Saul Blinkoff - Director, Producer, Animator & Podcast Host | How to Live a Life of Awesome

Welcome to success story the most useful podcasts in the world. I'm your host Scott D. Cleary the success story podcast is part of the HubSpot podcast network The HubSpot podcast network has other great podcasts like marketing made simple hosted by dr. J. J. Peterson Marketing made simple brings you practical tips to make your marketing easy and more importantly make it work now If any of these topics sound interesting to you, you're going to love his show how to write and deliver captivating speeches How to market yourself into a new job how design can help and potentially hurt your revenue and how to create a social media ad strategy that works If these topics hit home and there are things that you want to learn about go listen to marketing made simple wherever you get your podcast Today my guest is Saul Blinkoff now Saul began his career as an animator for the Walt Disney Studios working on the hit films Pocahontas the hunchback of Notre Dame Mulan and Tarzan. He made his directorial debut with the hip action adventure series Spy Groove for MTV Shortly thereafter he rejoined Disney directing the films Winnie the Pooh Springtime with Rue and Cronk's new Groove Saul also consulted on the Disney films Tinkerbell Fox in the Hound 2 Brother Bear 2 Cinderella 3 and Dumbo 2 Saul is also directed high profile national commercials for clients such as Best Buy, Dunkin Donuts, ESPN Subway, Mercedes Benz and EA Sports and has consulted for animation studios internationally in Tel Aviv, Toronto, Seoul, Dublin and Vancouver Saul was a director on the hit Disney show Doc McStuffins and most recently directed The Number Lees, a preschool show for Amazon Now we spoke about how to overcome rejection lessons learned from Michael Jordan the power of repetition the true meaning of responsibility success as a failure Finding comfort in the uncomfortable the preference of pain in the moment to the pain of regret a luck versus talent in a highly competitive industry Where to put energy that has the highest probability of success and balancing religion work and life Well, first of all, thanks for having me on the show it's incredible to be here Look, my story starts out in New York I grew up in New York I didn't grow up in Hollywood I didn't know any Hollywood filmmakers I was a kid that loved to drive to draw everything actually to draw on the walls with my mother's lipstick and when I ran out of wall space I would draw my sister's forehead I did that with a Sharpie marker because it lasted the long as much I loved it. Oh, yeah, and look the greatest gallery your art could ever be in is on your mom's refrigerator right so I said to my mom you should put my sister on the fridge with the rest of my art my sister don't like that idea But look I knew I wanted to be an artist until I was 11 years old I'm 11 years old I go to the movies and I watched the movie ET I'm watching that movie the credits are rolling I remember tapping my mom and I'm like mom that's what I want to do someday And she's like what you you want to leave planet earth in a spaceship? I'm like no mom. I want to make movies and like I said Scott I grew up in New York. I didn't know any filmmakers. I didn't even know that was a job You could have people I knew were doctors lawyers they own businesses teachers All I knew is when I looked up to the screen. I was like that's all I want to do is something creative So I went to the library. I got books on lenses camera storyboard I found out the director of ET was Steven Spielberg in every weekend. He would make movies So I went and got a film camera. I got my twin sister my older brother. We started making movies murder movies monster movies I made a kidnap movie tied my sister up to a tree really tight Oh, yeah, I still remember going to the house to watch the movie afterwards My mom's like I like the movie, but where's your sister? I said well, she's still tied to the tree. What's wrong? So look I knew I was gonna be a filmmaker until I got to high school and when I was in high school I'm walking down the halls one day 10th grade Somebody comes up to me and says what are you gonna do when you get out of high school? I said well, I want to be a filmmaker they said no you don't I say no I really do they said no you don't because if you want to be a filmmaker You're gonna have to move out to Hollywood and Hollywood is filled with weirdos They looked at me and said you don't want to end up a weirdo do you and I said no I don't want to end up a weirdo and I'm telling you right then and there I gave up on my dream of wanting to be a filmmaker because one person told me I would end up a weirdo and Of course today I do live in Hollywood and my four kids would tell you daddy is a weirdo So so much for that, but at that point in my life I was very impressionable and I think it's important for all of us to take a moment and realize so often in our lives We have a goal or a dream and we allow another person to say something to derail us From the course that we really want to take Well, so I gave up on that my parents said so what else are you gonna do? I go I'll go back to drawing I've incredibly supportive parents my mom and dad hire an art teacher to come to my home private teacher to teach me to draw from life She was an amazing teacher She said to me saw drawing is about seeing to develop your eye had a look at the world a certain way You know a lot of people say oh they drew that it was so good it looked like a photo and they painted that it looked like a photo Why spend a hundred hours painting something that looks like a photo when you couldn't hit the button and Made the same image you just wasted 40 hours of your life It's not our job to make things look real. It's to take what we see Interpreted through our own mind and give a viewpoint on what's real incredible teacher I had I was also terrible drawing hands hands are very difficult for any artist listening and my teacher said Oh, you're bad at drawing hands Take your hand put it in a different pose every single night before you go to bed and draw it and then six months You'll get better drawing hands. She was an amazing teacher. She taught me an incredible incredible tool for life You get out of our comfort zones and have the goal to turn our weakness into our strength Can I ask you something on that source? Yeah, so when you were when you were shut down by that person and you basically pushed the dreams of going into film aside How did you switch your mindset up because then you adopted the same same but different? You're still you're still going into an industry that is primarily based in in Hollywood an animation and film But still you obviously did a 180 from your where your head was at when that person shut you down And then you kept pursuing just something different. Yeah, but you you got over that at some point Yeah, I mean, I got over that definitely. I guess it was about It was about the location you know grow up in New York I didn't know anyone that ever moved out to California People I knew lived in what we call the Tri-State area New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey I didn't know anyone that lived anywhere else and if you were lucky on vacations you would go to Florida That's it. I never knew anyone that went anywhere else So when I heard that Hollywood was LA and it was strange weirdos I just thought culturally how am I gonna? Fit in there. That's not for people like me people. I know stay on the east coast. We don't go to the west coast So I thought you know if I'm gonna go back to being an artist I'll just be an artist, but on the east coast That's kind of how it went for a while with my drawing in that art teacher until I went to the movies again And saw another movie that changed my life. I saw the movie the little mermaid. You know that movie, right? Right some watching that movie and I remember watching that film and I'm like mom the credits are rolling I'm like mom that's what I want to do and she's like what you want to fall over the fish I'm like no mom. I want to work at Disney as an animator because Animation combines my two passions my love of drawing my love of filmmaking put them together animation and plus I found out Disney has a studio in Orlando, Florida. I don't have to go out to LA So there I was a junior in high school and I had a very specific goal I knew what my dream was I had clarity my dream was to become a Disney animator. I just had one problem I had no idea how to do it You know so often I'll meet people and I'll say what's your goal in life? What do you want to achieve and some people who are lucky enough to know? I'll then ask them how are you going to achieve it? Sometimes I get a blank stare. They don't know you know We go to a great restaurant taste an unbelievable dessert creme brulee tiramisu Whatever it is you like you want to make it at home? You can do it if you have the recipe. See I didn't have the recipe. I didn't know how to do it today You want to be a Disney animator. It's really simple You go to a thing called Google and you type in how do you become a Disney animator and you'll get the answer back then In the olden days as my kids call it the days before the internet There was no Google so I went to the library and found out all the information I could there was nothing about how to get into Disney so my mom checked the sound takes me not my older brother Not my sister takes me to Disney world Just to walk around Disney world to ask Disney cast members. That's what they call their employees How can my son become a Disney animator and even now I hear that story in my head and I say it to you I still can't believe that she did that It was she's always been so supportive and if any parents are listening You know, we want our kids to thrive and to succeed Are we really doing everything we can to help them get into a place where they can shine? She was amazing and so we're walking around Disney world getting on the it's a small world boat ride Which I love I love that. Yeah, I think it's shut down or they pre-bampton now Yeah, but that's it like every that's an original. That's an OG Disney ride. Yeah, she's the first one ever There was the first Disney ride ever created by Mary Blair was the art director. Yeah, it was her style She's the art director and Cinderella and all those old Disney movies and it was created for the world's fair I think 1960 something well in New York that was the first time that Disney created a ride He's like, you know what I'm gonna bring that ride into Disneyland and that was his first ride It's a small world So your mom your mom just that so your mom immersed you in all of this Oh, yeah, and then this is like you're lighting like a Fire and in you because right. Yeah, well, we have to find out how to get in right so we're getting on the it's a Small World boat ride and the debt Disney cast members like how many in your party were like two We're stepping on the boat and my mom says to the woman by the way my son wants to be a Disney animator Can you help him was actually very embarrassed? You know, I have no death right it was so we're getting on the ladies like man This is a boat ride like we don't hire animators here, so we go through the boat