Quotes And Leadership Lessons From Tetris

A Reel Leadership Article

My latest book, Reel Leadership, is now available on Amazon. If you love movies and leadership, you will love this book.

Set during the 1980s, Tetris tells the real-life story of the race to license and patent the addictive video game. Tetris was created by Alexey Pajitnov (Nikita Efremov). The movie is based on true events and will keep you on the edge of your seat.

When video game designer and founder of Bullet-Proof software Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) was at CES (Consumer Electronic Expo) trying to sell his game, no one was paying attention. Even his salesperson left his booth to marvel over a new video game being displayed by Robert Stein (Toby Jones).

That game? TETRIS.

Man in a brown suit. Dark hair. Sitting in a chair with Tetris pieces falling around him.

Taron Egerton in Tetris

Henk walks over to the booth to discover his salesperson playing the game. He’s frustrated until he begins to play. Then it became the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

Quotes And Leadership Lessons From The Super Mario Bros. Movie

A Reel Leadership Article

My latest book, Reel Leadership, is now available on Amazon. If you love movies and leadership, you will love this book.

What happens when you combine 90’s nostalgia with a classic Nintendo video game series and animation? You get one of the best video game movies ever created. That’s right, Nintendo, Illumination, and Universal Pictures created an entertaining movie.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie tells the tale of two plumbers who are brothers, Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day). They’ve just left their employer to start their own plumbing business. The trouble? Their business is slow, even after running a television ad to promote the business.

When the city of Brooklyn experiences a plumbing issue that results in a massive flood, the two brothers hop into action. They take a dive into the sewers of Brooklyn, where they find themselves transported to the magical Mushroom Kingdom. There, they discover a whole new world.

Quotes And Leadership Lessons From Pokemon: Detective Pikachu

A Reel Leadership Article

I have fond memories of Pokemon. From the original cartoon to the trading card game to the video games (Pokemon Red and Blue for the original Nintendo Gameboy). I spent countless hours consuming the content of Pokemon and trying to catch them all in the video games.

When I first heard of the new Pokemon movie, Detective Pikachu seemed like an odd name. What is Detective Pikachu? How is this related to the Pokemon world? What will the movie be about?

Still image of Pikachu from Pokemon: Detective Pikachu

We found out this weekend. Pokemon: Detective Pikachu is everything you could hope for in a live-action Pokemon movie. The characters are likable. The story was fun. And it was different than you would expect.

Pokemon: Detective Pikachu tells the story of Tim Goodman (Justice Smith, son of Will Smith) as he travels to Ryme City to look for his father, Harry Goodman. There, Tim meets his father’s Pokemon, a detective Pikachu (voiced by Ryan Reynolds). The movie only gets better once the two pair up to continue Tim’s search for his father.

Why Pokemon GO Will Be Good For Your Business

You’ve probably already heard about the latest smartphone app craze: Pokémon GO. In Pokémon GO, players use their smartphones to capture legendary Pokémon via a geo-location based app.

Released on July 6th, 2016, Pokémon GO has created quite the stir.

why your business needs to capitalize on Pokemon GO

What’s The Big Deal About Pokémon GO?

That’s the question everyone is asking. Why is this new Pokémon game so popular?

I have a few theories.

Pokémon GO plays on the nostalgia of those who grew up in the 90’s. Those who watched Pokémon growing up, want to try this new take on their favorite childhood cartoon.

Pokémon GO brings people together. The last couple of days have been crazy. Anywhere Pam and I walked, we ran into Pokémon GO players. Most weren’t alone. Pokémon GO players travel in packs and play together.

Go For The Epic Fail

When’s the last time you failed big? Like epic fail?

You probably can’t remember the last time. Most likely because we tend to minimize our risk of failure. Especially big failures.

We feel big epic fails aren’t pretty. Epic fails are nasty, dirty things. But are they really?

In his book Untitled: Thoughts On The Creative Process (Great book, btw), Blaine Hogan shares this story-

I know all too well the painful reality of standing in front of something I’ve made, only to feel the sobering sting of awareness that comes from realizing the “thing” didn’t live up to the pitch.

This failure can be seen as an epic fail. We pitch, we promote, we hype. Only to see what we imagined fall flat on it’s face.

Epic. Failure. It’s all there.

And then Blaine goes on to ask this question-