Worst-Case Scenario

No, this is not the negativity chapter. Quite the opposite, in fact. This week, you’ll spend some time journaling about the worst things that could happen in your future career and what you would do to pivot (turn) your way out of them. Many performers have the mentality that if they don’t “make it” in exactly the career they want at exactly the right time, they’re a failure altogether. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Steven Spielberg didn’t get in to USC’s film school, J. K. Rowling was a broke and divorced single mom when she started writing the Harry Potter series, and Oprah was fired from her first TV anchor job. Everybody who is anybody has experienced failure (and if they haven’t, they will). It’s what we do with our failures that is the most important thing we will ever choose to do. And if one thing doesn’t work out, you can switch things up to pursue something similar.

Let’s say that all you’ve ever wanted to do in the world is nab a series regular role on a crime drama on CBS. Your chance arrived, you got the big audition, and then you didn’t get a call from your agent. Don’t worry; all is not lost. You could look for another television show to audition for in the near future. Or you could open up your mind to other options. Maybe you consider auditioning for a soap opera, or perhaps you open up your options to include a show on Facebook. Or perhaps you’d be a great writer of a crime drama while you’re waiting on your break to act in one. You’d be surprised: most of the time the worst thing you can think of isn’t too bad after all. And if you’ve already imagined all of the worst things that can happen and the unknown isn’t so unknown, perceived failure becomes significantly less scary. Rather than being surprised by any setbacks, if you plan for what you will do when things go sideways, you will be a huge leap (grand jété) ahead of the pack.

LET ME TELL YOU A STORY. . . .

I believe I have said this before, but I will reiterate the fact that I was not the best ballet dancer in the world. I was a decent ballet dancer in spite of the unfortunate genetic hand that I had been dealt, but I was never going to be a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet unless I got my feet broken and my hips replaced. Nevertheless, my whole life had revolved around ballet and the pursuit of it since I was about ten years old. When I was dancing in the corps de ballet of my third ballet company (the now defunct Lexington Ballet, in Kentucky), I was called into the artistic director’s office for a talk. It turns out that I was “not suited” for the repertoire that the company had on the horizon, and I would be let go from the company after we closed our current show. I asked why, and the director talked in circles for a bit. Finally, he came out with, “You’re just too big for a classical season.” Keep in mind that, at this point, I was 5’6” and 120 pounds. I offered to lose weight and was met with the response, “It won’t make a difference.” I sighed. My pear shape had finally caught up with me, and I would be unemployed in a few weeks. I walked out of the office to gather my thoughts.

News flash: finding a job in a ballet company is not easy. Many companies do not have centralized auditions, and some companies only have openings every few years. If you are interested in auditioning for a ballet company, you should plan to drive/fly to the city in which the company rehearses for an audition or plan to send in a video. I started planning to drive around the country and audition anywhere that would have me. And boy, did I audition. After my sixth city and sixth company class (each time with a different ballet company), I was offered an apprentice position with the New Jersey Ballet. It did not pay a living wage, I would have to move to an expensive area of an expensive state, and most of the dancers preferred speaking Russian rather than English. I took the job and began to consider a life pivot. While I was learning Coppelia with the New Jersey Ballet, I began researching musical theater jobs and voice lessons. A few short years later, I was happily dancing on Broadway, never to be told to lose weight again.

When I was let go from Lexington Ballet, I was devastated. It truly seemed to me that it was the worst possible thing that could happen. If it hadn’t happened, though, I would never have moved to New Jersey, I would never have auditioned for a musical in New York, and I would have missed out on more than ten years dancing and singing eight shows per week on and off Broadway. The moral of the story is that, no matter what happens, you can always alter your course and keep on truckin’.

DAY 1

Let’s take a trip to the dark side. Today you’ll spend some time brainstorming all of the terrible things that could happen in your career. Set a timer and imagine what would be the equivalent of your artistic apocalypse. Be brave enough to part the curtains of your worst nightmare and peer inside. Often, when we take a close look at what we think is the most dreadful outcome we can imagine, the close-up is not as scary as we thought. Perhaps you’re a dancer and your worst nightmare is breaking your leg. Or maybe you’re a singer who is terrified of nodes. Maybe you have other fears like bankruptcy, losing a loved one, or being alone. All of these fears are just as valid as the next one. But they are of no use to you until you get them all out in the open. So, set a timer for fifteen to twenty minutes and list all of the awful things that could happen on your trajectory to success.

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DAY 2

Now that you’ve imagined the worst, you’ll think about what you’ll do if the worst happens. Short of a scenario in which you perish, you will almost always have the choice to take some kind of action after the worst-case scenario takes place. If you break your leg, what will you do? Watch Netflix until it heals? Start a support group for busted dancers? Write a book? Choreograph on your friends? How about if you’re a singer who finds out your tour is canceled? What will you do then? Start auditioning for new ones? Change plans? Use your saved tour money to buy an orchid farm in Hawaii and become a recluse? There is no wrong answer here. Just write the first thing that comes to your mind. Choose eight of the scariest scenarios from day 1 and really think about what you would do in that situation. We will think of this in a traditional if/then format, so put on your thinking cap.

1. If ___________________________________________________

_____________________________________________ happens,

then I will _____________________________________________

_____________________________________________________.

2. If ___________________________________________________

_____________________________________________ happens,

then I will _____________________________________________

_____________________________________________________.

3. If ___________________________________________________

_____________________________________________ happens,

then I will _____________________________________________

_____________________________________________________.

4. If ___________________________________________________

_____________________________________________ happens,

then I will _____________________________________________

_____________________________________________________.

5. If ___________________________________________________

_____________________________________________ happens,

then I will _____________________________________________

_____________________________________________________.

6. If ___________________________________________________

_____________________________________________ happens,

then I will _____________________________________________

_____________________________________________________.

7. If ___________________________________________________

_____________________________________________ happens,

then I will _____________________________________________

_____________________________________________________.

8. If ___________________________________________________

_____________________________________________ happens,

then I will _____________________________________________

_____________________________________________________.

DAY 3

You’ve survived the worst-case scenario situation at least long enough to make one decision. (Well, actually, you’ve survived eight worst-case scenarios.) Now let’s play out these ideas to see what would happen in your career after your first “then” decision. Just use your imagination, as you could never know what would actually happen in life. How would you choose your next moves after disaster strikes? If there’s a fire that destroys all of the music in your home that you’ve ever written and your first move is to get out of the house and to safety, what would you do then? Call your family, move in with your sister, and start writing again? Would you write a musical about the fire? Would you find a way to retrieve some of your work? Really ask yourself, as you did in chapter 2 when you explored your why, and be honest. Maybe you choose to scrap writing altogether after your imaginary fire and take up teaching English as a second language. Okay. That’s great. There are no wrong choices. Choose two of your favorite (or least-favorite?) scenarios from day 2 and follow the “choose your own adventure” a few more pages into the book. For each scenario, write your first “then” statement as the second “if” statement and then make a second “then” decision. Write your second decision as the third “if” statement, and so on.