I love Michael Keaton. One of my favorite actors, hands down. If you haven’t seen My Life, I highly recommend it; although bring along the Kleenex…you’ll need it. Grantland, recently did an amazing interview with Keaton that’s worth your time to read. There’s some truly great exchanges and one-liners in the interview, but none better than this discussion on why Michael Keaton passed on doing Batman “3″ after having so much success in playing the role of Batman in the previous 2 movies.

Michael: And, I will take credit for this, though: The third Batman didn’t happen because I said this is not good, this is just not good.

Daniel: You were right.

Michael: And I said, “So let’s make it good,” and I run up against this resistance, and I said, “OK, I ain’t doing it, man, I just won’t do it.” And they didn’t believe me, but I said, “No, I’m really not doing it … ”

Daniel: I know — I heard they backed the truck up. I read the whole story. Fifteen million bucks they offer you, and you just said screw it, no.

Michael: Yeah, that was it. Anyway, so I just said no.

Powerful concept, right? Obviously this goes beyond movies. It’s something I truly believe in. If you can’t do something right, if you can’t do it the best you can, if you can’t do it in a way you can be proud of and ultimately defend…DON’T DO IT. This philosophy, which one could argue, allows you to put more wood behind less arrows, is why I think Google is on the upswing. The renewed focus by Sergei Brin and Larry Page is admirable. You’re also seeing it become part of the formula for other companies who are just killing right now, like, foursquare, Ford, Amazon, Square, and Roku. They aren’t rushing to market with something. They aren’t offering a rip off of something else out there already. They aren’t doing it to simply check a box.

No, they’re focusing. They’re being smart about when to invest and what to invest against. This focus isn’t just for show. It’s part of their strategy. They’re doing it right, or they’re not doing it. Perhaps if the music industry took a page from this book, we’d have more AC/DC Black Ice and less Just Bieber [anything].

So, the next time, you’re about to do something, ask yourself, can you do it right? Because, if you can’t, you probably shouldn’t do it.

This is going to be the first of a three part set of posts on ReThinking Mixing Friends And Business.

If you’ve been reading this blog long enough, you know I have a great appreciation and love for the movie, “Almost Famous.” It’s definitely one of my all-time favorite movies because not only is it entertaining, but it brings to light so many life lessons. One of those life lessons is the intersection of friends with business. Lester Bangs warns William Miller about the dangers of becoming friends of the band. His rationale is that it would hurt his ability to do his job well. His job is to write the truth about what he sees and what he thinks about the band. If you become friends with the band, can you really crucify them?

By the end of the movie, William is at a crossroads. He owes his completed article to Rolling Stone magazine, but is struggling with how to write it because he knows that the truth is harsh and Stillwater (the band) may not recover from such brutal honesty.

While at this crossroads William calls Lester for advice and the following is shared:

Aw, man. You made friends with them! See, friendship is the booze they feed you. They want you to get drunk on feeling like you belong.

That line is followed up with this gem:

My advice to you. I know you think those guys are your friends. You want to be a true friend to them? Be honest and unmerciful.

William, with amazing journalistic integrity unleashes the brutal truth in his article for Rolling Stone. During the fact checking process the band is blown away by what he’s written. It’s harsh, honest, and uncomfortable to say the least. The reason their shell shocked is because as Jeff states:

He was supposed to be our friend.

Talk about a life lesson and a half.

Our industry is filled with chances to be honest, authentic, and genuine. But, too often we pass on those chances. I’ve been overly critical of so-called professional analysts like soon to be former Forrester Social Media analyst Jeremiah Owyang. An analyst is supposed to dig in to a situation and honestly assess it. These analysts, with rare exception never provide the brutal honest truth. They avoid controversy and critique like it was the plague. In short, they don’t do the job they’re being paid to do.

I tend to believe the reason they don’t provide an honest assessment of company, person, or situation is that it’s not to their personal benefit. They need to maintain these friendships and connections for future gain. They need to keep things more friendship focused than business focused. You need only look at the number of people leaving analyst firms to join a company they’ve previously “analyzed” to see what I mean.