ride. We finished the boat ride The lady says look if you want your son to work at Disney Gotta go to the Disney casting building that's where Disney hires all their employees And it was four minutes away from where we were in Disney world So we go to this building can you imagine what a Disney office building looks like how creative Musical the door knobs look like the ones from Alice in Wonderland that talk right? They were made out of brass. I open up these doors. I walk into this atrium Gold statuettes of Mickey Donald Pluto goofy even the air was was like Disney air like pixie dust in there You know, it was amazing. I sit there for this interview and the woman says what would you like? I'm like I want to be a Disney animator to get the interview because I just walked in and they were okay It's like open call anybody can go in their interview for any job at Disney world Well, that's what I found out is that it's only jobs for people that want to work in Disney world If you want to be an animator an artist or something that's they don't you don't you don't try that way It's only for people that want to work the rides and make the double ride go up and down and things like that And I said well, that's not really my goal. She has to hold on a second She walks out of the room comes back in two minutes later and hands me a piece of paper It became the most valuable piece of paper I ever held in my hands It was a list of eight schools eight art schools that Disney recruits their artists from she says if you want to be a Disney animator You need to go to one of these schools boom that was it that was that was the recipe and in my head I heard it as an equation Saul plus go to one of these schools will equal dream of becoming Disney animator So I went to one of these schools in Columbus, Ohio It's the Columbus College of Art and Design Incredible school and I'm walking The first day around and I walk into this into one of the rooms or one of the guys who wasn't even there I actually walked down the hall and I see in this guy's room. He's got Mickey Mouse slippers And I'm like what kind of guy? Where's Mickey Mouse slippers, you know I'm not judging Scott if you have Mickey Mouse. I do not but probably a kind of guy that you probably want to work for Right because he thinks differently than everyone else he's super creative But that's who you're dealing with that's right. Yeah, a unique individual. Yeah Well in his room not only did he have Mickey Mouse slippers. He had a Mickey Mouse lunchbox I'm Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse telephone You know it clock Mickey Mouse bedspread and at every Disney movie posters on the it was Disney world in a room It's crazy And then I see in the corner. He's got sketchbooks He wasn't in the room. I'm like, let's see how good he is as an artist Let me pick up a sketchbook. I start looking through it and it's all these drawings of Mickey Mouse This guy's like a Mickey Mouse Fanatic then I see Mickey Mouse hands like the four finger white glove, you know I'm like, well, that's not the way I've been drawing hands, you know And the guy's Mickey crazy. I turn to leave the room and I bump into the guy who's room it is. Uh-oh I'm busted. I look at him. I go, hey man. I'm sorry. He looks at me goes. Huh? How you doing? I said good. What's your name? He says my name's Jason But people call me Mickey Mouse Jason. I'm like they call you what? He goes Mickey Mouse I'm like I heard you you've a Disney nickname. He's like what you don't. I'm like no I don't I go back to my dorm. I get a phone my mom like mom if I'm gonna fit in in art school I'm gonna need Mickey Mouse slippers. I mean, you have to remember sky. This is before Pixar Before dream works if you wanted a job in Disney animation If you wanted a job in animation at all, it was Disney And then one week later Disney represented comes from the Disney studios to our school He stands up on the stage in the auditorium. The auditorium is filled with 750 students every freshman sophomore junior and senior And this guy from Disney was one of the original animators on sleeping beauty from the fifties He used to hang out with Walt Disney and he stands on the stage and looks out to all of us and he says How many of you want to work at Disney and every hand went up? He said just so you know out of the 750 of you in here maybe Just maybe four of you will ever work there. That's how competitive it is And when he said that I remember thinking one thing. I wonder who the other three are gonna be Because in life we either believe in ourselves that we can accomplish something or we don't I don't mean what we talk about with our friends And I don't mean what we post on Instagram or Facebook. I mean deep down do we really believe in ourselves that we can accomplish What at that point in my life I did you knew I did yeah, I really believed in myself people asked me a lot They're like how did you get that believe in yourself? I think you have to have um It's like it's a little naive. I mean you have a little bit you have to be right you have to be a little bit right It's like Steve Jobs said you have to be crazy you have to be one of the crazy ones to to be so yes set in what you're doing I speak to a lot of entrepreneurs and right and the thing is like I went in I didn't look back It's like the you know burn burn the ships burn the bridge whatever it is right you aren't going back And there's only one way forward right but that's not a normal way to think right burn the bridge right That expression the other day actually yeah, yeah, right like I'm committed to this It's almost like you have to be a little bit of an idiot to you know you should be if like I'm just going all in for this You know sometimes I have parents come up to me and they'll be like well my kid wants to go into art so But you know, I'm sending them to this school It doesn't it's not really an art school But it has like a good liberal arts education, but that way they can have something to fall back on You know what I say to the parents and some people are going to hear me say this is going to be like That's a little harsh, but this is really how I feel You just told your kid I don't believe in you Like why not send them to a school that only focuses on one thing Art like and get the best education you can Because if you go to a big liberal arts school and they're just a good art program Then you're not setting them up to be successful in the field that they want Sometimes in life we have to go all in And we all know that for whatever we want to do in life each one of us has a limited amount of energy I don't care if how What kind of a publisher you are if your checklist is 5,000 things a day and you're able to do it all you still have a limitation But it's incredible what we can accomplish when we put all of our energy every bit of it into one goal And we really focus it it's incredible what we can do Yeah, I don't think a lot of parents Think like that. I don't think a lot of people think like that But I think that people probably Kids that are trying to figure out their career or starting their thing They probably don't realize that that's how dedicated how focused they have to be to make it You have to be maniacal about whatever it is you're getting into But I think that enabling people to think differently by giving backup options by that By that behavior it enables people to not be the best that they could be right. Hey, absolutely You know, look, I'm a big Michael Jordan fan He's the goat. He's the greatest of all time. Don't tell me it's LeBron. Okay Bronze good, but MJ's MJ and J's MJ's MJ and I have a son he's 13 He goes to school and sometimes he has to defend Michael Jordan to his friends because he grew up in my home And I'm a Michael Jordan fanatic right So but when he has to defend Michael Jordan to his friends who think it's LeBron Sometimes I think my son's actually defending his dad more than Michael Jordan, you know, what he should I love that So look Michael, you know, was so committed 20 we think someone's in the NBA. Oh, they're already the great awesome, but you hear those other players on the bulls Talk about MJ and they're like wow, he was so focused. He elevated me. He made me he made me a better artist When Michael lost a very pivotal game against their Orlando Magic I think it's right when he came back was his first season back after baseball After he lost that playoff game to the Magic the next day now they're on a break He calls up his trainer. He goes. I'll see you tomorrow at 7 a.m The trainer couldn't believe it as a matter of fact Michael got the entire team into the gym the next day Why because we're not going to waste anytime when you really want to accomplish something you're all in and by the way That first week in college. I remember I went to a party and I remember everyone was drinking at this party And there was a there was a girl funneling a beer. You know funnel with it, right? Yeah, it's all it It's all my kids are ever listening to this daddy never did this just so you know it doesn't happen anymore either, right? So I go to this party this girl's drinking like four beers and eight seconds or something right and next Er is this guy with a sketchbook and he's doing drawings of her funneling a beer So I go over to this guy. I'm like dude. What what class is this drawing for like why are you drawing her drinking beer? He says I'm doing this drawing because I want to get better as an artist And he never stopped drawing His name was Andy He was so focused like so what we're talking about like when you're all in on something That doesn't mean you go to art class and then you go have a college party Then you go to your homework and then you go have a college party means if you want to be great at drawing You bring your sketchbook everywhere you go and this guy his name was Andy was by far The best artist in the school as a freshman because the guy never stopped drawing and I'll tell you Scott he became my best friend And I can tell you his work ethic the way he approached the discipline Of getting better as an artist that became my work ethic Because who we choose to be friends with actually affects who we become The values of a person that I surround myself will become my values You know as parents we always want our kids to hang out with the right kids because we know they're impressionable But what about us? We're also impressionable You know I host a podcast. It's called life of awesome and on my podcast. I had this guy Tim story of you know I do know you know Teddy's great. Yeah, he's incredible guy He's the life coach to like Robert Downey junior Oprah Winfrey I mean the life coach of the stars and I asked him the question I said Tim What do you find is that one thing that separates people successful in the film world In the Hollywood world successful at life not successful at Winnie Oscars What makes them successful at life or not successful at life? Because it's one thing did the green room The green room who do they keep in their green room before they get called out to Jimmy Fallon or whatever Show that they're on Who do they surround themselves with who's their entourage? Who are the people that are closest to them? Those are the people that you can tell you know at this person They're