ed catmull

What I learned from rereading Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull. 

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(7:00) Walt Disney created a made-up world, used cutting-edge technology to enable it, and then told us how he’d done it.

(7:30) Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson. (Founders #187)

(7:30) Both Einstein and Disney inspired me, but Disney affected me more because of his weekly visits to my family's living room.

(7:45) Every time some technological breakthrough occurred, Walt Disney incorporated it.

(9:30) His dad was the son of an Idaho dirt farmer. His dad was one of 14 kids. 5 of his dad's siblings died as infants. His dad was the first person in his family ever to go to college. He had to work while he was going to college and pay his own way. His dad built the family house with his own hands.

(10:30) When you read biographies of people who've done great work, it's remarkable how much luck is involved. They discover what to work on as a result of a chance meeting, or by reading a book they happen to pick up. So you need to make yourself a big target for luck, and the way to do that is to be curious. Try lots of things, meet lots of people, read lots of books, ask lots of questions. — How To Do Great Work by Paul Graham. (Founders #314)

(12:30) The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story by Michael Lewis (Founders #274)

(14:00) George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones (Founders #35)

(15:00) We [Ed Catmull and George Lucas] worked with a blinders on intensity. George had relentless practicality. He wasn't some hobbyist trying to bring technology into filmmaking for the heck of it. His interest in computers began and ended with their potential to add value to his filmmaking process.

(19:00) George Lucas believed in the future and his ability to shape it.

(20:30) The storyteller is the most powerful person in the world. — Steve Jobs

(20:30) The art of storytelling is critically important. Most of the entrepreneurs who come talk to us can't tell a story. Learning to tell a story is incredibly important because that's how the money works. The money flows as a function of the stories — Don Valentine

(22:30) Steve used the phrase insanely great products to explain what he believed in.

(26:30) This guy told me that the way to establish his authority in the room was to arrive last. His thinking was this would establish him as the most powerful player in the room since he could afford to keep everyone else waiting. All it ended up establishing was that he had never met anyone like Steve jobs.

(38:30) If you give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up. If you give a mediocre idea to a brilliant team, they will either fix it or throw it away and come up with something better.

(42:00) Everything associated with our name needed to be good. Quality is the best business plan.

(42:30) Steve understood that every interaction a customer had with Apple could increase or decrease his or her respect for the company. As he put it, a corporation "could accumulate or withdraw credits" from its reputation, which is why he worked so hard to ensure that every single interaction a customer might have with Apple-from using a Mac to calling customer support to buying a single from the iTunes store and then getting billed for it-was excellent. — Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli (Founders #265)

(48:30) Invent and Wander: The Collected Writings of Jeff Bezos (Founders #282)

(52:30) People discover and realize their visions over time and through dedicated, protracted struggle.

(53:30) If you’re sailing across the ocean and your goal is to avoid weather and waves, then why the hell are you sailing? You have to embrace that sailing means that you can’t control the elements and that there will be good days and bad days and that, whatever comes, you will deal with it because your goal is to eventually get to the other side. You will not be able to control exactly how you get across. That’s the game you’ve decided to be in. If your goal is to make it easier and simpler, then don’t get in the boat.

(59:00) It is difficult to understand people who deviate so radically from the norm like Steve did.

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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested, so my poor wallet suffers.” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

The Summit of Greatness is back! Buy your tickets today – summitofgreatness.com – 

This episode is PART ONE of a powerful two-part interview series with Pixar Founder, Ed Catmull. Lewis and Ed dive into the strategies Pixar implements to strategically stimulate different aspects of the human mind to evoke intended emotions, with a focus on character development as a pivotal element in fostering a deep connection between the audience's minds and the story. 

For over twenty-five years, Pixar has dominated the world of animation, producing #1 box office hits that include iconic works such as Toy Story, Frozen, Cars, and The Incredibles. Pixar’s works have grossed more than $14 billion at the worldwide box office, and won twenty-three Academy Awards®, 10 Golden Globes Awards, and 11 Grammys, among countless other achievements.

In this episode you will learn,

• Pixar’s insider techniques that tap into the human mind and create emotional connections with audiences.
• The firsthand principles and ideas discussed in "Creativity, Inc." that inspired a generation
• How to strategically stimulate different aspects of the human mind in order to evoke an intended emotion
• How character development plays a crucial role in Pixar films, and fosters a deep connection between the audience's minds and the story
• The magic formula revealing how Pixar masterfully balances humor, emotion, and suspense in their narratives, captivating audiences and maintaining engagement throughout the film.

For more information go to www.lewishowes.com/1474

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Want more School of Greatness episodes like this one?

