The Space between your ears

With all the talk about the prices of falling real estate, toxic assets (huh-huh, I said "toxic ass"), and all the other doom and gloom in the news, it seems like there's not anything worth investing in right now.

Of course when you're making $25K or less as an assistant or PA and trying to survive there's not a lot of wiggle room for investing in the traditional money sense. But that doesn't mean we should stop investing in ourselves.

Whatever we aspiring dreamers want to do, it is vital to always be learning. That's half the main reason we have these low-paying, sometimes demeaning jobs in the first place. And knowledge is half the battle, according to GI Joe. (Except that it was a really stupid movie. Hm.)

Absorbing all the information you can out of your position is crucial.

One way to do this is to be constantly reading; Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Billboard are all trades to check out weekly if not daily. Some good books include: The Mailroom, The Assistant's Guide to Hollywood, Save The Cat!, Confessions of a D-Girl, and tons more.

Script reading is vital, as is movie and TV watching - this is the ONLY industry we can actually view films and TV shows at work and say it is "research"!

Perhaps the biggest benefit is that with the more knowledge you gain, the less confusing things become and the less scary. Fear is almost always about the unknown, and educating yourself eliminates a lot of that fear. That leads to improved self-confidence and generally better performance, success and more friends.. Unless you're an arrogant douche, then it will just lead to no party invites and mass Facebook unfriending. Or you can be a nerd and blog away your knowledge.

Once you've learned all you can at any position, and you will know once you've reached it, at that point we have to decide whether it is time to move on or try to move up. The important thing to remember is that education is a lifelong process, whether or not we went to film school. If you want to get ahead in the communication/entertainment/information/whatever industry this is considered, you have to gain access to all the info you can. THEN you can take educated risks and invest in whatever path you want to take, and you will have a significant advantage over those who don't.