Why society hates winners

You know it's true.

Society hates winners, they really do. Peyton Manning comes around, and he's overrated all of a sudden. He's called a choker and overhyped, even though he already has over 50,000 yards, and a Super Bowl ring.

Tom Brady's supposedly overrated too, and people accuse him of paying off referees.

In the 90s, the Bulls were the most hated team around. Six titles will do that.

Why do people hate winners so much? Simple. Most hate winners because they've never been one themselves. They've never had the fire and will to take it to the next level. They'd rather work a 40 hour job instead of taking that chance in life that winners end up taking.

And I'm not talking about WINNING, I'm talking WINNERS!

Winners don't hang with losers. An article in ESPN, before the Super Bowl, talked about how Peyton Manning doesn't hang with riff-raff. His friends are bankers, lawyers, doctors.....highly motivated individuals. He doesn't hang with the woe is me crowd.

Winners don't listen to naysayers. Danny DeVito had something like 72 auditions before getting a small speaking role. People said he was too short, and he wouldn't make it in the business. Arnold Schwarzenegger was told to change his last name and his accent.....people wouldn't accept him. Reginald VelJohnson(Carl from the Wonder Years) was living in his Mom's basement till he was 35, receiving the scorn of his family for not having a "real job".

The irony is funny though. People hate winners, and they supposedly love the underdog, but no matter where you find the underdog, it makes no money and it does no ratings. Look at any sport, any movie, any TV show, anything out there. The money is in the hate of the winner, not in the success of the underdog.

I just have one thing to say to these people. How about TRYING to be a winner yourself. How about TRY being a Peyton Manning or Tom Brady instead of hating them. That doesn't mean try being a QB, it just means try being the absolute best at what you do.

Wanna know what makes Tom Brady and Peyton Manning the best? It's not natural talent, or the successful sperm club(or cheating, like Brady haters will bring out). Both of those guys flat hate to lose. They are in the film rooms for hours, they are the first on the field and last off of it, they work harder in the weight room than most people do, and they give it their all in every single aspect.

Those two are just examples. I can bring out ten other names of winners, and the comparisons are the same. They just want it more than other people do, and they are willing to go the extra mile.

It's just jealousy. No reason for it, but it's jealousy.

Time to give that up folks. Time to be a winner yourselves, and that includes your attitude.

Because if not, you'll continue to hate, and that's one horrible way to live.

The one that started it all.

I have to admit, there are very few actors, producers, directors, writers, or anyone in the business, who started out exactly like I did.

Growing up, I never anticipated being in Hollywood, or even acting in general. I had about 10 lines in a small community theatre play when I was 9 years old, but that was the extent of my thespian pursuits. I don't think I quite knew what I was going to do when I grew up. There were always the thoughts of running my father's construction business, but as I got older, I just kind of lost interest in the idea. Of course, there's the ten year old's dream of playing basketball/baseball/football/anything with a ball. I did dream of playing pro in any of those aformentioned sports, depending on which season it was, but that was all for naught too. In basketball, I could shoot a little, and I was real tall as a kid(like 5'10 or 5'11" at 12 years old), but I couldn't run, and had no footwork, so once kids could jump over my outstretched arms, I was finished. Baseball was decent, but I only knew how to hit fastballs, so once I helped my team win the league title in 5th grade, that was the extent of my success(In 6th grade, I had a coach that didn't think much of me, so I never got any better). Football wasn't much....just two years of flag football, and one highlight of intercepting a pass and taking it 80 yards only to inexplicably slow down at the 1 yard line and get caught(we didn't even score either). I did achieve some success in tennis, and still play to this day, but once I figured I wasn't going to be the next Becker or Sampras, that ended also.

Next, there was the Navy. I gave it a serious thought of joining the Navy after high school, and even went to a recruiter with a friend of mine(who would end up going to the Air Force), but decided against it for reasons I do not remember now. Eventually, I would move to Tennessee and go to a school named Lee University, and believe it or not, that's where I would finally find my calling.

It started when I was in a chinese languages and culture class. I was sort of struggling, and finals were due. My teacher gave me the option to make a small movie about her English as Second Languages course. I took it, got a B for the course, and finished my foreign language requirements.

But I knew I had found my calling. I was hooked on movies from there on out.

Now mind you, this school wasn't exactly the upper echelon of film studies. In fact, they only had one film studies course, and the rest was mostly theatre. Combine that with living around working class people all the time, and having no previous aspirations of anything in entertainment, it seemed like a crazy dream to chase.

I've also been known to make pretty crazy decisions. Maybe it's my nature.

So I ask our basketball coach if they wouldn't mind me filming their team for a little documentary. I expected it to be one of those 30-40 minute highlight reels with soundtracks that teams hand out to their kids at the end of the year, so it wasn't much, just something to start me out. A $500 camera later, and I got started.

I just never knew how far this little movie would go.

The team ended up going on this crazy run, so it went from highlight reel to documentary right off the spot. Then the team let me use their earlier footage, and all their present(at the time) footage for even more highlights, so I was pretty much mixing up a cheap $500 camera with a $5000 Canon XL1. I could definitely tell the difference in post production.

