Advice to my Younger Self: Bruce Van Dusen

How does your career stay on track at a time of very high unemployment, great technological change and enormous uncertainty? We explore these questions and much more with one of the advertising industry's most successful commercial directors. 

When he was 23, Bruce Van Dusen was desperate for a job. For the next 40 years, he thought that every commercial that he made would be his last. With a mix of audacity, determination, and hard work, plus a dash of deep personal insecurity, Bruce developed a remarkable knack for crafting stories that could be told in 30 seconds. 

His wise and highly entertaining new book is "60 Stories About 30 Seconds: How I Got Away With Being a Pretty Big Commercial Director Without Losing My Soul (Or Maybe Just Part of It)."

We discuss some lessons Bruce learned along the way-- lessons that he wished he had known when he started out in his crazy, fast-changing industry. Such as: Go to a meeting any time anywhere; Treat all famous people like they're not; Nothing lasts forever unless you tinker with it all the time.

Listen to Crazy Eddie "I Know He's Crazy, But Is He Alive?", one of the many hilarious stories from Bruce's book here.

Recommendation: Jim is reading "Made Men. The Story of Goodfellas", by Glenn Kenny.

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