Bruce Lipton on Manifestation: https://link.chtbl.com/1312-pod

Joe Dispenza on the Law of Attraction: https://link.chtbl.com/1312-pod

What I learned from rereading Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli

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Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com

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[3:11] His mind was never a captive of reality.

[5:16] A complete list of every Founders episode on Steve Jobs and the founders Steve studied: Steve Jobs’s Heroes

[7:15] Steve Jobs and The Next Big Thing by Randall Stross (Founders #77)

[9:05] Steve Job’s Commencement Address

[9:40] Driven and curious, even when things were tough, he was a learning machine.

[10:20] He learned how to manage himself.

[12:45] Anything could be figured out and since anything could be figured out anything could be built.

[14:10] It was a calculation based on arrogance. — The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America's Banana King by Rich Cohen (Founders #255)

[18:00] We were no longer aiming for the handful of hobbyists who liked to assemble their own computers. For every one of them there were a thousand people who would want the machine to be ready to run.

[17:40] He was a free thinker whose ideas would often run against the conventional wisdom of any community in which he operated.

[19:55] He had no qualms about calling anyone up in search of information or help.

[20:40] I've never found anybody who didn't want to help me when I've asked them for help.

I've never found anyone who's said no or hung up the phone when I called. I just asked.

Most people never pick up the phone and call. Most people never ask.

[21:50] First you believe. Then you work on getting other people to share your belief.

[24:55] All the podcasts on Edwin Land:

Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #263)

A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War by Ronald Fierstein (Founders #134)

Land's Polaroid: A Company and the Man Who Invented It by Peter C. Wensberg (Founders #133)

The Instant Image: Edwin Land and the Polaroid Experienceby Mark Olshaker (Founders #132)

Insisting On The Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land and Instant: The Story of Polaroid (Founders #40)

[25:00] My friend Frederick’s newsletter I was interviewed for

[30:20] He was an extraordinary speaker and he wielded that tool to great effect.

[31:00] Never underestimate the value of an ally. — Estée Lauder: A Success Story by Estée Lauder. (Founders #217)

[32:50] If you go to sleep on a win you’re going to wake up with a loss.

[33:00] Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace and Jim Erickson (Founders #140)

[34:20] Software development requires very little capital investment. It is basically intellectual capital. The main cost is the labor required to design and test it. There's no need for expensive factories. It can be replicated endlessly for practically nothing.

[38:10] He cared passionately and he never dialed it in.

[39:45] To Pixar And Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History by Lawrence Levy (Founders #235)

[42:58] Time carries most of the weight.

[43:30] People that are learning machines and then refuse to quit are incredibly hard to beat. Steve jobs was a learning machine who refused to quit.

[44:17] Steve Jobs and The Next Big Thing by Randall Stross (Founders #77)

[49:40] Creativity Inc by Ed Catmull

[50:30] There were times when the reactions against Steve baffled Steve.

I remember him sometimes saying to me: Why are they upset?

What that said to me was that he didn't intend to get that outcome. It was a lack of skill as opposed to meanness. A lack of skill of dealing with other people.

[55:50] Creative thinking, at its best, is chalk full of failures and dead ends.

[56:40] Successful people listen. Those that don’t listen don’t last long. —Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby. (Founders #212) 

[58:40] You can't go to the library and find a book titled The Business Model for Animation. The reason you can't is because there's only been one company Disney that's ever done it well, and they were not interested in telling the world how lucrative it was.

[1:01:20] The company is one of the most amazing inventions of humans.

[1:02:25] The only purpose for me in building a company is so that the company can make products. One is a means to the other.

[1:04:00] Personal History by Katherine Graham (Founders #152)

[1:10:11] Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs by Ken Kocienda

[1:11:12] What am I focusing on that sets me apart from my competitors?

[1:13:00] The channel? We lost $2 billion last year. Who gives a fuck about the channel?

[1:15:21] Time carries most of the weight. Stay in the game as long as possible.

[1:16:41] The information he'd glean would go into the learning machine that was his brain. Sometimes that's where it would sit, and nothing would happen. Sometimes he'd concoct a way to combine it with something else he'd seen, or perhaps to twist it in a way to benefit an entirely different project altogether. This was one of his great talents, the ability to synthesize separate developments and technologies into something previously unimaginable.

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Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com

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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

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Come see a live show with me and Patrick O'Shaughnessy from Invest Like The Best on October 19th in New York City. 

Get your tickets here! 

