May 2, 2024 · 1h 59m · founders
The Biography of George Lucas
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Host David Senra analyzes the biography of George Lucas, exploring how an uncompromising drive for creative independence, brilliant deal-making, and technological innovation transformed an outsider director into a self-financed media titan. The episode pairs Lucas's cinematic journey with timeless entrepreneurial lessons drawn from history's greatest company builders.
Statements from this episode (31)
Charlie Munger Called Henry Singleton the Smartest Person He Ever Met
“Charlie Munger said Henry Singleton was the smartest person that he ever met.”
Warren Buffett Said Business Schools Commit a Crime Ignoring Henry Singleton
“Warren Buffett said it was a crime that business schools didn't study him.”
Top Performers and Founders Are Deeply Steeped in Industry History
“Anybody who becomes great at what they do is seeped. They are all seeped in the history of their industry.”
Senra: Creators cannot predict the ultimate impact of their work during production
“It is very hard to understand at the time you're doing something, how it's actually going to turn out and how impactful it was.”
Senra: Science fiction was a dead film genre before Star Wars
“At this time in history, science fiction was in, in films, was a dead genre.”
George Lucas Was the Sole Shareholder in Lucasfilm's $4 Billion Sale
“He was the sole shareholder. The only shareholder in Lucasfilm when he sells it to Disney for over four billion dollars.”
Yvon Chouinard: Study Juvenile Delinquents to Understand the Entrepreneur
“One of my favorite lines ever describing founder mentality and entrepreneurs comes from Yvonne Chouinard, who is the founder of Patagonia. He says, if you want to understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent. The delinquent is saying with his act…”
Senra: The purpose of making money is to buy personal freedom
“You need to make money, not to buy a bunch of useless shit, but to actually buy your own freedom, and that's exactly what he uses his money for.”
Senra: Industry outsiders on the margins often rise to control the center
“Those on the margins often come to control the center. At this time, Spielberg, Scorsese, De Palma, Coppola, Lucas, they are on the margin. The center is controlled by these old school conservative studios that are locking all these young people out. It was ve…”
Senra: Charlie Munger advised meeting peers early leads to lifelong dealmaking
“When I had dinner with Charlie Munger, this is the advice that he gave us. ... He talked about the fact that they would meet people, you know, in their third, their twenties, thirties, and forties, and they would do business and do deals for the rest of their …”
Senra: Emerging technology will enable one-person filmmakers
“Especially with all these new technologies, basically you're gonna have one person like filmmakers, because they're gonna use all this technology.”
Senra: Creative film success is positive-sum, not zero-sum
“People going to see a Spielberg movie has no, like him being successful does not, it's not, it's all positive sum. It's not zero sum. They can go see Jaws and then next year they'll go see Star Wars.”
Korty: Operating with smaller independent budgets lowers filmmaking risk
“I would rather work for myself, In Hollywood, you have a producer breathing down your neck. I am happier working with less money. The risk of failure is far less. We can complete a film in maybe a year getting the results we want.”
Easy Rider Grossed $60M on a $350,000 Shoestring Budget
“It was not made in Hollywood. It was made on a shoestring budget. They raised 350,000 dollars. Why is that important? 350,000 dollars is released in theaters. The film makes sixty million.”
Steve Jobs Hired an Interior Designer as NeXT's 9th or 10th Employee
“Steve Jobs, one of the ninth employee, if I remember correctly, ninth or 10th employee at Next was an interior designer for the office.”
Coppola Directed The Godfather for $75,000 and 6% of Profits
“To direct Godfather, he gets 75,000 dollars to direct it, and he's gonna get six percent of any profits the film makes.”
Senra: Lucasfilm opened in 1971 with only George and Marcia Lucas
“This led him to forming his own company in 1971. Lucas officially opened Lucasfilm. This independent production company would be run out of his little house, and its lone employees were him and Marcia.”
Danny Meyer: Great companies distinguish themselves through creative problem solving
“Success lies not in the elimination of problems, but in the art of creative, profitable problem solving. The best companies are those that distinguish themselves by solving problems most effectively.”
American Graffiti earned $55M on a $1M budget in 1973 dollars
“American graffiti cost a million dollars and it earned at the box office, fifty five million, making it one of cinema's most profitable returns on investment ever.”
Lucas earned nearly $4M after taxes from American Graffiti at age 28
“Lucas earned nearly four million dollars after taxes. And as he had vowed to his father more than a decade before, Lucas was a millionaire before the age of 30. He had done it with two years to spare.”
George Lucas Made Three Times More Money on Toys Than Films
“Lucas makes three times the amount of toys as he does on the films and the films, they make billions and billions of dollars.”
Senra: Founders must value their own judgment above everyone else's opinions
“It's like, you have to believe that your own opinion about what you're working on is greater than everybody else's opinion around you. None of this works if you can't trust your own judgment.”
Senra: Original Star Wars cost $11M and made $775M at box office
“The budget for the original Star Wars was eleven million dollars. At the box office alone, it brought in seven hundred and seventy-five million.”
Star Wars novelization sold out 125,000 copies months before film release
“So they publish like a novelization of Lucas's script. They publish in November, 1976. The that's before there was even a trailer. By February, 1977. So you're talking was that three months, four months later, they had already sold out of its initial print run…”
Spielberg earned over $40M from trading 2.5% of Close Encounters for Star Wars
“And so Spielberg gave Lucas 2.5% of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Lucas gave Spielberg 2.5% of Star Wars. And it says this two 5.5% would earn Spielberg more than forty million dollars over the next four decades.”
George Lucas sold 40 million Star Wars action figures in 1978 alone
“Just in 1978 alone, George Lucas sells forty million Star Wars figures.”
The Empire Strikes Back generated over $100M in profits for George Lucas
“The Empire Strikes Back opened in May of 1980 in a 126 theaters and broke attendance records in a 125 of them. No other studio opened a single movie against it. The movie was gonna have to make fifty-seven million just for Lucas to break even, and to build Sky…”
Steve Jobs: A Startup's First Ten Hires Determine Its Success
“When you're in a startup, the first 10 people will determine whether the company succeeds or not. Each is 10% of the company. So why wouldn't you take as much time as necessary to find all A players? If three, three of the 10 were not so great, why would you s…”
Levchin: The first B-player hired brings the whole company down
“A's hire A's, B's hire C's, so the first B you hire takes the whole company down.”
Larry Ellison Commanded Recruiters to Hire the Cockiest College Graduates
“Ellison insisted that his recruiters hire only the finest and cockiest new college graduates.
When they were recruiting from universities, they'd ask people, are you the smartest person you know?
And if they said yes, they would hire them.
If they said no, …”