I decided to crawl into bed and listen to This Week In Tech #27 tonight, figuring the geek stuff would put me right out. It did in fact do the opposite.
The show had a lot of discussion about how we're going to get content in the coming months and years. Everything is changing, and it's going to happen no matter what Hollywood and network TV does. Being able to buy and watch an episode of Lost on your iPod seems insignificant to analysts right now, but it's the first step in something that will evolve.
The Internet is finally starting to get to a point where the concept of "anyone can be a star" is crossing over to audio and video. You don't need a television network to get your shit in front of people anymore. There's no telling how exactly you might make money yet, but that will eventually get worked out.
My mind is pretty clear on this. There is enormous potential to catch the front of this wave because it's stuff I already know how to do. I'm a couple of key items away from even owning all the gear to do it. While geeks get their hands on DV cameras with no lighting or decent sound (and the inability to understand deinterlacing), I can do it all... today. Even if I don't do the stuff myself, I can do it for others and get paid. I've had the skills for more than a decade, and I own most of the gear. Only the medium has changed.
It has finally dawned on me that this is what I need to do. These are the kinds of services I can offer the world, and I already have a particular client that I'm going to prove myself to. From there I need to map out a business plan, figure out how to quickly pay off the debt incurred by capital expenditures, and make a name.
There are more details that I've scratched out here on paper, but what an epiphany...
You can do most anything if you put your mind to it and give yourself deadlines to work towards. The hardest part is keeping the energy up when you have the option to not do something. It's why Gordon has so many good ideas, but never really followed through on them.