If I had to give my advice to someone else starting the business, my standard answer is so, so true, and that's to learn the fundamental basics of this business. If you don't have a fundamental base to build upon, your house will fall, and you will never truly achieve the status you desire.
Life isn't about trying to be an expert in everything. It's about being an expert in one thing and offering it to the world.
Many people dream about being an entrepreneur, starting their own business, working for themselves, and living the good life. Very few, however, will actually take the plunge and put everything they've got into being their own boss.
A good director is not an expert in anything in particular. A good director just knows a little bit about everything.
Learning to read and write makes little sense if you don't understand what you're reading and writing about. While we may have forgotten, most of our early learning came not from being explicitly taught but from experiencing. Kids aren't born knowing hard and soft, sweet and sour, red and green. When the child experiences those things, s/he transforms them into psychological understandings. When kids play with other kids, they learn about others and about themselves. Learning the basics of our physical and social reality is what early childhood is all about.
If you're in the WWE, it's like show business boot camp. You learn a little bit about everything as far as show business is involved.
On every stem, on every leaf,... and at the root of everything that grew, was a professional specialist in the shape of grub, caterpillar, aphis, or other expert, whose business it was to devour that particular part.
When I was starting out, I would get printouts of what was being written about me that week. At first it was all good things, and then it started to turn. I very quickly learned, "This isn't good, this isn't helping me." But it was a very important exercise for me in terms of really understanding that one's sense of self is internal. I have had an extreme opportunity to learn that lesson, and I think it's been such a blessed fortune.
I came to music and knowing a little bit about life, and I came to music knowing a lot about business - and that's a real advantage. By the time I came to music, I had purchased real estate, opened restaurants, and been in the business world, so the music business didn't blindside me.
I had to learn the hard way. There was a blindness, without any education or will or drive. Everything I started in the beginning from skate shops to record labels to a million and one side hustles that I went in without knowing how I was going to do it, a lot of those ventures just went out of business.
I have become a subscriber for 'Business Week.' It teaches me a lot about business, and I have really started to get into it. I'm interested in business and learning about how everything works.
We commend GM for being the first out of the starting gate in the Great Plug-In Car Race of 2007. GM's announcements are the biggest victories yet for CalCars.org and other PHEV advocates. Now our campaign is in third gear. We'll work with the auto industry, government, fleet buyers and advocates to get to the day -- soon, not in a decade -- when customers can buy PHEVs as easily as any other car.
I don't call myself an expert because I've played experts. I know a little bit about very little. But it's very hard to not be drawn into saying something, especially if it has to do with the work.
I have two daughters, and they grew up and wanted to get into Instagram, and I didn't know anything about social media. I started it to learn about what they were starting to do and how they communicate with their friends. I opened an account. Very fast, in a few hours, I realized that I actually liked it.
Now I'm a scientific expert; that means I know nothing about absolutely everything.
We're a very active family, and I like everything in its place. I'm all about designing every little space. It will help me in the business of being a mom. Every single day is so crazy with my work that I just need to be able to come home and do that business as efficiently as I try to do my professional work.