About If Happens™
The Story Behind the Platform
I've rebuilt my career from scratch more times than most people would survive. Not because I wanted to. Because I had to.
Each time, the path forward wasn't obvious. The systems weren't built for the transition I was facing. And the advice I got—"stay positive," "network more," "it'll work out"—didn't match the reality of what it actually takes to move from stuck to shipping.
If Happens™ exists because I got tired of pretending disruption is rare. It's not. And the people navigating it deserve better tools than platitudes.
The Arc
Early 20s: The first pivot
I started in mortgage banking and office products. I was good at both. Made decent money. Completely unfulfilled.
I'd resisted production work because I didn't want to be confined to LA my whole life. But I was eventually drawn to it—the combination of creativity and business, the challenge of building something tangible under impossible constraints.
So I quit. Walked away from a stable job to become a production assistant making $75 a day when I could find work.
I'll never forget the VP trying to talk me out of it. When he realized I was leaving anyway, he said: "Well, we all make mistakes. Good luck."
That was the first time I bet on myself instead of the safe path.
1990s - 2000s: Building in the gaps
I was an early adopter in the digital shift. CD-ROM entertainment in the '90s. Some of the first commercial entertainment websites. Developed the first digital products and e-commerce platform for Upper Deck as Executive Producer of New Media. Joined Electronic Arts to help launch EA.com as a destination for online gameplay—before online gaming was ubiquitous.
Then the dot-com crash. Layoffs. 9/11. Recession. Jobs dried up overnight.
I had a wife and two young kids. I was supposed to be climbing, not scrambling. But the traditional path wasn't available anymore.
So I wrote a business plan and launched a company.
2002 - 2013: Svengali FX
Without going to film school or working on a movie, I partnered with a film industry legend and founded a boutique visual effects company. We built it into a multi-million dollar business working on some of the biggest film franchises of the decade: Star Trek, Iron Man, Mission: Impossible, The Chronicles of Narnia.
It wasn't all upward. The 2008 financial collapse nearly killed us. In 2009, we grossed $48,000. My partner quit. I closed the office, put everything in storage, and kept bidding on projects from an empty studio.
The industry picked back up. We reopened. 2010 became the biggest year in the company's history.
By 2013, the visual effects industry had shifted. Work was bleeding overseas chasing tax incentives. Margins were shrinking. The risk of staying in wasn't worth it anymore.
So I pivoted again.
2014 - 2023: Scale
Video game visuals were starting to rival film. I joined Activision to head operations for a division supporting game development globally. Over nearly a decade, I helped build the infrastructure and capacity for Call of Duty's growth from $1B to $2B annually. My team grew to 30 people. The division I ran operations for scaled to 200 people across seven locations.
I thought I was at the top of my game. Then in 2023, I found myself unexpectedly unemployed with no clear path forward.
2023 - present: The realization
I figured with my track record, I'd land something quickly. Hundreds of applications later, mostly unanswered, I realized the system wasn't built for someone like me anymore.
I started noticing patterns on LinkedIn. Highly accomplished people in their 40s, 50s, 60s. Stuck. Not because they had less to offer, but because the filters (ATS systems, "culture fit," budget constraints) functioned as proxies for age.
The official unemployment stats said the market was strong. My lived experience said otherwise. And when I dug into the data, I found the gap: millions of people excluded from the count because they'd stopped looking, were underemployed, or had been pushed into "early retirement" that didn't pay the bills.
That's when it clicked. I'd been here before. Multiple times. And every time, the way through wasn't the traditional path. It was building something new.
Why If Happens™
I realized what I'm actually good at isn't just building companies or running operations. It's helping people navigate disruption. Identifying talent. Putting people in positions where they can grow. Building frameworks that turn abstract goals into shipped progress.
At Svengali, I'd recruit talented people from larger VFX companies and give them the opportunity to level up. Bigger titles, more responsibility, faster growth. At Activision, I built systems that helped teams move from stuck to productive.
Now I'm doing it at scale.
If Happens™ is a media and thought leadership platform for people at an inflection point. The ones who've been disrupted by age, industry shifts, forced exits, or their own ambition and refuse to drift.
I'm building the practical frameworks, tools, and guidance I wish existed during my own transitions. No fluff. No platitudes. Just what actually works when the traditional pathways are blocked.
About Jamie Venable
Three decades at the intersection of entertainment, gaming, and technology. Founder of an award-winning VFX studio. Operations leader for one of the biggest games in the world. Now in my 50s, building what comes next.
I believe reinvention is an inside job—but it's faster with better tools. AI fluency isn't optional anymore; it's a force multiplier. And the gap between "what if" and "what is" closes when you have frameworks that turn possibility into weekly progress.
If Happens™ is my commitment to packaging hard-won experience into plain-spoken tools so others move faster with less noise.
If this resonates, start here
Download the Possibility Framework and see if the approach works for you.