Heythere,
Good morning and happy Sunday to you!
What I’m grateful for today is simple. I am so incredibly grateful for you and my Artistic Family and all of the kind, thoughtful words expressed to me after I shared the news of my sisters passing. It made a very difficult week much better and I will be forever grateful for your kindness.
How about you? What was extra, EXTRA blessed about your week that deserves taking a moment to really appreciate and give thanks for/to? If you have trouble thinking of something then I say all the more reason to take a moment and find it. I know there’s so much, no matter what may be happening in your life right now.
A few weeks ago I wrote on the topic of “luck.” My approach to life is you create your own luck by doing the work to set the table for “luck” to come around. It’s not about being in the right place at the right time. It’s being the right person in the right place at the right time.
I also believe the key to having good luck is first and foremost believing you deserve it.
LUCK HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT
If you read these newsletters regularly you know that my daughter, Kyla moved to New York recently.
She has had a very “lucky” first month.
She found an apartment in the exact neighborhood she wanted to live for less money than she wanted to pay.
She applied for a dream position at NBC to be a part of their Page Program (basically, you give tours of all the NBC show sets – Saturday Night Live, Jimmy Kimmel etc., and getting to watch these shows live as well. You also get to go to 30 Rock everyday and watch a major network create content for the world to consume from the behind the scenes. For Kyla, a dream job).
She had a three hour interview last week that she said, “went pretty well I think but it was really, really tough.”
On Friday NBC called to tell her she got the job.
When she told me the news I burst into tears for some goofy reason. Actually I know the reason. I know how much she wanted this job and I was so incredibly happy for her.
How lucky she is!
Except luck had nothing to do with it.
As Kyla was getting ready to move to New York she had a moment where she asked herself, “What am I doing? I live in a beautiful place in Sonoma for very little rent. I work for my Dad and build websites for actors. I want to be an actor and because of my Dad’s acting school I’m a part of a community of actors, directors, and filmmakers whom I respect very much. I already have an agent and I’m going out on auditions. I love San Francisco and one of my best friends from growing up in Sun Valley, Idaho now lives in the City. Why not just stay here? It’s easy and it’s comfortable. What am I doing?”
And then she said to herself, “This is exactly why I want to go to New York. I want an adventure. I want to go after something that’s not comfortable and easy. I want to stretch myself and most of all, I want to follow my heart in spite of my fears.”
I love Kyla.
And luck had nothing to do with what’s happened to her so far.  She created this. She demanded this. She earned this. She deserves all of this and more because I believe the Universe/God/your angels/whatever you want to call it, CELEBRATES courage.
THE LUCKIEST PERSON I KNOW
Melissa Thompson Esaia is one of the luckiest persons I know.
She lives in the most adorable, charming, wonderful home. I mean incredible!
She has the two cutest, coolest cats ever (I know you do, too but trust me on this one.) and since she’s has chosen to never have kids these two girls are her family. They love her as much as she loves them.


She has a job she loves, her career as an actor, filmmaker and activist is exploding, her income is incredible and she has zero debt.
And most of all, she has a partner she loves who loves her just as much (me!).
Very blessed.
And very lucky.
Except luck had nothing to do with all these blessings.
She too created it.
She demanded it.
She risked it.
And she sacrificed everything for it.
When I first met Melissa she was a very successful actress in the Bay Area doing mostly theater.
She had a great paying job working for the county.
She was married and she and her husband had just bought a beautiful new home together.
Life was good. And she was miserable.
Although she was working as an actress she wanted MUCH more in terms of a career but that meant change. And since change is scary she stayed safe and stuck.
And miserable.
But when I met her she was starting to wake up and find the courage to go create the life of her dreams and not a life of mediocrity. And she knew to do what she wanted and go where she wanted to go meant she’d have to make MAJOR changes.
MAAAAJOR.
You see her husband did not want her to have an acting career so she had to address the fact she had married a man who did not want her to fly. Instead he wanted her to stay in a nice, neat little box and not grow.
But she was growing.
So she had to choose – a safe, loveless marriage or her dreams.
She left her husband and chose her dreams. She moved out of her beautiful new home into a tiny apartment over the garage of someone else’s beautiful new home.
Her only furniture was a beach chair. If you wanted to visit her you had to bring your own beach chair, too.
Next her job.
The only thing she liked about her county job was a few of her co-workers.
And that big, fat paycheck.
And it was a big fat paycheck so no little thing and yet she walked in to her bosses office and told her she could not work another day doing something she didn’t love doing.
She quit that day and even though she now had no job and no income she was now headed faster than ever towards the life she really wanted – a life of her dreams coming true.
Or at least going after them.
That was ten years ago. And ten years later she is one of the most blessed, happy people I know.
Recently, someone was celebrating her beautiful life and said to her, “You’re so lucky.”
What she wanted to say was, “Uhhhh, luck had nothing to do with it. I walked away from everything safe and risked it all. I created this through tremendous hard work, sacrifice and courage.”
Instead she smiled and said, “Thank you. I am very blessed.”
Every dreamer who has ever gone after his or her dream has had to answer this very question,
“Do I walk away from safe and secure and risk it all or not because I have a choice and it’s clear – my day job or my dream?”
How’s your dream doing today?
This life is so precious and so is our time here. I say be happy and create the life you really want.
I believe in you even when and if you don’t.
Your biggest fan,
Me