The Tim Ferriss Show #279: The Most Curious Man in Hollywood — Brian Grazer
Football Cut Shapes Path
- Brian Grazer was cut from his high school football team in front of 300 kids, which deeply affected him.
- This moment redirected his path and inspired his connection to the story Friday Night Lights.
Curiosity Opens Doors
- Brian used curiosity conversations to gain access to powerful industry figures by asking detailed questions.
- He convinced assistants to meet their bosses and learned the mechanics of entertainment leverage.
Master Curiosity Conversations
- Cultivate curiosity by regularly meeting experts outside your field to shatter prejudices and expand your worldview.
- Prepare thoroughly for conversations to be a great and engaging 'date' who leaves people feeling valued.
Brian Grazer (@BrianGrazer) is an Academy Award-winning producer and New York Times bestselling author (A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life, with Charles Fishman) who has been making movies and television programs for more than 25 years. Grazer and his longtime friend and business partner Ron Howard began their collaboration in 1985 on the hit comedies Nightshift and Splash, and in 1986 they founded Imagine Entertainment.
In 2002, Grazer won an Oscar for Best Picture for A Beautiful Mind (shared with Ron Howard). In 2007, he was named one of Time's "100 Most Influential People in the World." His films and TV series have been nominated for 43 Academy Awards, and 131 Emmys.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Brian's "supertool" that helped him earn opportunity.
- How to pitch people to open doors and opportunity.
- Favorite failures and lessons learned.
- Brian's criteria for choosing what movies to make.
- How to develop better decision-making abilities.
- And much, much more.
This episode was recorded in front of a live, sold-out audience of about 2,000 people at Summit LA17 in Los Angeles. Enjoy!
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Past guests on The Tim Ferriss Show include Jerry Seinfeld, Hugh Jackman, Dr. Jane Goodall, LeBron James, Kevin Hart, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Jamie Foxx, Matthew McConaughey, Esther Perel, Elizabeth Gilbert, Terry Crews, Sia, Yuval Noah Harari, Malcolm Gladwell, Madeleine Albright, Cheryl Strayed, Jim Collins, Mary Karr, Maria Popova, Sam Harris, Michael Phelps, Bob Iger, Edward Norton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Neil Strauss, Ken Burns, Maria Sharapova, Marc Andreessen, Neil Gaiman, Neil de Grasse Tyson, Jocko Willink, Daniel Ek, Kelly Slater, Dr. Peter Attia, Seth Godin, Howard Marks, Dr. Brené Brown, Eric Schmidt, Michael Lewis, Joe Gebbia, Michael Pollan, Dr. Jordan Peterson, Vince Vaughn, Brian Koppelman, Ramit Sethi, Dax Shepard, Tony Robbins, Jim Dethmer, Dan Harris, Ray Dalio, Naval Ravikant, Vitalik Buterin, Elizabeth Lesser, Amanda Palmer, Katie Haun, Sir Richard Branson, Chuck Palahniuk, Arianna Huffington, Reid Hoffman, Bill Burr, Whitney Cummings, Rick Rubin, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Darren Aronofsky, and many more.
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