I was recruited as a junior executive into a large media corp earlier in my career, and I will never forget my manager's closing "sales pitch" at a bar in midtown Manhattan: "Join us and become part of the group that shapes global culture. Where else are you going to go where you can have this kind of impact on society?"

It's an open question whether art influences society or vice versa, but I can tell you from firsthand experience that executives in show business have no doubt it's the former, and they revel in that power. It wasn't for me, I quit after a year.