As I watched the movie, I also thought about the three words that are probably the best business and career advice ever given: Make it great.
The true story goes like this. After Steve Jobs bought Pixar in 1986, a young animator named John Lasseter had to pitch Jobs on a short film. It was Lasseter’s first real meeting with his new boss. Jobs had one suggestion—“make it great.” The short, Tin Toy, went on to win the first academy award ever given for computer animation and set the foundation for what later would become Toy Story. Lasseter, who is now the chief creative director of Walt Disney Animation Studios (and Frozen’s executive producer) said it was the most profound advice he’s ever received.
Lasseter first told the story to Charlie Rose about two years ago and I briefly wrote about it in this column in 2012. Since that time, I’ve realized that it wasn’t just a nice story. Lasseter really did mean that Jobs’ guidance has influenced every frame of every movie he’s made since that meeting. Lasseter brings it up in nearly every interview or speech. When asked in this New York Times article about the future of movie animation, Lasseter said, “If we do our job right, meaning: tell a great story with really memorable characters and make it great…then these films will entertain audiences for generations.”
At Disney’s D23 expo in August 2013, Lasseter told the story again, this time with tears in his eyes. “He [Jobs] was looking, not at the drawings on the board I was pitching, he was staring off into the future. At the end of the meeting he asked me do something that was the only thing Steve ever asked me to do. John, make it great.”
Jobs realized that he could never be an animator like the team at Pixar, and so, according to Lasseter, he become a better leader, challenging them constantly “to shoot way beyond what we thought we could do.”
Fast forward to the making of Frozen and, specifically, hair styles. Yes, hair. In an interview for the film, art director Michael Giaimo said this about Lasseter’s influence on the look of the characters, especially on Elsa, princess of Arendelle: “He helped guide us in incredible ways, visually and in character designs. We did many designs of Elsa’s hair and he would always tell us, ‘it’s not aspirational enough. We want people to feel like this hair is a beautiful statement.’” Just as Jobs challenged Lasseter, he, in turn, challenges his team to make everything as great as it could be. He encouraged Frozen’s animators to do their research. They went to Norway to study its architecture, countryside, clothing, and history. They even stayed in an ice hotel in Canada to study how light reflects and refracts on snow and ice. Why? To make every frame of Frozen as great as it could be.
Earlier this year in a keynote speech to sporting goods retailers, I ended the presentation with the “make it great” story because I think the advice could vastly improve everything about the way we all do business. Is your customer service as great as your customers deserve? Is your website navigation as great as it should be for your shoppers? Is every ‘frame’—every slide—of your presentation as great as it should be for your audience? Make it great is more than a slogan. It’s a philosophy that could make you and your business far more successful than you've ever imagined.
Carmine Gallo is the communications coach for the world’s most admired brands. He is a popular keynote speaker and author of several books, including The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs, and The Apple Experience, Secrets To Building Insanely Great Customer Loyalty. Carmine’s upcoming book, Talk Like TED, reveals the 9 public-speaking secrets of the world’s top minds. Sign up for Carmine’s newsletter and follow him on Facebook or Twitter.
