#279: The Most Curious Man in Hollywood — Brian Grazer

Brian Grazer (@BrianGrazer) is an Academy Award-winning producer and New York Times bestselling author (A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life, with Charles Fishman) who has been making movies and television programs for more than 25 years. Grazer and his longtime friend and business partner Ron Howard began their collaboration in 1985 on the hit comedies Nightshift and Splash, and in 1986 they founded Imagine Entertainment. In 2002, Grazer won an Oscar for Best Picture for A Beautiful Mind (shared with Ron Howard). In 2007, he was named one of Time's "100 Most Influential People in the World." His films and TV series have been nominated for 43 Academy Awards, and 131 Emmys. In this episode, we discuss:Brian's "supertool" that helped him earn opportunity.How to pitch people to open doors and opportunity.Favorite failures and lessons learned.Brian's criteria for choosing what movies to make.How to develop better decision-making abilities.And much, much more. This episode was recorded in front of a live, sold-out audience of about 2,000 people at Summit LA17 in Los Angeles. Enjoy! This podcast is brought to you by MeUndies. I've spent the last year wearing underwear from these guys 24/7, and they are the most comfortable and colorful underwear I've ever owned. MeUndies are designed in L.A. and made from sustainably sourced MicroModal -- a fabric three times softer than cotton. Even better, it includes free shipping. If you don't love your first pair of MeUndies, they'll hook you up with a new pair or a refund. If you love the product, they have three different subscription plans -- so you'll never be bored with the ever-changing selection. Check out MeUndies.com/Tim to see my current faves and get 20 percent off your first pair. That's MeUndies.com/Tim. This podcast is also brought to you by FreshBooks. FreshBooks is the #1 cloud bookkeeping software, which is used by a ton of the start-ups I advise and many of the contractors I work with. It is the easies