There is a particular mistake that most actors make. It is a mistake so fatal that it can kill a career before it starts, or dismantle a career once it’s been built. We see it happen again and again and the results are tragic. Years of hard work can evaporate in one moment. Talent, training, and drive are no match for the fallout of making this mistake. Trouble is, no one talks about it. You don’t learn about it in theater school or most acting studios. So, actor after actor falls into the same trap and spends years auditioning from a place of weakness, bitterness, hopelessness. Decades pass and no ground has been gained.

The roots of the mistake are in the very nature of the business itself. You move to Los Angeles or New York City, dedicate yourself to being an actor, and begin engaging fully in the forward-thinking pursuit of the business. “Is my headshot hot enough? How do I get an agent? How many casting director workshops can I possibly do in a week?” Pursuit, pursuit, pursuit. Always thinking ahead. Always trying to conquer.

But locked in a perpetual state of pursuit in a business that rarely gives an actor what she wants (and when it does it happens for short periods of time which end, resulting in more pursuit), most actors have nothing to satisfy them creatively and personally, other than the potential of an audition which they most likely won’t book. And that’s like driving a car without ever filling the tank. In no time at all rejection creates deep-rooted self-doubt, jealousy, anger, bitterness and hopelessness. Caught behind a thick wall of negativity, your talent has no place to go. You’re sunk.

Many decades of experience in front of and behind the camera in casting rooms and on set have shown us that most actors fail because they move to Los Angeles or New York City and move right into the voracious pursuit of the industry before they lay down a rock-solid artistic foundation—a practice that keeps them in the best physical, emotional, and artistic shape possible—the kind of championship shape you have to be in to actually conquer the business and book work consistently.