Getty Image / Cindy Ord
Brian Koppelman is one of my favorite writers in Hollywood. Actually, he’s one of my favorite writers in any medium, and he recently shared a story that’s sure to inspire anyone who might be down on their luck or thinking about giving up after chasing a dream.
He penned a piece back in April for SI Now about Tiger Woods’ return to The Masters in Augusta that was phenomenal and I highly suggest giving that a read in the near future. He’s also one of my favorite Twitter follows because he often does AMAs when traveling across the country. But I’m not hear to stan for Brian, his body of work speaks for itself and doesn’t need my lowly voice to champion it.
He’s the writer/creator of Showtime’s Billions, he wrote Rounders, Knockaround Guys, Ocean’s Thirteen, and he’s directed a 30 for 30. I should’ve stopped at Billions and Rounders because the former is my current favorite show on TV and the latter is the greatest movie that’s ever been made about the game of Poker.
I spent most of my Labor Day weekend on a 1,500-mile road trip during which I listened to hours and hours of Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast and it was pretty obvious that there’s a unifying theme throughout: it takes a long ass time for people in the creative industry to really make it.
Episode after episode, I listened to comedians, actors, writers, and directors talk about how they got their first break only to find out that they didn’t know jack shit about the business and it wasn’t until decades later when they finally hit their stride. I’m not saying that Brian Koppelman fits that bill but from the story he shared recently on Twitter it seems like that might be the case.
He’d reached a point where he thought his career might be over. Instead of relying on those around him, Brian reached within and relied on himself. He’s a writer and thus he wrote. He didn’t need the studio to tell him what his next project would be. And thus, Billions was born.
Here’s Brian Koppelman’s story:
https://twitter.com/briankoppelman/status/1036918165077458944
https://twitter.com/briankoppelman/status/1036918170953633792
https://twitter.com/briankoppelman/status/1036918172824334336
https://twitter.com/briankoppelman/status/1036918174749548545
https://twitter.com/briankoppelman/status/1036918176561483776
https://twitter.com/briankoppelman/status/1036918178973188096
https://twitter.com/briankoppelman/status/1036918180688658433
https://twitter.com/briankoppelman/status/1036918182236352513
I truly hope that every one of you people reading this are watching Billions on Showtime because the writing is on a whole different level.
It’s the only TV show I’ve come across that has, at multiple times throughout the series, left me completely flabbergasted by the level of writing. Billions is playing Chess while the rest of TV is playing Checkers and you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you aren’t out there watching the show yet.
Brian’s story certainly seemed to resonate with other writers on Twitter:
Talent is king. Tied for first with hustle. Congrats on never giving up. Took me 13 years to finally finish/publish my first novel. This speaks to me deeply these days, as all good things seem to be (finally) on the horizon.
— Adrian Todd Zuniga 🇺🇦 (@atzuniga) September 4, 2018
GREAT STORY! Needed to see this b/c we ALL ask ourselves this: when is it time to really MOVE ON? RETHINK the DREAM? The answer is…NEVER Keep plugging away! (I wish I would take my own advice).
— Wisdom Films 🇺🇸 🇬🇷 (@whatexitweb) September 4, 2018
https://twitter.com/ChuckWendig/status/1036987824569032705
If you’re not a writer don’t let this message be lost on you. The idea here is to always bet on yourself. If you’ve got the moxie to make it then go for it.