I was a digital compositor.
Working on Star Wars Episode VIII (the rock levitation scene).
Then my eye got f*cked up -> weird autoimmune thing that made my vision blurry and eye itchy. Hospital couldn’t figure it out, just said I might go blind.

I tried everything to keep creating. Sunglasses at my computer. Different monitors. Eye drops. Nothing worked. Too painful to keep staring at screens.

I was ready to resign, then the company offered me a management role – for 120+ artists, which I took as a great new challenge and a way to stay connected to the craft.

Then I started hearing it.
A senior artist: “I guess comp was too intense with your kid now.” Another one: “Congrats, you’re not on prod anymore!” and a few others like this.

Part of me still missed the dopamine hit of finishing a complex comp.
I went from debugging node trees to debugging why Tom won’t talk to Alex. From solving tech issues in hours to dealing with interpersonal conflicts that dragged on for weeks…
The thing is, I loved the craft. I didn’t leave because I sucked. I left because my body forced me to.

But hearing that sh*t made me defensive. It also made me curious.

Why do people actually believe managers are failed individual contributors?
After a few years and different HR roles, I figured it out.

Most of the time, they’re right.

Most managers DO take the role for the extra money and better title.
* They don’t study management like they studied their craft.
* They don’t practice difficult conversations.
* They don’t learn psychology or team dynamics.
* They show up, push tasks around, and collect bigger paychecks while thinking that people are annoying.

No wonder some people think we’re the ones who failed.

I realized I had two choices:
Be another manager who proves the stereotype right,
or get obsessively good at this new craft.

Turns out managing creatives is as complex as any technical skill.
Maybe more.

You’re debugging humans instead of nodes.
Scaling talent instead of scripts.
Creating culture instead of look devs.

The managers who actually make you better?
They didn’t accidentally get there. They studied this stuff. They practiced! They treated leadership like a craft worth mastering.
Just like we used to treat our original skills.

I couldn’t be a compositor anymore, but I could aim to become a legendary manager.

There’s a difference between surviving in management and mastering it.

Sept 16-17-18: 3x evenings for people who want to prove the stereotype wrong and master:
* Delegating without disaster (stop being the bottleneck who “does it faster myself”)
* Building solid confidence as the new manager (even when you’re younger than your team)
* Influencing without the title (get buy-in from peers who don’t report to you)

Because if you’re going to be a manager anyway,
might as well be legendary at it.