Meet Matheus Macedo | Writer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Matheus Macedo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Matheus, what role has risk played in your life or career?
The only thing I consider a risk is stagnancy. The inability to take a financial or emotional risk to which your heart calls you to take, is imprisonment. Courage is a side effect of conviction. Fear makes us unable to move, we think we need courage to take that first step, but the courage isn’t something to be found, it’s something to be generated, and it comes about effortlessly when the conviction of our heart is absolute. Think a mother running into a burning building for her kids. There is no fear, or rather, there is no stopping because of it. The conviction is too great.

One lesson I’ve learned since taking my first big risk at the age of 36, is that to have an adventurous life you must be willing to be a constant beginner. You have to be willing to enter an arena you know nothing about, as long as the reason you’ve been escorted there is one you’ve earned.

There is no actual risk, if you know yourself, if you know you can take whatever comes at you. To know yourself you have to be willing to face the things you don’t want to face, to excavate buried dead things you swore you’d never look at again and ask why they happened, why did you do that thing you still hate yourself for? Find, beneath the rotten thing, a reason, find the scared child under it all. Make friends with your dark. This may seem like a rant, or off topic, but it’s not, it’s the thing that will lead anyone and everyone who desires but fears taking risks, to the life they’re trying to create; self reliance.

Imagine you are about to walk along a rope-bridge, one of those that exists only in the movies for all we know, and you’re blindfolded. As you step out, the people behind you are shouting, “The rope is old, the wood rotten, you’ll fall!”

They’re afraid, you’re not. They don’t know you have wings, they don’t know you can fly, but you do, because you’ve done the work. When no one was looking, while everyone was wondering what you were doing, while they politely said nothing about your long bouts of unemployment, you were conquering demons and making them your pets. Okay, that’s dramatic, but I’m a writer and a little drama’s good for articles.

I’ve taken three, maybe four huge risks in my life, all within the last three years. I left the only city, the only home, I’ve ever known, all my friends, all my family, to pursue a dream. It still remains to be seen what will happen, but I believe I’ll make it, but that’s beside the point. Achievement isn’t the goal, love is the goal. You will not be taking your millions to the other side, you will not be taking your Oscars or Grammys. You’ll be taking love home.

You can make money again, it may not be easy, comfortable, or enjoyable in any way, but you can make it back. You can’t take back time. The seconds and minutes you’re using by reading this, you could be scrolling or watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S again, but you can feel that your time here is an investment, you’re storing energy in a thing you hope will pay you back for giving a part of yourself to it. And it will because it has to, that’s how energy works, unless you let it stagnate by not taking the inspired actions you know you should take.

Think of your attention as currency, because it if and it’s more valuable than ouro. Would you still waste time? Not taking the risk you know you’re supposed to take, you were born to take– that is the only true waste of time. Only those happy in their current circumstance should hesitate, and even then, you always run the risk of becoming boring.

Risk taking is the one action I’ve taken that has to things I had imagine becoming reality. I’ve watched thousands of dollars spent to make something I wrote, I stood on the set of my own, professionally produced writings, and only because I took risk after risk after risk. I was always afraid. The life of risk taking is not for the faint of heart. Prepare, heal, know who you are so that when you move into the unknown, at least you will know yourself enough to know you can handle whatever is in the dark.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I thought my journey was taking me towards being a professional screenwriter, and that’s part of it, but it isn’t the whole story. I’ve made a living at writing for Youtube channels, making more money than when I worked much harder, blue collar jobs, and my videos have been seen my millions. Once, this would have been enough for me. But my journey, such as moving from Boston to LA, going from employed and secure, to unemployed and choosing to remain so until I lost all I had gained and more, on purpose, has not been one of becoming a professional, but rather, becoming my whole and authentic self.

I can’t remember a time when story, movies, books, writing, was not a prevalent force in my life. It sounds dramatic to say it what way, but that’s how it’s always felt. It was never just about entertainment to me, at least not for what I myself create, I think story is too important. Maybe that’s why I infuse everything I write with as much of who I am and what I’m going through as possible. I want others to learn from my experiences while also embracing thoughts and ideas that I don’t fully understand, because I know there’s something behind them urging me to write on.

One of the scripts I’m most proud of began with thoughts I couldn’t shake. So, I put them into dialogue. It worked so well that I wrote twenty pages in one sitting. But, I could only write that script up to a certain point and I couldn’t understand why. Four years later, I finished it, and then, I understood.

