I have two small children so I have seen all the Pixar movies. I watched ‘The Pixar Story’ over Christmas out of a curiosity for how they make the films, and also learned something interesting about the career of John Lasseter, one of the co-founders.
John loved cartoons as a child, went on to study animation and even got a job as a sweeper at Disneyland. After winning awards for two short films he made at the California Institute of Arts, he got his dream job as an animator at Disney in April 1980.
The studio arranged a screening of Tron for employees and John was amazed by the potential for computer animation – especially being able to move the background by computer whilst animating characters by hand. The studio gave John his feature length directorial debut on a film called ‘The Brave Little Toaster’ using computer animation.
At the screening of the final cut, Disney’s CEO, who had remained stony-faced throughout, asked what a feature made entirely on computers would cost, to which John replied it would be about the same as a regular animated film. The CEO said the only reason to use computers would be if it made production faster or cheaper, and then walked out.
Five minutes later, John was summoned to his office where the CEO said to him, “Your project is now complete, so your employment at Disney is terminated.”
He was stunned and devastated. Colleagues admitted Disney just didn’t know what to do with him.
He was subsequently hired by Lucasfilm’s Computer Division, where the team of computer scientists went on to develop an imaging computer they named Pixar. Inspired by John’s vision of a computer animated feature, they went to George Lucas to pitch the idea, but he didn’t want to make the $30-$40m investment required.
Coincidentally, Steve Jobs at Apple had become aware of their work, and he suddenly found himself out of a job when the executives he’d hired to take Apple to the next level fired him. Steve Jobs then invested $10m in Pixar as it was spun out from Lucasfilm.
They did some interesting work to pay the bills, but were nowhere near raising the funds required for a feature film budget. Then the money started running out. Jobs was losing about $1m a year keeping Pixar running. Disney, having subsequently developed some painting and texturing software, tried to hire Lasseter back as a Director to help them make sense of this new medium. A Pixar colleague described John’s choice, “Does he go back to Disney as Director, or stay at his own company bordering on collapse?”
John decided to stay. Note to employers: treat your employees well when you are exiting them, because you never know when you’ll need to hire them back.
Instead, Disney commissioned Pixar to produce Toy Story, striking a deal with them so that Disney would provide distribution and marketing.
This arrangement served both companies well, and was extended to a 50/50 deal with Disney in 1995 when Pixar floated, but then relationships soured.
It was only when a new CEO came on board at Disney in 2005 that he saw the future of animated features lay in CGI and all the best people to do it were at Pixar.
In 2006, Disney paid $7.6bn to acquire Pixar and as part of the deal John Lasseter became Chief Creative Officer, overseeing all of Disney’s output, theme parks and attractions.
When you’re career seemingly takes a turn for the worse, the ultimate outcome may be far better than you ever expected, but you just don’t know it yet. This is expressed by Steve Jobs, coincidentally, in his 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech , where he talks about “joining the dots backwards” (using his experience of getting fired from Apple and going on to become involved in Pixar as one example).
If you love what you do you will be able to find a path to pursue that love no matter what. John Lasseter’s ability to inspire the Lucasfilm team with his enthusiasm for an animated feature was instrumental in achieving that goal.
Don’t be surprised if a former employer seeks you out and attempts to woo you back. Evidence suggests that around 25% of people return to a former employer at some stage in their career. Just consider how that employer handled your departure and whether your values match with those they demonstrated when you left – if there’s a mismatch, going back might not be a good idea – even if it looks like an easy option.
Very few of us are going to start companies that we can sell for billions of dollars (or pounds) – but discovering what ‘your thing’ is and making it your life’s work is going to make your career extremely rewarding nonetheless.
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