Steven Spielberg: A Biography

Joseph McBride's comprehensive biography of Steven Spielberg, covering his life from a suburban Arizona childhood through his reign as the most commercially successful filmmaker in history. Spielberg was an autodidact who essentially used Universal Studios as his film school, refusing to work his way up — his first directing job was a professional feature. The book captures a creator whose defining insight was that he was the audience, and who built fantastical worlds because he was disappointed with the real one.

David Senra built Founders episode #209 around McBride's biography, pulling Spielberg's defining statements. "Spielberg once defined his approach to filmmaking by declaring, 'I am the audience,'" Senra notes — the ultimate customer-obsession insight applied to a creative medium. Senra highlights the story of Spielberg telling his father at twelve that he would direct his first picture: "He said, 'I want to be a director.' And I said, 'Well, if you want to be a director, you've gotta start at the bottom...' He said, 'No, Dad. The first picture I do, I'm going to be a director.' And he was. That blew my mind. That takes guts." Senra's favorite line: "He was disappointed in the world, so he built one of his own." The lesson: a founder's refusal to accept existing constraints is the engine of category creation.