Derek from Global Witness has connections in the Entertainment Industry from around the Globe. He was apart of the Production of Outbreak, a film that was released in 1995 in regards to an outbreak of Ebola. Interesting synchronicity, a couple weeks ago, there were several flights quarantined. The same day i did podcasts in reference to the quarantines, i also interviewed Derek. The interview was already scheduled and the podcasts and quarantines were random. i also talked about the film outbreak, without knowing Derek had anything to do with the Film. Only to find out later the connection. What are the odds? Grand Solar Minimum, Extreme Weather and more will also be discussed.

Unstoppable

An American Journey

By Derek Broes

Unstoppable

The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is the big event for any manufacturer in that industry, and in 2005 I was a part of the team from Microsoft, the perennial 800-pound gorilla of the show. I remember standing in the green room at the Hard Rock Club with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, prepping him with the “Rude Q’s” (also known as Rude Q&A’s), the difficult questions the press would likely ask. We had a big announcement coming up – the launch of the Verizon V-Cast music and video services that my team at Microsoft had put together with the telecommunications giant. The deal had been a year in the making and we were very excited. We had to get it just right, though; Steve was about to be on stage with Verizon’s CEO in front of several thousand members of the international press, as well as their colleagues, invited executives of wireless and technology companies from all over the world.

Deals like this between two major corporations are the pinnacle of an executive’s career, and if anything went terribly wrong, it could be my nadir. We’d gone through seemingly endless negotiations and technology hurdles to build such a complicated and groundbreaking platform, and I was more than nervous.

I made sure to have Microsoft’s marketing director present when preparing Steve, as well as our key executive who had handled the bulk of liaisons with Verizon. We were all a bit on-edge as Steve learned the details of the service and the agreement between the two companies – his first exposure to the full plan – just minutes before taking the stage. Though that may sound unbelievable, it was not uncommon in our business. We were very well equipped in giving Steve the download and it thrilled me to see that his incredible mind absorbed every detail of our 30-minute discussion. We headed for the stage relieved and confident in the abilities of our leader.

As I stood there watching Steve wow the crowd, my worries dissipated, and the full scope of where I’d come in life caused me to reflect back on my improbable journey to that moment. My mind raced back over the past 38 years of my life. It was as though a certain segment of my life was dying away, and something new was being born. How in the world had this all happened?

Four years later, I was again engaged in such a detailed reflection, only this time my future path did not seem so assured. Still, I was even more buoyant than I had been that day in Las Vegas. I was now the Senior Vice President of the digital division at Paramount Pictures in Hollywood, California. I’d traded the emerald city beauty of Seattle, Washington for the endless sunshine and traffic of Los Angeles, lured by a major movie studio environment where the executive parking lot was packed with Priuses, Mercedes, and BMWs like my own. I’d been at Paramount for four years, making half a million dollars a year, a dream life for most. Only now, hotshot studio executive that most people thought I was, I had voluntarily resigned and was driving out of that exclusive executive parking lot for the last time. The $80,000 Beemer was crammed with boxes of my belongings and I was, once again, acting on instinct to shift to a higher gear, following a path whose destination was not completely known to me.

Barack Obama had just been elected the first black President and the “company town” of Hollywood was largely ecstatic – production companies and major talent agencies had virtually shut down to work for the campaign the week of the election. In contrast, I was a conservative employee of a liberal movie studio and I had just voluntarily resigned during the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression. Why? Because I was prepared to take on a very different life to help average people survive the tough times that I knew were ahead. The world had become a very different place for me.

For two decades, I had been an integral part of making billionaires out of millionaires, and that all was coming to a screeching halt. While the journey of most senior executive lives is one of privilege, education, relationships and favor, I had none of that. In fact, I had just the opposite, on all counts. As I drove away from the studio on Melrose Avenue for the last time, my eyes were on the traffic, but my mind was racing back to a U-haul truck and a very different parking lot. I was thinking of where my business life had begun, the day I quit high school in the 10^th grade and, living in that truck I was driving, I began an American Journey that would take me to the top, and pinnacles no one who knew me would have imagined. And just like way back then, I knew that, somehow, the road ahead would be amazing.

Coming soon to Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com and book stores near you.