Over the years I’ve had the good fortune to work with, and/or get to know a number of extremely talented people. One such person is Dave Yasuda.
When I first met Dave, he had been working for Mediaphex, which had just recently merged with a handful of other companies to become Wirestone. He went on to spend several years with Wirestone, before moving over to Oliver Russell & Associates, most recently as Managing Director.
Then, on May 15th of this year, he did something that made me smile just a bit.
He left.
Not because he was unhappy with his job, or dissatisfied with the agency for any particular reason. Rather, he left to go make a movie.
See, in addition to his professional career, Dave has also been an avid and successful film producer. He was involved in the production of Tattoo: A Love Story a few years ago, and is now serving as Executive Producer of a film that is tentatively titled The Fifth Truth.
Dave left the comfortable confines of a steady gig with benefits to spend six months producing a film that everyone hope, and fully expects, to be a success. He made the leap and chose to follow that dream a little further down the road, and for that I have a great deal of respect and admiration for him.
This little snippet from his MySpace blog pretty well sums it up:
“Is it scary to leave a well paying job with benefits for a six month gig producing and directing? Shit yeah, but man, it’s a good buzz!”
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