James Cameron's secret to success

James Cameron may not actually be the "king of the world", but he's certainly accomplished some amazing things in his life: he's an A-list film producer, director, and screenplay writer, directing pioneering movies such as The Terminator, Titanic, and Avatar. A mixture of dreamy-eyed romantic meets computer-geek, Cameron has pushed the frontiers of CG cinemetics.

But few know that before he became Mr. Hollywood big-shot, he started out as a college dropout making ends meet by trucking.  But that didn't stop Cameron from fulfilling his star-filled destiny.

How did Cameron achieve success?  

                                        Guts, Grits, and Passion


Throughout Cameron's life, whether as a poor nobody or a wealthy big-shot, one thing remained the same, well three things, he had a lot of guts, grits, and passion.

When he worked as a trucker, Cameron used any downtime to write sci-fi stories and teach himself about special effects by going to the USC library.

"I'd go down to the USC library and pull any thesis that graduate students had written and optical printing, or front screen projection, or dye transfers, anything that related to film technology.  That way I could sit down and read it, and if they'd let me photocopy it, I would.  If not, I'd make notes." -- James Cameron

This went on for nearly 4 long years where his passion for storytelling and technology kept him going until in 1978, he produced a short film with his buddies called, Xenogenesis.   This gave Cameron his first big break, whereby he landed a job at New World Pictures (the company founded by Roger Corman).  From there he honed his directorial skills in B-movies that would prepare him for the film that would cement Cameron's name in Hollywood, The Terminator!  

Having gotten the inspiration for The Terminator from a nightmare, Cameron set out to write the script for it.  Times were hard, and Cameron was barely making ends meet, and actually lived out of his car for a time. But neither the absence of a soft bed, toilet or running water deterred him.  After completing the script for The Terminator, he went about trying to secure funding for it.  He had no luck in the beginning, largely because he (who was a nobody at the time) had the gumption to demand that he be allowed to direct the film.  But even in the face of countless rejections, Cameron persevered until he found a producer willing to give Cameron the director's seat in exchange for selling the rights to his story for $1!  Making his mark in Hollywood was obviously more important to Cameron, so he agreed, and the rest shall we say is history.

Failure is an option, but fear is not -- James Cameron 

I believe the above quote sums up Cameron's secret to success, i.e., his fearless, and unwavering pursuit of his passion.  And that is how anyone who has a dream should live.