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When you're a younger company, you struggle, struggle, struggle with, 'How are we going to pay the bills, and how are we going to hire people, and how are we going to get a bigger office?' Just managing the company is so hard.
I mean, we shoot differently, we cut differently, our stories are different . . . I'd say that every single thing is different except for the fact that you watch it on a TV or a computer or a phone, just like you do with everybody else's content.
The best piece of advice I ever got from anyone was when Spike Jonze said, 'Take money out of the equation.' And that's actually when Vice started making lots of money. That's when I stopped worrying about money and started worrying about what I wanted to do.
You have a lot of companies developing stuff that's just derivative. If 'The Voice' is the No. 1 show on TV, they say, 'Let's do 100 different versions of 'The Voice.' The problem is, by the time you get to market, it's already saturated, and everybody hates the format.
Success. Money. Fame. Whatever you're going after. You have one kick at the can, I always say. It's very rare that you have many kicks at the can. You're there at the right place at the right time, you have your shot, and it either works or it doesn't. And I've had many shots.
If you're coming from America to Iraq, then how are you supposed to be objective? I mean, you could pay lip service to being objective, but how are you going to objective when you're embedded with the Marines? The Marines are saving your life every day and they're protecting you.
I'm sure everybody looked at me cockeyed. But if you don't believe it, then it's not going to happen. If you don't believe it, no one else is going to believe it. But if you believe it and keep saying it, then slowly one person will believe you, then two, then three, then four . . .
The problem that we've had is four media companies run media, globally. And some say they're on the Right and some say they're on the Left; look, they're all afraid of losing Ford as a client. So they're all, by definition, huge companies that are going to be inherently conservative.
If you look at film, distribution is pre-bought. If you've paid for the distribution, you say, 'I have to make sure it's a film that gets enough butts in the seats.' I think that's the problem: It becomes prohibitively expensive, and you can't develop films for a smaller amount of money.
Everyone told me, "Don't ever talk about international stuff," and "Don't do long-form content online," and "Don't get too serious in news," and "Don't be too heavy" - all this stuff, all the rules. But we broke the rules, and that, ironically, has led to some of our most successful stuff.
The greatest propaganda coup of the American Right has been to convince its citizens that we are in the grip of a liberal conspiracy. As a result, Obama is to the right of Richard Nixon on most issues. And there is we believe, certainly some space to exploit there. And we, VICE, aim to exploit it.
Every generation has a changing of the guard in media. We do the same stuff that everybody else does, but we just do it differently. We do our content online differently. We do our magazines differently. We do our TV differently. We never had anyone tell us how to do magazines, so we just developed it in a different way.
American media has just become talk radio, incredibly partisan name-calling and op-eds. I think the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan proved it has completely failed to act as an effective fourth estate. And young people didn't sleep through that, as is widely believed; they learned instead not to trust what they were being told.
I stand here empty, waiting to b filled. I stand here weary of days bombarded with sorrows & ill. Yet, I STAND. For I know it is not of my strength; I know it is not my will. So with my eyes fixed on the prize and a rejoicing soul, I stand with a prayerful heart, waiting for my blessing. I stand, knowing my blessing will com.
You have to be dynamic. You have to be able to change. So a lot of times we'll go to a country or go meet people, and then while we're there, the story changes and you have to be able to go with that. And then the story comes out in the editing room, which is a very documentary sort of process - not how news works. So that's different.
I was getting mad at the system or the politicians or the government, and then I realized someone should talk about this stuff, and I have a big, multinational global-youth platform of kids who are going to change the world. So I was like, "I should be doing that. I should be showing this to people. That's my job." And since that time, I've been very happy.
Andrew Creighton, who ran Europe for us and who now runs the company day-to-day, would always go to the people he would hire and say, "Look, I don't know what it is, but whatever this guy says comes true because he's got some sort of weird self-fulfilling-prophecy thing." And that's exactly right. The reason I was so bombastic or whatever was because you have to believe it.
If you're coming from America to Iraq, then how are you supposed to be objective? I mean, you could pay lip service to being objective, but how are you going to objective when you're embedded with the Marines? The Marines are saving your life every day and they're protecting you. But when you're sort of living with people who are there, we just press record and let them tell the story.
If you go to Jamaica, you're going to these all-inclusive resorts where they're playing calypso and a bit of reggae or whatever. But if you go to Kingston, it's run-and-gun battles in the streets, it's abject poverty, it's incredible violence - and then also the best parties in the world. But if you're white, you can't really go. I'd rather know the real deal than be playing in the sand.
You have to make those mistakes. You have to do the work. You have to fail. I also realized that I should practice what I preach, which is that if you only do get one kick at the can . . . When you go to places like Africa or Asia or the Indian sub-continent, you realize that a lot of the people there don't ever get a kick at the can. There are no "kicks" at the can - you just don't have that shot.
Look, I've had four kicks at the can. You've had a tremendous career. We're also happy. We've loved. We've lived. We don't starve. We haven't been shot in the gut. So at that point, I started getting a little more serious about the content we were making and the business and building the business. I also became more serious about life and being happy. I got married, I have kids - I'm happy at a cellular level now.
Sometimes we ask ourselves 'Why?' Why do I continue to smile, to give, to live? Why do I continue to stand, despite the ferocity of the wind that keeps blowing, that keeps slapping against my face, creating a pressure that says 'fall'? Why I don't I listen to those who call me a fool because I continue to love despite my hurt? I don't know what tomorrow brings; I don't know if my troubles will seize or if my sorrows will continue. But this much I do know - I will continue to hold out, I will continue to press on, until my blessing comes.