The Thing You Don’t Understand About Los Angeles

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If you don’t live in Los Angeles, you don’t understand Los Angeles. Because you don’t understand the people who live here.

This is a town of chasers.

People in pursuit of something. They leave homes, families, and friends behind to come here.

Sure, some people are from here, but most aren’t. Los Angeles is a destination – a place you come to, not a place you flee from.

It’s populated with people who don’t let their fears stop them from pursuing their dreams. Who don’t make excuses for why something can’t happen, but instead seek reasons why it will.

Optimists. People who take risks, push forward, and refuse to get stuck.

This doesn’t mean they always succeed. Most fail. Most don’t get what they came for.

But they try. And they don’t regret doing so.

You don’t understand Los Angeles because you don’t understand what it’s like to live surrounded by people like this.

Their spirit is contagious. Addictive. Inspiring. It feeds on itself and convinces you anything is possible.

And in Los Angeles, it is.

Los Angeles isn’t what you think it is. It’s not superficial, shallow, and obsessed with image. That’s just what the Kardashians show you to sell you themselves.

Los Angeles is a meritocracy. It doesn’t care where you went to school or if you went to school. It cares what you do with the gifts you have. It cares what you create – not what you can exploit.

Life is not fair, but Los Angeles is.

If you’re talented, you will be found. It may take time, but you will get opportunities.

And if you don’t hone your skills and combine them with hard work, you will fail. You may get a “break,” but it won’t last.

This town is a filter and staying power is earned.

Los Angeles isn’t easy. It can be brutal. But anything’s possible here.

And there aren’t a lot of cities where that’s still true.

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6 Comments

-Nate May 5, 2016

5.5.2016

SO TRUE ! .

I came here 45 years ago and I hope to die here .

-Nate

John Chang May 13, 2016

Ironically, that’s what turns me off about LA – constant chasing. Guess the zen part of me believes in the “no matter where you go, there you are” attitude. Contentment does not equate to settling. Being happy with what you have / are is as important / if not more so than appearances and the social media pressure of keeping up with the image conscious Angelean Joneses.

-Nate May 16, 2016

5.16

John ;

I believe you missed the point here .

I moved to Los Angeles nearly 50 years ago , was able to chase my dreams and settle down both .

I don’t really care what anyone else thinks of my car , my house or the Ghetto I choose to live in .

As you said ‘ wherever you go , there you are ‘ =8-) .

I like it here very much and hope to live out my life quietly and contentedly .

-Nate

John Chang May 18, 2016

No, I think you’re right that there are people who work hard and succeed – probably way too many that you never hear about. But there are plenty of Kardashians, as you point out – people who achieve celebrity status for unknown reasons and cause others to mistakenly believe that this is success, as well as how to achieve it.

I’m guessing that you’ve never sat in background holding with plenty of dreamers getting paid below what is now minimum wage for the promise that – maybe, just maybe, they’ll get their shot at fame and fortune.

While there are those who hustle and some who are rewarded for it, there’s plenty of addiction here as well – http://butterflyformula.com/creativity-accept-no-substitute/ – plenty of those glad to feed such addiction for their own gain.

-Nate May 23, 2016

” I’m guessing that you’ve never sat in background holding with plenty of dreamers getting paid below what is now minimum wage for the promise that – maybe, just maybe, they’ll get their shot at fame and fortune.”

And a wrong guess it was .

I just decided that based on my reality , I’d best just go to work doing what I knew and make my own way , not ride on anyone Else’s coat tails .

Not a bad thing to do , I just had an idea of where I wanted to go and following the crowd didn’t look to me like good planning .

That’s what’s cool about l.A. ~ some can make that work .

The kartrashians ? I feel very sorry for them , their own mother taught them to be public prostitutes , no amount of money will ever buy any of them happiness .

-Nate

-Nate May 23, 2016

BTW : you’re dead right about the addiction thing ~ I know many good folks who came West and did well in the Movie Bizz until they got into drugs , some made it out alive , some perished , some are doing o.K. now sans million$ and mansion$ and no where near Los Angeles .

-Nate