I wrote a script by myself with no help of a coach, submitted it to several contests and didn’t win.

I received several notes that point out to where the script is lacking, which led me to think that it might be a good idea to hire a professional who has experience in the craft and can afford to give me perspective I might not have.

Yesterday I had a consult call with a screenwriting coach that I am considering hiring and his fee is on the higher end compared to coaches in the industry.

He was not trying to push his service. In fact, he didn’t bring it up until I asked.

And when I did, he said: ‘I just want to be frank with you. This is a big investment and it’s not an investment you should expect a return on. I am not one of those coaches who can tell you to invest $5K and you will make it back within a year. Almost no one makes it in screenwriting.’

My first reaction was to thank him for his honesty and frankness but the rest of the evening I was left with a huge disappointed feeling and did a self-coaching session with myself that went like this:

This is my new Circumstance: Screenwriting coach said I should not expect a return on my investment and that almost no one makes it in screenwriting.

What am I feeling now? – Disappointed, Doubt, Deflated, Defeated.

What am I thinking that is causing me to feel this way?

He’s a professional, he must be right.
Everyone said that to me all along but I didn’t listen.
What’s the point of spending thousands of dollars now if it’s money goes to waste.
What he says must be true since I didn’t win any screenwriting contest.
I know there are screenwriters who do make it but it must be because they live in LA, are younger than me, and more talented.
Maybe he was trying to tell me politely that I have no talent.

If I keep these thoughts and believe them, what actions they are likely to generate for me?

Not hire the coach.
Not work on making my script better.
Quit screenwriting altogether and look for a day job.

And what will be my results if I take these actions?

I will not make it as a screenwriter.
I will prove his statement right.
I will reject my chances before the industry get a chance to do so.

So after doing this mini session I realized I do not want to live in these future scenarios and so I am trying to see how else can I think about what he said in a way that will generate for me a motivated action to go for it anyway. I know I cannot change what he said or how he thinks.
So below is my desired model, which I would like help with:

C= Screenwriting coach said I should not expect a return on my investment and that almost no one makes it in screenwriting.
T= ???
F= (I would like to feel) motivated and determined (regardless of what he said).
A= I would like to show up in an even bigger and better way to prove him wrong.
R= (I would like the result to be that) I am one of the few that did make it.

I also tried to understand HIS model that caused him to say something like that.
While I haven’t inquired about Brooke’s coaching training, I am pretty sure she doesn’t tell potential clients ‘Just so you know, there is no return on your investment and almost no one makes it as a coach.’
That would be a lousy sales pitch if she had and far less people would enroll, I imagine. Which immediately sent my brain to say, “See? Brooke would not say that because people can make tons of money as coaches very easily but not in screenwriting.”

So I thought maybe he warns screenwriters to not expect that if they make this investment that they should come to him later on, complaining, if they couldn’t sell their script, so he decided he would say it upfront?

Would love help with this, please.