No Paralysis Through Analysis

Before The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will Smith’s career seemed finished. His run with DJ Jazzy Jeff had cooled, and the IRS was seizing his possessions and his income was shrinking.

Everything changed after he appeared on The Arsenio Hall Show. I'll let Will tell the rest.

Will Smith:

I meet Benny (VP of A&R at Warner Bros.) and he pitches me the idea for this show, and I'm not an actor. I'm like, "Cool." And he said, "Hey, I want you to meet Quincy Jones, Quincy Jones is producing with me."

So I find myself at Quincy's and there's actors and artists and celebrities and politicians, everybody's at Quincy's house. It's like the Whiz without the costumes.

Benny walks me in and introduced me to Quincy. Like, "Hey Q, what's up man? He said, "Hey man, I saw your music videos. I love what you're doing. I love what you're doing. Tell me your rap name again."

"They call me The Fresh Prince."

"All right, good. That's what we're going to call the show." And he handed me a screenplay for a failed Morris Day pilot. 

"So I need you to do this. I need you to go ahead and take a few minutes, take 10 minutes, study the script, and I'm going to clear all the stuff out (of) the living room, and we're going to have everybody sit down in the living room. We're going to do an audition." He had movers that could reset his furniture. I was like, "This dude is real." 

He goes outside and everybody, "Come on. Come on. Come on." I was like, "Hey, Q, hold up man. Hold up. I'm not ready to do no audition." He said, "Oh, all right. All right. What you need? Tell me what you need. Just set the meeting for a week and I could do it."

He said, "Yeah. Brandon Tartikoff, the head of NBC is out there. I'll get him to schedule for next week. And then what's going to happen? Something going to come up and then he's going to have to reschedule."

Oh, yeah.

“Three weeks from now, we can do it three weeks from now,” I said. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Three weeks from now be good. Or you can take 10 minutes right now and you can change your life forever."

I was like, "F*ck it then. Yes, give me 10 minutes."

I said yes, and I let it rip and I got to the end and everybody's clapping. Quincy looks at Brandon Tartikoff, the head of NBC, "Did you like it?" And Brandon said, "Yeah, I liked it." Quincy says, "No, did you like it?" And he's like, "Yeah, I liked it." He's like (speaking to the guy next to Tartikoff), "Good, you are his lawyer. Draw me up something right now."

Damn, Quincy ordering other people lawyers around. That's his lawyer. Quincy, leave that man alone. Quincy turned to me and he was like, "Hey, Will, you got a lawyer?" "Quincy, I'm broke. If I had a lawyer taking 5%, he'd owe me money right now." He was like, "All right." He turns to his assistant. He was like, "Get Will a lawyer."

….The lawyers go out in the limo and they're drawing up the first deal for the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Quincy is pop up at the window, "No paralysis, through analysis. No paralysis, through analysis." I'm like, "How did he make Thriller like this?"

We got the lawyers to draw up something. Ken Hertz looked it over for me, Brandon Tartikoff, and we took the picture and we signed the basic deal for the Fresh Prince. Three months later we were shooting the pilot. And that's the story of how I became the prince of Bel-Air.

Some investment opportunities are thrown our way like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air audition was sprung on Will Smith. They catch you by surprise while the clock is ticking. Facts are thin. You must swing or watch the pitch sail past.

Other investment opportunities drift across the plate in slow motion: You have time to study competitors, talk to management, check every channel, chart every number, and decide whether the pitch is worth your hard-earned cash.

As investors we never know how fast the next fat pitch will come across the plate. All we can do is prepare and be ready. You must continue to develop the skill of active patience. Active Patience means knowing what you are looking for and doing nothing until you find it.

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