You can’t win if you don’t play

I was sitting in an airport lounge this morning waiting to fly to LA for some meetings and I struck up a conversation with a fella sitting beside me. We were talking about the Super Bowl and gambling and the conversation eventually came around to lottery tickets. He was saying his Mother spends upwards of $300 a month on the lottery.

Apparently she always tells him, “You can’t win if you don’t play.” …readmore

I ran into a buddy the other night. He’s a musician, or more specifically, a rapper. He’s had great success with it and in the last couple years has decided to move into television development. So, like many of us, he started writing down some ideas.

His first show idea was pretty good and garnered some interest from people in the biz but ultimately but it never found a home with the Broadcasters. …readmore

After the final no there comes a yes

And on that yes the future world depends.

-Wallace Stevens-

Folks if you stick with this long enough, one day you will hear a “no” when you were sure you were going to hear “yes”. Plain and simple, it’s gonna happen.

I don’t say this to scare you, but rather, to prepare you, so you can ready yourself for that day, because, if you are not ready, it can wipe you out. Your work. Your time. It will be gone because a surprise “no” has the power to make a person want to quit. It can honestly feel like the world has ended.

But the world hasn’t ended. Not even close. …readmore

So you’ve set your goals and you’re working diligently towards achieving them. You’ve set a schedule and you’re sticking to it. You have short term goals and long term goals and you’re going slow and steady and ticking things off that to-do list. And then wham!

You get an opportunity, or a new job, or have a kid, and your schedule for success gets creamed. So waddya do?

Retreat? Postpone? Procrastinate? No. No. No. …readmore

I’m in New York this week and I’ve been thinking a lot about nutrition.

Having a couple of meetings a day for a few days in a row might not seem like much, but the stress and preparation one goes through for this can turn it into a job that feels like you’re working 24/7.

I think it started Monday morning when I got off my red eye flight from Vancouver to NY with only 3 hours ‘til my first meeting. I was starving, sleep deprived, and needed a good energy burst for about an hour.

I’ve spoken with nutritionists and they all say if you are tired, start with hydration. Apparently a lot of times when we feel tired what we are really lacking is water, not sleep. Now I was lacking sleep thanks to a fussy baby in the seat behind me, but hydration seemed like a good idea after the long flight anyways. …readmore

I’ve spent a lot of time talking about creating pitches, and not sharing points on your show, and what to look for in option agreements, but let’s go back. Waaay back to a time when all there was was an idea.

For those of you just starting out you may only have a rough idea for a TV show – an idea so vague that you can’t really describe it. That is great, but before you start practicing your logline on your friends and family you need to figure out what your show is.

Sure you’ll probably want to tell people you’ve had an idea for a TV show. And you’ll probably want to tell them you’re going to try to write it. …readmore