On 60 Minutes last weekend, composer Lin-Manuel Miranda described attending a school for the gifted – where everyone was smarter than he was.
Charlie Rose asked the question: “So why am I sitting here talk to you instead of one of them?”
Miranda: “I picked a lane.”
Picking a lane early is important if you want early success. If you want to be the front-runner for the Pulitzer Prize with your second musical, you’d better be immersed in Broadway cast albums by the time you’re a pre-teen.
If you want to be on 60 Minutes at 35, pick a lane.
Immersion is required to create transformative art, and real immersion takes time.