Start At The Top
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- Start At The Top
“Paying your dues” is for other people. Why spend years toiling away at low-end jobs when it’s possible to start right at the top?With passion and drive, you can go for what you want and achieve it. Mark Simon has done it… many times.
At 12, he had his own line of skateboards. At 14, he was superintendent of a construction company. While studying advertising in college, he drove past two billboards he designed and sold to local companies. With no writing experience, he accidentally sold his first book to a publisher. He went from being an assistant to running a department in three hours.
Mark sold his first training program to Keller Williams Realty, now the largest realty company in the world. It took him just 15 minutes to land his dream job with Steven Spielberg. It took him one call and one meeting to work on The Walking Dead. He landed Disney as his first animation client.
But with big swings, also comes big misses. He fucked up a deal to work with the director of the SpongeBob SquarePants movie. He screwed up an opportunity with animation gods Hanna-Barbera (creators of The Flintstones, Scooby Doo and many others). There are lessons to be learned from failures.
Dozens of stories and photos have been pulled from Mark’s amazing life to prove to you that you can get what you want without “paying your dues”.
Mark was inspired to write this book to guide and motivate his college-aged sons. The lessons he gained from each success and each failure are invaluable. He hopes these same stories will inspire you to start at the top.
Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter 1 – My Dream Job with Steven Spielberg In Just 15 Minutes
Chapter 2 – How I Landed My Job On The Walking Dead
Chapter 3 – How I Lost and Regained My Book Deal
Chapter 4 – I’ll Take The Lower Grade, Thanks
Chapter 5 – Is It Science Or Is It Art?
Chapter 6 – Is it an English Paper or a Job Interview?
Chapter 7 – Keller Williams is Calling
Chapter 8 – Well Hell, I Can Do That!