To Pixar and Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History

by Lawrence Levy

If I learned anything at Pixar, it is that story comes first. Pixar’s creative leader, John Lasseter, used to say, “Great graphics will keep us entertained for a couple of minutes; it is story that holds us in our seats.”

Culture is the invisible force on which innovation depends. We like to pin the mantle of invention on individuals, not circumstances. We anoint heroes and tell their stories. Yet innovation is a collective undertaking. It is as much the product of circumstance as of genius. There is a spirit to it.

Somewhere on those drives, in the quiet of my own car, I realized that no amount of deliberation was going to resolve my worries. Sometimes there comes a point when you jump not because you feel ready or are sure that you’ll make it across the chasm, but because the conditions are forcing you off the edge. That’s when you find out if you can fly.

IPOs had a long history that proved just how hard they were to pull off. Their origins went back almost four hundred years to, of all things, nutmeg.

Creative vision does not spring forth fully formed. It evolves, meanders, and all but stumbles its way to fruition.

Creative excellence is a dance on the precipice of failure, a battle against the allure of safety.

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

In business relationships, or virtually in any relationships for that matter, there are two factors that determine one’s capacity to effect change: leverage and negotiation.

am convinced that we humans do better when we have something to ground us, a deep source from which we can draw wisdom, insight, and inspiration. The goal of that source is to empower us, to bring depth and fulfillment to our lives, to give us the means to soar.