You may think that your best chance of success comes from showing off, trying to impress the film crew, and boasting about all of your additional skills. Once you've become a veteran stunt man, then sure, you will have more leeway, and you may even be consulted as a stunt coordinator or producer, but when you're trying to get your foot in the door, it's important to be as agreeable as possible.  You want to be remembered as someone who is easy to work with. Why? So you can get hired again. When you're following directions, it's important to be polite and reasonable when you interact with the crew. If you genuinely have a question about how a stunt should be performed, ask away, but don't nitpick everything that's happening or slow down the process. Being a stunt person doesn't mean falling out of a helicopter for three takes and then calling it a day. It can mean over 14 hours on a set, working nights, and staying mentally and physically alert throughout the process. This is a full-time job, and once you start landing enough gigs, you must be able to commit to the time that you'll need to succeed in your role. In the beginning, you may be juggling other work along with stunt work, but if you've hit the big leagues, you must be ready to give it your all. This means that you'll need endurance to succeed at the job. If you get winded after an our of fighting or feel ready for a nap after rock climbing for an afternoon, then you need to build up your mental and physical strength. If you're a true stunt man, then you won't be spending your life filming within a thirty mile radius of your comfy home, not even if you live in Hollywood, CA. You'll be traveling to the Caribbean to film a jet-skiing sequence. You might find yourself in Peru to shoot a rock climbing scene. You might even be in Germany for a high-speed car chase. This means long hours on airplanes, and needing to get over jet lag before you hit those jet-skiis. Sure, this will be exciting, thrilling work, but you'll need to be prepared for all of the travel it involves. As you get older, all of the traveling may become more difficult because you'll have to find a way to make time for your family, if you have one. Most stunt men are at the peak of their careers between their 20s and 40s, which means that you have to stay in the best possible shape during these years. This means not engaging in risky behavior, whether you're on the job or hanging out with friends, and avoiding overindulgence in food or drink, which can wear down your body and make you feel horrible when you show up to work. Eat healthy, get enough rest, and make sure to exercise as often as you can, doing a mixture of cardiovascular and strength training, so you're fit enough to do the job.  Another way to stay strong is to continue to brush up on your skills, whether you're practicing karate or swimming. If you want to stay physically strong, then you have to keep your mind strong, too. You can't let the dangers of the job get to you and you have to stay focused and positive if you want to succeed in the long run. Being a stunt man doesn't mean recklessly jumping out of three story windows, playing with fire, or crashing a motorcycle into a tree because you weren't careful. Stunt men have families, drive, and exciting careers, which means that they love what they do and want to stay alive to continue doing it. When you get training on how to fall without hurting yourself, drive without crashing, and swim without drowning, etc, you should heed those words carefully, and not go out of bounds to show off if it means risking your life.  A study conducted by the University of Illinois at Chicago showed that there were 37 fatalities on film or TV sets between 1980-1989 by stunt men and women alone; a study by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) showed that 4,998 of its members were injured between the years of 1982-1986, mostly because of stunts. This is a risky business, and you need to stay rational and focused if you don't want to become a statistic. Something can always go wrong, on the set of a Harry Potter movie, Daniel Radcliffe's stunt double David Holmes was left paralyzed and suffered serious spine injures, after a test run for a flying scene went wrong. He is set to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Even if you don't get hurt while demonstrating reckless behavior, you don't want to develop a reputation for being reckless, or no one will want to work with you. What producer would want the reputation of having a stunt man die or fall to serious injury on his set? You need to work on your risk-management skills, not your risk-taking skills. Being a good stunt man is all about being safe, not risking your life.
Follow directions. Be prepared for long hours. Be prepared to travel. Stay physically strong. Be a master at risk management.