Education Quote by David Geffen

Geffen’s charm here is the studied deflation of the billionaire myth. He doesn’t claim genius or destiny; he claims improvisation. “I never went to business school” is a jab at credential culture, but it’s also a quiet flex: if the gatekeepers didn’t stamp him, then his rise looks even more uncanny. The line “bumbling through” lands because it’s both plausible and impossible - plausible as a feeling, impossible as a career arc in which “bumbling” somehow produces Asylum Records, blockbuster deals, and an empire. That tension is the point.

The Wizard of Oz reference sharpens the subtext. The man behind the curtain isn’t a wizard; he’s a technician performing authority. Geffen casts business as a kind of stagecraft: projecting certainty, pulling levers, reading the room, and keeping the machinery hidden. It’s an unusually candid admission about power in entertainment and corporate America, where the product is as much perception as it is sound, film, or stock.

Context matters: Geffen is a music-and-media figure who built influence by spotting talent, negotiating ruthlessly, and mastering relationships. By framing himself as the curtain guy, he normalizes the hustle while sidestepping moral accounting. It’s humility that doubles as camouflage: if the empire was just a series of lucky stumbles, then no one needs to interrogate the system that rewards the best illusionist.