The other analogous situation where the role of analyst lacks objectivity due to friendships is with sports commentary.  Have you watched Sports Center lately?  There’s not reporting or analysis taking place, save for Bill Simmons.  It’s clear that traditional journalists like Chris Berman would rather remain chummy with athletes than honestly critique them.  It’s clear that former athletes like Mike Golic would rather stay neutral than provide the unique type of insight and evaluation only a former athlete can bring to the table.  There’s no real critique taking place.  There’s no real analysis.  The depth they’re providing is about as shallow as Paris Hilton.  Yes, we’re talking paper thin.

Does this surprise you?  It shouldn’t.  If you’re an athlete, would you want to grant an interview to a hard hitting reporter or analyst who might make you look bad?  Of course not.  But, to the reporter who provides softballs, you’ll grant access all day long.  The general public isn’t as demanding as I am.  They can’t tell the difference between true reporting and a surface level puff piece.  If your audience can’t tell the difference and your subject matter will shun you if you are overly critical, it becomes a means of self preservation to not be critical, hard hitting, or controversial.

It’s tough to mix business and friendship.  It’s not easy.  It shouldn’t be.  If it were that easy you probably aren’t really friends in the first place.  Parts II and III will be up later this week.  Stay tuned.

We can learn something from anything and we should continually be trying to learn every day.  I firmly believe that.  My Facebook profile says, “My only real activity is consuming as much media and information as I possibly can each day. My brain never shuts off. I’m constantly thinkng, plotting, planning, and learning.” It’s true; that’s what I do every single day.

The other day, I blogged about one of my favorite movie quotes and all time business lessons, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”  That post got me thinking about all the other lessons we can learn from the movies.  With that in mind, here’s my list of 10 things you can learn…

10. Don’t Fake It, Learn It: You can fake anything for a short period of time. I’ve seen people fake “it” for years. Trust me, eventually it catches up to you. Eventually, you’ll find yourself in a situation where someone in the room, who’s smarter than you, calls you out. When that happens, you are indeed screwed.

9. Never Trade Your Reputation: If you lose everything else, you’ll be left with only your reputation. That reputation can help you get back on top quickly. A fantastic reputation will help you gain respect, earn opportunity, and maintain trust amongst those above you and those surrounding you.

8. Be Mindful of Gifts: Sometimes the lure of money can blind us. Cash, cars, bonuses, nice offices, assistants, etc. feel good, but it isn’t worth it if you sell your reputation to get those gifts.

7. Make Time to Train Your “Soldiers”: A well trained team can overcome even the most amazing odds. If we don’t make time to train and mentor those around us, above us, and below us we’ll eventually lose. Mentorship is very important and something we shouldn’t neglect.

6. The Little Things Matter: Every thing matters. The little things are often overlooked and when you have 1,000 little things that aren’t taken care of you can end up with several LARGE problems.

5. Solve Problems: Don’t look for excuses, don’t complain, don’t whine; look for solutions.  It’s easy to point out problems, but it’s a hell of a lot harder to figure out how to solve them.

4. Stay Hungry: Don’t rest on your laurels, don’t become complacent, don’t ever think you’ve finally made it. Someone is always hungrier. The minute you lose that hunger…you lose that edge; it’s really tough to get it back.

3. Make Time For Your Family: Jobs will come and go, but you’re family will always be there (for good or bad). All the spoils in the world mean nothing if you have no one to share them with. So make time to show your family how much they mean to you.

2. Get a Wingman: Everybody needs one. It’s too hard to go at it alone. Don’t look for someone who is 100% like you; it’s a recipe for failure because you’ll never get any alternative perspectives. Without an alternative perspective you might as well be talking to the mirror.

1. Keep Business and Personal Life Separate: In other words, it’s not personal, it’s just business. Don’t let your personal emotions enter the picture. Make your decisions based on the business needs, not personal. This of course means not hiring your friends, just because they’re your friends.