Sky Jackson

I attribute my success to faith and never quitting. I've learned so much on this journey, and I realize now that if God would have let me make it 5 or 10 years ago, I don't know if I would have been able to make it - there was so much I needed to learn at each point. He doesn't want you to lose once he gives it to you - he wants you to be able to keep it and keep flourishing. We see amateurs making it too soon all the time in the media, and it doesn't end well. Everything is about perspective. Even though I haven't closed the deal with Slippery Glass yet, with different investors coming to the table, God is reminding me that I do have the masterpiece, it's just not time yet. I'm walking around with a masterpiece - it's just a matter of time. The experience I had with Slippery Glass is why I'm more wiser now. I met all the good, the bad, and the ugly, and it grounded me in who I am and why I'm here. Regardless of who has fallen off, I can't leave because this is my vision. I love what I do so much that it's like a hobby - your skills will be crafted into eventually something that's gonna be so great, and you're not even gonna feel like it's work.

The best advice I've received came from my sister Diane, who raised me since the age of 6. She and my sisters and brothers always kept us encouraged to keep moving, no matter what. They instilled in me the importance of believing in yourself and having faith. The faith in yourself has got to be so crazy, because you're gonna experience different people and situations that would have your faith wavering. You've got to believe in yourself so much. My sister has been the wind beneath my wing.

I would give them the advice of faith and never quitting. It's not gonna happen overnight - you just keep going because you love what you do, so it's like a hobby, and your skills will be crafted into eventually something that's gonna be so great, and you're not even gonna feel like it's work. Even though I spent years with Slippery Glass writing different scripts and just getting it copyrighted, it doesn't feel like it because I was enjoying it. For my younger version, for people who actually want to start writing or are writing, don't think that you're gonna sell this script the first time - it's not gonna happen. With Slippery Glass, I had to go back and I crafted so many other things into the script as I got wiser and older. The rewrites on it, things I learned, things that needed to be said - there's no timing on it. I would actually tell them, don't wait to feel ready. Start writing. Your first draft won't be perfect, but it will be yours. Be consistent. Rejection is part of the process. Out here, women have to work so hard because men underestimate the fact that women can only write about women. But we can write about men - we deal with them all the time.