grounded. They're going to stay humble. I'm not worried about them We have to choose who we surround ourselves with so carefully so Andy and I became best friends and sophomore year I get my best drawings together put them in a portfolio send them into Disney And I got a letter back from Disney on stationery had a gold leaf Mickey Mouse embossed on that envelope My name was typed on the front I remember being so excited that the Disney company knew I was alive and my name printed on an envelope right I opened up the letters as Saul thanks for sending your portfolio in but you didn't make it All right, I was rejected, you know I didn't even care because I didn't expect to get in the first time I just went to kind of go through that process. I took that letter I put it up over my desk. You know people were coming into the dorm room blink off. You're so lucky that Disney company knows you're alive, right? It was amazing Another year goes by Andy and I are drawing nonstop And it was very very competitive one day we went to the Columbus Zoo freezing cold day bitter cold. I don't know where did you grow up? The Toronto and then Toronto so you know I know I think probably colder than you know what I'm talking about Yeah, I know that colder than Columbus a little bit sometimes. Yeah, so picture that like frigid bitter cold day The kind of day where you go from like the metro in to wherever you're going for like even Your nose hairs freeze. Oh, yeah, like paint. It's literally painful, right? So it was a Columbus, Ohio freezing day There's about 15 students we go to the Columbus Zoo to draw animals Because one of the things that Disney said that that guy on stage said was that if you want to work at Disney You got to get the internship and in order to get the internship he said You need a portfolio filled with figure drawing and anatomy drawings of people and animals from life No cartoon characters. He said and especially he goes no drawings of Mickey Mouse I remember looking back to Mickey Mouse Jason you know I'm like You see him don't know boy, you know But like this Disney guy said you got to get good at drawing animals So me and Andy and a couple of 15 other students we take a bus to the Columbus Zoo. It was a school project And we got to go draw animals from life now when you guys watch a movie like the Lion King or any movie with his animals How do you think Disney people know how to draw those animals? You don't just wake up one day. Look at a blank piece of paper go. Yeah, I think I'll draw an elephant right now You have to study anatomy anatomy books and draw animals from life So we go to the zoo the second we get to the zoo. It's freezing We go into the Wendy's cafe and I get a hot drink and Andy gets hot drink and everyone goes in there And the boys are flirting with the girls the girls are talking with the boys Then Andy and I sharpen our pencils like all right, let's go out there and find some animals We find the elephants and this one elephant is just walking back and forth. It's the greatest thing Just repeating the exact same motion. That's probably a dream for somebody trying to draw right exactly Yeah, you know that yeah, it's dream. You're seeing him repeat this motion over and over again So you're drawing every frame every pose. It was awesome We stayed there for 45 minutes sky drawing these animals this elephant just walking back and forth freezing Afterwards you go into the bus. I'm showing Andy what I drew. He's showing me when he drew And then I said to one of the other guys. I'm like dude we never saw any of you at the elephants what animals were you all drawing? The guy says to me, but none of us lever left the Wendy's Like why not he goes we couldn't it's freezing. Yeah, that was excuse Yeah, he says he was too cold out there And as soon as he said it was too cold in my head. I was like oh, yeah I'm gonna get this one day because if that's the competition. I will outwork anybody And for anyone listening right now You know if you ever watch a Netflix documentary about anybody that inspires you Maybe it's the last dance. I just watched the last dance the Michael Jordan documentary again for the third time can't get enough of it And I'm a fan. I'm a fan. Maybe obsessive but whatever documentary you watch about anyone that does something that you consider great You know what they all have in common they push through the pain Not only do they push through the pain they have expectations that whatever they're trying to do is going to be difficult How often do my kids say to me dad? I want to go try this do you think it's gonna be it's gonna be easy I think it's gonna be hard. Should I try that it's it can be hard as if it's hard They're not gonna try it. I say to them the same thing every time If you want to be great at anything it's going to be difficult So have the mindset Before you try something That I'm going to push through this until it is difficult You want it to be difficult because if you can push through that That's when you achieve your highest level. You don't go through the pain You grow through the pain And that day freezing and I was like yeah I'm gonna get this because I'm gonna outwork all of easy to talk about your dreams and where you're Mickey Mouse sweatshirts and talk about how much you want to work there But when it gets really cold you still gonna push through it Well, and then I get our drawings together We send them into Disney and by this time everybody in the school knew if there's two people that are gonna work at Disney It's all in Andy. They knew it and we send our portfolios in and I remember going home. It was Christmas break junior year I get a call from Andy and my hey man. What's up? He's like blink off. You're not gonna believe this I'm not gonna believe you dude. I just got a call from Disney. I'm like yeah, and he goes. I got it I said you got what he goes. I got the internship. I'm like that's incredible Congratulations, they put dating call you have to damn like no, but they can be trying to call me right now I gotta hang out. We don't have call waiting back then, right? It's the olden days Like I said my kids used to call me Dad, you live in the olden days So I hang up the phone and I'm walking the dining room back and forth my mom comes in at that moment She's like honey, what happened? I'm like mom Andy just got in she just got a call from Disney She's pacing back and forth. She's like you're gonna get a call any minute Like well, you have to say that you're my mom, you know Anyway, they're not calling I'm picking up the dial the phone. I'm like did you pay the phone bill? They're dial tone like what why are they not calling? Um, they weren't calling and I was freaking out And then I came up with an idea to do something a little crazy I picked up the phone and I dialed the head of Disney myself good for you smart I mean, it's not out of line with everything else that you've done in your career today You got to put yourself out there for sure You know that reminds you when I was like about 13 I went to see Michael Jordan play the New Yorknecks And before the game in my older brother standing next to the court And Jordan standing on the court. He's got those breakaway pants with the buttons right and he's just dribbling the ball practicing and he had this This game face this focus. He's just dribbling the ball. June is gone You know just focused. I said to my older brother. I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna walk out there and go meet Michael Jordan right now My brother's like you're not going anywhere before he could finish that sentence. I walked out on the court I'm looking up to number 23 and I said to him. Hi, mr. Jordan He looks down at me and says quote Yo, how you doing? and quote And then he shook my hand this one right here still never washed you right? That's that 23 sweat But the reason I walked out on that court is because when there's something you really want in life You will do anything to get it For everyone listening Whatever the goal is that you have whether you want to be great in your career Or you want to be better at marriage or raising kids or whatever it is you want to do If it's something you really want to accomplish. There's no excuses You will do anything to get it. So I called up Disney guy I called up the guy who runs the Disney animation program. Hi, my name is Saul I want to find out about the internship because Saul I have your name on a list here. I'm like really and he goes Yeah, you didn't make it So what is yeah, you didn't make it like oh, what about Andy? He goes yeah He made it you didn't Okay I hung up the phone and that was a bitter sweet moment for me sweet because I was happy for my best friend bitter Because my dream shattered. You know where Andy's gone. He's going to Disney World You know what they call Disney World Scott? They call it the happiest place on earth. There you go All right, they're basically telling you if you want to be happy in life You can be happy anywhere. You can be happy in Miami LA Hawaii But if you want to be happy is the only place you can do that is in Disney World And Andy is going to sunny beautiful Disney World I'm going back to Ohio in the winter time What I thought was the most depressing place on earth And when I get back to school I'm walking the halls of the school and people coming up to me to like blink off. What are you doing here? Oh, you didn't make it. Oh, I'm sorry. Where's Andy? Oh, he got in you I became known as the guy that was friends with the guy that got into Disney I became known as the guy who didn't get what he really really wanted I felt like a loser and uh They came up with a brilliant way To take that feeling of being a loser away and for anyone listening There's ever a time in your life that you really want something and you go for it And you don't get it and you feel like a loser you feel like you've let people down in your life You do what I did that feeling will go away in a second know what I did I gave up I gave up on the entire dream Because reality said in reality was Andy was an awesome artist and I was just average You know every single one of us Has a shoulder angel and a shoulder devil all of us do that shoulder angel telling us we can do great things We can change the world we can aspire for greatness We can accomplish anything Dream big and there's that shoulder devil that tells you Who do you think you are going for that you're just you That's not for people like you that's for Michael Jordan. That's for Steve job. That's not for people like you Well, I started listening to that shoulder devil. I was like, yeah, who did I think I was You asked me earlier like did you believe in yourself? And yeah, I did but at this point in my life I didn't I gave up on my entire dream She's just gonna go be an illustrator which is which is a respectable position But Disney now that wasn't for me So I gave up on it. I went through a week of school trudging through school was not happy Because when you give up on your dream You're actually giving up on yourself You probably feel lost yeah, right and you had the blessing of having this laser focused vision on what you want to have early on Is people that still succumb to that but are much later on in their career and they didn't have this since they were Watching ET