The New Year, 2019, full of promise, resolutions, and anticipation arrives with cold, rainy, windy weather and very little sunshine down on the Gulf Coast. So what’s a little weather? Right. Shortly thereafter I discover a water leak in the ceiling of our bathroom.  I check it out, reason we’re getting a new roof anyway, and determine it is a relatively easy fix.  My wife develops a sinus infection. “It’s nothing baby,” I say until she visits the doctor, comes home with prescriptions and says she (we) cannot travel. In the meantime, I develop a serious head cold and the annual early year pilgrimage to Santa Monica to visit relatives, view top notch independent and foreign films at my favorite independent cinema chain, get some writing done with an actor-writer colleague and of course my visit to Santa Anita horse track, is gone. I’m not a big bettor but I love these animal athletes. On an ordinary daily race day without the pomp and circumstance of a big money televised horse trace there are a few people like me there for the fun of it and there are the serious bettors there to earn some bill money.

 So it gets better, right? Well not yet, there is a mild disruption at work. But I am optimistic. Why? Two things I have learned. One, there’s not only always tomorrow, there is the rest of today. And I am excited about it. Yes! It’s the optimist in me. Since I became an independent business owner in 1987 and a full/part-time actor about that same time, I’ve learned two life-sustaining philosophies that always move me along.

One, the sun actually does come up tomorrow. That one sustained me during the height of my acting days in Hollywood. If I went for a really big, life-changing job and did not get it, I’d be disappointed. My family understood. They agreed I could be disappointed until… the next morning. Then as we would say on the football field, I had to “Shake it off,” and embrace the promise of a new day.

The other life-affirming axiom I learned from business ownership and the business of television and film is “I have enough for today.” Life as an artistic entrepreneur is like performing on the high wire with everyone watching on the edge of his or her seats, without the benefit of a safety net. You fall one time and…. the crowd holds its collective breath and… well you know the rest.  No matter the ups and downs, missed jobs, new employees, money hassles, torn rotator cuffs and really bad days on the golf course, we entrepreneurs, no matter where we are on the social and economic scale, always believe we have enough for today and thank goodness that sun will rise again tomorrow.

Enjoy the journey!