I once heard this quote from an actress, “It took me 20 years to become an overnight success”. I can’t remember who the actress was, so I Googled the expression, and found that it was famously said by Eddie Cantor, an entertainer popular in the 1920s and 1930s.

People look at movie stars, celebrities and other successful people and often say that they are ‘overnight successes’. While maybe sometimes that’s true, the reality is that most of the time, it takes years of work to become a success. Even child actors go through years of being in plays, going to music lessons, auditions, etc.

I’ve worked over 30 years as a freelance artist, and in the beginning my work wasn’t very good, and I didn’t get much work. Out of those 30 years, I’ve worked for Disney for over 20 years. Of course I had to be good enough for them to hire me in the beginning, but when I look at my work from then, I realized how much I improved over the 20 years.

So if you’re trying to get your dream job, whatever it is, realize that it doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, it may take 10 years or more of working hard to even get to the first level, and another 10 years to get to the point where you can say you are a success. It might take a while, but have confidence in what you can do and keep working at it.

I’ll give you a secret on how I got my dream job – If you concentrate on something, and keep working at it, and don’t give up, you’ll eventually get better at it.

I realized this when I looked at kids who play video games.  Those kids might not be smart in school, but they are really good at playing video games.  Why?  Because they spend hours working at it.  Being smart or skillful isn’t as important as when you keep working and figuring out how to get better at something.

I’ve been working with Disney since 1992.  In 2009 I started getting bigger jobs.  Around that time, my Disney clients started telling me that they noticed that my work was getting better. I thanked them for sticking with me and giving me work throughout the years. I realized that I was able to get better simply because they kept giving me work which enabled me to practice and improve my skills.

So my advice is, If you concentrate on something, and keep working at it, and don’t give up, you’ll eventually get better at it.  You have to concentrate on it, which means being serious about it, really putting your mind to it.  You can’t give up if you want to eventually get your dream job.  Of course sometimes things get in the way or set you back.  I spent many years not getting much pay and there were a lot of times when I didn’t get much work, but somehow I was able to hang in there.  And because I didn’t give up, I eventually got better at my work.

We all teach kids that they’re special, and they ARE special in different ways.  But I want to turn that expression around and say that I’m not special.  I was able to become a Disney artist, but as a person I’m not special.  I’m not trying to give false modesty, what I mean is I am an average person just like anyone else.

I’m a short Japanese American guy, my family was middle class, I grew up in a small town.  I’m a quiet person, I’m sometimes awkward talking to people.  I got good grades, but I was never good at sports.  I wasn’t popular in high school.  I graduated from UC Berkeley, but I lived in Berkeley in an apartment til I was 36, I didn’t get married til I was 41, I was definitely a late bloomer.

What’s my point?  I truly believe that if I can get my dream job, then it’s possible for anyone to get their dream job.  In this blog, I’m going to share how I did it, so you can get an idea what it takes to get your dream job, whatever it is.

I have my dream job as a freelance Disney artist.  But as a kid and as a person, I was very average and ordinary.  I was a ‘good’ kid, and didn’t get into trouble, but I wasn’t outstanding or special.  I was quiet, didn’t really have a lot of close friends, but spent a lot of my time when I was young drawing cartoon characters.

Although I liked to draw and I loved Disney, when I was young, I didn’t really think I could become a Disney artist.  I think that was mainly because I didn’t know any Disney artists personally, or any successful artists for that matter.  Although I eventually worked for Disney, I think that if I had actually known a successful artist when I was young, I would have thought that it was possible to be a Disney artist earlier than I did, I would have had a role model to show me that it was possible.

That’s why I’m sharing my story, because I want to let people know that whatever your dream job is, it’s possible to get it.  And I mean any job, not just working for Disney.