James Cameron, TED, and Me

It is not often that you come across someone who can convey with clarity a journey that has taken them a lifetime. More often then not we seem to experience less than our speaker is willing to admit. This is not the case for a speech that James Cameron delivered on TED.com. In case you are not aware of whom James Cameron is, he directed some of Hollywood’s biggest films, including Titanic, and Avatar, but seriously you wouldn’t be reading this blog unless you had a clue right? Anyway, Mr. Cameron enlightened the audience on how went from a science fiction fanatic to feature film director. The journey started for him as a kid in Canada. Mr. Cameron explored and pushed the boundaries of his own imagination. He did not start out with a goal to become the director he is today. He actually decided by the time he was fifteen that he wanted to be a scuba diver. Like many of us he did not take into account the odds or the adversity that would face him in achieving his goal. He goes on in his speech t tell of how he overcame the obstacles that stood in his way with the help of his father. This event would not have meant as much for me had he not later used this skill, which started out as a passion for science fiction to really do what he wanted in his life. This was inspirational, as I had always dreamed of creating my own films. However one of the things that he said towards the end was one of the things that always seemed to bother me the most. What if I failed? What would happen if I could not be or do what I had set out to? That fear of failure kept me from even trying to achieve my goals. Mr. Cameron points out that you must fail in order to succeed. We should not fear failure, because we need the option to fail, in order to really try and explore new things. What we cannot be is afraid. Being afraid stifles our creativity as well as our dreams. How many of the worlds greatest innovations would have never been created, had the inventors of those innovations been afraid? We must all grow from the seeds of our passions and inspirations to become whatever it is that we dare to dream of becoming. James Cameron did just that, and even though that path may not have been the straight path that he would have liked, he still got to live out his childhood dreams of becoming an explorer of strange worlds even if that strange world is in the oceans of our own.