Not On My Watch
The sky is never falling even if it seems that way. Just “stay calm and carry on”, as another one of my idols, Winston Churchill, said. Accounting rules don’t define business. They are merely a backward-looking scorecard – an important one to be sure and I have the highest respect for that profession as they truly do a great job of governing themselves. But business defines business. The naysayers basically predicted the end of the movie business due to an accounting rule change the studios had to adopt. I firmly noted that we aren’t going out of the movie business because of an accounting change at Universal–at least not on my watch. I used to have a colleague who would always tell me “it is always darkest before it gets pitch BLACK”. He hated the entertainment business. I know that it is equally true that it is “always darkest before the dawn”. You just need to know what side of darkest you are on. Knowing what side of the darkness I am on may be one of the few skills I actually have.
