Tom Avitabile, Founder of the Online Academy of Creative Skills, recalls landing a job at NBC at the age of 14.

Born and raised in the Bronx, Tom Avitabile was intrigued by the power of computers at a young age. One day, while skipping school at the ripe age of 14, Tom visited a Manhattan office high rise in search of customers for a computer program he had designed. As he exited the elevator on the 5th floor of the building, Tom saw famed crooner Dean Martin, hunched over a monitor, editing a video with the actor Frank Gorshin. Before being asked to leave, Tom stumbled into the NBC news studio where he was inadvertently put to work running ticker tape news copy to the radio and tv anchors. What followed was a career in news, advertising, writing, and directing that has spanned five decades.

TOM AVITABILE, former Senior V.P./Creative Director at a New York advertising firm, is a writer, director, and producer with numerous film and television credits ...