For someone making a pilot, assuming the talent is there and you can maneuver the system properly, it's just a matter of standing your ground and trying to make something great until you are making enough money for the studio that they let you keep making it.

'Proof' is a really cool pilot that I was lucky enough to read by Rob Braggin for TNT that's about a surgeon who's an agnostic, tough, grounded, scientific mind and she's hired by a Steve Jobs-type who's just been diagnosed with cancer to focus on near death experiences and what happens when you die.

It takes more energy to give a damn than to not give a damn.

Everybody has talent, it's just a matter of moving around until you've discovered what it is.

Be talented enough to make it and stupid enough to keep trying.

Make sure to save for the future and keep making money!