New Impressions

Small acts from people lead to new collective stories where everyone wins!

Currently challenging myself to write about the push-and-pull of creativity and entrepreneurship; art vs capitalism; artistry vs product for 30 days.

If this is something you’re thinking about, then I want to hear from you!!

“Did you ever ask to interview Maureen herself,” I asked.

“No,” he said.

There’s your first mistake, I thought.

Awhile back, I read Also a Poet by Ada Calhou ☝️. In the first chapter from which the above quote comes, Calhoun describes how she finds the unfinished biography of poet Frank O’Hara in her father’s basement. Her parent is the art critic Peter Schjeldahl; and Calhoun decides to finish the work. Like any product maker, she interviews her father about his process and discovers the main reason the work died was because he never received the full cooperation of O’Hara’s younger sister—the representative of the poet’s estate.

“I wondered if my father even tried to find out why she was so protective.” Calhoun wonders.

And this immediately took me back in time to one of the most important lessons I’ve ever learned in my life.

Let me tell you about all about it.

In my second professional life as a book editor, I was put in charge of overseeing the latest updated edition of Bruce Lee’s Fighting Method. At the time, I was a young 20-something with only 2 years of teaching abroad under my belt in Japan. So I had little professional experience in general and none of it was in an American office. But I did know how to navigate uncertain and untenable waters where I was basically ignorant of language and culture. I knew what it was to build something where the environment and denizens in it weren’t inclined to be helpful in helping you figure it all out.

“Just leave everything the way it is,” my superiors said. They’d been in the company for years in comparison to little newbie me. They had worked with the Bruce Lee Foundation often; in fact, the house’s founder was the original publisher of the work. Therefore, they knew no changes if any had ever made it into the any re-editions since the books’ first publication dates in the late 1970s.

In addition, the publishing house just didn’t want the project delayed. The Bruce Lee books were their most lucrative products; anything with Lee’s name on it always boosted sales. But as I flipped through the pages, I just saw lots of opportunities for improvement. The original four volumes hadn’t even been vetted by Lee because he died before they were on shelves. It was only after he passed away that his widow decided to make the works public. Working with Mitoshi Uyehara, they arranged much of the printed material we associate with Lee today. So Lee nor Linda Lee Cadwell nor Uyehara knew at the time just how big BRUCE LEE—martial arts deity—would become; they could only imagine the magnitude, and now it was a reality. That’s why I couldn’t let it go. I could not believe that “nothing” was truly the only option on the table.

I kept going back to my superiors even as they continued to rebuff my suggestions. Eventually, I narrowed in on some legal copyright jargon that seemed like it belonged to the volumes’ original publication dates. It existed on an index page, and obviously, no one could ascribe any authorship to Lee.

“And I can’t even change this?” I asked.

“Go ahead,” My superiors finally conceded, “ Ask the Foundation.” It was the first time they let me interact directly with the organization.

So I did it immediately, and with little fuss, the Foundation approved it. So I decided to escalate my experimentation. I asked for permission to update the Table of Contents because, most likely in all the re-editions, the pagination transformed. This meant the Table of Contents didn’t even match up with the actual chapters anymore. Again, I received immediate approval. Thus, began an email and phone correspondence between myself and the Foundation. I sent them minimally-invasive but reasonable requests to edit the text. The Foundation forwarded them on to Shannon Lee (Bruce Lee’s daughter) who sent back approvals or amendments to my requests. Eventually, I started sending my recommendations directly to Ms. Lee. After a few communications, she wrote that she was open to anything I wanted to suggest. I only needed to do one thing: Obtain her approval first.

Suddenly, the entire project changed for everyone.

We now had the option of not just editing the text but updating the holistic book experience. The business jumped on all the possibilities. What had once been an isolated venture for one employee, now involved the entire business machine from sales to design to corporate. Thus, I was given a longer timeline to conceptualize out a truly polished hardcover edition of this important piece of martial arts literature.

So what happened? I ended up working closely with the Bruce Lee Foundation and Shannon Lee herself. As executor of Lee’s estate, she took her role to preserve Lee’s legacy very seriously. After all, if anyone knew how important Bruce Lee was to world, it was his daughter. So I honored that through my own process. I meticulously documented each grammatical, layout, design or business change—no matter how minuscule it seemed. In a log, I wrote out pages and pages of short explanations for how each potential edit wouldn’t dilute or transform Lee’s originality or meaning; instead, they would enhance them. I also had several collaborative workshops with the Foundation to brainstorm solutions for certain issues. Almost always, they were receptive to them. They approved changes or amended them, and this teamwork made all our efforts even more effective. We turned four paperback volumes into one hardcover volume with remastered photography, polished copy, refined layout and new material from first-generation jeet kune do student Ted Wong. It also became a bigger bestseller—of course.

It took over a year to finish our work, but because of our success, we ended up working through Bruce Lee’s entire book canon over the next three years. And even 15 years later, the Bruce Lee Foundation remains one of my favorite clients to ever have worked with. They were fun, collaborative, reasonable, creative, generous, and sincerely passionate about their mission. They ensured Lee’s works would remain accessible, potent and pertinent to future generations. When I think of ideal clients or projects, I think of them.

To think, the whole world might’ve missed out if I had taken the original story for this project at face value!

So what’s the lesson?

Often “difficult” projects aren’t made. Instead, they are the product of a million small interactions being made into a collective truth—that seems universal and unchangeable. But if you approach the scenario and characters with patience and empathy… If you try to understand the motivations and anxieties of the parties involved… Then you can become an agent of change. You can reframe the entire history and transform a relationship, an organization, a culture, and the world through this careful step-by-step building of trust—of rebuilding the story in everyone’s life.

That’s when everyone wins.

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Extra Fun Poetic Thing

I just love this channeled essay from Death & Eros writer Arivind, who’s Bruce Wayne life is product strategy. Here’s a snippet:

We are entering a time when many of the roles we built our lives around — strategist, healer, designer, writer — are dissolving.
They are being absorbed into systems that do not breathe.
And in the silence after that dissolution, something older calls us.

This is where I live now.
In the soft, strange space after the algorithm, but before the new myths arrive.

Read the rest here.

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#Storytelling

#CreativeLeadership

#30DayWritingChallenge

#BatmanBruceWayneLife

#InnovationThroughStory

#ImaginationIsPower