Robert Greene

He learned not to take success for granted.

And he built on that.

And so he's not a one-hit wonder.

So sometimes success when you're in your 20s is the worst thing that can happen to you.

Because you have no discipline.

You have no perspective.

You think it's just going to keep going the way it is.

You're not aware of all the dangers out there.

You don't have life experience enough to realize how things can turn on you very quickly.

I had had so much failure.

until I was essentially 39 years old, pushing 40, that I had perspective, that I know what it's like to fail.

And so when I had success,

It wasn't like, wow, I'm the greatest thing that ever happened.

I can just live off this forever.

My next book's going to be fantastic.

No, I have a little voice in me that says, Robert, you failed so many times, you're probably going to fail again, right?

You've seen so many people who started off hot and bombed.

I had experience to know that I can't take this for granted.

I have to be careful.

I have to be strategic.