part0031

“It’s far easier to tell the truth than it is to sustain a lie. People who lie have to keep embellishing things and covering their tracks. I don’t have to cover my tracks in anything because I’m completely honest and straightforward.”

Ken Mok is a television producer and director and the founder and president of 10x10 Entertainment, a production company that produces television, film, and alternative media. Ken’s production portfolio is extensive, including hits like America’s Next Top Model , The Tiger Woods Story , and Stylista , among other projects. Ken has also directed a number of very successful films, including Vince Papale’s life story, Invincible (2006), and the Academy Award-nominated film Joy (2015).

Coach Jim Harbaugh of the Michigan Wolverines said, “You need to set your dreams and goals so high that everybody laughs at them. If nobody is laughing at your dreams and goals, you haven’t set them high enough.” That’s true. If you don’t have a dream that people laugh at, that means your dream is not big enough. I think that is the case for anybody who’s going to become successful in their field.

The Invincible movie, the story of Vince Papale becoming a Philadelphia Eagle against all odds, is transferable to any venture from business to acting. A leader is an outlier by definition. It’s the person who doesn’t follow the conventional path. It’s the person who doesn’t follow the crowd. It’s someone who thinks differently from the crowd. You will be derided and ridiculed. You will be criticized. People will try to tear you down out of jealousy. Some will deride your idea because they genuinely think you are on the wrong path. “What are you doing? Why are you doing this? You shouldn’t be. It’s never going to work.” The ones who make it are those who don’t listen to that.

I’ve had that throughout my career. When I was growing up, I wanted to be a television producer. I wanted to have my own production company. I didn’t know anybody in the entertainment business. Everybody was telling me I was crazy. I was this Asian kid from Larchmont, New York. There were no Asian producers or directors in 1987. In fact, when I became an executive at NBC, I was one of the first Asian guys to have ever held a network executive job. People looked at me like I was an alien. As I was climbing the ladder trying to get where I was going, people left and right were completely dismissive of what I was doing. I had to prove myself. As I shared my ideas and talked creatively, they began to respect me.

When I came up with the idea for America’s Next Top Model , a rival of mine tried to completely derail the project. That was out of jealousy. He actively tried to sabotage my career. He made calls to agents saying that I was this terrible person. He told them Tyra Banks should not do the show with me.

Fortunately, the people who know me know how I am. They didn’t believe the story. They stood up for me and spread the word: “Ken is the most upstanding, straightforward, honest guy that I’ve ever met. Everything that this other guy is saying is a complete fabrication. Be completely suspicious of the source of these rumors. It doesn’t ring true at all.” So we moved forward with America’s Next Top Model , and it totally changed my career. Tyra Banks and I have become close friends. She’s the godmother of my children, and I’m the godfather to her son. The guy who tried to undermine me is out of the business now. That’s vindication. That’s my last laugh.

I love TV. I love watching movies. When I was a kid, I watched more TV than anyone, to the dismay of my parents. They were freaking out. By the time I was fourteen years old, I knew what I wanted to do in life. I was in my English class and we were watching a foreign film. I don’t remember the actual language of the film, but it was expressed visually. I understood that film very clearly in the language of cinema. My teacher gave me positive feedback on the essay I wrote about that film. He told me I had a special talent and saw the film clearly in ways that the other kids didn’t. I knew then that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a producer with my own production company. I wanted to work in TV. I was very lucky that at that young age I knew what I wanted to do.

That’s the key—to discover and follow your passion. Once you have clarity of vision, you must plan out how are you going to get up that mountaintop. It takes many steps to climb a mountain.

I did a lot of research and I worked as much as I could in the industry. I learned that there are certain steps you must take to own your own production company. You have to get your foot in the door. You have to start at the bottom. You have to take that assistant production job on any show you can so that you can learn “the business.” Then you have to move up to the next position, whatever that is.

My first goal was to get a production assistant job on a TV show in New York so I could survey the landscape. I managed to do that. I got a production assitant job on The Cosby Show . This was back in 1989. I had to live at home because I wasn’t getting paid a lot of money. It only paid like 300 bucks a week.

