On Friday, April 16, 2010, journalist Lilia Chacon spoke to students as a part of Tribeca Flashpoint’s Jumpstart Speaker Series. Film & Broadcast student Thomas Merry shares his reflections.

I recently attended a Jumpstart presentation by Lilia Chacon. Lilia, an accomplished reporter for Fox News Chicago, shared her path to success with me and my fellow Tribeca Flashpoint students.

She told several stories of her experience as a journalist, including how she wore high heels to a gang fight. But one story that specifically stuck with me was when she was still in school, one of her teachers mentioned that she had a misplaced sense of perfectionism.

I took that personally because in a way I have always been a bit of a perfectionist. I don’t want to make any mistakes and sometimes I become over critical of myself. Especially in writing a story or even directing in my studio production class, there is always something I wish I did better and tend to dwell on it too much.

For example, when I am writing a story, I think it is the best story ever; it feels perfect. When I sit down and read the finished product, all of a sudden it is a crappy story. I tend to nitpick. I start wishing I took another angle, or didn’t put a certain element into the story.

Or, when I recently directed in studio production class, I felt like I did a great job when I was done. However, when I watched it, I started picking out shots I didn’t like and lost confidence in myself because of this need to be perfect.

So during the Q&A session after the presentation, I asked Lilia how she kept from being over critical of herself. Lilia responded that you just move on to the next project, not worry about the past, and just keep moving. This hit home with me. You’re going to make mistakes and the best way to get by is to learn from them and move on.

I was surprised at how interested I was, and thought this was the best Jumpstart I have attended in my brief time here at Tribeca Flashpoint.