“Mitchell Maxwell’s Maxims• You have to create your own professional path. There’s no longer a roadmap for an artistic career.• Follow your heart and the money will follow.• Create a benchmark of your own progress. If you never look down while you’re climbing the ladder you won’t know how far you’ve come.• Don’t define success by net worth, define it by character. Success, as it’s measured by society, is a fleeting condition.• Affirm your value. Tell the world “I am an artist,” not “I want to be an artist.” • You must actively live your dream. Wishing and hoping for someday doesn’t make it happen. Get out there and get involved.• When you look into the abyss you find your character.• Young people too often let the fear of failure keep them from trying. You have to get bloody, sweaty and rejected in order to succeed.• Get your face out of Facebook and into somebody’s face. Close your e-mail and pick up the phone. Personal contact still speaks loudest.• No one is entitled to act entitled. Be willing to work hard.• If you’re going to buck the norm you’re going to have to embrace the challenges.• You have to love the journey if you’re going to work in the arts. • Only listen to people who agree with your vision.• A little anxiety is good but don’t let it become fear, fear makes you inert.• Find your own unique voice. Leave your individual imprint on the world, not a copy of someone else.• Draw strength from your mistakes; they can be your best teacher.””
Quotes by Mitchell S. Buck
“month later, on July 9, 2012, Stevens and the embassy’s security staff, led by DS agent Eric Nordstrom, asked the State Department to extend the presence of a Site Security Team, or SST, that consisted of sixteen active-duty military special operators. The Defense Department’s Africa Command, which oversaw the unit, was willing to extend the team’s stay in Tripoli. But State Department officials decided that DS agents and locally hired guards could do the job, and that the SST operators weren’t needed. In the weeks that followed, General Carter Ham, head of Africa Command, twice asked Stevens if he wanted the SST to remain in Libya. Despite his earlier request to extend the team’s stay, Stevens wouldn’t buck the decision of State Department officials in Washington. He declined Ham’s offers and the SST left Libya, even as Stevens moved forward with plans to visit the restive city of Benghazi.””