when they were right however many years old right so this was like a yeah, that's a huge crush It was exactly yeah, I think you know that I think hearing you say that I need to realize it until you just said it right It wasn't just giving up on oh, that's that goal of where I want to go. I was giving up on everywhere I'd been Yeah, like since I was a little boy, right like all those that dreaming throughout I gave it up on everywhere I'd been I've who I'd been you know and What he calls me up and says so I got tickets to go see you Oh, I'm not in the mood because but they're free tickets. I go. Okay, then I'll go Sorry, you know they offer you free in college. You take it. Yeah, for sure So I go to the movies and I'm watching this movie and tears are streaming down my face This movie is a true story about a guy who's five feet tall He doesn't have an ounce of athletic ability He wants to play football at Notre Dame. What movie is it? Oh, I don't know what movie this is come on. I don't okay, you know, it knows inspiring sports movie ever The guy is five feet tall wants to be a football player at the University of Notre Dame He tells it's a true story about him. He tells he's a hockey fan man Okay, it's called it's called Rudy. Oh, have you I've seen that movie? I've seen that movie. Of course you have yeah, yeah Right, it's like number one sports movie, right other than Miracle. Sorry. Yeah. Okay, so Beating meeting with Russians was like a pretty. Do you believe in miracles? Yes, right? Yeah Yeah, that's that's a great. We love you know what I you also you also suck because I'm not I'm not that old I'm not so I was young when Rudy came out That was not a thing you were like 10. Yeah You call me all dude Oh I'm gonna get roasted for that for sure, but I'll deal with it whatever I played hockey growing up I didn't like football. I'm Canadian Well, you got to revisit that movie now as you're a man you got to see it again because now I now I have to Now I have to load it out and stuff every time I see someone just redeem myself. That's right But look this guy dreamed of playing football at Notre Dame and if you were friends With the real Rudy Rudiger is it true story and he told you his dream was to play football at Notre Dame You know what you would have told him as his friend dude. I love you Get a new dream But Rudy's like oh, yeah, well, we'll just see about that And he tries to get into Notre Dame and what happens rejected tries a second time rejected third time rejected But fourth time You know if you look at the movie poster for the movie Rudy It says when people tell you dreams don't come true tell them about Rudy Get's in and tears are streaming down my face dying because yeah because I'm thinking you know what if an unathletics short kid Could get into Notre Dame with an insane amount of hard work and me what I thought was an untalented artist could get into Disney With an insane amount of hard work and I vowed to never give up again As a matter of fact, Scott, I called up Disney the next day the same guy on the phone And I said to him excuse me how close was I to getting in he said saw we picked 17 from over 3,800 portfolios from around the world and you made it to number 20 What I had missed it by three Didn't you mean times in our lives we could be so close to achieving something But all we had to do is push a little bit more But we feel we're miles away and I asked him the million dollar question. Why did I not get in? You see we will fail at life at what at just about everything we will fail We failed the first time we took our first steps when we were kids We failed when we were kids we tried to put the circle block into the square peg We failed the very first time we held a baseball bat in our hand and tried to swing in a fastball We fell at everything in life But when we fell if we find out why that is the tool to grow that is the answer key to growing And he said saw can I be honest? I'm like yeah he goes you need more perspective in your drawing Now, what do you mean? Because instead of drawing the model in figure drawing class or an animal from wherever you're standing where your eyes are Give us a dynamic perspective stand on a stool or a ladder or go down and look up Give us a dynamic perspective and I heard oh my gosh. This is amazing. That's the answer key I went Put more work into this portfolio More into the drawings and I went to the zoo I stood up on this scaffolding when they were feeding the giraffe. I'll never forget And I drew a giraffe from above looking down. How cool is that like when you've ever seen a giraffe from above so cool often So I put all these new drawings in my portfolio. I sent them into Disney and boom when you Start there you go. I got in and it was one of the most exciting moments of my life As a matter of fact the way that I found out I got in is I got a call from Andy He's like dude. I just saw they put your name on a list here And you're one of the next interns. It was so great that he's the one that got to tell me I got in and That's when my dream really started I showed up at the airport In Disney world, happiest place on earth. There's a guy there with a sign. It has my name is a picture of Mickey Mouse pointing to my name You know, you know of a ride in life when someone went to get the airport with your name, right? Yeah And he drives me to this room To the Disney studios. It says artist entrance Drives me into this place. I get into this room. There's all these animation desks This is before computer animation all hand drawn And in the corner is a desk big wooden desk With my name Saul Blinkoff kid from New York And for everyone listening Don't think you heard the story today of a really talented artist to achieve his dream That is not what you heard You heard the story of a guy who was the worst artist in his school Who achieved his dream and outworked everybody that's what you heard you see nobody wakes up great in anything Nobody wakes up great at anything the story you heard was someone who was very average that worked really hard And I'm telling you you Scott and all your listeners If I Saul Blinkoff could achieve getting his dream as a Disney animated Then you could achieve so much more In anything that you want in life and the only thing that's getting in your way Is you I just want to take a second and thank the sponsor of today's episode HubSpot Now they don't call it the sales destination It's a sales journey and on that journey you want the best tools and support to keep you and your customers connected every step of the way HubSpot is an all-in-one CRM platform that is impossible to grow and ridiculously easy to use meaning you never have to worry But it's slowing you down That's because HubSpot is purpose-built for real sales people with real customers and real problems to solve With customizable hubs and tools that you can add and subtract as you grow and an interface It's just as easy to use if you're a team of one or one thousand HubSpot is built for you and your customers to grow together wherever the journey takes you Learn how HubSpot can help your business grow better at HubSpot.com You had an incredible personality which guided you throughout this journey and pointed you and and allowed you to take all these actions that eventually led to your success Not a lot of people have that mindset. Where do you think that came from? Um You know my parents were divorced and I have an older brother a younger sister. I have middle child syndrome, right? And I you know, I didn't have any friends growing up, you know, this is where the violence come in Not sure I had like almost no friends growing up Pete I was bullied a lot called a loser called all kinds of names. I remember one day I was in high school That's putting my books in and some kid ran by me Just spit right on my face. Hey a bully. Yeah spit on my face. You're a bully. Yeah like real boy And this kid is actually shorter than me But he had that confidence and Because I had I had a tough childhood When I had moments that weren't when I was being bullied or weren't being called a loser or whatever Those moments were so sweet. You know, I have very loving parents incredibly loving parents And you know, they would take us places or trips or vacation or whatever and those moments They felt so good to me even just being in the car listening to music No, when I was in the car even now like I can't be in the car out listening to music with my wife and my kids Like we love putting on music in the car But when I be here music it just lifts me up and up lifts me and gives me this taste of how glorious it is to be alive and I think For me like where that belief came in myself is I just saw Disney As the answer To my sorrow and life You know and you're asking me that question out thinking about I'm like, you know, it really felt like I thought that if I get into Disney Life would be good life will be good Yeah Yeah, I mean, I remember going down a Disney world on a tour just to walk through the animation studio Actually, they used to have something at Disney MGM Studios today. It's called Disney Hollywood Studios And you could look through the glass Used to be a tour where you could watch animators working. They were working on beauty the beast I think it was and I saw some animators sitting by the glass drawing bell And instead of just going through the tour and then going on like space mount or whatever the next ride was I spent like half the day by the glass watching that guy draw and it wasn't just watching him draw I saw his uh walkman his sony walkman. That's the olden days. That's the olden days He had that I saw he had like a coffee mug I'm like wow these are real people He had flip flops on and I'm like, wow, I could live in a place where I could wear flip flops Have a coffee mug and listen to music at a desk living at Disney World It wasn't just that I loved drawing or wanted to be a Disney. I wanted the whole life I wanted to live in a place that was called the happiest place on earth because I thought if I could get into Disney Then it would fix everything that was broken My entire life up until then The truth is though the chip on the shoulder. Yeah, but a little bit. Yeah, but looking back at that now I would tell myself you need to grow up You know life is not about escaping your problems. You're never gonna move somewhere and everything is gonna be perfect Life will always be a challenge about me when I got into Disney. I had some bosses that were tough on me You know, I was made to feel like a loser again in certain areas in my life You know you when you go to a new place you never escape yourself We should never allow our happiness To be dependent on outside experiences. It's really important right because there's always gonna be something That's gonna test us every day. You know if I can go back to myself When I remember that actually the second time I tried to get into Disney and I was rejected Remember calling my sister up on the phone And I said to her one day, you know she was calling to see how I was and I was like, you know If I get into Disney, remember saying the word star if I get into Disney I could sit at the same desk and draw the same drawing in Mickey Mouse all day every day and I would be happy That was the goal and I think for most of