My second goal was to get a network job. There, I could oversee TV shows and understand how all that worked. I used my connections at The Cosby Show to get into this junior training program at NBC. I became a junior executive.

My third goal was to go from the buying side to the production side. I became a producer. I ended up getting a deal at MTV, becoming a producer and running a production company. After that, I started my own production company, independent of everybody, and created America’s Next Top Model .

I knew what I wanted to do. I charted out each of the steps I would have to take. I made sure that everything I did in life was to get to that next step. It took me years, but I finally got there. It all worked out.

You must have clarity of vision on what your ultimate goal is. Then you have to figure out the steps to reach your goal. You need to plan your life out accordingly. You need to spend every minute of your day focused on getting to that goal. Put on the blinders. Be like a horse in a horse race.

There is a fascinating documentary on HBO called The Defiant Ones. It’s the story of Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre. These guys kept the blinders on. Iovine started out as a recording engineer, Dre as a DJ. They shed those skins and went on to co-found Interscope Records and Beats by Dre. From there, they shed that skin and went on to co-create Apple Music and they continue to take on new ventures. The principles laid out in the documentary are true. I live by those values. You have to be obsessive about what you are doing in life. Those two men have a clear vision of what they want to accomplish. They use all their resources and all their energy to serve that vision. Everybody who has been a successful leader in whatever industry, whether it be music, acting, or business, have a clarity of vision and are obsessive about it. They don’t care what other people think.

I am very ambitious person. Most people at my age are slowing down. I’m speeding up. There are a lot more things I want to do in terms of moviemaking and directing. I want to make this last phase of life the most prolific. And that’s what’s happening.

I need energy to do it. You have to take care of your body. I work out and watch what I eat. One of the things that helps me keep in shape are my seven-year-old twins. I also have a sixteen-year-old. I had the twins later in life. Most people would be grandparents at this point. They keep my energy going. If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything.

If I died tomorrow, I would have no regrets. I have helped contribute to the culture. I have helped make the world a better place. Every show that I’ve done, I have tried to not just make it entertaining. I have chosen projects that have larger-than-life meaning with messages that can inspire people. The movie Invincible is prototypical of that. That story inspired people. The message—“If you want it bad enough, you can achieve your dreams”—that’s why I did it. It was entertaining, but it was inspirational.

America’s Next Top Model is the same thing. I wanted to do a show that was entertaining, but I also wanted to expand the definition of beauty. There are many types of beauty—plus size people, unusual looking people, people who are black, white, Asian, and Latino. I had to fight against the network when the show started. I wanted the cast to be inclusive. At the time, inclusive meant you have one Asian person or one black person in a cast of ten. That was considered diverse. That, to me, is not diverse. Diverse to me is when you have a true mix of people in the cast.

Times have changed. Now diversity in TV is huge. Back then it was not. It was hard to make it happen. I had to put my foot down. I’m really glad I did. If you believe in your principles and you believe in your values, you have to stand up for them. You have to fight for them. Values are not just words. Values are things that you live by. If you live by them, you must have the courage to stand by them.

Living by your values makes you a stronger person. It gives you self-respect. Self-respect gives you the courage to stand up in moments when other people wilt. I’ve always been a guy who stood by my values in every single project I have done. I have always stood up for what is right and stood against what is wrong. It’s made me stronger. I’m not afraid of anything. I’m not afraid of anybody.

I keep my passion stoked by only investing my emotional energy into products I truly believe in. Take the movie Invincible for example. When I saw a short video called Under the Helmet about Vince’s story, I got fired up. When I was pitching Invincible , I believed—this story has to be told! This is going to be a hit movie! It’s an underdog story. This guy was an amazing guy, a bouncer who went to an open tryout for the Philadelphia Eagles and made the team. He then became special teams captain. I have got to tell this story! That gets other people excited. That’s how I got Brad Gann to write the script for free. He saw the story. He talked to Vince and was like, “Oh my god. I’m going to write this script on spec.”