Then the team got all the way to the Elite 8 in the national tournament(NAIA.....not NCAA), so I got a nice little run out of the movie. I was talking to quite a few film festivals, and even ESPN about a story where one of the players had a heart attack and had to play the role of supporter all year, and how he handled the situation. Since post production went into the next year, they asked me to call back at the end of that year(2003 actually).

My chances looked REAL good. They started like 11-1, and even had a #1 ranking in the country. Then they ended 6-17 and missed everything altogether. I don't know if that team knew how close they might have been to something big, but there's nothing you can do about things like that sometimes. The movie ended up at one film festival in Houston(honorable mention in documentary category), and on a cable access network in Tennessee and Georgia. Not exactly the big time, but not bad for a first timer with a $500 camera.

I can say that 2003 and 2004 were some of my more successful years. I graduated from Lee with a communications degree, I got my first degree black belt in taekwondo(and anyone that knows my lack of natural athletic gifts knows how much this shaped my current personality), and finished this movie. My father said to me, after I graduated, "now we look forward".

I always look forward. Nothing will ever stop me.

The unpredictability is gone

Today I'm getting a little bit of laundry, and a few other things, finished. The TV is on for background noise, and I'm not really paying attention. The only thing I knew was that it was on the Reelz channel.

But I noticed something that caught my eye. It was on Carson comedy classics, and one of his numerous Carnac skits. For some reason, even though this is 33 years old, it got my attention for a couple seconds. Then I just took a break and finished the rest of the program.

Something occurred to me as I kept watching. The unpredictability in entertainment is truly gone.

Johnny was the king of the unpredictable. They might have animals on, and the animal would want to rip his head off. Don Rickles might mess up a skit on purpose and get thrown in the water. Johnny might completely mess up his lines and decide to wing it. Didn't matter, he was the best, and it made the show as fresh as when it started in 1962.

Now, everything is so sanitized. You turn on The Tonight Show and Leno's getting it back, but not really for the better. He's very milquetoast, boring, and status quo. Conan O'Brien tried changing the dynamic, and was canned seven months later, citing low ratings(never mind Leno was getting KILLED by Letterman before Hugh Grant decided a cut rate hooker took precedent over a blazing hot actress, showing that men probably will never be satisfied). NBC is taking the safe route, probably thinking that Johnny Carson did it safe for thirty years.

Thing was, Johnny really WASN'T safe. You never ever knew what would happen on the shows, skits went out of control at times, and some of his humor was very politically incorrect(like the time he said "Miami, where old jews go to have baby cubans"). Regardless of the age demographic it was aimed for, Johnny lasted thirty years because he was never ever stale. A fine wine that only got better with age.

Leno, on the other hand, has lived 17 years off of one single quarter hour......the monologue. His skits are hideous, his kiss ass interview style is grating, and he takes no chances at all. NBC likes him because he gets ratings. NBC also needs to think that Leno's core demographic could also die anyday now too. At least Johnny could get young people to watch in his day.

The Carson/Leno case is an example of why you have to sometimes take the bull by the horns, and take some chances. Conan would've eventually brought the college age groups back into play, and brought NBC out of the fourth place hole they are in as we speak. But the aformentioned Tonight Show war shows that NBC is afraid of their own shadow. Kind of like a company I know that made a killing last year, and is so afraid to make technology advancements because it costs money.

There was another network(CBS), oh a decade ago, that was in the same doldrums. Their star attraction was predictable, boring, and appealed to Grannies also. Difference was that Chuck Norris and Walker, Texas Ranger only appeared one night a week, Norris knew when to get out, and CBS dumped any ideas for anymore reunions. They completely appeal to a younger generation now.

Remember FOX? Upstart network that came on the airways in 1987? Had two shows.....Married, With Children and the Tracey Ullman show that ran in a loop. The great thing about those days were that FOX knew it had nothing to lose. Brand new company facing powerhouses, and no one really knew about them yet. So their answer to Cliff Huxtable was Al Bundy, a past his prime shoe salesman and former high school football star who longs for the good old days when he was the talk of the town, and everyone loved him. Mind you, The Cosby Show was an institution, but everyone can relate to Al Bundy. Irritating neighbors, crummy job kids hate you, wife bugs you, nothing goes right in the world, only have a couple things you truly look forward to doing, and you wish you could do it all over again. Cliff Huxtable was a fun Dad, but he was a rich doctor with a rich lawyer wife who made it successful, and never regretted decisions he made. Very hard to relate to that. Now, Al Bundy is an institution, and Ed O'Neill, even as he continues to work(Phenomenal actor by the way), will be typecast the rest of his life.

Do your research. FOX didn't play it safe, CBS quit playing it safe, ABC quit playing it safe. The only one playing it safe is in fourth place now. If NBC truly wants to make it back, they take a reset button and start over, make the decisions that get them out of their rut.

Or they could just watch a few Carson episodes and see what truly worked.

