The Connection Newsletter 24 - College

The Connection Newsletter 24 - Don’t back down

September 10, 2018

Hello!

This is edition #24 of

The Connection

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A reader emailed to ask me for advice on what they can do in college to give themselves the best shot at breaking into the entertainment business after graduating. In full disclosure, my last stint in entertainment was 3 years ago. Also, I didn’t decide to pursue entertainment until after I graduated from college. However, I got my foot in the door with non-traditional strategies and have been answering questions like this more often, especially from Rutgers students, so thought it’d be useful to share my thoughts. Here’s what I’d do in college to help me break into the entertainment industry afterward.

Next, onto this week’s articles:

…

Like video games in the 90s, the internet in 2000’s and Facebook today, millennials served as an easy punching bag for any slight. But I think public discourse is starting to swing the other way as we realize how ridiculous it is to blithely stereotype an entire generation and blame them for avocado toast, laziness, and the death of chain restaurants:

“Millennials are known as entitled, but as a group, I don’t think we could have lower expectations… I don’t expect to own a home. I don’t expect to retire well, or at all. I don’t expect anyone to give me anything I haven’t explicitly asked for, and even then. I don’t expect it will ever be affordable to continue my education in any formal way. If a package gets lost in the mail, I don’t expect to see it again. I don’t expect the government or the banks or the universities to do anything that benefits regular people. I don’t expect them to hold each other accountable on our behalf.”

…

A multi-part breakdown of what’s going behind Netflix’s power play (hint: it’s not chill). This is just part 1 of (at least) 4. H/T to Ramit for introducing me. 

Takeaways:

  • Netflix is spending $12B on content, not $8B as originally reported 

  • Compare that to HBO: $2.035B in 2015, and $2.260B in 2017 

  • Netflix buys rights outright, which means no profit sharing in success

  • The company burned $2B in cash in 2017 (up from $1.7B a year earlier)

  • Reed Hastings says this will continue for “many years”

…

Two articles dropped this week about students making money as influencers on social media (mostly Instagram, but Snap and Twitter as well). 

I think we’ve only tapped the beginning of this, and it’s a win-win: Young entrepreneurs can learn about selling and branding much earlier, while small businesses can find micro influencers where they can deploy an advertising budget that gives the reach to take on entrenched brands.

…

. Favorite quote: 

“Part of what has made Daniels such an effective adversary to Trump is that she seemingly can’t be humiliated or scandalized. She doesn’t have a carefully crafted image or a political base to maintain. Threaten to leak her sex tape? “I’ll leak all of them, and you can have as many as you want for $29.95,” she says.”

…

. A good reminder that it’s foolish to blindly trust any company or institution (financial, government, etc.) to act with your best interests in mind. The first step in taking responsibility for your life is accepting the fact you can’t mindlessly delegate your future.

“To recap: Goldman, to get $1.2 billion in crap off its

books,

dumps a huge lot of deadly mortgages on its clients, lies about where that crap came from and claims it believes in the product even as it’s betting $2 billion against it. When its victims try to run out of the burning house, Goldman stands in the doorway, blasts them all with gasoline before they can escape, and then has the balls to send a bill overcharging its victims for the pleasure of getting fried.”

…

Quote I’ve been thinking about:

“Fights are not won on drama. Fights are won on the mundane things that you practice every day.”

- John Danaher

Thanks for reading!

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