Okay, So What Am I Supposed to Do Now?
I recently sat down with my wife to watch tick, tick…Boom!
The film chronicles the struggles of Jonathan Larson, the creator of Rent, as an aspiring composer in New York City.
There’s a scene toward the end of the movie that made me give an audible, “Huh!”
After finding a tiny bit of success with a preview of a musical that he created, Larson is seen anxiously pacing back and forth in his apartment.
The phone rings.
It’s his agent, Rosa.
Jonathan: “So have you heard anything yet?”
Rosa: “Honey, I have heard nothing but raves — all day long. I’m getting call after call after call.”
Jonathan: “Wow. Okay. Yes! That’s great news!”
Rosa: “Yeah, everyone is telling me the same thing, ‘That Jonathan Larson, I can’t wait to see what he does next.’”
And that’s when it hits.
The drop from the clouds.
Jonathan is deflated.
And then Rosa gives Jonathan a hard truth — perhaps something we could all benefit from.
Jonathan: “Okay, so what am I supposed to do now?”
Rosa: “You start writing the next one.”
A cut to Jonathan’s flabbergasted face.
Rosa: “And after you finish that one, you start on the next. And on and on. And, that’s what it is to be a writer, honey.”
And Rosa probably could have said, “And, that’s what it is to be a [insert anything], honey.”
A photographer.
A web designer.
A financial advisor.
A musician.
A realtor.
A teacher.
A leader.
A team.
An athlete.
A parent.
A spouse.
A friend.
“And after you finish that one, you start on the next. And on and on.”
It’s about showing up and doing the thing that the thing does.
It’s the process.
It’s the journey.
Here’s something mind-blowing.
Just before Rosa hangs up the phone with Jonathan, she gives him a little advice,
“Listen! A little advice for someone who has been in this business a long, long time: on the next one, maybe try writing about what you know.”
Jonathan does this.
He writes Rent.
Rent was on Broadway for 12 years — one of the longest-running shows in Broadway history.
Jonathan never saw it.
He died unexpectedly on January 25, 1996, just hours before the first off-Broadway preview performance of his groundbreaking musical.
The Universe has a crazy way of working out — maybe we find out…and maybe we don’t.
Either way, we keep going…
…Onward.