Who's stopping you? It's you, damn it!

Oh we hear these excuses all the time......

"I don't work out because I don't have time"

"This person/event/happening is the reason I'm not successful"

"I'd love to do what I want to do, but...."

The last one's a doozy. People will make excuses on why they are career 9 to 5ers, or why they can't succeed in life. They use wife, kids, job, all that stuff to use as a crutch for their own insecurities. While those are good excuses, they tend to forget that it was past decisions that caused their own downfall.

Here's the thing. We're all young at one time or another, and we're all single at one time or another. Those are the years where you can make the decisions that will change your life forever......or just be like everyone else. You can take the chance of making a business with someone, or decide it's too risky and climb the ladder somewhere. You can buy a prime blue chip stock, or decide that the stock market is too risky. You can kick someone's ass, or get your ass kicked.

Unfortunately, 99% of the world chooses the latter in every decision. They listen to Mom/Dad/Friends/Grandparents/Whoever tell them that they could never possibly make it, and they need to get a job. The majority listens too.

I made up a saying once. At 10 years old, it's a dream......at 20, it's a sacrifice.

I'll explain.

At 10 years old, you'll NEVER hear a kid go "I want to be a fast food manager", or "I want to be an insurance agent". No, it's always doctor, lawyer, sports star, superagent, any of the cool things that a kid's imagination can think up. Once they hit 20, all they hear is "grow up, get a job.......", and they listen. Those dreams become sacrifices. Doctors and lawyers take 8 more years of school past the four it takes to graduate, only 1% of the population makes the pros at any certain sport, no matter how good they are, superagents(CIA) usually have a major league education, and absolutely no social life at all. Those are sacrifices the vast majority are not willing to take.

It's the same with actors, or directors, or producers, or anyone else. The world sees the bright lights on TMZ, but once they experience the reality, it scares them. The reality is that Danny DeVito had like 70 some auditions before he got his first speaking part, and it was because casting agents looked at his scrawny stature. The reality is that Tom Selleck was a constantly struggling actor with a wife and child, and constantly striking out with pilots. The reality is that people see the 15 minutes of fame Snooki from Jersey Shore gets, and believes that it's that easy(and in the advent of youtube, it is unfortunately that easy), but for every Snooki, there's 5,000 different Arnold Schwarzeneggers hearing from their reps that their accent is too strong, and their name is too tough to say, and they'll never make it in the business.

But you know something? Successful people don't listen to that shit.

That's why they are one percenters. One percent of the world that is that successful, and is willing to go the absolute extra mile to be even more successful, and will not let anyone get in the way. That's why those same people succeeded.

So I ask again. Who's stopping you from doing what you want?

It's you stupid, and no one else.

Just the beginning

A little story behind this.......

I probably shouldn't be in Atlanta right now. There have been two different times where I should be somewhere else right now. First time, I was planning to go to Chicago and study with the Second City acting troupe before it all fell apart. Second time, I was down to my last $160 before I found a roommate that kept me around, and subsequently wanted me to focus on my acting career. Both times, fate seemed to intervene somewhere.

Then on October 30th, I found said roommate dead on the floor. 43 years old. All of a sudden, I had no job, and no real place to live. Lucky for me, a friend and my brother let me stay at their places for three weeks. Either way, I was in limbo though. For about three days after that, my eyes were as hollow as you can possibly get. Had never witnessed anything like this in my whole life. It just showed that we have to live every single second, and never take it for granted.

But I said to myself that I refused to go back to my hometown for good(Quincy, IL, just to let you know). I said I was going to get my life back, and work relentlessly on my career once my life was back in order.....and it happened. I got a new place to live, an old job back for supplemental income, and my life back in order. So now that all of that was out of the way, time to keep a promise I gave to myself.

My career comes first.

I've worked very hard over the years, but there was always something missing. Not anymore. No excuses, nothing getting in my way. I'm 31 years old now, and in the best shape of my life. I'm a college graduate that probably should be making 100k a year by now.....but I don't want that. I want more.

Let me elaborate.

One of my best friends' is named Greg St. Plice. A former high school, college, and semi-pro QB, and now actor and co-owner of a production company in New York. We talk every night, and we have THE same goal.......nothing but the stars. We are competitive in every single thing we do, and both of us hate to lose. We want to be trash talking each other on Academy Awards night as our movies are up for the same awards, we want to buy the best clothes, date the best women, have the best cars, and most of all, let nothing get in our way. We're both single, and have no true responsibilities.

So this is where it leads. Since January 1, 2010, I've been even more relentless than ever before. I've been on two projects, been working on a website, and completely changed my look. This blog is just the first part of the website.

I'm pretty outspoken, so I'll probably talk about everything. I'll mostly tell a few crazy stories from the earlier years, and I'll also review movies, both completely obscure and totally relevant, but most of all, I'll sprinkle in some food for thought so we can all debate a little, and I might even talk sports and other subjects. Just depends on my mood.

This is just the beginning, folks.

Jake McClain

"Adversity introduces a man to himself"