Will Smith is a mega star today.
He is the only actor in the world who has 11 consecutive movies in a row earning over 150 million dollars.
How did he achieve that?
In the early stages of his career, while working on "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," Will Smith envisioned a future as the world's biggest movie star.
If you ask any critic about his acting abilities, they’ll generously say “he is not bad.” He oozes charisma but he is nowhere near being one of the greats.
Then how did his name become synonymous with Hollywood stardom?
Will Smith wasn't merely a dreamer; he was a meticulous planner. Collaborating with his manager, James Lassiter, he embarked on a unique journey to decode the formula of blockbuster success.
Lassiter and Smith compiled a list of the 10 biggest hits of all time and started looking for common patterns in them. The list includes films like Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, Star Wars, and ET.
They found:
10 out of 10 movies had special effects.
9 out of 10 movies had special effects with a creature in it.
8 out of 10 movies had special effects with a creature and a love interest.
So, Will Smith started signing up for movies with special effects, weird creatures, and a love interest in it. He rejected everything else. Even when he wasn’t getting many movies, he stuck to the formula.
That's how he ended up doing Independence Day and Men in Black. Those two movies, back to back, gave him a superstar rating and made him a household name.
Pattern recognition strategy
This pattern recognition strategy works almost every time.
Find the patterns in past successes and adapt them.
Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, two comic book nerds, used the same strategy. They asked themselves a question: What comic could they create that would be impossible to fail?
They started analyzing recently successful comics and hot trends.
Cerebus The Aardvark a comic about a misfit pig as a superhero, is foul-mouthed, has a temper, loves getting drunk, but is very smart.
Ronin is a story filled with martial arts and samurais.
Daredevil is about a blind mutant whose other senses are heightened beyond normal human ability because of radioactive exposure.
The New Mutants is about teenage mutant superheroes undergoing training.
Kevin and Peter combined the 4 trends and came up with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
It may seem like cheating but it’s a strategy that works.
Why?
Because most people like familiar surprises.
People love discovering new things, but are afraid of anything that's too new. Surprise them with just the right dose of novelty and it will be a megahit.
Many successful people have done it.
Malcolm Gladwell combined obscure but interesting sociological and psychological studies with storytelling and turned them into compelling books such as "Outliers" and "The Tipping Point."
Simon Sinek used unconventional approaches in personal development to leadership that resonate with millions of readers.
Bill Bryson combined humor with travel writing turning ordinary experiences into hilarious and enlightening adventures.
David Sedaris blended humor with autobiography, sharing personal anecdotes that touch on everyday life, family, and cultural observations.
Atul Gawande, a surgeon and an author combines medical expertise with storytelling to explore healthcare in works like "Being Mortal" and “Complications.”
Will Smith’s resurgence
In 2013, Will Smith started having a string of flops. His movies “After Earth” and “Concussion” had bombed. He was doing better work than ever before and yet his movies were not doing well. He fell in despair and was doubting himself when he decided to go back to finding the roots of success again.
But this time, instead of finding patterns from movies that succeeded, he started searching for people who had more success than was expected of them. He started finding common patterns in what they did.
He realized that actors like Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) were getting paid only a few million for their acting fees, but much more for promoting their movies on their social media profiles.
Will Smith pivoted from a product-centric outlook to a people-centric outlook. He got Creative Artists Agency to help him build a social media presence. He took his social media more seriously than making a movie. He worked with Ellen Degeneres to launch his Instagram profile on her show. He got other celebrities who were on Instagram to mention his new account.
In a mere 67 days, he built a following of 10 million on Instagram.
And it worked. When his movie “Aladdin” came out, even though it was just an OK movie, it grossed more than any critics or analysts had predicted. It became a billion-dollar blockbuster. Will Smith’s social media profiles drove a 20% increase in traffic to the movie trailer and then to the movie.
While Smith's approach minimized the risk of failure, it also limited the potential for industry revolution. To strike a balance, he combined pattern matching for consistent success with daring ventures like Ali, The Pursuit of Happyness, and King Richard – films devoid of special effects but driven by compelling stories.
Will Smith's journey from an aspiring actor to a box office juggernaut underscores the power of strategic thinking and learning from past successes. His ability to decode success patterns and embrace change allowed him to not only conquer Hollywood but also evolve with the times, cementing his status as a true cinematic legend.
Whichever is your field, make a list of the top 10 successful products (people) and find common patterns in them. Work on these patterns and your chances of success will be very high.
This is what I am doing to reinvigorate my substack letters.
Today he has developed his unique style and has an ultra-successful Substack newsletter The SneakyArt Post which doubled in subscriber number in the past six months.
In his recent post, he shares his process and recommends finding time for art in our busy lives. A timely reminder as I haven’t be sketching as much as I used to.
That’s all from me this week.
I am not a fan of Will Smith myself S Reeson. But the point of the post is to demonstrate how people who shouldn’t have succeeded have succeeded by tapping in on pattern recognition. Something I am trying to learn. Another pattern I have observed is - everyone falls off when they are on top of the world - Tiger Woods did, and so did Charlie Sheen, Kanye West, and Roseanne Barr. Stardom probably gets to the head. https://neera.substack.com/p/164-why-some-succeed-beyond-expectations