Working it out for yourself

A while ago I had occasion to talk with someone who worked for a number of years with Warren Clarke on the BBC Dalziel & Pascoe series. Like so many others in the published tributes, he spoke of Clarke’s generosity as an actor and a human.

He described Clarke’s ability as innate; he didn’t need to go to drama school, he made use of his natural intuitive skill. “Warren never trained; he just worked it out for himself.”

But here’s the part that really struck home for me. My friend said, “He used to say to me in the early days, ’Don’t do what I do, do your own thing. What I do will only work for me.’”

Well—ain’t that the truth? And not just about acting. People get so wound up looking for the [one] template for the perfect [insert aspect of career/life here; or—hell—the whole of life itself] into which they can fit themselves and have it all sorted. But one size does not, in fact, fit all.

Or even, as Clarke pointed out, two.

And all those extruders of all those ten/five/seventeen-steps-everyone-must-follow-to-achieve-success programs and books aren’t a patch on one Lancashire lad who left school at age 15 and not only made a successful career and life, but also achieved wisdom. 

(And I'm so lucky to have got this from him, at a distance.)

You walk your own path, sunshine. So you work it out for yourself. And don’t worry that you’re not seeing the same things as everyone else.