Like any successful artist, I learned that you pay a price for success. As Francis Ford Coppola said in Fast Company, "People are shocked to hear that I think of The Godfather series with sadness. I see those films almost as a personal failure. They changed my life detrimentally, even though the world treated them as big artistic and commercial successes. Their success led me to make big commercial films -- when what I really wanted was to do original films, like those that Woody Allen is able to focus on."
"Service is the very purpose of life. It is the rent we pay for living on the planet." -- Marian Wright Edelman, civil-rights activist and founder of the Children's Defense Fund
In the movie Field of Dreams, Ray Kinsella, played by Kevin Costner, finds a kindly, aged doctor named Archibald "Moonlight" Graham and gives him the opportunity to fulfill a childhood dream. Moonlight nearly played Major League Baseball, but fate intervened. "It would kill some men to get so close to their dream and not touch it! God, they'd consider it a tragedy!" Ray Kinsella tells his friend. Moonlight responds, "Son, if I'd only gotten to be a doctor for five minutes ... now, that would have been a tragedy."
Immigrant Nicholas Bercel was a famous and gifted neurologist. A close family friend, he once told me how he got into medicine. He claimed that he stood in the wrong line to apply to law school. He said that when he found out the line was for medical school, "I took a moment to look at my reasoning and thought, Maybe this is a sign. After all, learning law or medicine is similar; they both entail memorization and application. I can serve just as many people as a doctor. Why not try medical school, and if it doesn't work out, I'll switch?"
Nicholas was a self-effacing man, so even as a child, I took his story in that light. Like Moonlight Graham, his serendipity was good news for many people he served. It was only years later that I understood the point of his story: There are many ways to serve those in need. It's not the job or the profession that determines if you will serve others; it's all up to you.
To read more about building a strong foundation for your career, see "Chapter 7: Build Your Platform and Leap" of Mark Albion's New York Times best-selling book, Making a Life, Making a Living (2000), now also available in paperback, e-book, audio cassette, and audio download. Chapter excerpts and samples are available here.
Copyright © 2001 Dr. Mark S. Albion. All rights reserved.
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