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Great advice from Nate (once again!). If I may add one thing: when you become "the boss", remember how frustrating it was and make sure you have a spine when it comes to your people. When I made E7 in the military, I viewed my job as a shield between the people above me and the people below me...

And when you're the showrunner, you should be the shield between the writers' room and the studio. Have the balls to tell the execs, "No, my people are GOOD." if that's the case. That's not to say that everything the execs are doing is wrong...

Hopefully by that point, you should have enough working knowledge of the BUSINESS of art that you can tell them their concerns are dumb so that they smile and give you an attaboy. (along the lines of corporate email speak: "I already fucking told you 30 GD times..." = "Per our conversation")

Don't be afraid to hurt feelings, either. We all need "cognitive recalibration" once in a while. I once had a first looey get in my face in front of a platoon because he wanted to have a dick-measuring contest. Kid was about 22, fresh out of West Point. I was fresh off my sixth combat deployment.

I pulled a quarter out of my pocket, flipped it to him, and said, "Here, kid, go call your mom and tell her you met a REAL soldier today."* Bottom line is to pick your battles, but when you do, put all of your fight into them. If you don't, you picked the wrong battle. CoS