How Hollywood Dashes Dreams
Life lessons learned the hard knocks way
Many migrate from all over the World in the pursuit of their dreams namely to Los Angeles! Looking at the success of a mighty few, thousands seek to do the same and migrate to Los Angeles with little resources to pursue their dream and support themselves in the interim.
I have had many associates who migrated from the east coast to the west coast in pursuit of their dreams. Some died, some became homeless and many returned to the east coast. Their stories is a story they goes back decades from home to Hollywood and back home.
When I took the leap to migrate to L.A. upon the urging of a longtime friend who had moved out years prior, I constructed a Plan A, to ensure my finances were adequate, Plan B, to acquire an agent before arriving and Plan C how to survive in a unknown city. Initially, I arrived with an East coast Actors Company that brought actors out to L.A. for two or more weeks to experience LA before migrating. Upon this trip, I learned that my longtime friend was not going to help me so I resorted to Plan B. He came up with excuses after excuses. I moved on eventually.
Long story short, got a place in a seedy hotel in Hollywood for one day and then contacted my Godmother’s classmate, contacted her and she advised to come stay with her and I did. Didn’t have a GPS, clueless how to get to her house, still to this very day cannot tell you how I found her home. Her directions were limited because she didn’t know where I was. From this very seedy motel, at 1AM, I drove the streets of LA to find a house in an area that I was clueless how to get there but had a lot of determination to get there and not stay in that God forsaken motel of ill reputes. With God’s guidance, I arrived and was greeted with open arms and remained for months until I got my own apartment.
Before I arrived in Los Angeles, my prayer was “God please don’t let me be a starving actor, can’t do it.” I was blessed and am thankful. Also, note the key to my survival was that I was had a plan b to the plan a and when necessary a plan c.
This couple had a dream and no real plan, just to pursue their dream.
Last week, I read an article in the Los Angeles Times titled, “L.A. dashed their dreams.” Really? Can LA do that or does one allow themselves to fall prey to the woes and cares of a fast paced big city with little time to spare for the faint at heart.
A young couple from Detroit arrived hoping to make it big in Hollywood, like thousand of others who maybe equally talented or less or more. Two weeks after their arrival, they became practically homeless.
This young couple arrived from Detroit with $800, two backpacks and two duffel bags. They arrived at LAX, and their lives were changed forever before they left the airport.
Prior to their arrival, this guy was kicked out of his home and had scraped by for two years until a friend urged him to come to LA to follow his passion of being in the music business and that he would help him make his dream come true and put him up while doing this. As the all too familiar story goes, the person became incognito and said he’d be out of town for a long time. I have experienced this story twice. Didn’t skip a beat, went right on to plan b.
Lesson one, know who you are following the urge of and always have a Plan B.
The two travelers, a couple, next reached out to a virtual phone contact. While desperate, was told they could stay at this contact’s home only to discover upon their arrival that this home was packed with endless bunk-beds. On the exterior this home resembled a mansion and inside was similar to a refugee camp. With their limited resources, they paid their rent to this unknown producer only to discover he owed rent and one night they were told the landlord wanted them out.
Lesson 2. Know who you are giving your money too and the owner of the space renting. Keep Plan B, in your hip pocket.
Out on the street and with $50 left to their name. Having no physical space to live and store their belongings, they dished them in a local dumpster so they would be able to move about uninhibited.
Shortly afterwards, they found themselves sleeping out doors. Shortly thereafter, they acquainted a homeless man who schooled them on the do’s and don’ts of homelessness everything from what to wear to avoid illness, where to get bedding supplies to create their own homeless shelter and where to go for additional assistance. They stayed with him until they created their own tent home. They had no physical address so acquiring employment was difficult but the General Relief money allowed him to get over until employment was found. They also went to Safe Place where they received guidance, took a shower, got fresh clothes and was fed.
Walking the streets and riding the buses by day became a way of life. Surrounded by much darkness, they fought for their sanctity. If matters couldn’t get any worse, someone stole their tent along with their belongings contained within.
they moved on to a spot on Malibu Lagoon State Beach where someone gave them a tent. While washing up in a local mart, they frequented Starbucks and looked for jobs on Craigslist. The female found a job and worked as a barista. With her job and money from her father selling her car back in Michigan, they rented a room in a house. Plan B, from her father open a new door for them. The landlady picked fights and demanded that they leave. From this they contacted Podshare and rented a space. Now, they both are employed and working toward their dream. Their plan is too try and stick it out.
Their perspective of LA, “But they don’t recommend L.A. for everyone. Even Detroit, so well known for despair, doesn’t leave people lying on its streets, they tell me. There’s no homelessness people on the streets of Detroit. There’s houses you can go into. There’s family. People have each other’s back.”
Lesson 3. L.A. a big city or a small city or town owes no one anything. When one makes the choice to come to a city anywhere, you pay for your choices, mistakes, limited resources and not always having a Plan B when Plan A fails and it usually does.
Conclusion, when you have a dream and a passion to pursue, put your real thinking cap on, do your research, know where you’re going and who you are going to connect with and if possible line up a job and a place to stay prior to coming.
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