Excerpts from SHINE
A Powerful 4-Step Plan For
Becoming A Star In Anything You Do
Are You a Dog or a Cat?
Drew Barrymore and Larry
One of the four essential elements of becoming a Star is to assemble a Team of supporters. What type of people should you put on your Team?
I have met and made friends with many people all over the world. From all these encounters and observations, I’ve come to the conclusion that a person’s nature falls into one of two categories. They are either dogs or cats.
Let’s start with people who, no matter how long you’ve talked to them, no matter how long in life you’ve known them, you never quite understand what they’re thinking, what they’re saying, or what they mean. That’s their nature. They’re cats. They are smart, mysterious and independent. They are to be respected for always being able to land on their feet, and for having multiple lives.
Then there are dogs: loyal, easy to understand people. They run up to you. They go get the paper for you. They say what they mean and mean what they say. They think you’re the most wonderful thing in the entire world. You’ll find some people who are like that. What you see is what you get. You trust them.
Quincy Jones with
Kelly and Larry Thompson
You first need to determine if you are a dog or a cat and then build a Team of like-natured people. Dogs should be supported mostly by other dogs. Cats can work with both dogs and cats.
So, if there were a Star Kennel that boarded Stars showing traits of being either a dog or a cat, how would we separate them?
Star Dogs
Star Cats
George W. Bush
Bill Clinton
Jay Leno
David Letterman
Ray Romano
Madonna
Tom Hanks
Angelina Jolie
Sandra Bullock
Cher
Will Smith
David Bowie
Matt LeBlanc
Sean Penn
Billy Crystal
Warren Beatty
Reese Witherspoon
Keanu Reeves
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Nicole Kidman
Paula Abdul
Johnny Depp
WHAT ARE YOU?
Barry & his two Larrys
Barry White and I were sitting out on a verandah in San Remo, Italy, drinking blood-red orange juice and staring at the diamonds sparkling on top of the Mediterranean Sea. Barry was touring Europe and he was making an appearance on the Euro Music Awards that night. We were many miles away, and many millions of sold records later, from the first day he knocked on my door.
“Barry,” I asked, “I’ve always wondered where you got that $500 to open up a file with my office. Where did you get it?”
He smiled, leaned into me to get a little closer, and said reverently, “I went to the first man who ever believed in me, a guy in the record distribution business named Larry Nunes. He gave me the money for the music tape I made, and for your $500. He believed in me until the day he died. He was the first person on my Team. After I met you, I had two Larry’s on my Team. I knew very early on that to ever get outta the ’hood, I needed a new gang. I needed the best Team I could find.”
"I'm not after fame and success and fortune and power. It's mostly that I want to have a good job and have good friends; that's the good stuff in life." -Drew Barrymore
Find out how to support one of Drew’s favorite charities, The Wildlife WayStation. Situated on 160 acres in California's Angeles National Forest, it is internationally recognized for its ongoing, charitable efforts to rescue and rehabilitate wild and exotic animals. Click Here
"Why not just make our own movie? We'll raise the money on our own, and it doesn't matter if nobody sees it, 'cause when we're feeling bad, we can put this videocassette in and say, 'That's a contribution that we made to this field that we love.' " -Matt Damon & Ben Affleck
