America's Next Top Automotive Journalist

Last night I found the venue for my eventual DVD release party: the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood. Imagine throwing your own house party on the Sunset Strip. That’s exactly the vibe the Chateau Marmont provides. Kudos to the person who picked that place to celebrate the eve of the premiere for Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans.

The party didn’t suck. Lots of hot upcoming actors and hip producers … “young Hollywood” all clamoring to meet the next person who could help their ascent toward stardom.

I got to meet a lot of people whom I’ll be interviewing for this blog – some with charismatic car collections that match their owners’ wizardly flare, some with resumes that would take ordinary people lifetimes to fill, and others who have so much promise, when you look into their eyes its like staring into two crystal balls foretelling their eventual success.

The evening may have held a party vibe, but when you really come down to it, it was a business mixer. Of course, in Hollywood there’s no such thing as a business mixer, especially when you can turn it into a party.

Business cards were exchanged left and right all night long. People at this party understood that it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

Most attendees I asked told me they knew nobody at the party. Same for me: I was invited by the future leading lady of North America Katie Chonacas. Katie plays “Tina” in the upcoming film starring Nicolas Cage and Val Kilmer. Katie and my brother Jeff were the only people I knew at the party, so I spent the night getting to know new faces. That got me thinking about the power of networking.

Thomas Edison once said, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” Most of us can be a genius if we work hard at it. If we work hard at networking, we can accomplish more with our genius. According to life coach Gal Baras, if you commit to building strong relationships with as many people as possible, you’ll be doing more business.

Even if you’re not in the business of doing business, I’ve found that the more people one meets, the more interesting one’s life can be. People are like individual colors in a complex image displayed on a computer screen. Would you rather enjoy the beauty of a flower on an 8-bit 256-color screen, or a 64-bit 16.7-million-color screen?

I’ll take the latter.