You might not have heard of her, but you’ll definitely know of the legacy of Stella Adler.

She was one of the most influential and seminal acting teachers in the history of, well, acting.  Taking her cue from Stanislavski’s ‘method’, she taught among others Robert De Niro, Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, Harvey Keitel, and Warren Beatty.

So she was, y’know, pretty good.

I’m not going to go into too much detail about her approach – although her life and work were fascinating – what I do want to do is highlight one of her most famous quotes.

“In your choices lies your talent.”

For me, this is a quote that becomes more insightful every time I think about it.

Our talents – and by extension our lives – really are about our choices.  It’s not enough to just have an ability or qualification or talent, it’s about utilising those things…