Daily Inspiration Quote by Rona Barrett

Los Angeles is one of the few cities where a grudge can double as a business plan. Rona Barrett’s line lands because it treats “enemies” not as a moral failure but as a strategic asset: in an ecosystem built on visibility, alliances are temporary and antagonisms are often more legible than friendships. She’s not romanticizing conflict; she’s warning that in LA, the wrong feud can cost you access, and the right feud can buy you relevance.

Barrett knew this terrain from the control room of celebrity culture. As a journalist and gossip mainstay, she operated in a world where information moves through gatekeepers, favors, and carefully managed leaks. “Pick” is the tell: enemies aren’t just stumbled into, they’re curated. That’s the subtext of a media-industrial complex where public narratives are negotiated, and the line between reporting and participating is thin. You don’t “cover” Hollywood without also becoming part of its circuitry.

The bite of the quote is its reversal of the standard self-help LA myth. The city sells itself as networking heaven, all sunshine and connections; Barrett points to the shadow network: rivalries, blacklists, whispered warnings, strategic snubs. She’s also smuggling in a cynical truth about power: being too universally liked can read as unserious, while having visible opposition can signal that you matter enough to threaten someone.

It’s a journalist’s aphorism with an operator’s edge: survival isn’t about avoiding conflict, it’s about making sure the conflict you’re in doesn’t swallow your career.