I have been watching reruns of Kitchen Nightmares every night for the last couple weeks, and after a while, Ramsay climbed into my head and camped out there, a cussing, hard-driving, belligerent drill sergeant. To whom I am very grateful. So here’s some of the Ramsay wisdom, distilled into caveats helpful to any artist (and eerily familiar from my years in ballet):
- Take pride in your work. That means, for a start, maintaining your tools and workspace.
- Have a passion to craft the best. Your burning desire to produce quality will get you through the tough times.
- But be humble enough to know you aren’t there yet.
- To move in the right direction, seek out and accept critiques from those better than you.
- Send nothing out into the world until you’ve given it your best effort—and a once-over, too.
- Take responsibility for the things that come out of your oven half-baked. Then, do everything you can to make it right—or throw it out.
- Don’t waste time crying about it. Ever.
- Work your fucking ass off.
- Build a strong team. Then, listen to them—they’re the ones who will clue you in to what’s missing.
- Don’t even think about making it big until you’ve built a foundation of skills and quality output. You have to earn it. No shortcuts.
The Trailer Park MFA 