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"and your name is 'you're wanting'...."

Around 2:49 into the enclosed link (click on the blog title) an amazing statement is slipped into the famous rant by Alec Baldwin's character in GGGR.

"...and your name is 'you're wanting'..."

Mull it over, sip it, roll it around your tongue like a fine red wine. Getting anything?

The comment is made to Jack Lemmon's character, Shel 'the Machine' Levine. Shel is a once-great salesman with little control over his situation. He was a superstar in his heyday, but as the movie progresses you see that Shel is no longer 'the Machine'.

This could be one of the scariest thoughts about the existential truth of 'being great'. Could it slip away? Could it be situation vs you?

Oh Shel, there but for the grace of God go I?????

As I rise within my industry and make my name in it, I sometimes feel the scratching, gnawing fear that something outside of my control could bring everything down. At some point every one of us has looked in the mirror and thought "Maybe today they find out I am clueless and making this up as I go."

I like to think that Baldwin's character, as well as Ricky Roma, and Mitch and Murray (if you don't know these names, go watch Glengarry Glen Ross already!!!), are examples that prove that our edge creates our situation....that we are not beholden to chance, but masters of our own reality........that if we approach our success as inevitable, that it is self-perpetuating.

I like to think I'll win the Cadillac, maybe the steak knives, but never #3....ever.

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