MICHAEL OVITZ: On my first trip to Osaka, Hirata walked me into a room ten feet square. On the floor were twenty-five or thirty neat stacks, a couple inches apart, with cover letters on them from every investment bank in the world, thanking them for meeting, talking about their fee schedule, attaching a contract and information about their company, along with research on all the movie studios. Hirata had me look at it; then he looked at me, smiled, and then we walk out the door. He turned every one of them down and took me because I was the only one who asked for nothing, which is how they
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