us in the world if you ask people. What's your goal in life? Probably everyone will tell you know what my goal is. I just want to be happy I just want to be happy But what we're really saying is when this happens I'll get happy when I meet the love of my life I'll get happy when my company makes this amount of money. I'll be happy that I have control because I think if I make enough money I have enough power if I have power I can do what whatever I want to do And that will make me happy because my whole life I didn't get to do what I wanted to do My parents told me what to do and then my teachers told me what to do And then my last boss who was a jerk they told me what to do But now if I make a lot of money I can do whatever I want and then I'll be happy But the goal of life my humble opinion should not be going for a life on happiness I think there's something a lot sweeter. You know You're old enough to have seen the movie The Lion King right? I am old enough to have seen all the versions of The Lion King So look, you know Disney movies are a big part of my life and Lion King to me is still the best animated movie of all time You know, I mean BF before frozen. Okay. Is that the is that that's that's how you that's how you rate right? It's all about frozen because frozen just took it to another level. Yeah. Yeah, but Lion King, you know that movie It's all about teaching us an incredible message Simba can't wait to be king one day. He sings a song about it Just can't wait to be king right he wants to be king because he thinks being a king is he can do anything he wants I have all this power even when he's this young cubby says to move Fossa You know mofasa is like son. There's more to being a king than getting your whale all the time Simba's like there's more wow. What could be better and then something happens to dad I don't want to spoil it for anybody listening But if you haven't seen the movie now it's over 30 years. Guess what dad dies right Look, it's a Disney movie. They always kill a parent off right right? Yeah, I mean Bambi too. Yeah, yeah, they shoot the mom right actually. I was just thinking the other day You know any Disney movies don't have moms at all right Aladdin has no mom the little mermaid has no mom Has no mom bambi they shot the mom right? Yeah, that's true. Yeah, there's all that right Something's going on with the moms anyway Dad dies Simba goes off to coon al-Kunumatata world, right? Remember al-Kunumatata? You know, it's all right Yeah, of course a wonderful friend. He goes off to coon al-Kunumatata world. What does a coon al-Kunumatata mean? You remember what it means? Uh, oh it means no worries for the rest of your days. No worries for the exact he got it I got one. I got one so he goes to Haku no-Matata world no worries and a coon al-Kunumatata world is lush Beautiful. There's waterfalls flowers. You got Pumbu and Tumon live in there. It's amazing, right and Midway through the movie who shows up to see Simba do you remember who shows up who comes and finds it? Yeah, yeah So knowledge shows up right? She was a little lioness that he grew up with but now she's all grown up, right? She got the big eyelashes now They got their song can you feel the love then right they're rolling around the sun is setting They're gonna kiss. It's always a weird scene when their heads are going for it. I was covering my kids eyes That's lions. I know my kids like that we can watch it signs like no even that's a little inappropriate, right? So anyway, but they have their little moment and then she's like Simba good to see you But you got to come back with me. Yeah, no, no, no look where I live I'm living in the garden of Eden. I mean, he's in a jacuzzi sleeps on a hammock. It's why would I ever leave this Akunumatata. I'm staying here. She's like no, no, no Maybe I didn't make myself clear Scar's taken over everything and if you don't come back everyone is going to die And you are responsible then you know what he says Akunumatata We're standing right here. She goes what do you mean? What are you gonna grow up? He goes oh you're beginning to act like my dad. She goes at least one of us does She even sings it. She goes why won't he be the king? I know he is the king. I see inside She sees his greatness and he doesn't even see it himself And then you know what she does she leaves him She leaves him He's left alone Rafiki comes hits him on the head. He sees his father in the clouds remember who you are You've got all the voices that you've got every I mean like you've been there for a long that long enough time Remember who you are Simba goes back to feet scar and Lion King becomes the biggest animated movie of all time BF before Not because we love movies about lions Because that movie gives us all a taste of what true greatness is And Simba goes back and that movie becomes the biggest animated movie of all time Not because we love movies about lions But because that movie gives us a taste of what real greatness is no greatness is Not waking up every day and saying how can I live a life of comfort All of us want to work hard so we can get to Hawaii And be on that beach and be in that jacuzzi just like Simba was in Akunumatata world That's what we think life is if I work now I can have what life's really about which is what comfort decadence luxury no work no responsibilities But what that movie shows us is you know what life is really about Taking responsibility for the world You see we shouldn't wake up every day and think that life's about becoming happy There's something sweeter than happiness and that's living a life of meaning And meaning only comes from one thing not waking up every day and saying what can I get But it's how can I give how can I serve humanity there's a beautiful quote my wife and I love from Winston Churchill He said we make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give And each one of us each one of us listening to this has to figure out in our own hearts What's my passion what's my ability What makes me unique and how can I take what makes me unique and serve humanity and give to the world because then Your happiness isn't dependent on any outside experiences Your life is meaningful not because of what you accomplish But because of what you're striving to accomplish That every day when you put your head on the pillow Maybe you didn't you weren't successful in getting your company at the numbers you wanted Maybe you had an argument with your spouse or maybe you realized you could do a better job as a parent But at least if you have the clarity that you're trying to grow And to grow who you are as a human being Try to become a better person to take responsibility to give to other people Then you can at least put your head on the pillow at the end of the day and know that yeah my life matters It's meaningful when did you start to think like that because this is leadership lessons It transcends growth it transcends accomplishment There's many people that are highly successful that don't think that way and I we're aligned with everything that you're saying But you achieved what you wanted to achieve and you could have just Killed it at Disney and never really taken a second thought as to what you wanted to accomplish your own life outside of that Yeah, you know, it's so you ask it beautifully. I mean, I was at Disney. I got my dream I had worked on Pocahontas, which is the first movie I worked on and I worked on the hunchback of Notre Dame And then move on for four years. I worked on Milan. Remember that one? Let's get down to business right to defeat some people are singing in their cars the hunts right some people I never heard the song So after move on before I went on the movie Tarzan We had a Disney what's called downtime um Basically They were figuring out the script on the movie Tarzan for like a year So the animators would come into work with nothing to do. They said you don't work in a pay you But you don't have to come into work at all. This is amazing. Like I said it's called downtime I always tell my kids if anyone ever offers you a job and they say we have downtime take the job Take it you're getting paid to do nothing and you know what downtime isn't Disney world you ride roller coasters all day It's space mountain splash mountain thunder mountain I became quite the mountain here in Disney world right and downtime went to six months They said you don't even have to come in so me and my buddies would go to the pools at the Disney hotels There's over 15 hotels in Disney world and they had one of those lazy rivers at the beach club hotel I love those you know you don't have to be alive and you can swim right that moves you moves you four years Got a whole peanut cloud in my head I remember my brother was in law school freezing. He's like saw what do you have to these days? I'm like Jay You don't want to know live in the dream live in the dream live actually live in the dream Yeah, I really was yeah, and I had a checklist of every single thing. I ever could have wanted You know, what if you could make a list and check off every single thing you want. I had my dream job I had this incredible girlfriend who I later married right my friends. I'm living in happiest place Why don't I had everything? But something felt like it was missing And you know, I grew up I'm Jewish and I grew up, you know, not so religious my parents definitely had a love of Judaism and a love of Connecting to Judaism, but as an individual who is now an adult I didn't really understand my own Jewish identity So I got out of the pool one day and I found myself in Israel on a program to learn about Jewish history and my place within the Jewish people And when I went on that trip in Israel, I started learning about Tapping into what makes us unique and really like you ask what change it was really that one word responsibility I never I really never I always saw my life is like if I get to Disney, I'll be happy then I can make money And I get my name in a movie I can buy a sports car and this is I can get more when I want you know There's a big buzz word you hear right now and a lot of people's podcasts A lot of motivational speakers. They're going to use this word. I think it's a turn off word I don't like it. I hope I don't offend anybody the word is abundance abundance It is everyone talks about like oh, if you do this, you'll have more abundance you learn abundance means it means the word more If you listen to my seminar you can have more of what of whatever it is you want Is that what life is a funny? I've actually heard it in a different context So I've heard in the context you want to live a mindset of abundance where everything you you have is meant everything You achieve is meant to give to others. Oh, so your mindset is towards giving everything I think that's the right mindset for it I've never so I would say that that the way you just define it is that's a horrible right representation of how I've been hearing it But I like the way you're saying it interesting because you're saying it's it's a mindset of giving as much as you can Like like there's so much in the world right that even if you make a million bucks or 10 million bucks or 100 million bucks Like to give it as much as you can. They'll always be more beautiful. That's the way that I've heard it Okay, I'm