"Give me a lever long enough and I could move the world." A quote by Archimedes the ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician meant simply the ability to do more with less. I had the pleasure of interviewing Carl “Video” Verna my former teacher in the Film program. I caught up with Verna and he spoke about the value of leverage.
In a sense, we can apply leverage in everything that we do in our everyday life. With leverage on our mind we can start on a personal level and even by reading this blog you are already doing so. Verna simply put it, we should learn to invest in ourselves doing so will gain skills and talents.
Verna told me of a story where he was a young personal assistant for Saturday Night Live. He told me of the struggles working for nothing, his work going unappreciated, and trying to network. After working there for six month he met with his Executive Producer and asked for a full time position and full benefits. Verna came with his ducks in a row highlighting his attendance, work ethic and his technical skill. Doing this made his boss take a stern look at his performance.
After a couple weeks had past Verna had not heard anything from his boss about it. He was then forced to do something he had never done. Verna then gave his boss an ultimatum if he doesn’t get what he wants he would call it quits. Verna was reminded about military training about always having an ace in the hole. He then brought his job offer from NBC giving him a strong BATNA this gave his boss an easy choice. Verna boss hired him after that.
"Give me a lever long enough and I could move the world." A quote by Archimedes the ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician meant simply the ability to do more with less. Leverage is something we all should take advantage of.
