James Cameron’s TED talk

By on March 12, 2010 in Culture, TPI

Earlier this year, before the Academy Awards where James Cameron’s Avatar film failed to take home the Best Director or Best Film honors, the legendary director visited TED.  The purpose of his visit was to share the inspiration for his latest film and comment on the journey of his life that has seen his childhood fantasies come true.  The whole talk is about 17 minutes, and you can watch it here:

I was struck by his constant references to the images in his mind that drove his passion to create them in the real world.  This is exactly in line with the research and education of The Pacific Institute, regarding how successful people achieve their goals.

Cameron’s words of wisdom that he passes on to young filmmakers is particularly insightful and right in line with TPI’s core education:

“Do not limit yourself.”

So often we hear our parents, management, and even our peers tell us to “be realistic” or to not “bite off more than you can chew”.  It’s said out of love and concern, but it often times drastically reduces our potential.  It is well worth examining the voices that are influencing us and determining what targets we are shooting for.

A few years back, Donald Rumsfeld uttered the now infamous line to soldiers in Iraq who questioned him about the tools, armor, and weapons that they had to work with:

“As you know, you go to war with the Army you have.  They’re not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”

Rumsfeld’s legacy has been sullied by the results of the war and the continued state of disarray that the country of Iraq has been in.  It can be debated if part of the reason for that is due to his constant attention on the present, and what is, and not enough of his attention on the future or what could be, for good or bad.

The ambition of Avatar was tempered by the tools that Cameron had to work with when beginning the film.  But, over time, those tools either came to him, or he discovered the ingredients for creating them himself.

Even though Cameron didn’t take home the ultimate prize, he did break an incredible amount of new ground for movie making and movie going.  Time will tell how much of a game changer Avatar will be.  The tools that Cameron had to create have many filmmakers drooling over the possibilities of 3-D filmmaking in the future.

Are you living your life and setting your course with the tools that you have now, or are you imagining things that cannot be done with what you currently have in your hands (metaphorically speaking)?  Make the picture in your mind, and grow into it.

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  • Tpos

    “ Make the picture in your mind, and grow into it.”

    Nice.

  • http://www.zacparsons.com Zac

    @Tpos – Thx. That’s pretty much the crux of TPI’s curriculum. They have some methods that they suggest, but it still comes down to creating vivid pictures in our minds. We tend to do this automatically, so when we start to be consciously aware of it, we can often speed up or tweak this growth.

  • Tpos

    I don’t understand what exactly do the TPI do? Are they like an advisory group? Btw the link above, for them, doesn’t work

  • http://www.zacparsons.com Zac

    @Tpos – Thx for reminding me about the link. I had it down for a while, while I was working out my contract with TPI. TPI develops and distributes education curriculum based on the research of cognitive psychologists. These are some of the main programs that we use with our clients at Inside Results. It’s all about helping people understand how their minds work and how to optimize behaviors for a common goal, like an organization’s vision or purpose.

    Is the link working now?

  • tpos

    ooh interesting!

    yep, the link is working now