Prologue Profiles

"I'm 27 years old and doing what I want to do every day - [it] shouldn't be like that - I should be working for the man. And that thought in the back of my head is my biggest fear and it's also what motivates me to keep being better and do what I do." - Josh Senior

After college Josh struggled to find work in his major of international relations, it was then that he decided to point his career towards his passion for video post production.

Over the next 4 years Josh went from unemployed dreamer, to company employee, to independent freelancer, to the leader of a team of freelancers, to now the founder of Senior Post, a digital post production house located in Dumbo Brooklyn with clients such as Vevo, Levi's, and Nike.

You'll hear Josh discuss how he used his passion to drive his career, the motivating effects of fear, and that success is not a one man band.

"Nothing mattered to me anymore but what I wanted." - James Dumapit

After several false starts with college and struggling to follow his passion of screenwriting, James was living with his parents in New Jersey and was unsure about his direction in life. 

James switched up his situation when he turned his attention to his hobby - cooking - and created a whole new path for himself.

In 2009 James moved to Austin to attend the Texas Culinary Academy and soon began working at Uchi, a James Beard award-winning Japanese restaurant. Earlier this year James became a junior sous chef at their new restaurant, Uchiko and has had his own items featured on the menu.

In this interview conducted in Austin, you'll hear James discuss his path from career frustration to self-creation, the perils of perfection, and that if there's something you want to do, you should probably go do it.

"Being afraid is part of the job. If you're not afraid of anything then you're probably not pushing yourself all that hard." - Kathryn Minshew

After college Kathryn worked at McKinsey but she quickly knew management consulting wasn't for her and started looking for something new. Kathryn was frustrated with the available job search tools and realized she wanted to create a career resource of her own.

In September 2010 Kathryn launched her first attempt called PYP with 3 partners including Alex Cavoulacos who she had met at McKinsey. PYP didn't work out and in August 2011 Kathryn, Alex and Melissa McCreery, also from McKinsey, launched The Muse a website that gives you a look into the careers and companies you're curious about.

The Muse now reaches over 1 million users and features video profiles of companies such as Facebook, Gucci and Pinterest.

You'll hear Kathryn discuss how she turned her career confusion into a source of clarity, the importance of polite persistence, and that sometimes the best opportunities come from failure.

"If you don't take the chance you can never reap the benefits." - Justin Bridges

Originally from Atlanta Georgia, after college Justin found himself working in finance at Goldman Sachs in New York.

He soon realized he wanted to follow his passion of photography.

And so he did.

In the fall of 2010, Justin left Goldman, started up his photo blog called Tucked, and landed jobs in the fashion world.

As of this year Justin now works full-time as a photographer shooting for clients such as Giorgio Armani, Steve Madden and GQ.

You'll hear Justin discuss how he went from working behind the desk to behind the camera, the importance of practice, and that the best way to manage your fears it to drop them.

"Telling someone to 'Follow their passion' can actually get in the way of their goal to end up passionate about what they do ." - Cal Newport

Cal is a student of success.

While in college, Cal wrote his first book, How To Win At College. It was published by Random House.

For his 4th and latest book, So Good They Can't Ignore You, Cal sets his sights on the working world and claims that the idea of "following your passion" is bad advice.

Meanwhile Cal works full-time as an assistant professor of computer science at Georgetown.

On this Skype interview you'll hear Cal discuss how he broke in the writing world, the problem with the passion mindset, and just because you don't love every single minute of what you're doing that doesn't mean you should give up on it.

"Deep down, if you want something to happen, you can make it happen." - Tracy Weiler

For the past 7 years Tracy has been growing her career as an actress in New York City, landing national commercial gigs and movie roles.

She's now living in LA as she's co-producing her own TV pilot called 'Hot Fail' along with Episode 002 guest Tim Drucker. (Tracy actually played a cheerleader in Tim's off-broadway musical 'Fat Camp'.)

The two successfully funded the pilot on Kickstarter which allowed them to shoot it in LA last month.

You'll hear Tracy discuss her path from landing zero gigs to creating gigs of her own, how to deal with hearing "nos" at auditions, and that if you believe in yourself, you can't even imagine what you're capable of.

"Put yourself in the position to succeed. If you want to climb to the next level, put yourself in the position to do that." - Dan Teicher

Since he first picked up a guitar in the 5th grade Dan's life has been about music.

Dan now lives as a musician full out - as a composer writing scores for documentaries and commercials and as a performer in his band The Ludlow Thieves, putting on sold out shows at the Bowery Ballroom and Mercury lounge.

You'll hear Dan discuss his path to matching his life with his love, some beautiful creations by the producer himself and how handling risk is all in how you look at it.

"If you can have this really weird life where you get paid to make people laugh it's like I don't need people to inspire me to do that. I just will do it on my own and be very grateful for it and then die within 60 years and I'm A-Ok with all of it." - Scotty Landes

While in college Scotty knew he wanted to become a comedy writer.

After scraping by for years in NYC he got his first gig with only $400 left to his name.

He's made the most of that opportunity and is now the co-executive producer of MTV's Money with Strangers and a writer for Comedy Central's Workaholics.

On this Skype interview you'll hear Scotty discuss his path to breaking into the comedy writing biz, his unusual way of interacting with his Twitter following, and how when the door opens, be ready to walk through it.

"It's the creative process to bring something that never existed before to the store — and then making it successful in that store — that's been so exciting for me." - Tom Donigan

Tom was tired of his law job and wanted to start a food business somehow.

In 2010 he called together his friends and now business partners, Matt Levey and Scott Fiesinger, for a meeting where they ended up co-creating Field Trip, an all-natural beef jerky made in upstate New York.

Field Trip is already available in Wegman's, Fresh Direct and even JetBlue planes.

You'll hear Tom discuss Field Trip's journey from initital idea to significant sales, how to successfully work with friends, and that when you understand your passions you understand your life.

I always said I didn't want to be a lawyer because I didn't want to work as hard as my Dad [Laughs] but now I realize it's not just because he's a lawyer - he works for himself - and so I'm going to be working just as hard but when you find something you love it makes it worthwhile. - Pamela Kalmus

Since she was little Pamela has wanted to do her own thing. Doing what exactly, she didn't know.

That's all changed as Pamela is the founder of Mani Diaries, a manicure management iPhone app which she launched September 2012 and now has 36,000 users!

Pamela's created Mani Diaries without any partners or any previous tech experience and while holding a full-time job.

Just a side note that I actually knew little Pamela as we were neighbors growing up in New Jersey.

You'll hear from a first-time tech entrepreneur who has funding on her mind on what it's like to be in her shoes and the courage it takes to have a dream.