INTRODUCTION: A PERSONAL CONSTITUTION I always wanted to make my own way; maybe you feel the same way. The freedom to be your own person, to seize personal opportunity, to explore what works for you--these are the things that appealed to me, so I was destined to make my own way. But today, the volatility of the banking system, the byzantine contradic- tion of government regulation, and the relentless reorganization of the economy from the top down have made the business terrain far more treacherous for the individual. In this economic climate, I have found that learning to be creative, challenging convention, and seizing unexpected opportunities not only are liberating but also can make all the difference in whether you are successful. Over the past four decades, I have been a founding shareholder in six banks, produced movies and Broadway plays, managed the finances and investments of others, and served on the boards of several companies. I have developed residential, commercial, and office real estate in five states. I have co-owned a convenience store chain, a film distribution company, a vineyard, a restaurant, and a hotel or two. I have helped turn around numerous distressed businesses, notably Kleinfeld, the largest bridal retailer in the country.

Somehow, I even ended up owning a minority interest in a Major League Baseball team. And, yes, I have also acted in numerous films, television shows and series, and stage plays. This will surprise you, but the common thread to the various businesses in which I have been involved is that I had never prev- iously been in them. Most people would think that the lack of previous experience in a particular business would be a sure formula for failure. For example, would you hire a salesman who had never sold anything before, or, for that matter, would you retain a teacher for your school who had never before taught school? Previous experience can be valuable to someone who has chosen a career on the basis of his or her education and desire to work in a particular field. Because I didn''t have a specific educational background--for example, a degree in medicine or law--I was not predisposed to make choices based on that criterion. In fact, it was an advantage in that I had no rules to follow, no premade decisions, no "books" to tell me how to find success. This allowed me to take a creative approach rather than an administrative one.

I have also tried to avoid being part of the system, which is not the same thing as trying to change it. You don''t have to be "against the system" to succeed; you just don''t want the system to systematize you, as it were. You don''t always have to be a rebel, but, at the same time, you don''t want the system to turn you into an automaton. The goal is to maintain your individuality while functioning within the system. When I went to Hollywood, one of my first jobs as an actor was in a Western where I was playing the part of a deputy sheriff. I had an immediate disagreement with the director. As the character, I had chosen to wear a round derby hat. I had invented a little story about the hat and how my father had given it to me.

The director told me to get rid of the hat because I didn''t look like a sheriff. I asked him what he thought a sheriff looked like. To which he replied, "A ten-gallon hat, a vest, and spurs." "I see," I said, "but excuse me, you don''t look like a director." "What do you mean by that?" he asked. "You don''t have on a safari jacket, riding boots, and dark glasses. And you''re not carrying a bullhorn," I said, conjuring up the clichd image of John Huston. He just stared at me, and, before he could say anything, the cameraman led me away.

This cameraman was an old-timer who had been a bi-plane wing walker in his youth, and he was about to retire from movie making. "Wayne, let me explain something to you," the cameraman said calmly, putting his arm around my shoulder. "Hollywood has been here a long time. It will be here a long time after you and I are gone. Don''t try to change it." "I don''t want to change it," I said. "I just don''t want it to change me." Beneath this story is something fundamental to the way I think.

What starts in a writer''s mind as a blank piece of paper ultimately becomes a script. I was given the script, mostly dialogue and a brief description of the part I was to play: "Jack Slade, early 30s, Deputy Sheriff." That was it. Taking this from the two-dimensional word and making this person into a living character is what actors are supposed to do. So, I invented the story about the hat, how my father loved the hat, what it meant to him and, therefore, to me. This became something that personalized the character I was playing and gave me an attitude symbolized by the hat. It''s the process of taking a one-line description of a character and turning dialogue into behavior and making subtext out of text. This may seem trite, making up some seemingly elaborate story out of a simple object, but it all had a purpose, and it is sur- prising how the subconscious can take a thought and make that thought a complicated, rewarding solution to a problem.

For an actor, this is the creative process. This is how one changes the written word into a living, breathing human being. And that process is the one that sets my story apart from most business stories. It is my belief that the best results in business come from a creative process, from the ability to see things differently from everyone else, and from finding answers to problems that are not bound by the phrase "we have always done it this way.".