The First Three Words...

You need to ask yourself; "Are you sure?". It goes without saying that a career in the Arts, let alone acting, is risky business. You're exceedingly lucky and successful if you can manage to live off of it by itself; most people never get that far. A profession in the arts is nothing to be scoffed at, or taken lightly, because it requires a level of devotion that makes other jobs pale in comparison. However, if you want to be an artist (of whatever sort) you have to make sure that it's what you want. You can't half-ass it, it won't work that way. Dreaming about being an actor, or a painter, or a musician is all well and good when you're 10, but when it comes time to decide what it is that you want to do with the rest of your life, you have to be sure that your dreaming is more than just fantasy - that it's an actual goal that you will never give up on trying to achieve. Otherwise you end up wasting a large amount of time and money.

If you are sure though, if you are certain that you want to pursue a career in the arts, then you have to give it everything. I know I'm one to talk (I'll get to that later), but there's no more "I'll do my homework tomorrow night" or living your life by the seat of your pants hoping it all turns out just dandy. Doing that will only doom your career before it's even started. It's not enough to just want it - you have to fight for it. You can't simply say "I want to be an actor" and POOF! here you go, an Oscar on a nice shiny platter - that never happens. You won't be discovered if all you can manage to do is go to class and then play video games and watch TV for the rest of the night. Not even going to NYU, or Yale, or any other prestigious program will get you there. When it all boils down to the nitty-gritty, where you went to school, or what it says on some official looking piece of bleached tree bark doesn't really matter - all of that was simply the audition to see if you could make it to the real world.

This decision, I might add, is not one to be taken lightly either. You need to really weigh the pros and cons of it all. It's fine to feel really passionate about acting, or singing, or whatever, and to think that it's what you want to do with the rest of your life, but let me make this exceedingly and over abundantly clear: YOU HAVE TO BE ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE. Saying "yeah sure I'll do this" and then deciding halfway through that you'd really rather be a software consultant is rather idiotic. If you're going to go all the way, then damnit, go all the way! Uncertainty will ruin you. Even if you have to pretend that you're confident - that's better than nothing, maybe you'll actually end up convincing yourself at some point.

Ultimately - be sure that it's what you want, and that you'll end up doing it no matter what gets in your way. If you're not sure, or if there's any shred of doubt, then you need to really reassess whether or not you're choosing the right path for yourself.