Transcript

Supporting #1167 · From Chad

0:00
Apple computers didn't make Steve Jobs a billionaire.
0:04
There's a story behind that. This is your daily message from
0:07
Chad #1167 to upgrade your mental game today by telling
0:11
yourself a better story. Because the most important story
0:14
you hear is the story you tell yourself.
0:16
This message is dedicated to Scott Menke.
0:18
You can get a free copy of my book, The Most Powerful Story in
0:21
the World, by going to from chad.gumroad.com.
0:25
The transcript of this message and hundreds of others are
0:27
always available at www.fromchad.com.
0:31
Here's the upgrade. You think the obstacle is yours
0:35
to carry alone. But upgraded thinking knows the
0:37
obstacle becomes bearable the moment somebody else puts their
0:39
arm around it with you. Here's the story.
0:43
In 1986, Steve Jobs bought a struggling computer graphics
0:47
division off George Lucas. Nobody else wanted it.
0:51
Two dozen buyers passed. The papers got signed, and
0:54
before anybody celebrated, Jobs pulled the two lead guys, Ed
0:58
Catmull and Alvey Ray Smith, off to the side.
1:01
He put his arms around them and said, whatever happens next,
1:04
guys, we have to be loyal to each other.
1:07
That sentence is the whole story.
1:10
Everything after it is Jobs keeping that promise, because
1:13
what happened next was almost a decade of nothing going right.
1:17
This company, which you now know as Pixar, had no business model.
1:22
Every single month Catmull had to walk in and tell Jobs they
1:26
were short on payroll. And every single month Jobs
1:29
wrote a check. Not once, not for 1/4, for
1:33
years. By the end it added up to $54
1:37
million of his own money while his other company at the same
1:41
time Next was failing 2 sinking ships and he stayed on both.
1:48
Three separate times he tried to sell it.
1:50
Microsoft offered $90,000,000. Once he turned it down, Catmull
1:54
figured out why Jobs wasn't hunting in Exit.
1:58
He was hunting proof he hadn't wasted the loyalty he'd already
2:02
sunk $50 million in. He'd already done layoffs, and
2:06
his animator John Lasseter walked in and asked for $300,000
2:11
more for a short film with 0 commercial upside.
2:15
Jobs said yes. He revealed his motivation,
2:18
saying, quote, it was art. He cared, and I cared.
2:23
I always said yes in quote, That short film Tin Toy won the
2:29
Academy Award. And when Disney tried to poach
2:32
Lassiter away, Lassiter said no out of loyalty to the man who'd
2:37
said yes to him. That loyalty is what built the
2:41
Toy Story deal. Toy Story opened in 1995.
2:46
Four days later, Pixar went public and Jobs stake was worth
2:51
$1.2 billion, five times what he made when Apple itself went
2:56
public. Pixar made him a billionaire,
3:00
not Apple, and the people who studied him closely said without
3:04
those years he'd never get a second act at Apple at all. 10
3:08
years in the wilderness. One arm around 2 shoulders, one
3:13
sentence that outlasted every bad month.
3:16
The better story to tell yourself is my burdens are
3:20
bearable because I'm not bearing them alone.
3:23
Tell me a story of somebody sticking with you when they
3:26
didn't have to to From chadsmith@gmail.com.
3:30
Send someone a text right now and tell them I'm glad we're in
3:33
this together.