Dance with wolves

When you follow reasonable advice, you secure reasonable results.

Extraordinary results follow a different path.

I recently heard Kevin Costner tell the story behind Dances with Wolves. Ever since, it’s been going round and round in my mind.

Kevin was already a success prior to the movie.

He’d been in The Untouchables, No Way Out, and Field of Dreams.

One of his friends, Michael, a screenwriter, was struggling to find a breakthrough.

So, Kevin tries to help him out by connecting him with several movie producers.

Michael gets rejected every time, blaming Hollywood for not recognising his talent.

Kevin gives him the hard truth, “Maybe it’s not good enough. Quit making things that are 120 pages long [in Hollywood, a script is 120 pages]… If you really want to write, write something that’s 88 pages or 880.”

A week later, Michael, hard up and with no income, asks Kevin if he can stay with him for a while as he doesn’t have a place to stay.

He spends a couple of months with Kevin, writing a new script and asking Kevin for feedback.

“F*ck no.” Kevin remembered what the last script was like.

As the two months pass, it comes to a point where Kevin can’t have Michael in his house any more.

Michael leaves, heading to Arizona to go wash dishes in a Chinese restaurant, but he left what he had written.

He calls Kevin, “Have you read what I’ve written yet?”

Kevin: “No, I don’t even know if I like you any more.”

Michael: “But I’m cold and I’m having to kill raccoons and go work at this Chinese restaurant.”

Kevin finally read the script.

It was Dances with Wolves.

They both subsequently make the movie together, winning 7 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Reasonable advice, making what people (and algorithms) seem to like makes sense, but it’s a trap.

It’s extraordinary to become a leading authority in your space.

If you want to become one, you can’t deliver reasonable ideas through reasonable formats.

Be unreasonable.

Don’t write a 120 page script. Write an 80 page one.

Don’t write an 800 word blog post. Write an 8,000 word one with heavy research.

Don’t write a 2,000 essay on philosophy. Create one simple visual.

Figure out what reasonable looks like, then go to either end of the spectrum.

P.S. You can watch the 3 min clip of the interview with Kevin Costner here