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On Steve Jobs

#5 Steve Jobs: The Biography

#19 Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader

#76 Return To The Little Kingdom: Steve Jobs and The Creation of Apple

#77 Steve Jobs & The NeXT Big Thing

#204 Inside Steve Jobs' Brain

#214 Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography

#235 To Pixar And Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History

Bonus Episodes on Steve Jobs

Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple's Success (Between #112 and #113)

Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs (Between #110 and #111)

On Jony Ive and Steve Jobs

#178 Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple's Greatest Products

On Ed Catmull and Steve Jobs

#34 Creativity Inc: Overcoming The Unseen Forces That Stand In The Way of True Inspiration

On Steve Jobs and several other technology company founders

#157 The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution

#208 In the Company of Giants: Candid Conversations With the Visionaries of the Digital World

STEVE JOBS'S INFLUENCES 

Edwin Land

#40 Insisting On The Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land and Instant: The Story of Polaroid

#132 The Instant Image: Edwin Land and The Polaroid Experience

#133 Land's Polaroid: A Company and The Man Who Invented It

#134 A Triumph of Genius: Edwin Land, Polaroid, and the Kodak Patent War

Bob Noyce and Andy Grove

#8 The Intel Trinity: How Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove Built the World's Most Important Company

#159 Swimming Across

#166 The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley

Nolan Bushnell

#36 Finding The Next Steve Jobs: How to Find, Keep, and Nurture Talent

Akio Morita

#102 Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony

Walt Disney

#2 Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination

#39 Walt Disney: An American Original

#158 Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World

J. Robert Oppenheimer

#215 The General and the Genius: Groves and Oppenheimer—The Unlikely Partnership that Built the Atom Bomb

Henry Ford

#9 I Invented the Modern Age: The Rise of Henry Ford

#26 My Life and Work: The Autobiography of Henry Ford

#80 Today and Tomorrow: Special Edition of Ford's 1926 Classic

#118 My Forty Years With Ford

#190 The Story of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison's Ten-Year Road Trip

David Packard and Bill Hewlett

#29 The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company

Alexander Graham Bell

#138 Reluctant Genius: The Passionate Life and Inventive Mind of Alexander Graham Bell

Robert Friedland

#131 The Big Score: Robert Friedland and The Voisey's Bay Hustle

Larry Ellison (Steve’s best friend)

#124 Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle

#126 The Billionaire and the Mechanic: How Larry Ellison and a Car Mechanic Teamed up to Win Sailing's Greatest Race, the Americas Cup, Twice

#127 The Difference Between God and Larry Ellison: God Doesn't Think He's Larry Ellison

What I learned from reading To Pixar And Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History by Lawrence Levy.

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Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com

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[1:34] The Founders: The Story of Paypal and the Entrepreneurs Who Shaped Silicon Valley (Founders #233)

[3:42] Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration (Founders #34)

[3:52] Readwise App

[7:22] George Lucas: A Life (Founders #35)

[7:48] Steve jobs had been a Silicon Valley's most visible celebrity but that made it all the more glaring that he had not had a hit in a long time —a very long time.

[8:49] Steve Jobs and the NeXT Big Thing (Founders #77)

[13:35] Why would I join a company that had been struggling for sixteen years and whose payroll was paid every month out of the personal checkbook of its owner? I had not realized how dire Pixar's financial situation was. It had no cash, no reserves, and it depended for its funds on the whim of a person whose reputation for volatility was legendary.

[14:05] There is no a better advertisement than a demo.

[15:57] Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story (Founders #141)

[16:03] There was nothing normal about me. My drive was not normal. My vision of where I wanted to go in life was not normal. The whole idea of a conventional existence was like Kryptonite to me. —Arnold

[16:31] I looked at my start-up clients and to me they were on an adventure. I yearned for the kind of adventure they were on.

[17:28] Mind Your Own Business: A Maverick's Guide to Business, Leadership and Life (Founders #229)

[17:46] I regard myself as guardian of the company's soul.

[19:06] Pixar has this amazing collection of talent doing work that no one has seen before. Now it's time to turn that into a business. —Steve Jobs

[22:01] Steve had an almost permanent intensity about him, like he was always in top gear.

[28:25] Pixar was embarked on a lonely courageous quest through terrain, into which neither it nor anyone else had ever ventured.

[28:52] Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader (Founders #19)

[31:37] Home video was turning animated feature films into big business. Bigger than we had ever imagined.

[32:24] There was no modern precedent for taking an independent animation company public.

[36:54] Look at the value of the major Hollywood studios and you'll see their library of films is really significant.

[39:27] There was no part of Steve that bought into the idea of making products that might not all have a shot at greatness.

[41:22] Made in Japan: Akio Morita and Sony (Founders #102)

[48:40] Steve once told me that the gestation of great products takes much longer than it appears. What seems to emerge from nowhere belies a long process of development, trials, and missteps.

[53:46] The problem with success, even a little success, is that it changes you. You are no longer walking along the same precipice that drove you to do great work in the first place. Success can take the edge away.

[54:16] Creative vision does not spring forth fully formed.

