All roads lead to Rome. Our setbacks bring us forward; we wander in the wilderness so the road can bring us home. - Rob Lowe

If you are fortunate enough to be part of a hit, particularly a transcendent one, all emotional ownership is transferred from you to the audience. They judge it and embrace it; project their own hopes, dreams, and fears onto it; take their personal meaning from its themes, and with these investments it becomes theirs. The significance of your participation pales in comparison to the significance the project has on their imaginations.

So I tell my boys that they need to say yes to life, just do it, get out and make their own memories. I tell them to think of it as a vocation; after all, we never think twice about toiling for money and yet when our time comes it won’t be our bank balance that comforts us. I tell them to not be afraid. Don’t fear the rejection that can come from putting yourself out there.

You can’t study the map forever. At some point it’s time to start walking; there is only so much daylight.