named to what you just said. Yeah, that's awesome I love it. That's that's how I've heard it describe you want to live a mindset of abundance Like there's so much like for example if you know if you're in I don't know say you're in business with somebody And you and you have to be ethical and you're going to lose a deal You lose that deal because there's so much more out there that you shouldn't be worried about compromising who you are as a person There's more yeah, there's a lot of other opportunities Yes, but not personal abundance just like the world is infinite Right so much there's so much of everything right that's a different form of abundance I love that. Well, I wish I had your definition back when I was started because I needed that Well, that's what Israel gave me they gave me that kind of understanding more in line of what exactly what you said Scott more about the idea of of the other people of how do you serve other people and by the way They changed everything in my life because now I didn't just see myself as a filmmaker Making whatever movies. It was like well, what are the values that I'm putting in the projects that I work on And I've turned down projects from studios that I don't think are in line with the values of what I want to do Like right now today. I'm a supervising producer a dream works animation And I look back at the projects that I've done. You know, I got to direct a show called Doc McStuffins I don't know if you know the show. I don't know that. Okay. So this was only the number one preschool show in the world That's fine, but it was about eight years ago. I am older you are not that young right But like this show which an incredible show created by Chris knee incredible show creator This show made a huge impact because it's a show about a little girl who's a doctor to her toys And because of this show it had the goal of letting kids know that they can be comfortable when they go to the doctor's office and how many People have come up to me over the years and said I'm so grateful that you made this show Because it shows kids it's okay to go to the doctors. It really made an impact And now as a filmmaker I try to use my love of being a filmmaker to make stories and tell stories That I think are going to impact others and to make a difference And that's really how I look at my life now, you know, because someday I hope this doesn't sound morbid But the reality is someday we're all gonna die Like we're all gonna be in the ground. That's a fact. It's it's true You know in Judaism there's an idea it says if you have to choose to go to a wedding or a funeral Choose the funeral Some people hearing that are like are you crazy like why would you do that go to a wedding you get the dress up Eat the sushi, celebrate Give a cheers drink champagne sing dance beautifully steak That's what you want to do who wants to go to a funeral But you see when you go to a wedding you have a glorious time and it's wonderful Yeah, and you give the brining room all this great pleasure sure But when you go to a funeral every single one of us Stands there and for at least a moment we have a realization that someday that's gonna be me That I'm gonna be in the ground and when we leave a funeral hopefully we have the mindset Of thinking you know what I'm on limited time What am I waiting for what else do I want to accomplish and that's what they ask ourselves. What are we waiting for? It's different the different the concept of stoicism. No, what is that? That's that's the concept of stoicism. It's being very cognizant of your own mortality Yeah, I think there it goes back to Roman Roman Philosophers and I could be misquoting because I don't have a computer to fact check But one of the concept of stoicism is always be cognizant that one day you're not gonna be around anymore And always to humble yourself to that fact, even accomplish as much as you can to the point where I think there was This is a story that I've heard through a friend of a friend So excuse me if it's not 100% factually accurate, but the story is When people when when generals would come back from war and cities were celebrating them and whatnot They were in chariots and they were going through the city and people there was like a big parade, right? Because they just were successful in their conquest of whatever part of the world they conquest it And they would have somebody in the chariot They would always be whispering in the generals ear like you're only human You're going to die to make sure they didn't think they were gods So that was something that was that's awesome You know Steve Jobs, I think said a quote about that. He was at the Stanford University address. He was giving I know this I know that I've seen this clip. Yeah, right? Yeah, it says like one of the greatest gifts to humanity is having the awareness that one day We're gonna die And that that should give us the understanding the claddy that we need to not wait You know, we don't have the rest of our lives. We don't know what tomorrow is gonna bring And that's why when you go to a funeral you leave that funeral in more clarity of what's important in life And what what matters in life? And that's the kind of clarity That I try to put into everything and I do and I know that someday my kids are gonna see my name Scroll down on a gravestone The same name that's been in the credits of Mulan and Tarzan and all these big Disney movies But who cares about those? My kids are gonna want to know you know what did my dad try to become a better person Did he try and live the values that he talks about Did he try to become a better human being Because at the end of the day, I really think that's what life's about. How do we grow? You know, I had on my podcast George Foreman the boxer heavyweight champ you probably think he's from the grill. You don't even know I do know he's a boxer But I know from the grill So right he was heavyweight champion in the world twice with a 20 year interval by the way I didn't know that he was heavyweight champion in the world a 20 years old And then 20 years like goes into retirement after he got 40 and at 40 does it again It was a laughing stock that he was even trying he does it again He made for the Foreman grill his first year on that grill 138 million dollars The guy is doing okay He was a gold medal Olympian That's incredible gold medal Olympian heavyweight boxer Fortune 500 the grill. Yes on a TV show. I mean he's done everything. I asked the one question George What's the legacy you want to leave your kids? How do you want the world to remember you? What's your legacy? You didn't mention anything about money He didn't mention anything about grill or boxing He says there's one thing I want people to remember about me And you know what it is that I loved humanity That I loved human beings That when I walked down the street I had the mindset that I wanted to smile at a person and make their day just a little bit better You know, I said earlier about the word responsibility I heard a beautiful thing about that word once it says response ability Is really the ability to respond Response ability is the ability to respond and wherever in life we have the ability to respond We should we're responsible How can we make a difference in another person's life because when we do that We get that real pixie dust we get that life of meeting, you know, so this is so Take it back to where you were in your story when you Chose to have more responsibility You understood that you had to have responsibility You understood how you wanted your life to sort of pan out professionally Personally spiritually Where did that take you so you're now In Disney you're working on all these projects like you would adopt more Judaism into your life And and how does that affect your I'm assuming that's Where most of the things that you speak on now come from yeah a lot of a lot of wisdom a lot of wisdom comes from that So how did that impact your life? And what does that look like and how does that affect and also potentially? Could it could it hurt a professional aspiration in any sense or talked to me about yeah great question Yeah, well first of all my my Jewish identity Impacts every moment of my life. It's an awareness and But I give you a practical way of how it really does help me be more successful At life not a business at life You know in the Jewish religion there's a concept of the Sabbath And we are obligated to observe the Sabbath. What does it mean don't work and by the way for all my Christian friends listening right now They also don't work on Sunday they have the Sabbath also And if you think about that for a moment That the Bible was written by the creator of the world the one who created us to want to have the greatest lives imaginable And the creator says to us if you want to be great at life Stop working for one day Yeah, but I got to do all these things. I got to change the world. I got to make money so I can give all this charity I'm trying to Healed people. I'm trying to cure cancer. That's my life's work You know what he's saying to us? Stop Working You need one day to stop working not to rest No, to clarify what your life is really about I come home on a Wednesday night and I'm sitting at the table with my family and my iPhone gets a ping or whatever it is My kids know it's daddy's work. I got to go Well if I'm in the car with my kids and daddy gets a work call Everyone knows shite shite work all work all my kids know there's nothing more important than a work all Why because work calls pays for our home pays for you to eat pays for you to have clothing But guess what I have to get away from the table during dinner It shows my kids, you know what you are not the most important thing in my life right now I got to go do this and even though I could tell them and just if I want I'm going to do this So I can make my name because I do love you It's still it's my time My time will always go to work before you and before what life is really about the creator the world comes and says you know what You're gonna shut off your phone That's right people listening want to know what I do For 24 hours every week from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. I shut off my phone Some of you are hearing that you're like, oh, I would never be able to do that. Yes, you can And you don't need to be Jewish to do it. You don't need to be Christian You hear Oprah talk about it all the time We have to disconnect in order to connect connect into what? To what our real potential is and my kids know Friday night when I come to the table That phone is away the iPad away We sit as a family and have like a two or three hour dinner. It's incredible And just carving out time That window of time to be with my family and to connect with my purpose and by the way if you're not if you don't have kids And you don't have a spouse Still you should take a day When you shut off your phone for an entire day You will breathe better You will understand your clarity better You will be able to take that pressure away that pressure I know that every second I'm alive. I can be doing something to further my career I can always do another post on instagram. I can always email somebody another potential client But for 24 hours once a week take that pressure away from