Don’t Give Up On Your Dreams
by Guy Magar
Don’t Give Up On Your Dreams, Urges Hollywood Director. TV/Movie Veteran Shares His Secrets for Beating the Odds
Nearly half of us have given up on the notion that we can get
ahead by digging in and working hard, but the American Dream
still has a champion in Hollywood TV and film director Guy
Magar (La Femme Nikita, The A-Team, Battlestar Galactica).
As with so many stories out of Hollywood, Magar’s reads like a
made-for-TV movie. A young Egyptian refugee immigrates to the
United States and latches onto two dreams: becoming a
filmmaker and finding his one, true love. Despite being a kid
from the New York suburbs with no connections to the film
industry, he finds a way to manage the first. And, after years
of searching, he finally gets the girl, too.
“We had a magical Camelot wedding only a movie director could
conjure – complete with sword-dueling to rescue the bride who
got kidnapped when she arrived by horse-drawn carriage. It was
my Errol Flynn life moment!” recalls Magar. But, into his 25th
year of marriage, he learns the love of his life has a fatal
illness.
“Everyone needs to dream and anyone can make those dreams come
true – if they pursue them with passionate drive,” says Magar,
who shares his story for the first time in his memoir Kiss Me
Quick Before I Shoot http://www.kissmequickbeforeishoot.com
He discounts the ABC News/Yahoo poll that found that, at the
height of the recession, 43 percent of us had lost faith in
the American Dream.
“People have suffered because of the economy, but there have
always been economic ups and downs – and there have always
been Americans making their dreams come true,” he says. “My
dreams were seemingly unattainable, but I made them happen
because mine was a passionate pursuit — I never stopped
trying and that’s what it takes.”
“Today, I have my beautiful wife, Jacqui, here by my side,
healthy and happy, because I dreamed of finding a cure for her
and I didn’t stop searching – against all odds — until we
found it.”
How can anyone overcome seemingly insurmountable odds? Magar
offers his recipe for success:
1. Dare to dream. “It sounds simple, but so many people don’t
bother,” Magar says. “Instead of envisioning the magical
possibilities, they see only obstacles and challenges.” If you
have a career dream, find a way to experience it through
school or internships to make sure it’s a profession you love.
Dreams require passion, and you may not have enough to fuel a
hard journey if you haven’t tested the waters first. At 25,
Magar enrolled in film school to find out whether he actually
liked the process of filmmaking and had a talent for it. That
experience lit a fire.
2. Don’t settle. “I knew I wanted to marry nothing less than my
true love, and that required a lot of patience!” he says. “I
didn’t meet Jacqui until I was 34.” It’s easy to jump the gun
at 22, or panic at 32, but when you have a dream you’re
passionate about, you need to believe in yourself and hold
fast, he says. How do you know love when you find it? “When
you’re absolutely sure that you’d be the biggest fool to pass
this up,” he says.
3. Work at it like there’s no tomorrow. Magar’s first feature
film, Retribution, required 12-hour days, seven days a week for
three months – just for the prep work of finding locations,
working on the script, casting, sets and costumes. He knew how
to get it done. When Jacqui was diagnosed with an especially
aggressive form of leukemia in 2008, Magar was even more
dogged.
“I dreamed of finding a way to heal Jacqui, and if that
required researching every new treatment and calling every
cancer center in the country, that’s what I would do.” He
finally found a promising clinical trial at a Minnesota cancer
center that was being replicated at City of Hope near Los
Angeles. “Jacqui is now celebrating her third year of
remission,” he says – with a big smile.
Magar immigrated to New York City with his family in 1958
after a military coup radically changed Egypt. The family came
with nothing, and Magar spoke no English. Eventually, their
situation improved and Magar finished his growing-up years as
a middle-class kid in an idyllic little New York town. It
wasn’t until after he’d graduated from Rutgers College – with
a degree in philosophy – that he discovered his love for
telling stories visually through film.
“If I – an Egyptian immigrant kid – can become a Hollywood
movie director married to the love of my life, anyone can make
their dreams come true,” he says.
About Guy Magar
TV and film director/writer/producer Guy Magar has worked for
more than 30 years in the motion picture industry. His TV
credits include Dark Avenger, The Young Riders, and Blue
Thunder. His feature films include Lookin’ Italian, starring
Matt LeBlanc and Lou Rawls; Stepfather 3, which launched HBO’s
World Premiere Series, and Retribution, to be re-released for
its 25th anniversary on DVD this summer. Guy is also the
founder of Action/Cut Seminars which has taught filmmaking to
thousands of students with a film dream.
Copyright (c) 2012 Peter D. Marshall / All Rights Reserved
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