Aspiring Screenwriter Proves One Can In Fact Miss 100% Of Shots They Take

LOS ANGELES, CA—A naïve smile lights Jamie Yarborough’s face as he deletes the latest message from his email inbox. It’s the latest in a long line of agency rejections for the aspiring California screenwriter, but he doesn’t let it get him down.

“Well, it was worth a shot!” he says cheerfully, his shaky voice betraying his frustration as his eyes begin to gloss. “It’s like my dad always tells me: you miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.” 

This sentiment—originally spoken by Michael Jordan or Wayne Gretzky or Danny DeVito or whoever—resonates with the myriad struggling creatives out there in similar positions to Yarborough’s. People who have taken countless shots and still missed one hundred percent of them, sometimes even pre-missing shots they have yet to take.

For three years now, Yarborough has been striving to get his screenplay represented by an agent, only to be shot down time and time again by people who, as he puts it, “simply don’t understand his creative vision.” 

“The next guy will be it for sure, though,” he says with unwarranted confidence. “It only takes one.” 

When asked how many agencies to which he’s submitted his screenplay, Yarborough boldly answers: “About two hundred and seventy or so. But the script is gold. The characters leap off the page. The plot has heart-pounding action, gut-wrenching drama, gut-busting laughs…it's the complete package. And it’s only a matter of time before it lands into the hands of someone who sees that.” 

For those of you keeping score at home, that’s rejections-270, Yarborough-0. 

“It’s no big thing,” he insists. “I may have tried 270 times, but the 271st time…that’ll be the charm. No doubt in my mind.”