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I think we're all here on this earth to fight our fears. Fears that we inherited from a past life, or fears that we picked up along the way. That is everyone’s mission. And if you fail at fighting your fears, you tend not to have a very happy life. Some people are better people than others, some people have sketchy morals, some people might be evil. But if they fight their fears, life will reward them. Life rewards people who fight their fears and it punishes people who don’t. Judgment is the root of all evil. If I could change lives, it would be to be a major league baseball player. That’s what I wanted to become. But I realized early on that’s not why I’m here. It’s the pain of wanting something so bad but realizing that you’re not talented enough that is a great pain but it teaches you a whole lot about who you are and what this world is about. I love spying on other people’s conversations. I’m obsessed with knowing what people are thinking and talking about. I can teach someone the game of American Football in 15 minutes and make them like it. I take what they love most and use Football as an analogy of that and turn it into poetry for them. It could be the only true talent I have right now. Baseball is a different sport. It’s so complex in its simplicities that it takes years to truly understand. That’s why it’s the greatest invention mankind ever created. I love baseball more than I love anything else, minus a few people. Anyone who says that you can’t make money making short films doesn’t know what they’re talking about. You can make money making shorts. You just have to understand business. Never work with someone, for someone or hire someone who thinks they’re doing you a favor. It will always end badly! Every relationship has to begin on equal grounds or else it won’t work. I directed and produced 9 films in 15 months. It has given me notoriety and has made me truly understand how to creatively collaborate with people, but it was too much. It burned me out. I developed ulcers and couldn’t get these films out of my head. I was editing up to 5 films at a given time with different editors. I became obsessed with just these films. I wasn’t living my own life but living the lives of these films and trying to give birth to them. The old cliché of “Stop and smell the roses”. I now understand that. After we finished editing the Bravo film The Yard Sale, I crashed and couldn’t think of even talking about another film for months. But there was still one more film to complete. I couldn’t finish it and got the Executive Producer and Writer to do it. I was done. I creatively crashed out. I now know my boiling point. I grew up in a Grocery Store. It taught me business and how to make money by selling things. I moved up the ranks very quickly as it was an environment I understood quickly. Sometimes all you need to do is take the crackers that were at the bottom shelf and bring it up to the middle shelf to change its sales 250%. I learned that people aren’t going to look for things, but you have to shove it right in their face for them to notice. You do that and it doesn’t matter how good or shitty the product is. People will buy it. But it doesn’t mean they’ll buy it again. Go into a Wallmart or your local high volume grocery store. Everything is displayed in its spot for specific reasons. Some of the brightest minds of our society make millions figuring out where the Macaroni and Cheese goes. Corporations like Coke and Frito-Lay spend millions of dollars for certain locations in the stores. It’s why they are huge and it’s why mom and pop shops are doomed forever. They will never be able to compete. The downside of Capitalism is the monsters certain people and their companies become. But it’s the only way to go in my opinion. Competition is key to human nature. We need to constantly be challenged. It makes us better people. Marketing, perception and location, location, location, are the most important things when selling a product. The quality of the product is way down the list of what’s important. The first thing in my opinion a film director needs to understand is how to communicate with people. If there was a choice to have lunch with Jack Welch or Martin Scorsese, I’d choose Jack Welch in a heartbeat. I think he’d have more to teach me on becoming a better filmmaker. Marty has his way and I have my way. We can talk, but we’re different creators. But Jack Welch is a master communicator who has motivated people to their highest potentials. I don’t care what anyone really thinks. Only about 5 people. There are a lot of energy suckers in this world and I realized that most people react on their insecurities and not what they really feel deep down. I can’t stand when people don’t tell me what they’re really thinking about something. People who hum and haw and skirt their thoughts because they either don’t want to face a conflict, worried that they’ll hurt your feelings or are in denial with what they are really feeling. I can’t stand these people. And the curse that I have is that I know everytime when this is going on. I don’t understand people who don’t like sports. I went out of my way for years to try to understand these people, but I don’t. Sports teach you so much about life and why we’re here. And it tells you so many secrets on becoming successful and obtaining your goals, that people who don’t watch it are missing out on a lot of things. I tend not to trust people who don’t like sports. What fears do I have? The fear of being wrong. The fear of doing business on the telephone. The fear of not being great. The fear that no one will show up to our events. I go through this every single time. I get paranoid for 15 minutes before the event starts. My biggest fear is the fear of not being prepared. I have those going to school naked dreams all the time.
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