From the course: Career Advice from Some of the Biggest Names in Business

Robert Downey Jr. on the value of input

From the course: Career Advice from Some of the Biggest Names in Business

Robert Downey Jr. on the value of input

- When you are talking to young people who want to make it an entertainment, what is your advice? And then, what's your advice for people who want to make it in the sustainability space? - Well, look, you know, life is always doing something, and tomorrow is like today, it's just a little bit longer. You know, patience is so critical I think particularly in this information age. I was really fortunate that I had came up in a time where it was very competitive and a lot of people were multi-hyphenates, had a lot of different skills, and I felt very much like I don't even know how to compete at an entry level in this wildly assertive business. And then I think part of it is you just get seat time, whether it's theater, or putting yourself on tape, or writing something. I mean, I think there's been an explosion of young artists who've just decided, my way in is to write my own ticket, that was not possible 25 years ago, absolutely not an occurrence. So, but like they always say, sometimes if you have too many options you won't be satisfied with any one you choose. I think if you put things in several smaller buckets, like these are the things I can do to hone my craft, these are the ways I can try to break into the business, and then these are the ways I can remind myself that life is 70% maintenance and 30% activity. I think Americans in particular tend to be all about output, we have to learn from our our brothers and sisters from older cultures that know that input is honestly what's critical, particularly if you're talking about being an artist. Now as far as the startups, and tech, and green tech, and all that fun stuff, you know, again, I think it's that it's a full time job and there's elements of luck, but I think a lot of it just comes down to, information is experienced nowadays. The more I can soak up, the more informed I can be, then my intuition feels safe to come out and start making connections.

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