Check out the new Fresh Dialogues YouTube Channelfor more exclusive interviews, including Elon Musk, Harry Hamlin and Jessica Jackley.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Martin Sheen who was visiting Silicon Valley as a guest of Dick Henning’s Foothill College Celebrity Forum Series. In this first part of our Fresh Dialogues interview, Martin talks about the roots of his social activism, his faith, his marriage and his movies.
To read selected quotes from the interview click here
Here is Part Twoof Fresh Dialogues with Martin Sheen when we explore his environmental activism, his “West Wing” perspective on President Barack Obama and what two exciting movie projects Martin will be working on through 2009.
Note: Martin donated all proceeds from his Celebrity Forum appearance to the Berkeley based nonprofit, The San Carlos Foundation What a guy!
“I disagree with the philosophy that you can’t buy happiness. I know a lot of wealthy people who are happy as Larry…what you can’t buy is joy. Joy is very very costly.”
On what brings him joy
“The realization of my flawed humanity…that the great mystery of the universe includes me personally… I feel to the core of my being that I am loved, and if I can be loved anyone on earth is capable of feeling they can be loved.”
On what God is
“I don’t know what God is, but I have a profound, fundamental belief that God is in fact love. That there is a reality there and I am personally loved. I know it’s true for everyone if it’s true for me, but I can’t explain it and I can’t make anyone aware of it.”
On how he developed his social activist ideals as a golf caddie
“Around the age of 14, I became aware of the injustices associated with the work. We were non-entities to them…and they often used obscene language in front of us….we were little boys and they were abusive… anti-Semitic … racist. And they, for the most part, were upstanding members of the community, businessmen, lawyers, doctors. As the result of being a servant at so young an age, I learned how NOT to treat servants whether they’re waiters of bus-boys or cabdrivers. …and I organized a strike.”
On his green motivations and action
“There’s a Hebrew adage that says, ‘he who hath offspring giveth hostages to the future.‘Well I’ve given children and grandchildren, so they own that future. We have to be aware of our responsibility to future generations.”
On his heart attack while filming Apocalypse Now
“I got ill in the Philippines and I damn near died. They got me to a hospital and it was like in the movies. I was on a gurney being rolled through the corridors, lights were flashing and faces were coming and going, and this little face came alongside of me and I realized it was my wife Janet. She leaned down and whispered in my ear, ‘It’s only a movie babe.’ And I started to get well at that moment.”
“Music is a powerful motivator..if it weren’t it wouldn’t be used on sports, in religion and frankly, in marketing, to sell you things.”
On getting professional input from George Daly (CEO of About Records)
“Ultimately the music wasn’t going to be motivating if it was a pain to listen to. It needed to sound just as good as…Pink or Rascal Flatts or Kerry Underwood.”
On writing lyrics
“George said to me one day, ‘you write poetry, but we need lyrics.’ He’d call me and say, you have five minutes to fix that..and I’d have to think about what’s a different way to say that… that would fit better in the cadence of the music.”
Inspiration for “You da boss”
“I want a fun upbeat song to listen to when I’m tempted to reach for that cookie…Instead of making this sad preachy music about ‘don’t touch that’, let’s make it fun hip hop like MC Hammer and have some fun with the spirit and the spunk of this idea.”
On her theme song, Skinny Jeans
“It’s a woman’s affair with a pair of pants…every woman can relate to that piece of clothing you used to love to wear…your aspirational clothing…and now there’s a little too much of you to fit into it and you’d like to go and regain that love again.”
On her Silicon Valley Career
“It’s a portfolio career: a nice balance between the creative fun endeavor and the traditional; the roots of where I came from and where I want to still continue to work.”
On marketing a product
“You get up every day and say: what am I going to do today to move the ball forward?”
On her legendary tenacity
“I believe in tenacity, but I also believe in learning and if you’ve approached twenty companies and you get the same feedback, then it’s not worth approaching company no. 21.”
On being an entrepreneur
“I am an optimist by nature and that serves me well. For any entrepreneur, you’ve got to have that sense of optimism because if you didn’t, you wouldn’t get up in the morning and do it.”
To listen to Heidi’s interview on entrepreneurs click here
To listen to Heidi’s interview on Skinny Songs click here
Celebrated Silicon Valley entrepreneur and venture capitalist Heidi Roizen invited me to her home to talk about her career and her new venture: Skinny Songs. A former executive at Mobius Venture Capital, Heidi has recently been featured on the Martha Stewart Show, Oprah & Friends Radio and The Early Show. We had an animated discussion about her motivations for this 180 degree career change and how she’s still keeping one foot in the tech world.
Heidi changed focus from software to song writing: what all-time-high became her impetus for change?
What inspired the lyrics for “Skinny Jeans” and “You Da Boss” and how did her Stanford degree help?
How does being politically INcorrect help her business?
How does she deal with the critics?
Why does she describe her product as “a sound track without the movie”?
What does she mean by her “portfolio career”?
What’s next for Heidi? News about her new book: “Can’t buy thin.”
“Governor Schwarzenegger gave me that moniker. I wear it proudly. We’re very much intent here in San Jose to be the world center of clean tech innovation; we have our Green Vision with very big bold goals and so I’m happy to be the Green Mayor.”
On his modest beginnings
“I know what it’s like to be poor. I started working when I was in elementary school….I worked in the fields digging trenches -literally – that taught me the value of hard work.”
On his road to San Jose
“I aspired to go to California because of the Beach Boys. All that singing about California beaches and cars and girls and surfing all sounded like great fun. And guess what? It is!”
On his motivations for going green
“I can look back to a conversation I had with a Marine Major in our environmental business cluster. I’m an Air-Force veteran myself… and he said he was tired of paying for both sides of the war, that our energy policy and our consumption of foreign oil was basically funding the Iranians, the Saudis, the Venezuelans, the Russians. He was working on a solar project…and I realized what they were doing in Silicon Valley was actually to give us an opportunity for energy independence and give the world energy independence from oil and fossil fuels.”
