Stress as a Challenge
I realized that I was genuinely terrific at this. Specifically, in the problem-solving under-pressure aspect of the film industry, which is one of the most central aspects of filmmaking. And I'm including television production and video production. It is a lot of high pressure decision-making under tight time constraints in an expensive forum. And you either gravitate towards that or you run from it. A lot of people work in the film industry for a day or 20 years - there's not a lot of in-between. And for me, I found that high-pressure environment of on-set problem solving to be just delicious. I loved how it felt, I loved how I was able to rise to those occasions and not take the pressure personally. I had producers who yelled at me all the time - not even taking their enmity personally, just doing the job. @4:28
I felt this way in my finance career. There was stress, there was pressure, it was high-stakes, and I always met the challenge. But unlike Adam Savage, I found in my situation that there was no creation. I liked those situations for only one reason - because I could do something other people feared doing. It stroked my ego.