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This week on How Success Happens, I talked with Paul Fischer, author of The Last Kings of Hollywood, a fantastic deep dive into how Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas basically invented the modern blockbuster and changed the business of movies forever. Paul doesn’t just tell great Hollywood stories—he unpacks how these guys operated like founders, from scrappy “warehouse” startups to billion‑dollar IP empires. We’ve broken down his success insights to help you direct your own plan for success in three, two, one!
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Three Key Insights
1. Build Your Own “Warehouse” When the System Says No
Paul describes how Coppola and Lucas, frustrated by the old Hollywood studio machine, did what any great founder does: they went off and built their own thing. “They go up to the Bay, they get a warehouse, they get a bunch of cutting-edge technology, and they go, ‘To hell with the system. We’re gonna do our own thing.’” He points out that their mentality was pure startup: small-business-owner energy, bootstrapping from one win to the next, and refusing to wait for permission. The twist is that their revolution eventually became the new system—exactly what happens when disruptors grow into incumbents.
Takeaway: If the existing system won’t give you a shot, treat it like Coppola and Lucas did: find your “warehouse,” assemble your tools and allies, and build your own kingdom.
2. The Power of Collaborative Rivalry
One of my favorite dynamics Paul uncovers is how much Spielberg, Coppola, Lucas, and Scorsese relied on each other—not just as friends, but as a kind of mastermind group. He talks about Spielberg being convinced that no one would show up for Jaws, panicking on opening day, and Martin Scorsese literally driving him around Hollywood to a theater where they see a line wrapping around the block. “These guys were extremely talented, great vision, hard workers, lucky to come at the right time in kind of film history… but I think a lot of their success was also dependent on knowing each other and kind of competitive collaboration or collaborative rivalry.” Moments like Spielberg’s Jaws terror or Coppola nearly getting fired from The Godfather became survivable—and often career-defining—because someone in that circle was there to push, protect, and reframe what was happening.
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