For African-Americans, it's still going to be - some people say double hard - I'd say four times as hard. Be an opportunist. Take advantage of your resources, because the only way to win is with education, self-esteem, having value in yourself.
Even as a college professor at Carnegie Mellon and Stanford, I saw myself as an entrepreneur, and I went out, took risks, and tried to invent new things, such as participating in the DARPA Grand Challenge and working on self-driving cars.
I lived a pretty chaotic life. I went to England, and I moved around, and there were a lot of things that I was interested in. I wrote poetry. I took photographs. I was a musician and all sorts of things. Nothing brilliant, but I did all these different things.
People will come up to me everywhere and say, 'Ah, I saw you on 'Larry King,' and, 'Ah, I saw you on 'Oprah.' And it's really nice, and a lot of people say, 'Is it a pain?' And I say 'No.' And it's not annoying.
People will come up to me everywhere and say, 'Ah, I saw you on 'Larry King,'' and, 'Ah, I saw you on 'Oprah.'' And it's really nice, and a lot of people say, 'Is it a pain?' And I say 'No.' And it's not annoying.
I was an opportunist and got away with things because I was very young, but I went to prison and came out and remade my life.
I believed in looking at people as individuals, not in groups. I hated groups; still do. And I saw particularly the university, the university artists really acted as a group. The others didn't so much, but the university people took advantage of that and behaved like a group, rather than as individuals. They had a lot of power that way.
I think it's very touching to see young people interested in what we did a long time ago. They don't say, 'Well, I saw this old film with you.' They say: 'I saw this wonderful film. I really love it.'
A grapefruit is just a lemon that saw an opportunity and took advantage of it.
When you're young and arrogant and cocky and feel you're invincible, you say a lot of mean things to a lot of people because you think you're better, you don't need to deal with people.
I don't want to say I took myself too seriously, but I put a lot of pressure on myself coming out of school. I saw so many people leave the business behind, certain opportunities disappear for folks who had to go into other professions. That kind of terrified me. As a result, I wanted things to happen really quickly.
I guess some people are brilliant enough to be brilliant on their own and never doubt anything and come up with fabulous things. But I think it's good to get into arguments with people and have them say, 'That sucks' or 'You're crazy' or 'That's cheesy' or 'What do you think of this?'
I think Google's a brilliant company, filled with brilliant people who have done brilliant things.
I think Coran Capshaw is such a brilliant entrepreneur and he always thinks about new stuff; the biggest stuff you can imagine. I know he's working on a lot of things for me at the moment, and I think it will definitely help my career to go to the next level.
Most people are fascinated by what I did as a teenager, but when I look back at my life, I don't think very much about those years. I was an opportunist and got away with things because I was very young, but I went to prison and came out and remade my life.
Entrepreneurs are all a little crazy. There is a fine line between an entrepreneur and a crazy person. Crazy people see and feel things that others don't. An entrepreneur's dream is often a kind of madness, and it is almost as isolating. What differentiates the entrepreneur from the crazy person is that the former gets other people to believe in his vision.