.
No, the advice is much more focused than that. It really is a simple truth – that talking about doing things doesn’t get them done by itself. And there’s an industry predicated on talking to people about doing great things, but it’s only concerned with making money off the hopefuls. The screenwriter in this comic obviously had “dreams”. She had an idea, she is a creative type. She just doesn’t fall for the scam of the self-help guru and funnels her dream and creativity into forward action. And the “hard work” part. That it takes a long time, a lot of work, to realize a great dream.
Perhaps the mantra should be ‘Do Your Dreams’ rather than ‘Follow …
It’s good to ‘dream’, that’s when alternative options come to mind rather than blindly following the ‘norm’ or the pack.
But yeah, gotta back those dreams up with a lot of hard work 🙂
I usually like these comics but this is pretty fucking condescending.
Unfortunately not everyone gets to be an astronaut though. Most don’t even get the opportunity.
You know what most people who are successful don’t want to admit? There’s a healthy amount of just plain luck involved.
Loved the way how you have distributed the panels. The ‘Big’ dreamers get maximum space while the ‘solitary’ doer silently does her work by sitting at one corner. Sheer brilliance! 🙂 🙂
I love the little details – such as the change from writing on paper to writing on a computer as well as the way the computer changes – just that conveys the passage of time and effort that is involved in creating something.
This is beautiful, thank you 🙂
It is important to dream, but it is equally important to wake up and work to turn them into reality. However, it is on you to differentiate between realistic and unrealistic dreams.
“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” –Henry David Thoreau
I am the author of 10 books and I have been doing vision boards for over 20 years. I dream big and I do big. BOTH are good –.
Reminds me quite a bit of a Terry Pratchett quote:
“If you trust in yourself. . .and believe in your dreams. . .and follow your star. . . you’ll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren’t so lazy.”
I am a firm believer in the glory of hard work. However, this quote downplays the value of dreams. True, a person with dreams but no work ethic accomplishes nothing but a person with work ethic but no dreams is not successful and whittles their life away on nonsense. The ideal (as so many others said before me) is to possess both. My concern however is that there seems to be no respect for those who possess only one of these skills. Those who work hard but have no goals need guidance and someone to direct them. Someone who has dreams but finds work to be tiresome and counter to their dreaming needs someone to bring their ideas to fruition. There exist many industries where these two individuals work together. It is a waste of time to ask the hard worker (the theoretical extreme with no dreams) to take a break to ponder new ideas when he would be far more productive to the company/world if he just kept working. It is a waste of time to ask the dreamer to sweat the minutia and do things themselves because they would miss out on pondering the next big thing. Both people may be happy because they are not being asked to work outside their comfort zone AND they together are more productive than an individual dreamer-worker would be. Imagine a company run by an imaginative child and staffed by hard working engineers. The child will dream of things that can’t be done and the doers will DO IT because that is what they excel at. Of course no one is a pure dreamer or pure worker and everyone falls in between but do not underestimate the value of those who don’t want to work a day in their lives. Rather give them the resources they need to turn their dreams into a reality.
You touched on something in your last sentence that I want to take a step further. One key thing that all of these inspirational comics generally lack is any mention of outside resources. That’s a massive problem for most people’s ability to follow their dreams. Some people simply don’t have the safety nets available to them for when they may fail. A person may have a high work ethic and fantastic dreams, but if he or she doesn’t have necessary capital, outside labor, or connections to get a task done, that person is going to struggle. There are lots of people who don’t get anywhere because they just don’t have the resources available to them to succeed, financial or otherwise.
nice topic
“It’s hard work that creates change.”
Nope. This world does not work that way. If you are, say, chinese rice farmer, all hard work you may muster during your whole life will not change a thing.
What truly creates change is deep understanding of system in which you want enact this change and tools and methods that you are going to use to affect this system. Your actions must be efficient, not hard.
And of course you need luck. A lot of it.
I tend to agree! Dreams are “nice” but you have to reach past the “dream and wish stage” to make things happen. And that means actually DOING STUFF (right or wrong) which unlike dreams, requires CONSISTENCY and PERSISTENCE.
PERSISTENCE PAYS OFF!
I read a quote once that said, “A goal without a plan is nothing but a daydream.”
I am an Artist and Photographer and for me dreams are very important. Its a purposeful dream that is an expression of who and what I want to become.
