Maurice Young

My very first business gig was rare coin trading at the age of 13 around the Philadelphia, Pa. area.  I could not apply for a business charter, but I still attended coin conventions and conducted business with local coin dealers, using my aunt whom I lived with as my bodyguard and chauffeur.  At the age of 16 I started taking pictures for fun at any event I attended: weddings, community sporting events, banquets.  Upon seeing my work, members from the church I attended liked my photos and asked me to photograph special events for them in which I negotiated a deal with each one, and started earning extra money from those assignments.  

After moving to Atlanta, Ga. I struck up a conversation with one of the television directors of the new church I attended on the subject of photography; So he offered me a challenge to operate one of the church's tv cameras during a taped special event.  I took him up on the offer - During this event I could hear through the headsets, comments about my accurate framing ability, and how quickly I was able to move in on the important action as it occurred - That was in 1991.  

Soon after that time I've been involved in several televised productions, a few independent film projects, and music videos.  While holding down my day job as a real estate agent & sales agent recruiter.  I had the highest number of sales associates out of the entire company in my down-line; I slept 4 hour nights back then. In 1995 I started taking the helm as a producer funding my own productions, and working on other producers projects which is what I do today. I am currently executive producer at Achiever Studios. a video production company in Atlanta, Ga.

As a television producer I had to learn a multitude of skills, the most important I have found were general business skills I've acquired just by dealing with all types of people from the various projects I've worked on. Learning entrepreneurial skills, sales, creative finance, attracting press, people/ time management, and creative promotion, are some of the things I find just as important as technical knowledge in television and video production.