We met up for coffee when I was in L.A. and this time the conversation had a different tone.  In fact, I think I saw a light bulb flickering over Sam's head.  It wasn't quite on but it was clearly not burning out.  Rather than talk about losing a job, we discussed the big picture. As some of you know, I don't wave a magic wand and suddenly The Great Job in the sky lands in your lap.  Rather I ask, "So, what do you want to do?"  Sam got asked that question.  He replied, "I'm not interested in, what's that phrase you use to describe a large part of the news business?"  I laughed, "Oh, you mean 'making sausage.' Others call it 'feeding the beast.'"  Sam said, "Yeah, I'm no longer interested in making sausage."  

 

On our "New U" project in Los Angeles, we have a participant who was doing well in commercial TV and offered a nice new contract.  She walked away.  Instead, she is choosing to build a media business. I told Sam I hear a lot of that these days. To be sure there are countless people who want to work for a large, well-branded company with a paycheck that shows up every two weeks (direct deposit) and access to subsidized health care.  This is not a criticism of those who have that. Not at all.

 

Sam is at a place in his career and life where the daily demands of a regular media content creation job are no longer enough.  I suspect millions of workers are struggling to determine what's next.  Sam will be fine.  In fact, I'm expecting a phone call in the not too distant future letting me know he has landed work and traveling to an exotic location and feeding a very different kind of beast.