How Steven Spielberg Hacked Hollywood Like a Startup: ‘You Either Feed Off the Fire Or It Feeds Off You’

This week on How Success Happens, I talked with Paul Fischer, author of The Last Kings of Hollywood, a fantastic deep dive into how Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas basically invented the modern blockbuster and changed the business of movies forever. Paul doesn’t just tell great Hollywood stories—he unpacks how these guys operated like founders, from scrappy “warehouse” startups to billion‑dollar IP empires. We’ve broken down his success insights to help you direct your own plan for success in three, two, one!

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Three Key Insights

1. Build Your Own “Warehouse” When the System Says No

Paul describes how Coppola and Lucas, frustrated by the old Hollywood studio machine, did what any great founder does: they went off and built their own thing. “They go up to the Bay, they get a warehouse, they get a bunch of cutting-edge technology, and they go, ‘To hell with the system. We’re gonna do our own thing.’” He points out that their mentality was pure startup: small-business-owner energy, bootstrapping from one win to the next, and refusing to wait for permission. The twist is that their revolution eventually became the new system—exactly what happens when disruptors grow into incumbents.

Takeaway: If the existing system won’t give you a shot, treat it like Coppola and Lucas did: find your “warehouse,” assemble your tools and allies, and build your own kingdom.

2. The Power of Collaborative Rivalry

One of my favorite dynamics Paul uncovers is how much Spielberg, Coppola, Lucas, and Scorsese relied on each other—not just as friends, but as a kind of mastermind group. He talks about Spielberg being convinced that no one would show up for Jaws, panicking on opening day, and Martin Scorsese literally driving him around Hollywood to a theater where they see a line wrapping around the block. “These guys were extremely talented, great vision, hard workers, lucky to come at the right time in kind of film history… but I think a lot of their success was also dependent on knowing each other and kind of competitive collaboration or collaborative rivalry.” Moments like Spielberg’s Jaws terror or Coppola nearly getting fired from The Godfather became survivable—and often career-defining—because someone in that circle was there to push, protect, and reframe what was happening.

Takeaway: Don’t try to build your company in isolation—intentionally create a “collaborative rivalry” circle that will pick you up or push you when you need it most.

3. Obsession Is the Engine—But It Can Burn You Up

Paul is brutally honest about the dark side of obsession in high achievement. He talks about Lucas hating the process of making Star Wars even as it became a phenomenon, and how by Return of the Jedi he was saying, “I just never wanna see Star Wars or make Star Wars again,” as the franchise was destroying his personal life. Coppola, meanwhile, is the guy who “jumps out of the plane and then he figures out the parachute,” risking his sanity on Apocalypse Now and his finances on failed studios. Paul sums it up with Lucas’s metaphor that there’s a fire to these projects: “Either you feed off of it or it feeds off of you,” and eventually it “kinda burns everybody up one way or the other.”

Takeaway: Let your obsession fuel your craft, but build guardrails—people, boundaries, and basic self‑awareness—so the fire powers your company instead of consuming your life.

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Two Free Resources to Learn More

1. Learn more about Paul Fischer’s work, including The Last Kings of Hollywood and his previous books at his official site.
2. In our conversation, Paul recommended diving into films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, American Graffiti, and The Conversation to really understand how these “last kings” worked at the top of their game.

One Question to Ponder

Paul talks a lot about the line between “jumping out of the plane and building the parachute on the way down” risk and completely losing yourself in obsession. So here’s my question for you:

When was a time you chased a big idea so hard that it either transformed your life for the better—or almost burned you out completely?

Email your story to howsuccesshappens@entrepreneur.com, and I may read your answer on a future episode.

About How Success Happens

Each episode of How Success Happens shares the inspiring, entertaining, and unexpected journeys that influential leaders in business, the arts, and sports traveled on their way to becoming household names. It’s a reminder that behind every big-time career, there is a person who persisted in the face of self-doubt, failure, and anything else that got thrown in their way.