What You Can Learn from Woody, Boo, and Mr. Incredible

Great book - both inspirational and educational

Pixar movies are awesome. The Pixar library includes such amazing movies as Toy Story and Toy Story 2, The Incredibles, Monsters Inc., Ratatouille, and Wall-E. On Rotten Tomatoes their worst reviewed movie is at 75%. 75% is their worst reviewed movie! Amazing. They are also one of the most financially successful studios in history, cranking out hit after hit.

It’s easy to look at Pixar now and assume that the company was destined for success. Nothing could be further from the truth. I recently became obsessed with Pixar’s history, and have both watched the documentary, The Pixar Story and read the book, The Pixar Touch by David A. Price. Pixar’s story is both inspirational and educational, and I highly recommend you check it out.

In the meantime, here are a few lessons you can learn from Pixar’s example:

Hold Onto A Dream

Pixar’s first feature, Toy Story, began production in 1990 and was released in 1995. You know when John Lasseter and Ed Catmull first dreamed up the idea of a feature length computer animated movie? The early 80’s! Through many ups and downs, including naysayers, being closed out when they were part of Lucasfilm, and almost shutdown as Pixar, they held on to that one dream. It’s amazing how close the world came to never having the movies of Pixar.

Do Something

Woody from Toy Story. Who knew what an empire Pixar would become...

Just having a dream isn’t enough. John Lasseter didn’t sit there and just wish the world was more accommodating to his desire to make a feature length computer animated film. He made his first computer animated short in 1984, and continued to make shorts each year afterwards. He was also always maneuvering to move himself closer to the ultimate goal: a full length feature.

Progress Within the Confines of What You Do

Pixar was originally a hardware company. PIXAR is the name of a high-end computer system. When Steve Jobs bought Pixar, he thought the real opportunity was in selling the hardware, not in animation. The animation was just a tool to demonstrate the power of the computer. Catmull and Lasseter had to find ways to keep progressing even though the circumstances weren’t quite right. At one point, in an effort to bring in some money, the animation team talked about doing commercials. The fear was that they would become nothing more than computer generating errand boys with no creativity. The CEO at the time, Charles Kolstad, had this answer: “Then we won’t take those kinds of jobs. We take jobs where we can be creative.” So simple.

Regarding the discussion around trying to use the animation team to make money Kolstad said, “We looked at it as a group and said, ‘Here’s how we can make money, keeping in mind that the goal of the company, and really the bliss of the company was to create a movie. That was the common dream. So it was to say: How can we bring that common dream to fruition and make money?”

Simple question every business owner, entrepreneur, creative type, and dreamer should ask: How can we bring that common dream to fruition and make money?

Work Hard

My favorite Pixar movie, and one of my favorite movies of all time

Seems obvious, but it is amazing to read and watch the stories of the effort put in by Lasseter and his team to get some of the original animated shorts and features done. Long, long days of intense work for weeks and months on end. At one point Lasseter would just sleep at the office. This is only possible when it’s fueled by a passion filled dream. And this is not to say that you shouldn’t have any life balance. But only you know whether you have the dedication and are really putting in the hard work to make it all come true.

Have Vision

Pixar started out as part of Lucasfilms. When George Lucas saw the first computer animated short they put out, Andre and Wally B Lucas thought it was awful. As Alvy Ray Smith, co-founder of Pixar, put it, “He couldn’t make the leap from the crudeness of it then to what it could be. He took it literally for what it was, and assumed that’s all we could do.” The short reinforced Lucas’s belief that his computer team should not be making films, and should stick to special effects.

It’s ironic that George Lucas, one of the true film visionaries in history, lacked the vision to see what computer animation could be. But the Pixar team had the vision and stuck to it.

How about you? Are you able to look at what is and see what could be? Whether in your own life, in your own dreams, or in you assessment of the potential of others, vision is a valuable tool to cultivate.

Be good

There were other people doing CGI, and other companies making computer animated shorts and features. The one thing that separated Pixar from the rest? They were really good.. And they had a commitment to quality. When Toy Story 2 was originally in production, it was going to be a direct to DVD movie and as such did not have Pixar’s “A” team on it (they were working on A Bug’s Life. After finishing A Bug’s Life, Lasseter took a look at what was done for Toy Story 2, and felt the quality was not up to snuff. The deadline to get it in to Disney was too close for them to redo it. Lasseter asked for more team, but Disney said “no” and that it would be good enough. This was unacceptable to Lasseter so he, with his team, scrapped what they had, started over, and worked liked mad to get a new completed film to Disney by the deadline (see the point above about “work hard”). Toy Story 2 went on to gross a gazillion dollars and is considered by many to be Pixar’s best.

There is no substitute for being good, and “good enough” rarely is…

Ed Catmull and John Lasseter. The two guys who made it all happen. We can learn a lot from them.

Push Yourself!

Rather than rest on its laurels and just repeat what they had done, Pixar continuously kept raising the bar. Each film added a layer (or multiple layers) of complexity. A Bug’s Life had many more characters than Toy Story. Monsters Inc. added hair. Finding Nemo had water. The Incredibles had humans. And hair. And water. And wind. And fire. And humans, hair, water, wind, and fire all at the same time. Wall-E attempted to humanize a robot with almost no dialog. They just kept raising the bar for themselves. As a result, the movies kept getting better (and making more money).

Persevere in the Face of Naysayers

Persevere. Even when you feel like you are all alone in the world.

Pixar’s success was not guaranteed. As mentioned above, George Lucas did not think the team should work on films. Steve Jobs focused primarily on the hardware side of things. In fact, Jobs was trying to sell Pixar for a while (to be fair, he had lost $5 million over 5 years with the company). You have two of the most successful business/creative people in the world naysaying you, and yet you perservere. And that perseverance paid off big time.

Perseverance without intelligence is folly. But, if you are following the above lessons (following your dream, being good, pushing yourself, working hard, actually doing something, and progressing), then you must persevere. No one is right 100% of the time, and only you know deep down whether you are on the right path. Ignore the naysayers and keep going!

Pixar is truly an amazing story. I would highly recommend reading the Pixar Touch or watching The Pixar Story, as I have only touched upon the great story of the path Pixar took to success.

And the next time you are watching a Pixar movie, take a second to reflect on the lessons you too can learn from the example of some of the best movies, animated or otherwise, ever put to film.

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