Strategy
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"At the end, all you have is the choice that you made for yourself," said Hilary Swank, pictured.
Talking about her new fashion line, Mission Statement, the actress told Man Repeller's Leandra Medine that it's important to pick and choose from the advice given by your family and friends.
"You just have to make sure that the people around you are trying to help you on the journey that you want and not the journey that they necessarily want for you," she said. "You have to know when to bring their voices in and when to listen to your gut."
Swank, who won an Oscar for her leading role in the 2004 film "Million Dollar Baby," went on to say:
"Because at the end, all you have is the choice that you made for yourself. And that's the mantra that I live by: make a choice, make it happen. Be really clear about what it is you want in your life and then work towards that every day - and be open-minded when something else comes! So that you go, 'That's actually a great idea, and if I wouldn't have been open minded, I wouldn't have thought about that.'"
The also 42-year-old told Man Repeller that the advice she would have given herself in her 30s is that "such a big part of living your dream - which is different for everybody - is navigating the business side of work."
She said:
"I started acting when I was fifteen and I thought it was going to be all creative and telling stories, but there's a whole business side that you have to navigate. It's just part of it. And once you understand that and accept the reality that you can't only do things you want to do, that part of life is sucking it up and doing stuff you don't want to (and that's never going to change), you feel much better. It's art and commerce, that's the way it's always been. But I think if you have good people around you to help with stuff you're not as good at, you can focus more (but not entirely) on other things."