Today is March 11 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “How long can you persevere?”
Actor Jeremy Renner knows a thing or two about persevering for over 10 years.
Beyond playing drums in a high-school band, Renner was at a loss for career plans. “I didn’t want to go to college and spend a lot of money and not know what the heck I wanted to do.”
Instead, he went to Modesto Junior College “to fumble around and figure it out”, taking courses in computer science and criminology.
“I was all over the map,” he says. “Then I took an acting class. I thought ‘I’ll give it a go’. I fell in love with it.” Acting helped him manage his emotions. “It was therapeutic. The stage was a safe place for me as a man with a lot of feelings inside which I had not exposed before. Where I’m from, it would have been unacceptable – people would have told me I was a crybaby. So, I held everything in. Playing characters gave me the freedom to have all those feelings, that rage or sadness, in a safe way.”
After three years in LA he landed a small part in National Lampoon’s Senior Trip.
For the next seven years, however, he did a variety of odd jobs to make ends meet. He landed the lead in the Dahmer movie in 2002 but it was one of the lowest, most broke times for him.
His success in Dahmer helped him land S.W.A.T. in 2003 but it was still another five years before he landed the role that would catapult him to acting full-time – his role in Hurt Locker.
He had to live by candlelight for a year but he never considered quitting and going home.
19th century American poet Henry Wadsworth Longellow noted "Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.”
Jeremy Renner persevered for over 10 years.
As you go about your day consider asking yourself how long can you persevere?