Your ability to make things happen as a film producer or a writer is directly related to your passion. All you have in this town are ideas. When you present them to prospective buyers, you better believe in your idea 1,000%, or you will never sell it. I had a meeting last week with a guy who is going to invest in one of the films I’m doing. He saw how excited I was about it. He said, “Your passion translates. I believe in this project because you believe in it so much.”

Your job is to convince other people and get them as fired up about your project as you are. I’ve been able to do that throughout my career. Every project I pick is a labor of love. Every project has been something I’ve completely gotten behind. When you have that passion within you, when you believe in something so much, it’s like you are proselytizing to people. It’s like you’re the leader of the church and you are getting people to join. That is what has happened with every project I have done. I got people to believe because of my passion.

You have to eliminate the people in your life who are negative. It could be a relative. It could be a friend. If they are draining you and constantly naysaying, you have got to cut them out of your life.

There are lot of frenemies in the world. As I was moving up in the business, I had a friend. He was my best friend. We had been friends since the seventh grade. But he became toxic. He worked in the business, but was not achieving the success that I was. As I was moving ahead, he continually tried to undermine me. I realized very clearly what his motivation was. He was jealous. After a while I had to ask myself, “What is this person doing? Why is he doing this? What is his motivation?” Even though this guy had been my friend since I was thirteen years old, I had to cut off the friendship. He was a drain on my energies and my psyche.

Cut out everything that drains your energy. I never read the Hollywood Reporter or Variety . I don’t pay attention to what rival production companies are doing. I don’t care. That’s energy I can’t afford to expend.

I’ve been in positions where I worked for other people and I didn’t know where I stood. I don’t know if this guy’s blowing smoke up my behind or if I’m doing a good job. I would say to my supervisors, “I just want the truth. Tell me what I’m doing right and what I’m doing wrong. Tell me what I need to work on.” Often, I would get the runaround. I decided that once I reach a certain point I will always be straight up and truthful with people. They will know where I stand.

It’s easier to live life that way. It’s far easier to tell the truth than it is to sustain a lie. People who lie have to keep embellishing things and covering their tracks. I don’t have to cover my tracks in anything because I’m completely honest and straightforward. The people who work with me appreciate that.

Amy Chua, author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom , has gotten a lot of notoriety because of the way she’s raising her kids. Her kids went on to Harvard and Yale and achieved great things. I’m Asian, so I understand what she’s doing. Asian families are really focused on education and discipline. Asian parents can be overbearing.

The author says there three things that you need to be really successful.

If you have those three things, you will achieve great things. I have all three of those things. I have an inferiority complex. I worry that I’m not as good as other people. I have a superiority complex. I think that I’m smarter than most. I have this relentless work ethic. Those three things drive me. The inferiority complex pushes me to prove everybody wrong. The superiority complex means believing in what I am doing. I feel smarter than the other people. If other people tell me I am wrong, I know in my mind that I’m right and they’re wrong. On top of that, I have this relentless drive. I get up every day and I work my butt off.

I never want to stop achieving. There are a lot of people who have had tremendous success early in their career. They reach a certain point in their life and they stop growing. They’re too rich. They’ve gotten used to this cushy lifestyle. They are resting on their laurels and surrounding themselves with people who are blowing sunshine up their butt. The reason they stop is complacency.

I never want to become complacent. There might be a certain time, like when I’m seventy-five, where I say, “Enough. I want to take a rest.” But I’m nowhere close to that. I’m always out there second-guessing myself. I’m always scraping for the next project. Whenever I achieve success, I set that marker another hundred yards down the field. I go for it again. Once I get close to it, I set the marker further down the field.

I’m always looking for that next thing. I keep an open mind to what’s going on in the culture. The worst thing in this business is to not stay connected to the culture. I ask my assistants and other people who are in their 20s, “What games are people playing? Who are the top artists? Help me to become a part of it so I can understand it.” I fight every day to stay connected so I can continue to generate ideas and come up with things that are going to make sense as a director, writer, and producer.

I also am always trying new things. I am thinking about learning how to fly. I have a game plan. I’m not going out onto the runway and taking flying lessons. I bought simulator software that teaches me online how to fly a plane. In two years, when I go to my flight instructor to teach me how to fly a plane, I will already know how to fly a plane.