Creativity, Inc.
“If we made something that we wanted to see, others would want to see it, too.”
Who’s this for: Innovators. Creative Minds. Those who thirst for self improvement. Lastly, those who are fans of Pixar. It’s odd that just about every Pixar movie that comes out is a consensus, certified fresh, blockbuster hit. This book will tell you that’s because of two things: humility, and curiosity.
I’m 32 years old. Just want to make that clear, that I’m a 32 year old man. A meat head to some, and sometimes a bit of an animal. Guess what? I f’n love Pixar movies. Years ago, I thought it was immature for an adult to want to watch these cartoons, especially an adult man. But a good movie, is a good movie. Period.
You ever wonder why Pixar seems to crush it every time? Its led from the top, and Ed Catmull does an amazing job detailing his journey from decades before Pixar was a thought, through its successes and “failures.” I put failures in quotes, because from my perspective they’re not real failures. At most, they’re minor hiccups in an otherwise perfect company.
How did they achieve this? Simply through humility and curiosity. Ed Catmull is a nerd. There’s no other way around it. He’s a computer engineer that wanted to create movies using computer generated graphics. It was his dream, and that was it. He wasn’t a filmmaker, or a master story teller. Just a nerd with an idea that would go on to create the first full length 100% computer generated film, Toy Story, grossing $358 MILLION worldwide.
Back to this humility and curiosity. Ed continually expresses his shortcomings throughout the book. He is the first to admit what his weaknesses are, and expose his ignorance. People think that in itself is a weakness, but it may be a leader’s #1 strength. Humility. You are not a weak person for ever needing help. Be the dumbest person in the room, you’ll be better for it. You can rise together, or die alone. Ed knew this.
The other was his almost childlike curiosity. Ed was an engineer after all, and wanted to understand how things worked. Not only machines, or software, but also people. Because of this he kept his eyes open. No matter the size of the company, he was very observant of why things happened and figured out for what reasons. Even in successes, there’s lessons and improvements to be made.
I lovvveeeed this analogy he gave about a person driving to work. Person A drives to work everyday and has never hit traffic, therefore Person A doesn’t believe they’ll ever need to leave for work early to get there on time. Person B has driven to work and has hit traffic and shown up late. Ever since, Person B leaves earlier than normal to make sure they are there on time. Person A has experienced nothing but success, so therefore doesn’t feel the need to prepare for failure - it’s coming. Ed evaluated business like this. What could happen? Not in an unnecessary sense, but in a protective and prepared one. Lesson learned from all of this is successes can mask weakness.
Another thing Pixar does that’s not traditional in the film industry, is the same team works on just about every film. (What usually occurs is contractors are hired, then disperse after the film is completed to possibly never work together again.) Because of this, Ed can utilize what he calls a brain trust, comprised of credible minds that critique… constructively. It’s important that everyone understands that criticisms of the work is not a criticism of the person - again, humility. Everyone’s end goal is to put out the best product possible. Whatever way it takes to achieve this, needs to be done (e.g. replace personnel, rewrite the story). This kind of environment is what breeds champions.
A great example of this comes from a discussion of Toy Story 2. The brain trust watched the initial version of the film, and it just wasn’t working. They just couldn’t understand why Woody would think Andy would no longer want him any more. The audience just wasn’t buying it, especially after how much we’ve known Andy to love Woody. Then it clicked, that the missing piece was Wheezy the Penguin. If you can recall, Woody ends up running into a dusty, squeaker-impeded Wheezy. Upon which, Wheezy cautions Woody about becoming a lost, unplayed with toy. BAM. Now the idea is implanted with the audience, and the story works. This simple addition, and acceptance from the filmmakers, made Toy Story 2 what we see today. Complete.
After reading this book, Pixar to me is like a calm ocean. On the surface, it can appear peaceful, and still. Beautiful. But underneath when you get a peak, there’s a lot of shit going on, and a lot of turbulence. However, Pixar makes all the right moves to keep the ecosystem working, and us at peace from our perspective.
This book isn’t just a great book for business, or creative minds, but is comprised of great lessons for life. Successes come from listening to other people, and continually admitting when you need help and what you don’t know. That’s how you grow. Through humility, and curiosity.
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