At 26, He Was Too Old for the Mail Room, So He Kept Calling Until They Hired Him

Ari Emanuel, who would become one of Hollywood's most powerful agents and the model for Ari Gold in Entourage, kept dialing. Four or five calls a day, plus messages left with an assistant, plus recorded messages left late at night when no one would pick up.

On the other end was the man called Office Dad, who decided who got into the mail room at Creative Artists Agency. He had told Emanuel no. At 26, Emanuel was too old.

Emanuel was working for Robbie, an agent in New York whose empire was crumbling and who could barely help himself. Robbie did Emanuel a huge favor and called an old friend, Bill Haber, a co-founder of Creative Artists Agency, to get him an introduction.

Emanuel wanted to start at the bottom of the most powerful place in Hollywood. Agency co-founder Michael Ovitz had famously said getting into CAA was like getting into Studio 54, the invitation only New York nightclub, and Emanuel wrote, "That is a gross understatement. Nobody gets in." At the time, the agency represented roughly 90 percent of Hollywood talent.

That is why the rejection mattered. Most mail room hires were around 20 or 21, and the job paid little and carried no standing. Emanuel wanted it anyway because it was a foot in the door at the best place possible.

His bet was simple human nature. Emanuel figured that if a man arrives at his desk every morning to find 11 messages from the same person who left 11 messages the day before, Emanuel wrote, "you have got two options: call the person back or call the police."

When Office Dad finally picked up, Emanuel told him he wanted the job so badly he would sacrifice almost anything to get it. Office Dad said he had already given his answer. Emanuel answered, "I do not accept your answer."

Then came 10 more days of 10 or 11 calls a day. Asked whether Emanuel really acts that way, his friend Jimmy Iovine, a record producer, said, "Yes, he is exactly like this. If he wants something from me, he calls me 15 times until he gets it."

After 10 days of calls, Office Dad called back. All right, all right, he said. If Emanuel could get himself to Los Angeles in one week, the job was his. Emanuel moved across the country, thrilled to take work with little pay and no standing, because he had forced his way in.