There's a related lesson, though, that I only came to fully appreciate years later, when I was in a position of real leadership, It's so simple that you might think it doesn't warrant mentioning, but it's surprisingly rare: Be decent to people. Treat everyone with fairness and empathy. This doesn't mean that you lower your expectations or convey

I’m often asked what aspect of the job most keeps me up at night. The honest answer is that I don’t agonize over the work very much. I don’t know if it’s a quirk of brain chemistry, or a defense mechanism I developed in reaction to some family chaos in my youth, or the result of years of discipline—some combination of all of those things, I

Hold on to your awareness of yourself, even as the world tells how important and powerful you are. The moment you you start to believe it all too much, the moment you look at yourself in the mirror and see a title emblazoned on your forehead, you've lost your way.

Fear of failure destroys creativity.

True authority and true leadership come from knowing who you are and not pretending to be anything else.

As a leader, if you don't do the work, the people around you are going to know, and you'll lose their respect fast. You have to be attentive. You often have to sit through meetings that, if given the choice, you might choose not to sit through. You have to listen to other people's problems and help find solutions. It's all part of the job.

There have been many times over the years when I've had to deliver difficult news to accomplished people, some of whom were friends, and some of whom had been unable to flourish in positions that I had put them in. I try to be as direct about the problem as possible, explaining what wasn't working and why I didn't think it was going to change.

Of course, no two situations are alike. There’s a big difference between giving feedback to a seasoned director like J.J. Abrams or Steven Spielberg and someone with much less experience and confidence. The first time I sat down with Ryan Coogler to give him notes on Black Panther, I could see how visibly anxious he was. He’d never made a film as

Sometimes, even though you’re “in charge,” you need to be aware that in the moment you might have nothing to add, and so you don’t wade in. You trust your people to do their jobs and focus your energies on some other pressing issue.