I am always looking for different sources of wisdom and inspiration concerning presentation, speaking, and storytelling, so this week I have been researching the classic 1941 movie "Citizen Kane." I watched one documentary about the film, then watched the film, then watched it again twice more with commentary turned on. It is truly a fascinating film even today, and it was certainly a pioneering film for its time (and a controversial one, which meant it did not get the huge audience until the 50s or 60s). While watching the documentary about Citizen Kane, it was an on-camera interview of Orson Welles given a few years before his death (he was about 67 at the time) that stuck with me. On reflecting back on his life he said this:

"I think I made essentially a mistake staying in movies,* because...I would have been more successful if I'd left movies immediately. [I could have] stayed in the theater, gone into politics, written—anything. I've wasted the greater part of my life looking for money, and trying to get along...trying to make my work from this terribly expensive paint box, which is a movie. And I've spent too much energy on things that have nothing to do with a movie. It's about 2% movie making and 98% hustling. It's no way to spend a life."

The way he said "It's no way to spend a life" — there was just something so troubling and yet wise. It reminded me that although hustling and putting up with the grind that may not be what we really want to do is also apart of our work. There is no way around it. Yet, the majority of our work — whatever that work/art is —should not be hustling and activities that keep us from our true love, that is, our "art." For example many good new teachers end up quitting years down the road because they found their job "2% teaching and 98% _________." The percentage is not the point, of course, and there is always parts of even the best jobs/careers that are irritating or unpleasant, but life is too short to stay in a profession where you feel you really have too little time or energy to do well what your passion and mission are all about. "It's no way to spend a life," as Welles said.

This BBC clip below contains part of this interview (about halfway through)

Below is a great interview Welles did with Merv Griffin. The remarkable (and sad) thing about it is two hours after Orson Welles did this interview, he died. He was 70. Much too soon.

*And yet, as he goes on to say "...but it . . . it's the mistake I can't regret because it's like saying,'I shouldn't have stayed married to that woman, but I did because I love her.'