you. How much can you really bear? You know, I have a brother who He's working so hard at this business right now and he's like 24-7 He stresses and he's working hard. He's an incredible dad and it runs an incredible business But he's got so much pressure on him And I just want to tell him shut off your phone for one day Watch the impact it'll have in your life That's how I try to incorporate my Jewish identity And make it a part of my life so that it's real and how was it was it difficult for you? At first because yeah, I think that now actually we've gone through various levels of this So I think that for a while it was all hustle culture with a lot of high operating individuals And then I think it's I think that concept maybe even five years ago or 10 years ago for somebody that no introduction to the concept Be very difficult But now I think that there's there's probably scientific benefits to to shutting off to taking breaks to decompressing to And it's funny how like all the secrets to being successful They've already been there for thousands of years And we just we're not looking in the right spot. I always found that very interesting But yeah, we had a tap engine by the way, let's say you're listening to this you're like look I mean, I'll tell you right in the beginning when I first heard about the Sabbath for example and shutting off phones Like there's no way I could do that Yeah, and I remember for the first couple years all I did was stop working just Friday night That was a big change, you know Look, there's certain we try when we go out to eat with our kids my wife I want to try to keep our phones away from the table And sometimes we'll go out to eat we don't even bring our phones. That's right. We don't even bring them And how many how many kids do you have we got four kids all this is 17 our youngest is nine and we got a puppy So that counts. Yeah, right But look, I'm a busy guy. Yeah, you know, I'm a busy guy and I want to give my kids more time I want to give my wife more time So the fact that I try to carve out time not even just one day a week, but even throughout the week Just to have what I call windows of time. Yeah, you know, you pick up your kid from carpool I don't have a mindset of you want to do a work call in the car try to be there with your kids listen to their day You know, you're sitting down to dinner with your kids try to have a mindset that you want to connect with them or connect with your spouse or whoever So yeah, I do try to have these windows of time where I let my Self control my time instead of my time controlling me You know, I think that that's the first victim of success It's your health in your family. Yeah, usually and it's unfortunate But I like having these conversations because I don't think that Religious or not. I think that being very cognizant of of all the different things in your life that are important I mean a lot of executives that I know are divorced a lot of also executives that I know have Heart issues or dying from heart attacks that young ages. So I think that just like you've you've done it right When you're at the hallex, right? Yeah, but you like all the things you've structured in your life like when you take When you take that day off like there's there's physical benefits to your body There's mental clarity benefits your mental health well being plus your family benefits as well So it's just I think that it also like because you do it every single week It puts the top of mind every single week. So then all the other parts of your life You start to be more aware of what's really important because every single week you're forced to be reminded about What actually matters? So now you're saying even when it's not you know It's not sad but not about like on like a Wednesday or you if you try and have dinner with your family You're still trying to be more present Which is a huge issue and that and technology moves quick, right? That's why it's very difficult Like there's a thousand notifications we get from every single thing every single day And I don't think we've been able to really process and keep up with the things that constantly like just bombard us all the time You know, I mean you don't I don't know if you remember but it wasn't like that always and you look I remember when I started COVID made it worse too COVID made it work Let me go back to the 90s for a second in the 90s when I worked at Disney starting as an animator I had there was no computer no one had an email address. Okay, can you imagine that's old that's all right And not really right but not really that old. It's not that old But mankind has been around for thousands of years And only in the last somewhat what they're 20 years not even Are people able to access each other and connect the way we are right now. That's a crazy It's really a blink of an eye. It's a very small amount of time But I can tell you I remember when like I had a desk and I would draw I was working on Mulan and I had a phone and I would Finish work. I believe I go home hang out with my friends go to play basketball swim whatever There was no work. No one could contact you for work outside of work Sometimes you would check your messages if you were expecting a big call You would have to call the number just to hear a massive other than that That was it. You come into work the next day. There'd be a red light on your phone Like oh, there must be something in my inbox, so to speak Then you did your job, but today when I leave work I got Instagram Texts what's app email Facebook. I mean this everyone's trying to contact me tons of people Contain me and they can't contain so work is now 24-7 People are always contacting you So like you said before like whether you're religious or not Jewish Christian or not It doesn't matter trying to find a time in your lives where you will Set up a parameter that you will not work and you will not take any phone calls or texts a lot of people meditate in the mornings when they wake up We'll do like a half hour meditation session You could find out about how to meditate how to pray whatever it is whatever floats your boat But to set up a time at least your day starts where you're Breathing and you're focused and you're thinking about clarifying what life is about not just what meetings You want to get to or how you want to further your business But really the whole balance of life of how you want to achieve more meaning in your life And then go create then go into your phone and then go hit it and kill it But at least set those times where you can disconnect so that you can connect Now how do you prioritize your day your life? And the reason I asked that is because you didn't just stay in your lane as a career professional So now you have a podcast now you speak right you've done all these other things Yeah, so where have you chosen to spend your time and why is that important to you? Yeah, thank you. Um, well look. Yeah, I do have I basically have three full-time jobs right now I'm a supervising producer dream works animations number one Two as I have the podcast life of awesome Which the episodes are some of them are just me sharing ideas about life and personal growth or why the title? Why the title life of awesome? Well, you know look if somebody comes up to you and they say how things going You're like yeah things are good most people yeah things are good What if they come up to you and go how things going to be things things are great Oh, that's good. I'm really happy for you But if they come up to you and say how things going to go let me tell things are going things are going awesome They'd be like why what happened? Did you win the lottery? Did you meet the love of your life? Did you just get that job promotion? What have you said? No, it's just just awesome to be alive I want every day to feel awesome I don't want to just feel like when I'm walking into a Disney theme park Wow, this is incredible. I want to feel that when I leave a Disney theme park life is incredible life is awesome That's how I came up with the name of it and some of the episodes are me sharing ideas And some of them are me interviewing great people like George Foreman I had Alan makin on he's the story to Tim story. Yeah, just great people Christina Kuzmit. She's amazing Just it's fun. Oh, it's fun. I mean, it's fun and it's an insane amount of work You know, it is but yeah, it's like anything. Oh, I love it I love it Yeah, and I also you know my wife helps me a lot with my social media And it's really like a family affair even one of my teenagers is like mom no Instagram has to be like this mom You know, so you know, I have the producer dream works job. I have the podcast But the third full-time job I have is as a as a inspirational speaker. So I do travel the world speaking giving keynotes talking to communities or corporations Talking about all aspects of life Um, so if anyone is interested in that you can check out my website by the way Saul blink off all that stuff to yeah, yeah, I think that would be great. What's it and what's the social? So sawblinkoff.com is my website. Then I'm also on Instagram. Saul.blinkoff But look, I have I try to balance those three things, but let's put those aside I have a fourth full-time job. I'm a husband and a father, you know, yeah And I know that childhood is a blink of an eye because I went through it And I have just a couple more years where my kids are young enough before they're out of the house And I want to spend those times with my kids. I want to spend time with my wife. I want the balance Uh, and I feel and I'm just telling you Scott. I feel so empowered When I make a decision on my head that I am not going to look at my phone It's the most empowering feeling to know that I have control over that device as opposed to that device is controlling me Sometimes I get a thing or whatever and I don't even look at it Because I'm I'm not in that zone right now like whoever's in there if my wife is actually my kids are there It's all the matters right, you know I've got through something happens to my parents like they're gonna call me like three times in a row And I'll pick up the phone but other than that whoever's tipped, you know, texting me They're not gonna die right now My career's not gonna get destroyed right now. I don't have to run to it And I love that feeling so look I do try to balance my life and Look, I've enjoyed talking with you. I love the work that you do. Thank you, man And yeah, it's and I commend all your listeners for tuning in, you know, Scott's doing great work And you should share all of his episodes and you know, Scott you said to me before you in the interview Which I thought was really inspiring. I your listeners didn't hear it, but I want to I want to convey it to them You said, you know, I like to interview people who aren't just successful At business. I want people who are successful at life And the fact that you said that shows that you have the sensitivity of how to balance your life So I wish you continued success on your podcast and all the people who are listening to continue to listen and share this with other people And to continue to create this incredible community that you appreciate that Yeah, you're doing great. I really appreciate that. Can I do a couple rapid fire to close? Okay, first