M. Ward Quotes

I have never chosen my next job. I focus on what's in front of me, and serendipity steps in.

Great opportunities almost never fit your schedule.

Life is full of surprises and and serendipity. Being open to unexpected turns in the road is an important part of success. If you try to plan every step, you may miss those wonderful twists and turns. Just find your next adventure-do it well, enjoy it-and then, not now, think about what comes next.

Back then, it's weird, because I wasn't consciously thinking about it and I think that's why the doors opened and I had the opportunity. It was a big shift and I realized that you can plan and think your life is going somewhere, but you also have to surrender to what opportunities present themselves and really go for those as well.

All great work is preparing yourself for the accident to happen.

Obviously, I've been very lucky in general in my career, but I feel that I've been very lucky in terms of having directors come along at the right times who have taken me to the next level of where I needed to be.

Nothing was planned in my career. I just went with the flow and took everything that came to me. Selling potato chips was obvious, as it was a family business. When friends suggested I should try theatre, I gave it a shot. Then I did a lot of advertisements, and then movies happened.

I've never been a planner. I didn't know I was going to run for the State House. I didn't know I was going to run for governor. I don't know what's next, and I love not thinking about it because the doors open at a certain time.

I'm not opposed to anything. If an opportunity comes across, I'll answer the door if it comes knocking.

Nothing I ever did I expected to do. It just kind of happened.

Life is about making plans from which you deviate, almost always. If you are lucky, you do come up with a plan.

The reality is that SXSW is packed with brilliant entrepreneurs, investors and partners. They're everywhere, zipping back and forth like thousands of atoms. Your chances of colliding with one actually improve just by standing still.

I'm always working with amazing people. They're just kind of put in my path.

I've gotten to work with some great people. I've been really lucky.

I never planned my career. I never planned to be president of Harvard. People would have thought I was crazy, probably, at the age of 8 or 10 or 20, if I had said that. So what I would say to people planning their careers is to be ready to improvise. Be ready to follow up on opportunities as they unfold.

I feel fortunate. I've really gotten to work with amazing talented people, and to learn from them, which is why I'm doing this. If I can work with the best director I'm going to do it.

There's no master plan; I'm just going with what I'm inspired to do and what I get asked to do, and luckily the things I've been the most passionate about, I've gotten to do. And a lot of times I've gone up for movies that I didn't really care that much about, and I never got that.

I am not very good at planning things, actually, but I believe that things happen when they need to and when they have to.

Always be prepared. You never know when an opportunity will pop up.

I often don't know what I'll be working on next year or a year from now. There is often a chance meeting, or something that I worked on 10 years ago suddenly becomes important again.

I've been fortunate enough to really work with amazing people and have incredible people lead me along the way.

I just think that I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with some very fine filmmakers in the industry. I worked with some wonderful people on some really interesting projects. So I consider myself very fortunate.

I never had planned for my life and my career.

Crazy things happen in this sport, and you have to be ready. And for me, luck is when preparation meets opportunity.

Success is really about being ready for the good opportunities that come before you. It's not to have a detailed plan of everything that you're going to do. You can't plan innovation or inspiration, but you can be ready for it, and when you see it, you can jump on it.