We've definitely had our share of ups and downs as a group, and there were times we've faced some pretty big challenges, but we were able to get through these times, which allowed our bond to grow stronger.
I had some tough times. Now that I look back on it, I'm very grateful for those times. I know now that I needed them. But at the time you think, 'Man, I wish I could just get to the major leagues!'
Actually, when I fought in PRIDE, we had the best fighters in the world. Back then, the UFC had a very serious and big crisis; they were going through some tough times trying to get top fighters. All the best fighters were in PRIDE.
My first couple of years in the league left me very unstable. I had some times where I played well, and I had some times were I really did not get the opportunity. After Rick Pitino gave up on me my first year, people were like, 'He can't play.' So I had to get over that hump.
I've been going a long time now along the way I've learned some things. You have to make the good times yourself take the little times and make them into big times and save the times that are all right for the ones that aren't so good.
I think that if you run a big company, you've got to, four or five times a year, just say, 'Hey team, look, here's where we're going.' If you do it 10 times, nobody wants to work for you. If you do it zero times, you have anarchy.
All of human history is about the going from sudden fat years to the sudden lean years. We've always had good times and bad, and we've had ways of managing the bad times. We have ways of insulating ourselves, making ourselves less sensitive for the bad times by having things like grain stores, for example. Pretty much every civilization that's lasted for any reasonable length of time has some food management principles behind it. But what's been happening over the past thirty years is it's failed - the insurance policy.
Honestly, because of the way women were treated, I wouldn't want to go back to Puritan times. I'm far too outspoken to be a woman in Puritan times.
These are people who don't believe the government can possibly get too big. It's not possible for it to get too big. It's not possible for the government to get too powerful. It's not possible. And yet they are worried at the 'New York Times' about what is happening to it under the guidance of the presidency and Mr. Obama.
Two of the last four executive editors at the New York Times were Johannesburg bureau chiefs at some point, Bill Keller and Joe Lelyveld. This is a very prestigious post and I was like I don't know 28 years old, which at the Times is very young, I had the temerity to put my hand up for that job. I don't think I slept a single night of those six weeks that I spent in Johannesburg. It was an unbelievable experience, and I think I did okay.
If you can think of all the times in your life, some of the happiest times were probably when you were laughing. And some of the worst times in your life you were being laughed at.
There are times I try to look older. And then there are times I look too young.
We had some good times at school. I didn't know how good those times were until I left, but I guess that's the way of it
I know at times I've been very guilty of being too honest at times or too opinionated at times and it costs you a nickel or two.
In a world where the body politic has the attention span at times of a goldfish, yep, you've got to have the ability to reinvent yourself in this game many times.
I look back upon my times when more people were listening to what I had to say, and I didn't say enough.