Everyday when I wakeup I look forward to making my dream a reality, one step at a time, one day at a time. It takes passion, dedication, effort and courage to chart your own destiny. My dream is the roadmap, the journey and the vision that defines what I should do and how I should do it. The outcome is the consequence.
I dream of a beautiful outcome.
seeing or hearing quotations about “make your dreams come true” … I always wonder if nobody thinks of nightmares. Well, perhaps it is closer related for speakers of German – as Alptraum (nightmare) includes Traum (dream).
Came about your web-site just this night. Being a big fan of comics and being somewhat alert to anything “zen” as an old friend of mine is studying and practizing zen and has a rather de-mystifying attitude to it.
BTW, loved that Gaiman quotation about making mistakes. Am a long time fan of Gaiman and above all of Dave McKean, absolutely awesome.
Wish you best success with your web-site and your book and everything. Jumping into the abyss sometimes works out great and sometimes results in a belly flop on hard ground. But even then no need to become bitter – taking risks includes the knowledge that one can win or lose. Beyond hard work there are still the conditions and circumstances of the specific context.
THANKS BROO
mantab broo
Everyday when I wakeup I look forward to making my dream a reality, one step at a time, one day at a time. It takes passion, dedication, effort and courage to chart your own destiny.
I am little bit confused…
good poster. Well done human Rights.
Hi gav, I would suggest to make this poster printed on T.shirt, I would be the first buyer!!!!!
Thank you for continuing to share your talents in a loving, honest, and enriching way with the world.
mantab broo
THANKS BROO
seeing or hearing quotations about “make your dreams come true” … I always wonder if nobody thinks of nightmares. Well, perhaps it is closer related for speakers of German – as Alptraum (nightmare) includes Traum (dream).
I read a quote once that said, “A goal without a plan is nothing but a daydream.”
Wahh very interesting story and a very nice post, thanks
Those two seem much happier than the achieving one.
I throughly enjoyed this, I have to admit I’m a dreamer. Just like how everyone else in this world imagines how they want their life to look like in the future, so do I. I have huge crazy unimaginable plans and dreams for my future. So I get so aggravated when people discuss their plans and dreams and complain that nothing is going how they want. It’s because those people are not doing anything productive to make those dreams come true. Yes it is important to dream, but there is a fine line between dreaming and making them become reality. I agree with Shonda Rhimes, you can’t just wait for everything to come true. You gotta go do it yourself.
Came back to this comic because I needed that kick-in-the-butt again to get back to working it off ^_^
Gotta tell ya Gavin, the new site layout is reaaally cool, but I miss those tiny arrow buttons that allowed me to progress from one comic to the immediate next or previous without the use of the dropdown menu.
Please Please Please make this available as a poster.
I would buy a poster of this in heartbeat!
I think this was inspiring to me and at the write time when I want to be an author. I am ready to say I am an author. I get the message and the vision board I actually starting but also doing one for 2016. Sink or swim I will do it!
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I agree with Shonda Rhimes, you can’t just wait for everything to come true. You gotta go do it yourself.
Right at the center of my heart. And brain. Now I really want to do something. I mean, I’ve done things, but I fear hard work.
Thanks for this comic! (for all of them =) )
Regards!
Is this available for sale in poster form?
I love your comics, I don’t know how I got into them, but now I’m a huge fan! 😀
Keep it on!!
Greetings from a mexican living in the Netherlands spreading your work with other ppl! 😀
Good
I would love this to be a poster on my wall. It really hit me, and I would love to be reminded by this in my room whenever I see it.
Judging by the popularity of crap like The Secret and the law of attraction, yes. Way too many motivational speakers and books focus on the dream part, not the doing part.
If The Phone Doesn’t Ring, It’s Me.
I try to leave out the parts that people skip.
When you have brought up kids, there are memories you store directly in your tear ducts.
Thank you Gavin for your “SHONDA RHIMES: A screenwriter’s advice” comic post
http://vuelosdelalma.blogspot.com/2013/11/kampung-inggris-pare-kediri.html
Wow, Nice story
Stop chasing the money and start chasing the passion. Tony Hsieh
I love your comics, I don’t know how I got into them, but now I’m a huge fan! ?
When you have brought up kids, there are memories you store directly in your tear ducts.
I really like this one.
Follow your dreams! Really great one!
Why isn’t this a poster already?! I am soooo buying it. Please make this a poster!
Nice poster, i want to make ilustration like you…