Johnny Depp is a pretty successful guy. Let’s just put it that way.

But he wasn’t an international superstar for the first 20 years of his acting career, it wasn’t until Pirates of the Caribbean came along.

Enormous roles have always come by, but he took the long term approach instead.

The Hollywood star reportedly turned down the lead for mega-blockbusters like Titanic, The Matrix, X-Men, Speed. I can’t confirm which ones to be true, but we do know his reputation for being choosy about scripts.

Anyone’s initial reaction would be“what the hell was he thinking?” Actors wouldn’t hesitate to give their arms and legs for the opportunity, but Johnny knew better.

Massive offers were hard to resist but he never caved in, because he wanted longevity. He stuck to strange characters and offbeat films. Although they were mostly box office bombs, they were very “Johnny Depp”.

It’s a brilliant way to market himself.

If we are too focused on the rewards in front of us, we won’t get far in writing

Sure, we’re too smart to be fooled by the get-rich-quick schemes, but we are impatient. So what do we do? We look for proven writing formulas and replicate them, thinking we would find success right away. They do work to a degree, but the ceiling is low.

Why?

For one, the barrier to entry is low.

You don’t need a bachelor's degree in creative writing to be able to follow general advice, “read a lot and write every day”. Most people can apply it and run with it.

For two, some of these tips won’t work for us.

They are one-size-fit-all and while they may change someone else’s life, they might do nothing for us or even hinder us. Let’s say they teach you how to become speed writers, cranking up multiple pieces every single day. It’s a bad tip if you write best when you take your time, rushing would only make your work suffer.

And lastly, creativity can’t be taught anyway.

At best, writers can teach us techniques, but they can’t teach us originality. Fortunately and unfortunately, writing is contingent on talent. We can take all the courses and read all the books on how to write but at the end of the day, we either have it or we don’t.

Go above average

Johnny Depp didn’t want the mainstream, market-driven movies. Nor did he want quintessential romantic leads. Instead, he went off script and created his own characters. Captain Jack Sparrow was supposed to be a straight edge, but he had his own vision of Jack and risked losing his job to create a flamboyant drunk.

Johnny refused to swim in the mediocre pool.

His mentality was “I’ll only do things my way and it will be either a hit or miss”. It served him well and allowed him to carve out his own niche. Johnny Depp has become Hollywood’s first opinion for quirky, odd, dark roles.

If our aspiration is to be an average writer, flow along the river stream with everyone else. To go above and beyond, look at the bigger picture. Instead of keep trailing behind the people ahead of us, we need to blaze our own path.

Set ourselves apart

More and more writers are becoming business-minded, it’s awesome in a way because they get to validate their writing with earnings. But some people solely think in terms of money, they compromise their work and writing becomes their tool for wealth.

It’s dangerous for this reason. Without strong branding, it’s too easy to get weeded out.

If you don’t stand for something, you will fall for anything

By only writing whatever is in demand, they let the market lead them. One day, they might wake up writing an article on “why did Justin Bieber cut his hair”.

Then they realize how replaceable they are because they never established a strong identity of their own.

To maintain an interest in writing, we need to write the things we enjoy

Take Medium for example.

The platform loves self-help material and personal stories. Of course, the whole world adapts to it, but many writers will fizzle out if it’s not their interest or specialty.

If we lean towards writing what we love, the process is enjoyable and sustainable. When we do it for rewards, we lose interest when they don’t come.

There is a universe of difference between trying to make money by helping people and being genuinely passionate about helping others.

The explanation Depp gave for rejecting scripts was “it’s just not me”. Apparently, the characters didn’t resonate with him.

Sure, he’s a true artist, but he cares about money. Depp reportedly spends about 2 million dollars a month to maintain his lifestyle, he loves his wine and homes. But to do what he felt right and take pride in his own work, the sacrifice was well worth it.

It was a long term investment, refusing quick gains for a lasting legacy. He understood he had to stand out and take control of his own acting career, or else, be shoved into whatever the big studios wanted.

Think big

Too often think in terms of what we can achieve right now, maybe we should look further ahead.

• Maybe we should consider staying away from the same old advice like “10 Ways to Be a Better Writer”
• Maybe we should take more risks and go outside the box
• Maybe we shouldn’t implement too much of other’s writing into our own
• Maybe we should rely more on our own writing experiences and intuition

When we become more than just another common writer we might actually get a shot at something big.

The Johnny Depp approach is basically not making decisions solely based on what it could do for us today, but what it could do for us in the far future. What can we do to position ourselves to be the best writer one day? It’s a long game, we are here to build a career, not to make next month’s rent.

The more patience and resilience, the further we get.