"I think that it depends what you mean by successful. If you mean 'make money' you need to be part of the machine unless you're one of those superhuman people who can do everything by yourself, and have workaholic tendencies and really good advisers and a good investor."

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You can imagine what the advisers are telling Junior Assad: "Your statues are much stronger than Saddam's. His were hollow, and bolted in place with inferior metal; yours are solid, and are anchored to a depth of three feet. Let the American tanks come! Their gears will strip and their engines whine in defeat as they attempt to pull down your statues!

— James Lileks