What happens when you land your dream job and everything you've been working toward becomes a complete nightmare? This is Patty Lin's story. She climbed the ladder as an award-winning television writer (often the only Asian person in the room) only to be confronted by discouragement, burnout, and toxicity.
Ever since Patty Lin retired from television writing at the ripe age of thirty-eight, people have asked her: "Why would you quit such a cool career?" Especially when they find out she worked on some of the most successful shows in television history. But what if achieving your professional dreams comes at too high a personal cost? That's what Patty Lin started to ask herself after years in the cutthroat TV industry. One minute she was a tourist, begging her way into the audience of Late Night with David Letterman. Just a few years later, she was an insider who-through relentless hard work and sacrifice-had earned a seat in the writers' rooms of the hottest TV shows of all time.
While writing for Friends, Freaks and Geeks, Desperate Housewives and Breaking Bad, Patty steeled herself against the indignities of a chaotic, abusive, male-dominated work culture, not just as one of the few women in the room, but as the only Asian person.
Funny, eye-opening, and sobering, this inside-Hollywood story will resonate with anyone who has struggled with their work and on their life journey. And it will inspire others to listen to their inner voices and know when it's time to get out.
What happens when you land your dream job and everything you've been working toward becomes a complete nightmare? This is Patty Lin's story. She climbed the ladder as an award-winning television writer (often the only Asian person in the room) only to be confronted by discouragement, burnout, and toxicity.
"Why would you quit such a cool career?"
One minute Patty Lin was begging her way into the audience of Late Night with David Letterman. Just a few years later, through relentless hard work and sacrifice, she earned a seat in the writers' rooms of the hottest TV shows of all time, where she was one of the few women-and the only Asian person. While writing for Friends, Freaks and Geeks, Desperate Housewives, and Breaking Bad, Lin steeled herself against the indignities of the cutthroat TV industry and its chaotic, sexist, crushing work culture. Realizing that the only script in life you can write is your own, she fearlessly walked away.
This funny, fresh, eye-opening, and inside-Hollywood story will resonate with anyone trying to find their way in the world-and will inspire countless dreamers to listen to their inner voices and know when it's time to get out.