I had to live more life in order for that story to be authentic, or even to know where it was headed. The arc all of the characters experience throughout their one strange, magical night, is the same self develppment arc I myself went through during those four years. My work is about truth. I didn’t realize that until I just wrote it. So that’s fun.

I’ve learned along this journey that fear is not something that can stop you unless you allow it. I’ve learned that courage is a side effect of conviction. Coming from someone who refused to do anything that scared him into his mid thirties, that’s saying something as I now understand that facing fears in how you not only overcome them but take control of your destiny. I’ve also learned that choosing your worth is more important than choosing a job where you’re put down or treated unjustly. Somewhere along the way, I realized that no external force or pressure is worth losing parts of yourself to. After resigning from my first writing job, which had come to me completely out of the blue, right as I had just quit another job on pure faith, I knew the path I was one wasn’t just about succeeding financially, but rather, it was about my fulfilling the potential I knew I had inside but had never allowed myself to go after.

That year, without a job, when I knew, but couldn’t explain how, that I wasn’t meant to get another job but solely work on myself, heal my traumas while learning to release worry, doubt, fear– that year was one I wouldn’t have wished on my worst enemy. Still, I can’t explain it to people other than to say I was guided, by what, I’ll leave to you to decide, but I knew in my heart I was doing what I was meant to be doing and in doing so I became someone who doesn’t fear losing a job or taking on great responsibilities, or even a leadership role. The hardest year of my life was one of breakthrough and emergence. Again, sounds dramatic, and it was. It was in the shedding of old beliefs created by trauma and self doubt that I lost my desperation for success, knowing I would achieve it, but also having no attachment to it, as I finally knew I was enough, regardless.

When I truly had run out of money, and had no recourse, I looked to the sky (bathroom ceiling) and surrendered the worry, the fear, the uncertainty to God. When I did, money began to flow, and I got an invite for another Youtube writing job, again, out of the blue. This time, during the interview, I had no fear. That job has sustained me since, though now, again, that opportunity has gone. And again, I am not afraid, I am simply following the guidance as I have been for the last three years, and in doing so, I’ve seen how much I’ve grown, I see the patterns which took me through each, impossibly harsh season of life, and how I came out on the other end.

This gives me perspective and insight into the human condition from a macro and micro viewpoint. I see now how we grow and evolve through obstacles which turn into lessons, as long as we don’t give up along the way. This mirrors the journey that fictional characters in the works I write have to navigate in order to be fully actualized humans, though now I have a personal knowledge of the journey rather than a theoretical one.

I may sound insane to most people, but now, I truly believe that the universal structure of “Story” has always resonated with us, through generations, since the beginning of man, because there’s truth in it. As long as we answer the call and trudge on through the obstacles, learning and evolving as we do, rather than allowing fear to keep us stuck, life and story seem to follow the same pattern. And those who’ve traversed through it all, ultimately come out on the other side aligned with their true and fully actualized and authentic selves, rather than operating from the ego, which aims to keep us comfortable and safe.

What I want people to learn from my story is that, success isn’t just possible, it’s inevitable, provided you take the steps required. We all have something that drives us, for me it’s writing and sharing my unique, once-in-human-history perspective of life, as we all have one solely our own. I follow my calling blindly and it always seem to get me where I need to be, even if it’s not what I want for the moment. Follow the calling of your heart, know the unknown is where all you want don’t have lies, and become the person you know you are. If you build yourself up trust yourself to get through the hard times, nothing can stop you.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
In my time in the city, I’ve enjoyed doing distinctly L.A activities like going to a taping of Jeopardy, the price is right, America’s got talent.

The New Beverly theater is a great place to watch old classics, the crowd is always fun.

Also for movie fans, Foxfire Room is where some of the Paul-Thomas Anderson movie Magnolia was shot, and for rock fans, the Kibitz room/Canter’s Deli, is where Guns and Roses got their start.

I also worked as a security guard as Warner Brothers and recommend the tour, being a movie studio never gets old. Warner is great for Gilmore Girls fans as well.

Sunset Boulevard is packed with classic comedy venues though I also really like Flappers in Burbank. Blast from the past, also in Burbank for classic toys and comics, be kind rewind for VHS collectors.

O/Melveny park in the valley for hiking and picnics,

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I wanna dedicate this to Joy, who’s so cool and doesn’t see it. her external beauty is matched only by that which is in her heart. Also Chris. hello Chris.

Website: https://Mhmacedo.weebly.com

Instagram: @matheusHmacedo

Other: https://medium.com/@matheushmacedo

Image Credits
Suzanne Martucci Images