[59:33] Fear and ego conspire to rein in creativity, and it is easy to allow creative inspiration to take a back seat to safety.

[1:01:38] The Billionaire and the Mechanic: How Larry Ellison and a Car Mechanic Teamed up to Win Sailing's Greatest Race, the Americas Cup, Twice (Founders #126)

[1:06:41] Once Steve decided what he wanted in a negotiation, he developed something akin to a religious conviction about it. In his mind, if he didn't get what he wanted, nothing else would take its place, so he'd walk away. This made Steve an incredibly strong negotiator.

[1:10:52] One never knows if an event that appears detrimental is in fact part of a larger pattern that we cannot see.

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Get access to the World’s Most Valuable Notebook for Founders at Founders Notes.com

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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ”

— Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

What I learned from reading Creative Capital: Georges Doriot and the Birth of Venture Capital by Spencer Ante. 

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1. He was very important because he was the first one to believe there was a future in financing entrepreneurs in an organized way.

2. He brought a unique style to everything he did. 

3. He called his course Manufacturing, but it was really his philosophy of life and of business.

4. At Harvard, Doriot became a Yoda-like figure, dispensing wisdom to an ever-growing group of disciples.

5. He got me motivated to start a business.

6. A real courageous man is a man who does something courageous when no one is watching him. 

7. If any information is to be exchanged over whiskey, let us get it rather than give it. 

8. You will get nowhere if you do not inspire people.

9. Always remember that someone somewhere is making a product that will make your product obsolete.

10. Decades before economists appreciated the value of technology, Doriot realized that innovation was the key to economic progress.

11. He upset the conventional wisdom by proving that there was big money to be made from patient investing in and the nurturing of small, unproven companies.

12. He believed in building companies for the long haul. 

13. I don’t consider a speculator constructive. I am building men and companies.

14. A creative man merely has ideas; a resourceful man makes them practical. I look for the resourceful man.

15. When ARD liquidated its stake in Digital, the company was worth more than $400 million—yielding a return on their original investment of more than 70,000 percent. It was the young venture capital industry’s first home run.

16. Doriot never figured out a way to appease government regulators, who repeatedly threatened to put ARD out of business.

17. More than any other person, Doriot pioneered the transition to an economy built on entrepreneurship and innovation.

18. Celebrating anything less than the best possible result smacked of contentment

19. A commercial bank lends only on the strength of the past. I want money to do things that have never been done before.

20. Every successful man can usually point to a mentor that helped guide his career.

21. One of things that profoundly affected Georges was his father getting wiped out financially.

22. Doriot would go on to mentor thousands of other students, giving them advice, finding them jobs, guiding them in their careers, and taking an extraordinarily personal interest in each and every one of their futures.

23. Doriot believed strongly in forming a close bond between student and teacher.

24. Doriot described with a palpable sense of glee the importance of imparting a strong work ethic.

25. Doriot encouraged his students to ponder the purpose of life and business. It was a highly unusual technique but the students realized Doriot was giving them knowledge of much deeper value.

26. Always challenge the statement that nothing can be done about a certain condition

27. There was still a fire that burned in Doriot. A passion that kept him searching for his next mission impossible.

28. Doriot was a workaholic with no family responsibilities to divert his energies

29. A committee is an invitation to do nothing.

30. Lack of competent personnel was his most vexing problem.

31. One word is omitted from Doriot’s vocabulary. That word—“impossible.” If a thing must be done, it can be done.

32. Doriot was putting in twelve-hour days, seven days a week. 

33. We cannot depend safely for an indefinite time on the expansion of our old big industries alone. We need new strength, energy and ability from below.

34. A team made up of the younger generation, with courage and inventiveness, together with older men of wisdom and experience, should bring success.

35. On his desk, Doriot kept a stopwatch. “Sometimes I use it to see how long it takes someone in a meeting to tell me the same thing three times,” he said.

36. An average idea in the hands of an able man is worth much more than an outstanding idea in the possession of a person with only average ability.

37. The riskiest investments, they were learning, held the potential to generate the greatest financial returns and the highest personal satisfaction

38. He knew that if entrepreneurs weren’t self-driven and a bit egotistical they’d be punching the clock for IBM or General Electric.

39. Creative ability knows no boundaries.

40. It’s very important to cultivate the memory of great people.

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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast

What I learned from reading Creativity Inc: Overcoming The Unseen Forces That Stand In The Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull. 

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Lead with a light touch (18:59)

Anchor yourself with your why (23:35)

Bet on yourself (39:54)

Decentralize problem-solving (52:56)

People are more important than ideas (1:00:45)

Analyze ways to improve your process after a project is complete (1:24:10)

Keep a startup mentality (1:26:36)

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“I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth

Be like Gareth. Buy a book: All the books featured on Founders Podcast