You have two choices in life when it comes to dealing with people.
You can assume the worst in their intentions. Or you can believe that people are, on the whole, going to do right by you.
You can give them the benefit of the doubt until they prove that they deserve otherwise. Or, you can live always behind the turrets.
There are arguments for both approaches. Preparing for the lowest ebb in people allows you to protect yourself, it's true. Being open to the best in your peers creates opportunity.
But openness creates vulnerability. Vulnerability can be exploited. Shielding yourself, meanwhile, creates a closed mind. A closed mind shuns fortuitous timing, for fear of risk.
No-one gets to their perspective unassisted, I'll grant you. We all have our traumas and successes.
But it's how we respond to them that defines us.
There are some individual universes that can abide a closed perspective. A detective, by experience, training and necessity, has a mindset that must doubt the purity of human intention.
But yours?
Is your world improved or degraded by how you approach the people in it?
As a filmmaker, I may not be a font of knowledge, but I know this:
Without openness towards people, you cannot collaborate. You cannot share ideas if you think they will be stolen.
Without openness towards people, you cannot ask for help. The risk of being taken advantage of is too great.
Without openness towards people, you cannot empathise. It's impossible to see the perspective of someone you have already judged.
And it is herein that the tragedy lies, when you assume the worst in people: you lose the most.
Because without collaboration, timely assistance, and the power of empathy, a filmmaker (although I would argue most people as well) is doomed.
The walls you raise become the tomb of your dreams.
Gloomy.
But don't despair. Because, through the grace of fortune, it's not too late. Your mindset belongs to you, its lord and master.
Your outlook can be resolved exactly where it began. With a choice.
What will yours be?
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