Here’s the first of our new regular column Things I Wish I’d Known When I Was 18. We’ll be talking to the great, the good, and the gawd dang groundbreaking of commercials and promo production. OK, so maybe it’s stalking but it’s in the name of education, so it’s fine. At least that’s what our lawyer tells us. *cough*

Ummm, anyway… kicking off the series here’s mercurial maestro and legendary director Tony Kaye. Take it away Tony!

When I was younger so much younger than today I was so much wiser/stupid/dumber/dozy/sharper/blunter/this and that/ yeah, I was Tony Kaye!

1. I wish I’d known that you must not react to anything, that you must not to be reactive, but be proactive

2. I wish I’d known that family is the most important thing in life

3. I wish I’d known that “my desire for the self alone” was an incorrect pathway

4. I wish I’d known that my ego was this giant black curtain that I could not see and still can’t and that it was forever gonna suffocate me

5. I wish I’d known that I was all water and that I should have drunk more water

6. I wish I’d known I should have drawn more and painted more and sung more and played the guitar more and written more songs and acted some

7. I wish I’d known the value of time that every second is so important and that it is important to control oneself always and to be the cause and not the effect

8. I wish I’d looked more and had seen that everything was there for me that everything was mapped out exactly as I had wanted it if only I had looked more and had been in control and known I could rewrite at any moment

9. I wish I had known that god was not a person but an energy and had not kept looking for a person in the clouds who was not there but everywhere and was not a person but as I said an energy that could not be created or be destroyed but was eternal

10. I wish I had studied Kabbalah and known I was Usher Ben Levi and
not Anthony Kaye and certainly not Tony Kaye