At age 7.5 I knew exactly what I wanted to be, career-wise. Well not quite, but I was laying the foundations for the fantasy that would become my elusive dream vocation.

The blueprint for my dream career began to be inked when I would play with the members of Little Men Village and write storylines that reflected the narratives of Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers and Captain Planet. Although Little Men Village may seem like a sexist community, it really wasn’t. It consisted of mini Cabbage Patch dolls, animated Disney characters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Strawberry Shortcake skanks with deliciously scented hair and an abundance of McDonald’s Happy Meal toys.

As the years passed the playtimes that I staged and scripted for the inhabitants of Little Men Village began to closely mirror the shows that I watched with my adopted older sister Rochelle, like Beverly Hills 90210, Party of Five and soap operas such as Home and Away, Neighbours and Shortland Street. Murders entered Little Men village, relationships frayed, scandalous affairs unfolded and some members of the village even faced death, courtesy of the narratives that I wrote in A4 schoolbooks.

I remember my siblings, family, friends and cousins all looked at my infatuation to escape into my imagination and construct these highly detailed narratives for my play times, as a slightly peculiar past time for a prepubescent country boy. But I think I secretly knew that by making sure the scenarios of my playtimes were written, ensuring the locations where the action would unfold on my parents 16-acre lifestyle block were mapped and that all the talent or members of Little Men Village in the scenes set to unfold were ready. From their costumes through to their props, was a foreshadowing of the career trajectory that I would eventually strive to make my passion, creative release and paid income.

Sadly throughout my teen years and beyond every career but one as a scriptwriter, producer or filmmaker occupied my perceived future. I aspired to be a lawyer, a detective, an English teacher, work in advertising and even once pondered becoming a psychologist.

Yet eventually at University in the midst of a communication major I took a summer school television production paper as a solution to finish my undergrad faster and wound up changing my major to Screen and Media Studies so that I could complete more production papers. I did still maintain the advertising, public relations and marketing elements of my communications degree as my supporting major and as fate would have it the discipline I actually make a living out of now is the communications side of my degree.

But that blue-eyed 10-year-old who shipped 150 plus toys in backpacks up steep hillsides for a bush wedding in Little Men Village or a disastrous cliffhanger where a river rafting adventure killed off three core members of the village in a creek. Still pierces my gaze as I look in the mirror all too often and it’s his reflection that burns the fuel inside me to make the production industry, screenwriting and producing a career that drives me, fuels my passion and hopefully gets my narratives seen around the world.

Apart from the eyes of my innocent prepubescent self though, what keeps my hunger alive, fingertips writing and drives me to continue submitting applications for funding or creative opportunities even when the possibility of rejection is high, is what I have learnt from the seven angels of ambition.

These angels of ambition have taught me that our dreams and ambitions don’t feature smooth currents and gentle breezes that lead us to our destiny, yet they are related to what our soul ultimately wants for us.

They have shown me that from our careers we discover who we are by figuring out who and what we are not.

They’ve allowed me to realize that we can only know what its like to be fulfilled when we’ve experienced what it’s like to feel empty, rejected and that our ideas are useless. Because it’s in these moments when doors continually slam that doors eventually open and we learn to use our inner voice as a compass to navigate our future.

The angels of ambition have taught me that a bad day, bad months and the shittiest years are a gift. Because we can’t feel the joy or tears of elation from our accomplishments unless we’ve felt the heartbreak of failure.

They have allowed me to see that positive and negative role models are the same thing, as they both push us towards our own voice, own brand and own style and as for the mistakes we make, well they are the best teachers we can have in life.

The angels have let me learn from my maniac bosses and incompetent colleagues, by giving me the confidence to know where to draw the line, how to take on as much I can and soak up as much I can absorb, with the awareness to say no when a situation demands it, so that I don’t become the office martyr.

And most importantly the angels of ambition have illustrated to me that if you’re not getting fucked by midnight go home and create. Whether it is writing while listening to Robyn or working on your portfolio because it’s in the hours after midnight when there is no one whose company you’d really like to be sharing. That the world reinforces that nothing will keep you warm at night like the power of your own creativity.

So whether you’re a checkout girl who sews till 3am creating a fashion line that only you may wear. Whether you have a fear of water, but dream of being a marine biologist or you’re a lad who dreams of defending your country, yet has failed the eye test for entry four times. Learn from the yellow brick road towards your dream, as it’s the cracks along the way that will become the armour that moulds your ambition into a reality. 

But most of all never forget the infamous words uttered by Kelly Cutrone, “Your dreams are ball busters; not the yellow brick road”. 

Written by Samuel Elliot Snowden

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNa2r-gUmFU