Every issue a Field and Post member shares their biggest career break and their greatest professional mistake. First up is David Way, Senior Vice President at Great Pacific Media…
My biggest break. It’s a toss up between two.
There was a call that started me off. As a freshly graduated biochemist and young waiter working the lunch shift, I answered the phone and asked the caller how I could help. That conversation brought me my first spot in television as a volunteer researcher on Lorne Green’s New Wilderness.
But there was another big break call. After about a dozen years as a factual freelancer where I did just about everything from floor sweep to write, direct, produce and host and seven years as a network exec in Toronto, Margaret Mardirossian of Anaid Productions called and offered a position. I left broadcasting in Toronto and moved back to Vancouver, jumping full forward again into the thrill of unscripted development and production. From that break came many wonderful things, not the least of which are my three sons.
My greatest ‘mistake.’
This one falls into the youthful category of ‘not knowing what I didn’t know.’ I pitched a doc about a very special child and her family. She was the only person in Canada and one of only 26 known in the world with an accelerated aging disease. The Canadian and US networks said yes. Only problem – I didn’t have access locked down. Making that mistake taught me about gumption; making that doc was a privilege that taught me much more.
