My Conversation With Michael Ovitz, Co-founder of Creative Artists Agency (CAA) | David Senra

[upbeat music] Michael, thank you very much for doing this. Always a pleasure to spend more time with you. Uh, it's been some of my favorite past few dinners have been with you. I wanna actually start with something that you just said before we were recording that I-- that made me laugh out loud, that you said that, uh, Marc Andreessen scares the crap out of you. [chuckles] Why'd you say that?

Talking to him is like taking a test. It's like being in high school and taking an exam or a final in college, every conversation. He's got the most extraordinary ability to analyze, to recall information, to organize it as he's thinking and speaking. There's probably three different processes going on-

Mm-hmm

... in his brain simultaneously while he's talking. His recalls, I've never seen anything like it. Everything he reads-- In the old days, when I was going to meet with him over board issues, I always had to study up very carefully on what [chuckles] we were gonna talk about. But, uh, and I say this in the most loving way: he's the most terrific guy, and, uh, he's grown, and he's prospered, and he's, uh, one of the smartest human beings I've ever met in my entire life.

So you think his recall is-- comes naturally, where you-- I thought you had great recall. I've watched, like, all your interviews, the conversations we've had. You do have this, like, encyclopedic knowledge, especially about the work you were doing at CAA. But I feel like the way you would describe it is that you have to work a lot harder.

I think there are certain human beings that are gifted with some raw, innate, uh, processing power that is just greater than others. I think, I think we all have processing power, but it's a question of degrees. And then within the processing power, there's specific silos that each of us either excel at or are average at or not as good as. Uh, with Marc and, uh, Michael Crichton and Peter Thiel and, uh, quite a few of the top people in creative and top people in tech have this ability to process information at a very ultra-rapid speed, and it's foundationally set in the ability to recall information that they have inventoried. And it's very hard to do, especially in the world of technology, where you're touching constantly new ideas, so everything's different. And yes, there's some through line, but each business that's being started has a different conceit.

Mm-hmm.

And then on top of it, these guys, I find them fascinating for another reason. They're really nice people. Even though they have an intellectual superiority, they don't laud it over you, and they're chameleon. They kind of adjust to the level that they're talking to.

Say more about that.

As an agent, I had to ratchet my discussions up or down based on whether it was a creative discussion, a, uh, a self-help discussion for a client or for a buyer, because we did a lot of counseling for buyers, 'cause it was a good way to build a, a bridge to them and be able to have access. Uh, ratcheting up or down based on mood, based on what you read at the moment and what your frame of reference about the person is. But you can't talk to everybody the same way. One has to make a quick... Well, let me rephrase. At least for me-