Lessons Learned from Michael Levine and Katie Holmes
I was reading an article earlier today in USA Today about Katie Holmes. The article I read was http://usat.ly/LbVDg2. It is obvious that she is going through a change as she and Tom Cruise go through their divorce and their new lives apart from each other. Now I am not one to be focused on tabloids, but I do look for interesting articles that can bring insight into my life and this one did.
In the article Michael Levine is being quoted. He was talking about Katie and her future career. This is what I found interesting. He said about Katie, “When analyzing a career, there are many, many contributory factors, not just one. Usually at the core of great success is great drive – relentless, maniacal drive combined with great talent…First, she has to figure out what all actors should do, which is assess where they are and where they want to be in five years and take steps based on reverse engineering to help them be where they want to be. If they want to be movie stars, choose parts, small or large, that get them there. If they want to be movie stars, don’t choose reality TV shows. … Any fool with a plan beats a wandering genius. I would encourage her to get a plan based on where she wants to be.”
The first point that resonated with me is that great success comes from “great drive – relentless, maniacal drive combined with great talent”. Of the successful people I have encountered, it is this drive that makes them successful. I look at a local company InsideSales.com and the president Ken Krogue. He is laser focused on making InsideSales.com the leader in the inside sales and lead response management industries. He is always talking about inside sales or the company he co-founded. He is recognized across the country as he appears and contributes to industry leading publications. Put that aside the company is growing and determining the direction of the industry. Ken is just one example of people I have met that are successful because of their drive.
The second point that made me think was she had to figure out where she wanted to be in five years and reverse engineer how to get to that point. I believe that it is hard to make plans much farther out than 5 years and that is sometimes stretching it. The world is changing faster and faster which makes that timeline of prediction sometimes shorter. In order to be successful you need to have a vision in mind and how you will accomplish that vision. The best way is to break down that five year goal into year goals. From that point you can break down into smaller chunks. As Steve Jobs left this world he had created what Apple was going to be doing for years to come. That plan will be fulfilled even while he is gone because he created his vision and had it broken down into chunks. He might have had the vision for the ipad a long time before its creation, but he had to build other products before it could be realized.
Levine hit the nail on the head. Great success comes from having a “maniacal drive”, having a vision for what you want to accomplish, creating a plan and executing on that plan. It is like he said; if you want to be a serious actor then don’t do reality TV. Good luck to Katie Holmes on figuring out her new life and make you obtain your great success.
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