“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”
-Albert Einstein
It really started with grandma Schwartz. In Brian Grazer’s book, A Curious Mind/The Secret to a Bigger Life (2015), he writes about the influence of one ancestor early in his life who invited him to believe, in spite of learning challenges empirically supported by bad grades in school, that he was a ‘genius’ and asked ‘good questions.’ At a public interview with journalist and author Malcolm Gladwell in New York earlier this year (92YPlus, 2015), grazer shared an early memory when he was driving with his grandmother in a convertible when a bee landed in the car. He asked her, “What do you think goes faster, grandma, a bee or a car?” She responded it was a brilliant question and reminded him that he always asks very good questions. His grandmother, he says, gave him a sense of intellectual validity within his world of dyslexia, not provided him in school. Thanks to his grandmother, he never stopped asking questions.
Grazer reveals that he was always curious as a young person, and it served him early after graduating from the University of Southern California when trying to determine what he was going to do until he could get into law school. He overheard a conversation outside his window between two young men, one of who said he had just left a law clerk position at Warner Brothers. Grazer makes the call (thereby creating an opportunity) about a position he assumed would be open, and asked if he could apply. They said yes, he did, and he got the position, which, it turns out, consisted of him delivering ‘important papers’ to ‘important people’ in the movie business. This began his connection to movie making, and ignited his curiosity about people in the entertainment industry, their motives, and their own ideas of creativity.
Grazer’s moments of serendipity continued later after he had produced some TV shows. He first saw TV’s Ron Howard from the sitcom “Happy Days,” again, outside of a window, and called out to him asking if he they could meet. Howard agreed. And they’ve been partners for over 30 years, Howard as director, and Grazer as producer. Together they have created some of the most successful and important films of the last 25 years: Night Shift, Splash, Apollo 13, The Da Vinci Code, and Beautiful Mind (2015). In total these films have won Oscars and earned more than $13 billion at the box office. Money aside, Grazer said in his New York interview with Gladwell, the most successful movie for him personally was ‘Beautiful Mind’ because he set an intention to make a movie that would de-stigmatize mental illness; from the feedback he has receive from professionals in the mental health industry, as well as people he his own industry, he knows he was successful.
Grazer shares in his book he realized early in his professional life the movie business was built on ideas. He decided to set a goal to meet one new person in the entertainment business every day. He called them “curiosity conversations” (2015). He only asked for five minutes of their time, and made sure they knew he wasn’t “looking for a job” (2015). This book is the result of 35 years of curiosity. He said his conversations were successful because he was an active listener, who did little talking, and had low expectations. These weren’t discussions with anticipated outcomes, but dialogue that revealed a platform for creativity, and ideas, to emerge. This book is a valuable read to discover not only the back-stories, and insights from many talented and successful people, but also to learn how they pursued their own whispers of curiosity to follow ideas into manifestations, people like Steve Jobs, Princess Diana, Jonas Salk, Henry Kissinger, Norman Mailer, and Andy Warhol. As grazer writes in his book and illustrates with his experiences, “Life isn’t about finding the answers, it’s about asking the questions” (2015).
Malcolm Gladwell with Brian Grazer: Genius and Curiosity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSQjzHx-Wkc
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Customer reviews
A Curious Mind is Beautiful for your Mind!
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2015
This book is everything I like about a book I recommend. It is easy to understand, tells a true story, and the true story helps me (and my clients) learn a new character strength. Grazer's life is a living example of how to build a network of relationships that matter. Knowing that curiosity is one of the identified human character strengths that appears in a society that flourishes is one aspect. The real reason this book matters for me, however, is it is a 'how you can too' book that is enjoyable to learn from. I purchased the Audible version. Hearing the book read made it feel as if Brain was talking to me and telling me his story. More than worth it!
Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2015
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Anecdotal... but I enjoyed it.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 12, 2020
Christine lee
A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life ... Brian Grazer
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 28, 2015
