The Exchanges

Q you How you figured this out? Because the manuals at the time, from what I understand, were super technical, and really designed for people with engineering backgrounds that were not accessible, and yet you were figuring out how to do things that most people didn't know how to do. Was it, how do you explain that to yourself? Did it, did it just come easy to you, or was it?

A No, it doesn't come easy to me at all. It's, it's like I feel, you know, like I'm a complete idiot as I'm doing it. You know, I think because it was this more friendly user interface on the Mac, and there were menus, and you could just try everything, and you're not going to break it. And I think the other thing that I would do is, I asked a lot of people for help. I've never been shy about asking for help. I'd get an assignment. I had an assignment to do animatics, an animated storyboard on a Mac, and I worked directly with William Shatner on One of the Star Trek movies, and I had never done anything like that, and I had to build the Starship Enterprise, and I had no idea how to build the hull. The hull is a very complex shape, and I was using all this sort of Macintosh, really early, three-D software, and so I just started asking people, you know, how to do it, going to user group meeting, met all these amazing people, and I was doggedly persistent and stubborn about wanting to learn it.

AI assessment note: “No, it doesn't come easy to me at all.”

Q How were you in school? Were you a good student?

A Well, in the beginning, I was, um, a straight A student, you know, and, uh, when I went to first grade, they actually skipped me up to second grade, and, um, you know, my strengths were in my verbal skills, and so I had perfect handwriting. I was really good at art. I was, um, I was a goody two-shoes. I liked to, you know, do what the teacher asked me to do. I wasn't a troublemaker. I was just, you know, trying hard to Succeed with the air quotes. Um, and that was, I think, also part of the beginning of another trait that I have that is not always a positive trait that I'm a people pleaser. And it carried into business life, into romantic life, into friendship life. It's just who I am. I'm this uber responsible person. And that's just been one of my coping mechanisms is, you know, I had to count on myself.

AI assessment note: “in the beginning, I was, um, a straight A student”

Q I read that for high school. You, you went to an experimental school in Hollywood. It's called Sherwood Oaks. Um, what did you study there? Was it like just kind of an environment where you learned by, by being around the people who, who choose to also be in that environment?

A Well, no, we did have some formal classes. You just had the choice whether to attend or not. And so I remember taking, um, Native American history. Um, I don't remember any science or math. I'm sure I didn't do any of that. Um, which is so funny that I ended up in tech, but you know, I took yoga. I remember that. I mean, it's very funny because we had a reunion maybe about five years ago and all of us had romanticized this high school experience. Education that we had had, and when we got together in this reunion, we just all discovered that we were raised by wolves, and it was terrible, and, you know, we would have never put our own children in that situation, and it was not quite, you know, animal house, but, uh, there was a lot to it that was, uh, questionable, but, you know, I credit this for so, I, I think this is something in me that so many people envy that I have, that I possess, which is this ability to Find what I'm interested in, and really dive deep, and take no prisoners, and, um, unapologetically just, you know, go at something new, teach myself, and it rewarded that. That was what was rewarded, not doing well on a test, or memorization, or getting into an Ivy League school. None of that, to me, was important.

AI assessment note: “Well, no, we did have some formal classes. You just had the choice”

Q How did it practically change the day-to-day? I mean, you guys were still the founders and still had most of the power, or did the investors start to come in and sort of put pressure on you to make certain decisions?

A Um, how it changed was You know, even though at the very first time we took on money, we owned more than 50% of the company, so we felt that we were still in control, and we had always felt in control before we took investors, even though we had a CEO, um, because, you know, we were clearly the owners. Um, but what happened was the power shifted, and the pressure that our CEO and all of our senior staff felt to perform To the investors, not to Linda and Bruce's value system, but to the value system of how will we get the most amount of money for this company was a very different drum than they had ever marched to before. And so there started to be a real conflict in terms of how, who to listen to and who's in charge and who makes decisions. And I realized very late in the game that the CEO had more power than I did. And more power than Bruce did.

AI assessment note: “what happened was the power shifted, and the pressure that our CEO and all of our senior staff felt”

Q I'm curious, and I've asked lots of people on the show this question, because, you know, look, and you probably remember this, if you were listening to this show 25 years ago, you'd probably be wondering the same thing, which is, how substantially has money changed the quality of your lives? Is it Significant or not really that significant?

A I think it's significant. Um, for, I mean, I'll answer, and I, I don't know what Bruce would say, but, um, I mean, even before we sold the company, Bruce and I were fairly wealthy because the company did quite well. So, um, we had gotten involved in philanthropy long ago, and we've continued with that. It's been You know, Bruce said he once heard an interview, um, I think it was Will Smith who just said, wealth is, is an accelerant. It's like, if you're a really greedy person, it makes you more greedy. If you're a really generous person, it makes you more generous. Um, but I don't think as people we've, we've really changed. I don't think I'm that different. I don't know.

AI assessment note: “I think it's significant. Um, for, I mean, I'll answer,”

Q So you had the store, and you, you get what, like bracelets, and things for your hair, and... Accessories to your clothing, and like, I don't know, safety pins?

A Well, you know, we had a lot of, um, celebrities who shopped in both areas, both on Melrose and on the Sunset Strip, so like, one story I love to tell is I was in the store, and there was this really small, kind of dark-skinned man who was draping leopard leggings over his arm like he was gonna, you know, open his own store with my inventory, and I was just sort of like, who is this person? And then he came up And he gave me his credit card, and it was Prince. You know, and, um, I had ZZ Top buy, like, a thousand Ray-Ban sunglasses for me one time to give out at concerts. Just stuff like that, you know.

AI assessment note: “we had a lot of, um, celebrities who shopped in both areas”