FORTUNE COOKIE WISDOM

It never ceases to amaze me how small yet brilliant pieces of wisdom can come to you when you are least expecting it and from the most unusual places.

Take my Chinese food desert from this weekend. Sitting at the dining room table after another hectic weekend day topped off by take-out Chinese food, I opened my celophane encased fortune cookie and broke it in two expecting the usual boring proverb to appear. (Why did fortune cookies stop giving fortunes, by the way?)

To my surprise, this piece of paper happened to provide a saying that is true to most, but indispensible to the independent film producer:

You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try.

How fortuitous, indeed! Surely these words apply to everyone, but who more than we producers? We work in an industry that rewards precious few individuals and ideas, and leaves most 'doomed to failure'.

Should failure disappoint us? Certainly, but our job description pretty much says, 'try, try again!'


Oh, my lucky numbers were 2, 34, 44, 17, 29, and 3.

Lotto anyone?