From the course: Career Advice from Some of the Biggest Names in Business

Judd Apatow on how to succeed

- What do you tell people when they meet with you and they say, look I want to be you, you know, I need to be the next Judd Apatow. What do you say? - I wrote a book seeking that, which is just interviews with comedians, old ones and new ones. But it's tons of advice in there. And I gave all the money away to this charity 826 which provides free literacy programs and free tutoring. Generally I tell people don't be a (beep). I mean, that's the simplest thing, which is if people don't want you in the room, it's all over already. And you learn that in punch up rooms, sitcoms. Because there's 10 people around the table, line by line going through scripts, and there's always one person you're like, I wish I could remove that person from the room. I can not be in this room because that persons in the room. And that person usually does disappear. And so that is the first lesson, don't be that guy, don't be what we call a room killer. And I do think you should overproduce. And you want to be the person that it's fun to be with. In comedy we talk a lot about people who criticize but don't pitch fixes. That's always a problem. You hate the person that tells you what's wrong without then pitching what if we did this, what if we did that? I mean, generally, I think in film making it's cheap to make things. Where in the old days if I wanted to make a short film, I'd have to get super eight film and figure out how to make the sound match and it was a nightmare. Now you can make an amazing movie on your phone in the next 15 minutes. So if you're funny or have something to say, there literally is no barrier for entry. You can make it this afternoon, you can upload it to Youtube or Funny or die, and if it's incredible people will actually notice. And so there's no excuse not to just start.

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