I Asked Successful People How They Made It
David Lent raised $50,000 to produce a documentary, "The 5 Keys to Mastery." It airs on many PBS stations in March.
From Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, March 2006
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I've always wanted to make a hit documentary. I have worked as a cameraman for decades, shooting TV news and other video. I've also produced some documentaries, but few got a wide audience.
In 1987, I read a magazine article about why some people are successful, and I thought the topic might make a good documentary. My wife, Susan, is my business partner, and she shared my enthusiasm. I began to interview people and ask them to describe how they made it. My first break was an interview with blues guitarist B.B. King.
I also interviewed George Leonard, the author of the magazine article. He said that successful people do five things: practice, get a guide, surrender to their passion and take risks. Plus, they "visualize the outcome." For example, Kelly Clark, the Olympic gold medalist in snowboarding, said during our taping, "Visualization is the key to what I do." She improves each snowboarding run by first imagining what a successful run would feel like.
I shopped around my proposed documentary to several cable networks in 1999, but none bit. To generate interest, I needed interviews with bankable stars. But I couldn't afford to interview more people.
In 2004, I tried the "visualize the outcome" technique. I imagined that I had sold my documentary to Wellspring Media and that the firm was marketing my project. I copied its logo on a card and wrote, "This is my distributor." I put the card on my desk.
To make my dream a reality, I called and e-mailed Wellspring, but I got no response. So I went to a video store and asked for the phone number of its Wellspring sales rep. The sales rep hooked me up with Wellspring's former CEO, who put $50,000 into the project.
His investment allowed me to tape more celebrities. Wellspring did become my distributor, and it signed PBS stations to air the video.
Now I'm going to buy an Airstream trailer for a promotional tour. And, yes, I'm visualizing sales of $10 million.
-- As told to Sean O'Neill