thing I always like to ask You've accomplished a lot in your life. You operated at a very high level What are the things that keep you up at night? The things that keep me up at night. Well, I thought I was the only one. How did you know I was up at night? You're right Yeah, I think you all are Support group now The things that keep me up at night. There's there's only one thing it's it's when I have the awareness That time is just slipping And just thinking of all those things I want to Especially as a dad Nothing keeps me up at night with my career I mean, I'm telling you nothing Nothing and by the way, there's definitely a lot I want to do with my career I want to speak in more places. I want to make bigger movies that are going to impact people all those things I have those goals that I work very hard But the thing that keeps me up at night is like did was I present with my kids this week? You know, did I Did I was I there for my son this week enough was I there for my teenage daughter enough was I present enough for them That's the biggest indicator I have that time is fleeting Because I see my kids grow Not just physically every day, but I see them grow as human beings And just I'm like wow, they don't need me as much anymore. Maybe that's my own ego, you know, but um Yeah, that's what keeps me up at night. Just just feeling like time is slipping You know Steve Miller band had a song way before your time Time keeps on slipping slip in the song remember yeah into the future That song like plays in my head when I get to be optimized for the right stuff You optimize for the right track. I try I mean you want to wrap it fire. That wasn't wrap. No, I say wrap the fire just because there's like a couple You don't actually have to do rapid. I'm not I'm not stressed out All right biggest challenge it evolved a challenge as you mentioned a few so biggest challenge What was it and how did you overcome it? Uh biggest challenge Um Many years ago about 15 years ago my wife and I had moved to Toronto I know it you know it. I know it. Yeah And I had left Disney was offered this big movie directing deal for a company called IDT entertainment I don't know them. Yeah, they only made one or two movies and they shut down that division their technology company They got me they gave me this huge offer to director movie in Toronto My wife was pregnant with our second kid. I moved to Toronto and my whole family We rent this huge house. I spend thousands of dollars to redo this house because we're gonna be there for like two three years I get this painter. I'm getting new knobs. I'm Glazing the bathtub like all this stuff and our stuff from LA hasn't even come yet And I go into work one day and me and my directing partner find out that we're fired Well, what happened fired they just didn't like the vision we had for this movie Like we had a vision for the story we wanted to tell It was a movie called sheepish about these sheep that are being terrorized by these wolves and we had this really creative vision on it And the executives were not there to support us and they let us go And I had to walk into this cafe. It was a rainy day in Toronto My wife was sitting there smiling with our little one and my brother like I said was pregnant nine months pregnant And I had to tell her I lost my job And it was one of the toughest days of my life And I felt like I let her down and she just took my hand and she was choked up and hugged me and Be assured me and what is the greatest life partner that I could ever ask for It was a great challenge from that day I We lived in Toronto for the next couple months because we couldn't fly back as she was so far along in our pregnancy And after with a newborn you couldn't fly back so we were stuck in Toronto for six months Well, I turned that into just an incredible opportunity to be with my wife as we were giving Birth to our next child and to write a project So I wrote a project during that time and I pitched it to Dreamworks later sold it to Dreamworks That I'm still developing right now But yeah, that was one of the greatest challenges and how did I get through it because I married the greatest woman in the world So I got through it. Yeah, that's good if I it's there's there's wisdom there too There's a lesson there. Yeah, I mean the lesson really is you know Don't just commit to someone because they're successful right now because you don't know what life's gonna give you life has ups and downs You know, but if you're looking for a partner in life Then you're gonna need that partner to help you through those dark times through the rain so to speak Make sure if you have a relationship that your values Are aligned and that the relationship is not dependent remember I said before don't let happiness be dependent on outside experiences Don't let relationships be dependent on financial success or not You're either looking into the eyes of this person and knowing this is my life's partner that I can build a life with or you don't It's not dependent on your bank account Yeah Yeah, they choose one person in your life. It's had a major impact. Who was that person? What did they teach you? So when I started a Disney The greatest Disney anime that ever lived as a guy named Glenn Keen he single-handly designed an animated Ariel the little mermaid Yeah Aladdin the beast the beast Tarzan Pocahontas you've heard of his like he's he's there. He's the Michael Jordan. Yeah, he's a goat. Not the LeBron He's the Michael Jordan, right of animators and When I was in college I wanted to find out what kind of pencil he's I heard he used a special pencil I thought if I get the pencil that Glen Keen has I can draw a Glen Keen So I tracked down the name of the pencil the simple for the internet So it wasn't so simple and I find out that the company that makes that pencil they're out of business They're not making the pencil anymore and they sold their last ten boxes to Glen Keen himself So I can't get one Three years later. I'm working on the movie Pocahontas. I get called into the office of Glen Keen himself Amazing he takes out a piece of paper Starts drawing Pocahontas and teaching me and as he's teaching him distracted. Why? Because I'm staring at the pencil and to me it wasn't just a pencil It was like the paintbrush of Michelangelo, right? Because when someone does something incredible then the tools that they use to accomplish it take on a whole level of Majesty themselves, you know Michael Jordan shack all these guys that give their sneakers away to a kid after a game The kids not just like wow, I love sneakers like no, no, these aren't just these are the ones that Michael used to fly It's amazing. So I had Watching Glen Keen draw Pocahontas. He can tell him distracted. He's like what? I'm like is that the pencil? He's like yeah, that's the pencil like I hold that is like yeah I'm like wow it's got teeth marks in it. It's like half used He looks at me and he says Saul it's not the pencil that makes the animator and he pointed to two words on his desk That's what makes the animator Those two words are two words that you can apply to every aspect of life The words are be sincere You know what it means it means if you don't feel it they won't feel it If it's not real for you, it's not going to be real for them And this applies for everything in life. You work for a company. You have a product You know the first thing you need to do to sell that product is you need to love it You need to love that product If you don't love it, how are they going to love it? Look, I'm an inspirational speaker I travel the world speaking. I speak about things that are real to me. I speak about real challenges that I go through They say that words that leave the heart penetrate the heart Want to make an impact on somebody? You have to be real. That's what I learned from Glenn Keen Be sincere. It's a good lesson. Yeah, it's a very applicable lesson. Thank you Book a podcast and audible it doesn't matter what one source material that's had an incredible impact on your life What was it? Yeah, there's a amazing poem from Robert Frost And it's called stopping on the woods stopping in the woods on the snowy evening And in this poem, which is my favorite my kids all have it memorized Um, he talks about how he's on this journey and he's stopping in the snow To look through this farmhouse And he's seeing how beautiful it is and he's listening to the sounds of the snow falling The world is just filling up with snow around him and he's stopping on his journey Just to see how beautiful the world is But at the end of the poem he says But I have Promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep and miles to go before I sleep He's saying yeah, as we go through life sometimes we have to stop But to stop and see how beautiful it is to be alive But don't forget what life is really about. It's not so that we live in comfort It's not that that we sit in Jacuzzi in Haku no Matata world or Hawaii We have promises to keep and miles to go before we sleep. We've got to get back to life We want to build our relationships. We got to keep going We got to keep working at it We want to build ourselves as human beings We got to keep going It's been the most impactful poem in my life. Yeah If you had to tell your 20-year-old self one thing what would it be Invest in Pixar That's not a good advice just invest in Pixar dude. I remember the day It's someone said you want to invest in to a story story just come out with right almost gonna come out. I'm like I'm okay Damn yeah, that's what I wouldn't tell myself. I was expecting I was expecting the most like Like wisdom filled like Yeah, like like all the no, he's been doing that for the first like in first hour in Pixar And by the way maybe right now people be like invest in Apple like even now Maybe I didn't miss the boat invest in Apple. I never miss the boat. Yeah, it's gonna keep your eyes open, right? Yeah Last question. What does success mean to you? Success means to me only one thing I don't have to think about it um It's something I think about every moment of the day and I have true clarity on this. This isn't This isn't something that I'm I'm Questioning in my head. Maybe it's that no I have complete clarity successes only one thing It's and might be coming a better person. That's it It doesn't matter how many zeros are on your bank account if you don't have sensitivity to a person that you walk by on a street Someone serves you food in a restaurant and you don't take a moment to empathize for the amount of tables That he or she has and you're just focused on filling your face with food then you're not alive You see we don't live to eat We eat to live The clarity that I have for my life is that I try to work with myself to become a better human being That's it And each one of us should make a list of our negative character attributes We all have them nobody's perfect. That's what it means to be alive You know life is about only one thing Try to take that list and make it smaller Try to grow as a human being If you're a giver be a bigger giver if you're a humble person become more humble If you have a touch of arrogance make that attribute less Just try to work on ourselves as human being that's what life is about period that success and anything less it doesn't matter You