Let the Prince Shimmy
What drives us to achieve?
The most popular scientific theory suggests it could be 1 of 4 motivations:
1) The desire to master something
2) The desire to be the best or better than others
3) The desire to simply make something passable
4) The desire to not be last or the worst
Most often, number 1, mastery approach, is taught as the best approach.
Those driven by mastery are more likely to see setbacks as lessons not failures. They are willing to stick with things longer, pursue quality for quality itself, and more. If you’ve ever been told to “learn to love the process,” someone was trying to help embrace a mastery approach.
So, if you’re looking for sustainable high performance, this is how we do it, right?
Well, yes… until you get to a certain point…
What happens when mastery has no ceiling? Can an unchecked pursuit of mastery become a problem?
In 1937, Walt Disney was finishing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Up to this point, Disney had already bankrupted and lost a studio, gotten swindled out of a main character (Oswald the Rabbit), rebuilt a name for himself with Mickey Mouse and the Silly Symphonies, and was teetering on the edge of either producing something amazing or losing it all again.
The budget for the film had been $250,000. Costs had already ballooned to over $1.5 million. By this point, Walt was mortgaging his own house and borrowing against his life insurance to keep the production alive. Bank of America had halted further loans. Hollywood nicknamed the pursuit "Disney's Folly" fully expecting it to put him under.
When reviewing a nearly finished cut, Walt noticed that when the Prince went to kiss Snow White, he did a little “shimmy.” Something had gone wrong either in animation or editing. Walt thought it signaled lazy animation and wanted to redo the whole thing.
So, he complained to his brother Roy. Roy realized it would take thousands of more dollars to fix it and so he famously said, “Forget it. Let the Prince shimmy.”
Lucky for all of us, the Prince shimmied for the next 56 years. I say “lucky” because if fixing the shimmy was the priority, we might never have seen Snow White or anything else from Disney. The film could have been perfect, but the costs would have stopped production.
Walt was undoubtedly a visionary. And he wasn’t wrong that the shimmy was a flaw – even if most people would never notice it. His genius was never in doubt. But his judgement about when to stop was. And this wasn’t the only time.
Walt ran his organization to the edge 3 more times over the next 15 years, and Roy brought him back each time. Without Roy, we wouldn’t have Disney today.
Mastery is a great driver. Masterpieces require it. But a vehicle without breaks, becomes a dangerous and potentially self-destructive machine. A drive for mastery alone is never satisfied. There’s always something else that can be improved. Something more to be done. Another thing around the corner to reach for.
So, for you my high performers, don’t let mastery go unchecked. You also need to spend time strengthening your breaks.
Now, not all of us have a Roy built into our lives. But you can build in his judgement before you start.
Before your next project, pick a stop you can be proud of. This can be a deadline, a budget, or perhaps a cap on the number of your revisions. Don’t think of these as things that will hold you back. They’re an anchor to help keep you from drifting off course. The key, however, is to decide the stop ahead of time when your head and heart are clear. Don’t wait until the emotions or the mania has gotten the better of you.
Then, let that stop be an actual stop. Name it Roy if you need to. Remember, this isn’t a limit to your vision. It’s a practice in sound judgment. Both vision and judgement are needed to actually let the dream fly.
In other words, the Prince can shimmy and the work can still be considered a masterpiece.
If you’re in the Utah County area and want to learn how your favorite ways to achieve might be getting in your way, come to the free Even-Achieving workshop at Kiln in Lehi on Sept 24.
Registration link: https://luma.com/di3ltgbz
Notes:
Gabler, Neal. Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination. Knopf, 2006
Picture Credit: The Walt Disney Family Museum, https://www.waltdisney.org/blog/walts-own-words-his-brother-roy
