I'm trying to have some longevity in this business. If that means not working for a while and just picking the right job, so be it.
If I really treated business like a businessman, I wouldn't have done what I have done - opposing China. No businessman in their right mind would do this because you know that there will be repercussions.
Generally, our first idea of what our business is going to be is not the right one. It takes a few iterations; to get there, you have to be able to let go.
It's my impression that investment in Europe is done for the right reasons. Europe is a very good place to do business; it's a large market.
We live in a time where government is not a leadership thing, it's more a business that's out there and running riot, so I guess the people have to go out there and say stuff.
I don't like the fashion world. It's too nasty, too rip-off, too hard. And now it's all Gucci and Prada; it's very difficult to make your own business.
Being a Navy SEAL and sniper taught me all about risk management. Take away all the risk variables under your control and reduce it to an acceptable level. The same fundamentals apply in business.
People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.
So I don't really have much rivalry, or if there is any, I don't really know anything about it. Because, you know, I'm not around girls like that. The friends I have in the business, I'm always really happy for them. I think we're always happy for each other. That sounds crap, but it's true.
More and more, our clients expect not only relevant advice, not only setting a road map or helping them plan, but being committed to business results.
When I started out in the duck-call business, my college buddies would come in and say, 'Robertson, you have a college degree. What are you doing?' Then they drove away saying, 'What an idiot!' Thirty-five years later, they're saying, 'The sucker's a genius!'
I've gone far in the movie business, but no matter how far I go, every time I pick up the phone to call Tom Hanks or Robin Williams, I wonder if they'll call me back. And you know what? Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't.
Compared to what they were, rock concerts now are like business meetings.
When I started my own business, my main reason for designing clothes was that I wanted to dress rock stars and the people who went to rock concerts. It didn't go beyond that aspiration at that point.
What makes the most money for this business? Dead rock stars.
John D. Rockefeller said that he found friendships based on business to be far more long lasting and profitable than the reverse. I think there's something to that. A company can end up being very Confucian, where the good of the individual is subjugated to the good of the whole.
What I learned from Rockefeller that's off-the-hook important is: You need to know exactly where you stand in a business at all times. Measure everything, because everything that is measured and watched improves.
One gets the impression that Elvis Presley does what his business advisors think will be most profitable. My advice to them: Put Elvis Presley in the studio with a bunch of good, contemporary rockers, lock the studio up, and tell him he can't come out until he's done made an album that rocks from beginning to end.
I think my legacy should be that when I started in show business, there wasn't no such thing as rock n' roll. When I started with 'Tutti Frutti,' that's when rock really started rocking.
Some people have a tendency to get knocked down in this business and sulk and whine, and they just create a rod for their back, really. You have to have broad shoulders and get through it.
