Just yesterday I finished reading George Lucas’ biography, George Lucas: A life, by Brian Jay Jones.
And I must say, from start to finish. It’s an amazing read.
It’s remarkable how much knowledge you can acquire from reading biographies—much more than reading your average business book will teach you. The knowledge itself is also vastly different.
You’ll pick up on principles, life lessons, and the intricacies behind most business lessons that never get talked about, but which you just have to ‘get’ by experiencing them—or by reading about how other people experienced them.
I’m also a big fan of cinema—and your occasional Star Wars.
Which made this a natural must-read for me.
Yet I never realized just how much George Lucas had done for the industry. Squeezing all of his accomplishments, which required a 472-page book to explain, into one single email would be a lot. But as a paragraph of the book reads:
“He changed the way people watch movies; he demolished, then reinvented the way movies were made, marketed, and merchandised. He changed the way fans embraced and adored not just movies and characters and actors but directors, producers, and composers—all of whom Lucas made active and visible collaborators on his films. He redefined the way movie studios financed, distributed, and controlled—and then ultimately, didn’t control—the art of filmmaking.”
Some people even called him “The Thomas Edison of the modern film industry”.
There’s no telling what would’ve become of the industry without a George Lucas in it. But one of the things I remember most is his answer to an interviewer who asked him what he thought the first line of his obituary might say.
In the old Lucas fashion, he didn’t waste any words and just said this: “I tried.”
Which holds one of those big life lessons, those big principles, and intricacies I referred to. Out of the dozens of notes I took, this surely was among the top 3 most memorable and impactful to me.
This begs the question: what are you currently trying?
As for me, I already accepted my fate and the fact it’s highly unlikely that I’ll get my X account back anytime soon. But instead of staying still I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to get on LinkedIn and keep building over there.
I’ve still got my skillset after all, so let’s put those to the test and see what I can do starting (more or less) from scratch.
With that said, go and follow me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexvandromme/
I won’t be posting anything yet, that’s for next week. I’m taking some time off this week for personal stuff. But I will gradually get my profile and branding on point. Maybe I’ll do some crazy stuff and use this ‘fresh-start’ to change it up a little bit, maybe I won’t. Who knows?
But anyway, go and follow me here and let’s tackle this new adventure together: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexvandromme/