3 Ways to Shift Everything - Puzzle Piece 2 🧩

“You see, when I was growing up, the two biggest voices in youth culture were rock 'n' roll and television. So I saw every reason in the world why the two should be somehow combined. But when I graduated every job offer I got was to join the mailroom of a big television network and learn "the ropes." The way "it's done" -- their way. I said, "no way." I ended up taking a job in the music industry so I could learn more about the business, all the while looking for a way to follow my dream.

“Then, about two years out of school, I saw my opportunity. Everyone said I was nuts when I quit a perfectly good job in the record business to start a cable music channel. But it meant everything to me. I was so excited, I even forgot to ask how much I was going to get paid. (Don't make that mistake.) And I wasn't the only one. Other people believed in the same dream - five to be exact. So in late 1980, the six of us joined forces to see how far we could take this idea of putting music on television.

“The big network broadcasters said nobody would watch music on television. They wanted no part of us. The advertisers said there wasn't enough money to go around. The established record companies - not A&M, of course - wouldn't even return our phone calls. Who needs TV, we were told, when we've got radio? The rock critics said nobody's going to watch an artist play music. And they all said - who could possibly need more than three TV channels?

“Well, one year later we went against conventional wisdom and launched our cable music service. We called it MTV. Today it is carried in 300 million households around the world and is the most watched network on the planet.”