{"id":62730,"date":"2025-12-10T19:34:49","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T08:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=62730"},"modified":"2025-12-10T19:34:49","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T08:34:49","slug":"george-lucas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=62730","title":{"rendered":"George Lucas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"George<\/p>\n

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Hollywood executives laughed when he asked for the toy rights. Then he became richer than all of them combined.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A near-fatal car crash led to changing cinema forever.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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George Lucas was 18 years old.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Three days before high school graduation, his Fiat got crushed by a Chevy Impala at an intersection.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The impact threw him from the car. His seatbelt snapped. That malfunction saved his life.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He should have died. Doctors didn’t know if he’d make it.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He spent weeks in the hospital. Had to watch graduation from a bed.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Everything changed after that.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Lucas stopped racing cars. Started thinking about what he actually wanted to do with the second chance he’d been given.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He decided to make films.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Everyone said it was a waste.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“You barely graduated high school.”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“You’re not connected to Hollywood.”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“Film school is for dreamers.”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He didn’t listen.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Went to USC film school. Made student films that caught attention. Got a scholarship from Warner Bros.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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His first feature film, THX 1138, flopped. Studio hated it. Cut it against his wishes. Lost money.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Then American Graffiti became a hit. Made over $200 million on a tiny budget.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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But Lucas had a bigger idea. A space opera. Something nobody had ever seen before.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He shopped Star Wars to every major studio.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Universal passed.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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United Artists passed.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Disney passed.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Everybody passed.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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They said it was too weird. Too expensive. Too risky.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“Space movies don’t sell.”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“The script is confusing.”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“Nobody wants to see robots and aliens.”<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Finally, 20th Century Fox took a chance. But they didn’t believe in it either.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Here’s where Lucas did something nobody understood at the time.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Instead of negotiating for a bigger directing fee, he asked for something else.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The merchandising rights. And the rights to any sequels.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The studio laughed. Merchandising? From a weird space movie? Sure, take it.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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They thought they were getting a deal. Paying Lucas less upfront for rights they considered worthless.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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That decision made George Lucas a billionaire.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Star Wars opened in 1977. Forty theaters.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Lines wrapped around blocks. People saw it ten, twenty, fifty times.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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It became the highest-grossing film in history at that point.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The toys alone generated billions. Action figures, lunchboxes, video games, books, theme parks.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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All because Lucas believed in something nobody else could see.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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But he wasn’t done.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He built Industrial Light and Magic because no special effects company could do what he needed. Now it’s created effects for most major blockbusters in history.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He built Skywalker Sound. Changed how movies sound.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He built Lucasfilm into an empire.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In 2012, he sold it to Disney for over $4 billion.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Then gave most of it away to education.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Today, the Star Wars franchise has generated tens of billions of dollars across films, merchandise, streaming, and theme parks.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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All because a kid who almost died in a car crash decided to chase an idea everyone said was impossible.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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What dream are you abandoning because the first few studios said no?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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What rights are you giving away because you don’t see their future value?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Lucas nearly died at 18. His first film flopped. Every major studio rejected his biggest idea.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He took less money upfront because he believed in what he was building.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He created technology that didn’t exist because he needed it for his vision.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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He proved that the people who reject you don’t get to define you.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Your near-miss might be your wake-up call.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Your rejection letters might be proof you’re onto something.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Your “worthless” idea might be worth billions.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Stop letting studios, investors, and doubters write your story.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Start thinking like George Lucas.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Take the rights everyone else thinks are worthless.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Build what doesn’t exist yet.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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And never let “no” be the end of the conversation.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Sometimes the biggest wins come from the deals nobody else wanted.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Because when everyone underestimates you, you get to keep everything.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Think Big.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hollywood executives laughed when he asked for the toy rights. Then he became richer than all of them combined. A near-fatal car crash led to changing cinema forever. George Lucas was 18 years old. Three days before high school graduation, his Fiat got crushed by a Chevy Impala at an intersection. The impact threw him … <\/p>\n

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