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Michael Ovitz

26 statements across 1 episodes · 8 bullish · 3 bearish · 1 people on the record · first statement Feb 3, 2026 by Michael Ovitz · said 1 times in 1 episodes since 2026 · across every show →

On the record as a speaker too: Michael Ovitz's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.

Mentions by year

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Everything said about Michael Ovitz, oldest first

Feb 3, 2026
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ovitz: CAA recruited roughly 80% of executives internally or from standout competitors
“Matter of fact, we recruited, I'd say, 80% of our executives like that. We either groom inside or recruited them from the competition because they had our standards and they were at the wrong place in our mind.”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 1:19:13 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026 bullish
Disclosure
Ovitz: My AI watermarking startup partnered with Universal and Sony Music
“And now Universal, and then Dennis Coker and Rob Stringer at Sony. So we have the two biggest music companies, and we're watermarking songs, and we will go live very shortly.”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 1:25:25 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026
Insight
Ovitz: Self-deception is the primary cause of professional failure across industries
“Well, I think the first place everybody goes wrong is they start to believe things that aren't true. People tend to deceive themselves. I find that to be a common denominator amongst everybody across every kind of industry. It happens everywhere.”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 8:27 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026
Insight
Ovitz: Building momentum requires continuous effort without cutting back even 10%
“When you're building momentum, you cannot quit. And that's the counter problem, counter argument to when we talked about cutting back. When you're building momentum, you don't want to stop even for 10% of your time.”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 1:14:53 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ovitz: CAA ran out of money and was sued in week three
“We ran out of money the third week we were in business, and we got sued by our former employer, and we didn't even have money to defend ourselves.”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 43:47 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026 neutral
Disclosure
Ovitz: Peter Thiel hired me to monetize Palantir before it had revenue
“I was introduced to him by Peter Thiel who had invested a lot of money in Palantir and there was no income. He asked me to help monetize it, which shows that you don't have to be totally technical to be in the tech world.”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 52:28 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026 neutral
Opinion
Ovitz: Hollywood was built for single people to socialize 365 nights yearly
“I always felt that Hollywood was manufactured for people that had no significant others. No children, no home, no family, nothing, except maybe a two-bedroom apartment, because they could go out 365 nights a year and find companionship with others in the same …”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 9:47 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026
Assertion Partly supported
Ovitz: Led 1996 Clinton trade delegation to Beijing over media piracy
“In 96, I led a trade delegation for President Clinton to Beijing. I met with the Premier of China. Jung Zemin and Zhu Rongji, the number two, the head of finance, because they were making videotapes from people holding up video cameras in theaters. And they we…”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 1:24:11 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026 negative
Insight
Ovitz: Entertainment power lists are nonsense and power is an ephemeral lease
“I thought these power lists that they developed in the entertainment business were just sheer nonsense because there's no such thing as power. It doesn't exist. And when people would say this one's the second most or the 10th most or you're the most powerful, …”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 27:26 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026 positive
Opinion
Ovitz: David Geffen and Barry Diller are better read than most PhDs
“These guys didn't go to college. They're better read than most PhDs that I know in any field.”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 2:21 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026
Insight
Ovitz: Founders unable to explain their business in 20 seconds should quit
“If you can't tell me what your business is about in 20 seconds, you should not do your business because how are you going to market it to the world? You've got, and I'm not talking about that technical algorithms of AI. I'm talking about What does it do?”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 11:32 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026 neutral
Insight
Ovitz: Leaders Must Resist Dopamine Addiction from Relentless Execution Momentum
“There's a negative In that as a successful business person where you're feeding on the dopamine of getting all these wonderful things done, and because you're on this roll and you have momentum, you can get so much more done that you want to do it every second…”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 1:27:46 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026 neutral
Disclosure
Ovitz: CAA banned internal political discussions during meetings to protect clients
“I didn't even allow political discussions to take place in meetings. I didn't want to get involved with our clients' politics.”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 1:00:48 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026 positive
Opinion
Ovitz: Acting, directing, and writing are among the hardest jobs
“I think they have, I think one of the most difficult things in the world to do besides being a physicist or a brain surgeon or any kind of surgeon, I think it's being an actor or a director or a writer.”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 5:46 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026
Disclosure
Ovitz: CAA instituted a strict rule against badmouthing non-clients' products
“We did have another rule that it was inappropriate to bad mouth non-clients product because that was a age-old trick in the entertainment business.”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 28:34 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026
Disclosure
Ovitz: CAA agents were required to answer colleagues before clients or buyers
“Our inner office rule was you had to answer your associates first before the clients, before the buyers.”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 5:01 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026 positive
Disclosure
Ovitz is incubating a new startup with Blend co-founder Nima Ghamsari
“Now he came up with another idea. I just got him all the funding, including from us, and we're, I'm doing the marketing, and he's hired the right engineers, and it's a total incubation.”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 52:59 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026 bullish
Assertion Contradicted
Ovitz claims CAA never lost a single client during his entire tenure
“In the years I was at CA, we never lost a client, and the reason was if they tired of one person, they'd go to the next, but everyone was up to speed.”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 4:47 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026 negative
Insight
Ovitz: Reading publications cover to cover is impossible and stupid
“I don't agree with people that sit and read things cover to cover, because you can't Equally weight everything between the covers. It's not possible. It's stupid, Franklin.”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 1:07:10 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026
Insight
Ovitz: Career success resembles a Seurat pointillist painting of small dots
“To me, success is a great Seurat painting. Syrah was the great pointillist. So if you looked at an inch of his work, they were all dots. You look at an inch, you don't see anything. Two inches, you don't see anything. Three, nothing. Four, maybe you see an app…”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 1:34:39 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026 positive
Opinion
Ovitz: Michael Crichton was the smartest person I knew until Marc Andreessen
“Well, he was the smartest person I knew until I met Marc Andreessen, and then I had the greatest lunch of my life where I put them in a room with me, and I put one on each end of the table and me in the middle, and I felt like I was at Wimbledon or the U.S. Op…”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 49:32 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Ovitz: CAA required staff to read a 200-publication multidisciplinary list in 1974
“We had at the agency in 74 a 200 single line list bibliography of monthly magazines and books to look at because, and they weren't in a singular space, and I had at one time, I was a magazine junkie,”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 23:14 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026 negative
Opinion
Ovitz: 1970s Hollywood agents fabricated answers over half the time
“When I started CA in seven day four, it became very clear to me that lying was a industrial problem in the entertainment business. Everybody didn't tell the truth. One of the reasons they did not tell the truth is since they didn't know the term knowledge is p…”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 2:58 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026 positive
Insight
Ovitz: Current tech founders care about past failures, not past successes
“This generation in tech. They just want to know They don't want to know what you've done that's great. They want to know what you failed at and how to avoid it.”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 53:39 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026
Insight
Ovitz: Ask the Busiest Person When You Need Something Done
“When I need something done, I ask the busiest person I know to do it, because they'll get it done. Ask someone with too much time, it never gets done.”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 42:58 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
Feb 3, 2026 positive
Opinion
Ovitz: Businesses should strive to eliminate competition rather than co-exist
“And I'm a monopolist. I believe in Peter Thiel's theory on monopoly. I don't believe that you should have competition. They have to be eliminated. That's the American way, in my opinion. Everyone says there's always room for competition. I don't think there's …”
Michael Ovitz Feb 3, 2026 ▶ 42:03 Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power
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