Peter Spann | Film Maker
Fact is, apart from flying, all I have wanted to do in my life is Film, TV or Theatre. When I was 18 my father convinced me that if I continued in “the arts” I would starve.
So I focused my life on making a fortune so that at some stage I could stop, “retire” and focus on that. However, it never happened. And the rest is history.
For some time, I felt a great purpose to help people with their financial dreams but, that is long gone. Financial Services is a soul destroying industry and despite my success I wasn’t suited to it.
Then my Mum died.
Sorting through her memories and memorabilia it is obvious from the newspaper cuttings, certificates and so on that she kept my talents were on the artistic side.
And it just brought home with a vengeance me thinking what would have happened if this part of me had been encouraged rather than the entrepreneurial side? (Actually that was a compromise too, my father didn’t want me to be entrepreneurial, he wanted me to get a JOB!).
It’s hard to describe how I felt at that point in my life – deeply fatigued are probably the best words for it.
My mother dying was the last straw of the last straws. I had a complex relationship with her, but the saddest thing for me was watching her sit in her apartment for the last decade as an alcoholic recluse essentially watching TV to get through the day.
It really had me examine my life and made me wonder what on earth I had been doing. My success in life has been one of great ideas, and inspiring others to achieve. Everything else was just a means to an end.
So, I thought, “It’s now or never.”
What else am I going to do with my life if not this?
I had no dependents, no wife, not even a girlfriend to support, no business commitments, nothing to tie me down or hold me back from making this decision.
I was accepted into Film School and my journey to that beginning is another story altogether, but that’s for another time.
You will all be invited to my Oscar’s party!