Are you an Animal in the Wild or Animal in the Zoo

Meet Kuba Soltysiak.

Kuba is not only the Co-creator and EP of "Boo, Bitch" a limited series on Netflix starring Lana Condor, but he is one of my past students (USC 2017) who did something years ago, that I believe set him up beautifully for his future success. In fact, I'm not sure he was conscious of it, but as his teacher, I took note of it and I hope after reading this, you'll do the same.

At the start of every new class, I explain how the Hollywood system is set up like the animal kingdom. Each job is a species and your species lives in the wild or in the zoo. Wild animals are the artists, writers, actors, directors or any kind of creative that is not beholden to a consistent "home." They are freelancers who go from job to job or project to project without a steady salary, health benefits, the same co-worker etc..... Zoo Animals, conversely, are agents, managers, executives, business managers, lawyers etc... those who like a consistent paycheck, benefits, familiar co-workers and a more linear career trajectory.

While most of my students tell me they are wild animals, Kuba showed me he was actually a wild animal and wanted to live a very creative career.

I have an assignment called "The Selfie" assignment where each student was tasked to get a selfie in front of 7 talent agencies, 6 studios, 5 networks/streamer and 1 picture in front of where they wanted to work one day. The point of this assignment was to get to know the geography of the LA entertainment industry and build relationships with your classmates (who will become part of your professional network aka Personal Power Directory.)

For the "Dream Job" picture, most students were posed in front of Paramount, HBO, Netflix, Apple or another building, but not Kuba. Kuba's dream job was to make movies with his best friend. And that was the first thing that Kuba did to set him up for success. He identified that he was a "wild animal." He is a true creator. His interests were purely about creation (not the fame, money etc....) and he pursued that. He just kept making cool stuff in school, got great internships and his career unfolded.