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

by Lawrence Levy

the culture on which Pixar depended to innovate?

Excessive hierarchy and bureaucracy were like a death blow to innovation.

Too little, and Pixar’s key employees might be forever disgruntled, ruining the culture on which Pixar was built.

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. Now you have something to defend: a reputation, money in the bank, a brand, real customer expectations. Success can take the edge away.

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.

Leverage means bargaining power.

Leverage is an assessment of bargaining strength; negotiation is how you put that bargaining strength to work for you.

“The life of sensation is the life of greed; it requires more and more. The life of the spirit requires less and less; time is ample and its passage sweet.”