When first starting to work with someone you try to get them in the same mindset that you were in when you were successful and I realized the best thing you can ever do is realize that they are not you. They have a different persona and mindset and you have to figure out what works best within your communication with that athlete.
I want to be able to look back and say 'I've done everything I can and I was successful.' I don't want to look back and say I should have done this or that. I'd like to change things for the younger generation of swimmers coming along.
Successful people recognize crisis as a time for change - from lesser to greater smaller to bigger.
I think there's a suspicion in the South of people putting on airs. You see it in most successful Southern politicians but you also see it in someone like Richard Petty who may be a multimillionaire stock car driver but he's also beloved because he has a nice self-deprecatory way about him.
The way you continue to be a successful business is you don't wait for the car to go off the cliff. You have to manage yourself. And make sure you do it in the right way so you are not making decisions in crisis.
I started rapping before anybody had ever bought a car from it. It was truly about the art form and the culture more so than now where it's a successful way to make money. Back then you had to be doing it because you liked it.
Once you become successful people know where you live the type of house you live in the kind of car you drive the clothes you wear and so it would be patronising to go and talk like a welder. Welding's a mystery to me now. You can't go back your life changes every day.
The whole point of being in this business and being blessed and being successful is that you're able to do things for your friends or your family which means that they can have something special in their lives too.
My husband had a very strong identity and was successful in his life. Thank God for that. There's no way I can control him. I wouldn't stay married to him if I felt I could. I can readily take my business personality into the home. But he forces me to be a partner rather than the boss.
The people who are competing business-wise out there want what other successful labels and artists have. I don't want what they have I want my own path my own sound my own identity. Record labels care nothing about identity or artistic freedom they want good business.