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The Psychology of Power | Michael Ovitz

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Feb 3, 2026

Guest

Michael Ovitz

Michael Ovitz, co-founder of Creative Artists Agency and longtime entertainment and tech advisor, reflects on building relationships and organizational rules that powered CAA. He talks about being voraciously well read, hiring passionate people, packing ideas into outcomes, staying grounded amid power, and how momentum and trust shape careers.

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Episode notes

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ADVICE

Don't Fight Your Job

Don’t fight your job; if you dread it, change roles or ask why you're unhappy.
You must love your work to perform at exceptional levels.

volunteer_activism

ADVICE

Founders Must Be Hungry And Humble

Look for founders who are passionate, open to critique, unarrogant, and can explain their idea succinctly.
Ensure they have networks to help start and multiple ideas for growth.

insights

INSIGHT

Packaging Is Universal

Packaging a startup mirrors packaging a film: creator, money source, distributor, and marketer.
Skills from entertainment transfer directly to tech investing and incubation.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Voracious Appetite for Learning

00:58 • 2min

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Honesty: Don't Make Up Answers

02:43 • 2min

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Teamwork Over Single-Agent Ego

04:27 • 2min

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The Loneliness and Craft of Artists

06:09 • 2min

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Where Hollywood Goes Wrong

08:19 • 2min

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CAA's Cultural Rules and Passion

10:20 • 1min

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Packaging The Natural: Putting a Movie Together

Managing and Collecting Relationships

Hiring: What Michael Looks For

20:47 • 1min

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Depth, Breadth, and Being Multi-Disciplinary

21:47 • 5min

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Staying Grounded Amid Power

26:58 • 4min

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Investing & Founders' Traits

30:43 • 3min

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First Meeting with Marc Andreessen

33:36 • 3min

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Confrontation as a Tool

36:45 • 4min

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Winning, Monopolies, and Getting Things Done

40:52 • 1min

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Giving People Their Dignity Back

42:21 • 1min

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Failure as a Badge of Honor

43:36 • 6min

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What Drives Michael Today

49:46 • 3min

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Younger Founders Want Failure Lessons

52:56 • 20sec

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Example: Learning From Mistakes

53:16 • 1min

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Staying Current by Learning Every Day

54:31 • 4min

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Woke Culture and Creative Risk

58:01 • 2min

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Personalized Content and AI Bias

01:00:20 • 1min

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Overwhelmed by Information Flow

01:01:34 • 1min

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Daily Reading Routine

01:02:35 • 5min

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Mediocrity vs. Passion

01:07:20 • 4min

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Leadership, Momentum, and Bloomberg

01:11:40 • 3min

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Business Education & Practical Learning

01:14:22 • 2min

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Building Momentum: The Art and Discipline

01:16:01 • 2min

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Packaging as a Sine Qua Non

01:18:20 • 4min

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Solving Intellectual Property Theft

01:22:11 • 3min

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What I'd Tell My Younger Self

01:24:46 • 2min

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The Centrality of Trust

01:26:40 • 3min

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Recovering from Betrayal

• Mentioned in 78 episodes

Jurassic Park

Michael Crichton

In 'Jurassic Park', Michael Crichton tells the story of John Hammond, the owner of InGen, who creates a theme park on the fictional island of Isla Nublar featuring dinosaurs cloned from DNA found in amber. The park's safety is questioned by a group of experts, including paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant, paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler, and mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm. When a power outage caused by a greedy computer technician disables the park's security systems, the dinosaurs escape, leading to a desperate struggle for survival. The novel delves into themes of genetic engineering, chaos theory, and the ethical implications of scientific advancements.

Michael Ovitz co-founded CAA and helped reshape Hollywood, then took the same playbook into tech investing and advising founders.

In this conversation, he breaks down the operating rules that kept CAA from losing clients, and the personal disciplines that kept him grounded when the stakes got massive.

You’ll learn how to build momentum, tell the truth without hesitation, read for context instead of noise, hire people who raise the standard, and package ideas into outcomes.

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Approximate Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(00:58) Learning Machine

(03:41) You Don't Know Everything

(08:17) How People Go Wrong

(16:42) Don’t Fight Your Job

(18:28) Managing Relationships

(20:46) Hiring Top Performers

(26:47) Never Get High on Your Own Supply

(30:27) Identifying Greatness

(33:28) Meeting Marc Andreessen

(43:42) On Failure

(47:48) The Smartest Person I Ever Met

(52:49) The Genius of Patrick Collison

(57:51) A Good Idea Taken Too Far

(01:01:30) Information Consumption

(01:14:13) Business Education Curriculum

(01:16:28) Momentum

(01:18:16) Packaging

(01:24:43) What Would You Tell Your Younger Self?

(01:26:30) The Importance of Trust

(01:29:15) What is Success For You?

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Newsletter: The Brain Food newsletter delivers actionable insights and thoughtful ideas every Sunday. It takes 5 minutes to read, and it’s completely free. Learn more and sign up at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠fs.blog/newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Follow Michael Ovitz:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeovitz/

Book: https://amzn.to/4kn9jb9

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