Back in 1984, our initial success at Disney was based on the ability to tell good stories well.
…
Intelligently approached, risk is a necessary component to success in the movie business. It is impossible to create new and original — and therefore appealing — new works without taking on the chance that you’ll fall flat on your face.
…
Most important, this is why we should provide a place where talent has the right to fail. By making long-term arrangements with talent we believe in, we can control costs while they can gain the security that’s necessary for taking creative risks and going in new directions.
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/11/some-thoughts-on-our-business.html
Highly recommend reading the whole thing, but especially the first 8 pages of the memo (don’t worry, it’s not that long - they were faxed pages, the text is also available underneath the scans.). I found myself reading into it replacing Disney/movies with companies and actors with engineers/designers. Lots of great stuff in here.
(Found via @rjs)
