Are you Hamlet or Guildenstern?

I enjoy talking with old pros. In this case defined as people who've worked in the industry for a long time.

Some of them have great stories; eye opening, jaw dropping anecdotes from their careers spent in and around the room where it happened.

My response is obvious: Come on the podcast and tell them.

Or, write them down. Publish them in a book, or a Substack.

Most don't want to do this.

They're worried about damaging their own or other people's reputations. Or they want a job and worry that they'll be seen as telling tales out of school. Sometimes it's just vanity stopping them, the stories aren't as interesting as they think, or they're not true.

But at what point do you say fuck it. I'm going to tell my story. As truthfully as I can. I've come to think that maybe our only job is to record as faithfully as we can what it was like to live at this time and in this place.

So, what are you waiting for?

The second question is can you be honest about the role you played.

Are you the main character, or a support act.

Are you Hamlet or Guildenstern?

Both are important.

But you need to be honest, and this can be added to the fears listed above, because the truth might conflict with how you've presented yourself in the past. We all big ourselves up, positioned ourselves closer to power than we really were, a little higher up the pole that was really the case.

The vast majority of us are Guildenstern. A minor character in a bigger story.

And that's ok.

In fact, it can be brilliant.