Why Movies, Tech & Mental Health Feel Broken - Jeffrey Katzenberg & Hari Ravichandran (4K)

Jeff, what made you so good at what you did? I don't actually understand what your skill set is.

(laughs)

Like, it's obvious that you're talented, but I, I don't actually know-

You're not the first person to accuse me of

(laughs)

I don't actually know what you're talented at.

I'm not sure I, I am either. Uh, let's see. Uh, certainly a good storyteller. Um, you know, I think, um, you know what? I'm a truffle hunter. I, I know how to find a good idea, recognize a good person, a talented person. Um, I think that's probably the most valuable skill set, which is having an instinct for quality, for smarts, for, you know, ambition, vision, dreams, you know. Uh, you know, I've spent, um, most of my career helping other people realize their dreams, their stories, their ideas. Um, and, you know, in order to, I think, recognize a dreamer, you need to be a bit of a dreamer yourself. You have to be an optimist. You have to believe in, you know, uh, the unknown, the, you know, unimaginable, and, uh, you have to have a lot of enthusiasm. And so I think those qualities, um, are... I'm a happy person, an, an optimist, bottomless well of optimism.

Mm-hmm. I've heard you say that you're a good home run hitter, but you don't do singles and bunts.

Well, yeah, that's sort of a different, that's, you know, (clears throat) sort of in my ambition column, you know, sort of different lanes that, you know, I like to take on things that are very, very, very challenging. And, you know, I, I, I like to say that, uh, you know, m- I'm... I, I like doing things that are, you know, improbable, if not impossible. That's kind of my home address. And, uh, you know, the outcome of that is, is that, you know, when you... One, you can't hit a home run if you don't swing for the fence. Um, and more ti- at least many times, you will swing for the fence and you won't get there, you know? So, um, you gotta accept that, you know, with success comes failure.

You mentioned, uh, being able to pick a good story, one of the core skill sets with 400 something movies, 80 animated, da da da. What, in your opinion, makes for a good story?

Um, well, there are many things. I, you know, one of... I, I've been very lucky to have many great me- mentors and teachers, um, uh, over my career. Um, one of which I actually never met 'cause he had passed away by the time, uh, I res- I arrived at the Walt Disney Company in 1984, which is Walt Disney himself, and he had this amazing (clears throat) archive of his work, his work process, his, uh, creative, uh, uh, uh, sort of blueprints. And, um, so many great lessons learned about storytelling from him, particularly around his animated movies. Um, one of my favorite ones, he says, "You know, there's no such thing, um, as a great story without a great ending." Seem pretty obvious, right? (laughs) Um, uh, there's no such thing as a great story, um... Uh, your story, uh, your story, uh, let me say it. "My movies are only as good as their villains," is one of the things that he said.