Before he was Han Solo or Indiana Jones, Harrison Ford was a carpenter.
In 1964, Ford moved to Hollywood to become an actor.
“But I arrived on a metaphoric bus full of people who had the same ambition,” he said.
So he came up with this plan to prevail over the competition:
As Ford spent time around the other aspiring actors on that metaphoric bus, he became aware of something:
Most of them were in a hurry.
They were in a hurry to “make it” or to make lots of money or to prove something to someone.
Whatever the reason, most were on a tight timeline.
So Ford's plan was to do the opposite: to lengthen his timeline.
To do so, Ford said, "I had to have another source of income. So I became a carpenter."
“By doing carpentry," he explained, "I was able to wait it out.
And as the years went by, the attrition rate eliminated many of those people from the competition pool until finally, there were only a few of us left on the bus from that entering class.
I always saw life that way—you just have to find a way to stick it out, to prevail.”
Takeaway 1:
I once heard the author Robert Greene give advice to an aspiring musician. Robert listened to some of their music and thought the musician was talented. Then he simply said, “You must immerse yourself in a universe of music.”
Ford chose carpentry because he thought—since Hollywood is an everybody-knows-everybody kind of town—a carpentry job could lead to acting jobs.
Indeed.
Ford immersed himself in the Hollywood universe and became known as the "carpenter to the stars." His roster of clients included Francis Ford Coppola, James Caan, Richard Dreyfuss, and Joan Didion.
Most famously, in the mid 1970s, Ford was building "an elaborate portico entrance" at Coppola's offices where Coppola's friend, George Lucas, was leading casting meetings for Star Wars.
A few years earlier, after Ford had played Bob Falfa in Lucas' "American Graffiti," Lucas sent out a memo to the agents of the actors in Graffiti just to explicitly say that he wasn't going to cast any of them in his next project.
"Ford found acting jobs scare since American Graffiti," one biographer explains. And so when he was working on that elaborate portico entrance, Ford said, “and I was asked by George if I would read with the other actors, there was no indication that I might be considered for a part in the film."
"I read with about 300 actors, and weeks later, they asked me if I wanted to play Han Solo."
Takeaway 2:
Ford's “stick it out” strategy is a civilian version of what military strategists refer to as "winning through attrition."
In a study of the major wars that shaped the course of history, the strategist and historian B.H. Liddell Hart found that only 2% of battles were won as a result of a direct attack.
The majority of successful armies throughout history, Hart writes, all had the “power of endurance to last.”
As Ford put it, "You just have to find a way to stick it out, to prevail.”
- - -
"Lengthen your timeline...It always takes longer than you think it’s going to take. That’s Hofstadter’s law. And even when you take the law into account, you’re still surprised." — Ryan Holiday
Follow @bpoppenheimer for more content like this!
It's a huge to loss to every Indian young parent, and their child.
Dr Sivaranjani Santosh had resigned from the Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP) ater an eight-year long fight against fruit-based, non-carbonated beverages marketing themselves as Oral Rehydration Solution
49-year-old Chhaya Purab, who was administered anaesthesia for 4 hours to be transferred from Saphale, Palghar, to Hinduja Hospital in Mumbai, died a PAINFUL death after being stuck on NH 48.
She was injured after a tree fell on her and was enroute to Hinduja Hospital Mahim because of multiple injuries. Initial time showed 2.5 hours, but it took them 3 hours to just reach Virar where she woke up and was shouting in terrible pain.
Due to traffic, chaos and pathetic road condition of NH 48, they could only reach till Mira road after 4 hours.
She was declared brought dead at a hospital in Mira Road.
@memeghasood@HTMumbai
Such a sad visual. Remember, wildlife has first right of way through forest roads.
A Bear mother tries to hold up cub which was hit by speeding vehicle on Shahdol’s Gohparu–Jaitpur road in MP. While one cub was on back.
Power of Social Media 💥
After public outrage online, Agra administration finally wakes up and takes action. #YehThikKarKeDikhao
This is the power of people speaking up. ��
I often feel bad for the child of senior citizen patients who accompanies them to the clinic for their appointments/checkups and yet all that the senior citizen patients want to talk about or praise is their other child who is settled abroad but is never with them in sickness.
Curiosity May Hold Key to Healthy Brain Aging
Curiosity may be a critical factor in healthy aging, according to new research that distinguishes between general curiosity (trait curiosity) and momentary, topic-specific curiosity (state curiosity).
While trait curiosity tends to decline with age, state curiosity — interest in specific subjects — actually increases in older adults.
This rise in focused curiosity may help keep the mind sharp and guard against cognitive decline, potentially reducing the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
Older adults often become more selective in their learning, channeling curiosity into areas that are personally meaningful.
This selectivity could explain why state curiosity increases even as general curiosity drops.
Researchers suggest that encouraging engagement with new, interesting topics may promote cognitive resilience and delay dementia symptoms.
Appreciate these lovely kids for weaving traditional handloom at schools; otherwise, making reels flooded in a society where traditional things are ignored or hardly taken.
Courtesy- Govt Middle School Anelih.
US FDA says spices/ food supplements from Indian companies Everest and MDH contained bacteria Salmonella.
Singapore Food Regulatory Body says they found cancer causing ethylene dioxide in spices and many other food exports from India.
Hong Kong Food Safety Regulatory says they too found cancer causing chemicals in Everest and MDH company's products.
Indian food regulator, FSSAI has no comments, but says that ethylene oxide is banned in food products sold in India.
Everest and MDH company representatives are saying this is all some conspiracy because FSSAI did not receive any such updates from other food regulators and their products are all safe to consume.
But an independent testing of a domestically available Everest Fish Masala by a citizen, paying his own money, showed ethylene oxide was present in a randomly checked product brought off the shelf. It contained ethylene oxide more than 70 times the upper limit in EU countries. Indian regulatory says ethylene oxide is banned in food products at consumer level. But here is a report that shows 70 times more of it in a randomly brought domestically available product.
Who is lying?
I think the citizens of India DESERVE so much better! We have been groomed to get comfortable with, and get adjusted to mediocrity and lies.
I have no hope that the truth will ever come out.
In India anything can be hushed up with money and favors.
Heartbreaking video that makes us hang our head in shame: Tribal woman in labour, hardly able to walk, delivered baby girl in middle of hilly terrain & bled heavily, as there was no road/ambulance to get timely medical help #AndhraPradesh#AlluriSitaramarajuDistrict#Anantagiri
[Darkness]
Tu thakda ni, sach takda ni
Beete samey da bojh thalle rakhda ni
Aap de gulaab vicho pattar kadd-kadd, kyun thakda ni? Kyun thakda ni?
Kyu aap naal roz jung lad da ni?
Kyu sheeshe saamne kade khad da ni?
Kitaab khali pai jeevan di saari
Kalam chak ohnu kyu tu bharda ni
[Leap of faith]
Dabaye hoye aa, dabaye hoye aa
Jazbaat apne chhupaye hoye aa
Baar kadd, baar kadd, jede gamm andar tu lukaaye hoye
Uth, chal, himmat kar, dum kar, gall kar
Mann halka kar kar, kar,
Hauli-hauli panne bhar, badal saare jaune jhad
Dhup fer auni chhadh chhadh chhadh