Another Not About Acting Book that Every Actor Can Benefit From and Use to Avoid Being Sexually Hara
Even by simply practicing the title words of this book, any actor can improve his/her approach to the madness driven acting career. The whole purpose of this book is beautifully simple. It gives you tools and techniques that can help you to grow your natural talents, to discover opportunities in any life situation, and to learn how to come out victorious even after the worst personal or professional tragedies. Being an actor myself, I know that every one of us is constantly transitioning and searching for new ways to navigate through the fluctuating environment of film business . James Altucher has an ability to connect multiple industries and use his rich personal experience and keen sense of humor to explain how certain practices can improve one's thoughts about the past, mindset in the present, and the prospective on the future. One of my favorite concepts is his wise advice on becoming an idea machine. The whole trick is to come up with 10 ideas every day and write them down. No matter how stupid or genius those ideas might sound to you. I have an idea about a movie that is called RAF Agency. Basically, it's a comedy about three guys: a dance teacher Roberto, a personal trainer Arthur, and a receptionist Frank who have no luck in their acting and modeling endeavors so they decide to open a high-end escort service called RAF: Romantic, Authentic, Friendly. And their first client is a rich Russian Jewish woman who happens to die right when they order their delicious steaks and shrimps at Italian Restaurant called Un Italiano Vero. As the men of noble characters and creative minds they decide to still finish the date and satisfy their hungry stomachs. Once the dinner is being paid for by the dead Russian woman's credit card who simply 'fell asleep', they put her in a car and start driving back home. But hey, there is someone following them...
Boom! That's a lot of ideas there. You might call them silly. James calls them IDEAS. And one day, coming up with all kinds of ideas (except the ones that can hurt someone) will help you to survive in our current economy that he also calls the economy of ideas, which I find genius. As an actor, you can come up with ten ideas for your character or ten ideas about what your character likes or hates etc. Also, if you are dying to connect to a an agent or a casting director but do not know where to start, start with sharing your ten ideas about why you are so passionate about this person's work.
Also, James shares how by simply choosing to improve only 1% of your overall physical, intellectual, and spiritual health will take you to the place you never imagined. And as actors, those are the most valuable parts of ourselves that we can invest into. Actually, our entire carrier depends on constantly improving or at least taking care of those factors.
Moreover, when looking at and listening to all the scandals about the sexual misbehavior that is so prevalent not only in Hollywood or entertainment business but in any place where abuse of power and hunger for success, and all other so well known to human nature flaws take place, one can truly benefit from asking him/herself a simple question: "By following this path, am I choosing myself or someone's perception of myself?". I think most of us know exactly that by giving an honest answer to that question can drastically change the way we make even the most simplest decisions in our daily routines.
These are the lessons I learned and ideas I got from James Altucher's book Choose Yourself. There are way more business tips and other thoughts and techniques that he generously shares with his readers. So if you are an actor who is looking for a book that can give you some new prospective about your personal and professional life, read the book so you can choose yourself first before you ask a casting director to do that for you.
