What? And Give Up Show Business

I love Ben Stein.  He has a good article on making it in Hollywood...or anywhere else.

Here are the highlights.

Learn A Useful Skill--yeah, but where does that leave the hapless Liberal Arts major?  Get just about any job you can in an industry you are interested in and you will develop a marketable, useful skill.  Most jobs want one to two years experience.  They don't really care about the experience, they just want to know if you are going to show up.  So get that job.  Or fake that job.  Steven Spielberg did.  He snuck into Paramount, found an empty office and acted like he worked there.  Pretty soon he did.

Make Yourself Invaluable--another way to say this is make you so necessary to the job that you will soon run the place.  Get so into it that they can't survive without you.''

To Serve Is to Rule-making yourself invaluable seques into this one.  When you serve you will soon, again, be running the place.  The more they depend on you the more invaluable you become and then the bucks and the promotions come.  If they don't, no problem because you now have the skill set that other employers will pay for.

There Is No Quitting Time--there is at the Post Office or a union job but not for you and your career.  "When in Rome..."  Work the long hours at least for the first year and don't complain.  At this point you need them more than they need you.  Work to turn that around.

Connections Are Everything--especially in Hollywood but also in any other job or career field.  I know because I, readers, have written a screenplay.  And I got it read and not just by anybody but CastleRock who did among other things "When Harry Met Sally".   How did I get in there?  My sister is Rob Reiners lawyer.  Hey, you gotta do what it takes.

There's No Such Thing As Being Too Likeable--people like to be around positive, successful people.  I'm the biggest cynic on the planet but I try, really hard, not to puncture people's balloons.  Might suggest other ways to do things but don't say that idea is the stupidest thing in the world.  Be positive, be happy.

See the rest at http://finance.yahoo.com/columnist/article/yourlife/5551

Note to a reader:  DRNEUT.. I sent you an email.  It bounced back.  Sent again and seems to have gone through.  Hope you got it.