A Terrible Actor Becomes A Hollywood Billionaire, A College Student Skips Final Exams, And A Football Player's 'Career In The Food Industry': Why Chasing Dumb Ideas Can Be A Smart Move

The 3-Word Quote: Follow Your Focus

1.

Like many young men and women in Hollywood, Dave wanted to become an actor.

Movies fascinated him, and he moved to the film capital hoping for his big break.

It was the early sixties, and during that time, Dave managed to appear in a few minor film roles.

Also, like many people pursuing acting dreams, he had to find a regular job to pay the bills between those sporadic acting roles.

Within a few days of searching, he landed a job as a mailroom clerk at The William Morris Agency, one of the premier companies representing actors.

The job was sorting mail, delivering letters, and shuttling memos between high-powered Hollywood agents.

Dave figured he could easily tackle these tasks. The role would also allow him to stay connected to the film industry.

He didn't love the job, but he loved movies and Hollywood.

And he was nosey.

So as he delivered the memos between offices, Dave secretly read them.

From his clandestine reading, he learned the ins and outs of the movie business. He also learned the firm's policies and the ongoing internal politics.

When a fellow actor suggested that Dave give up acting and mentioned that he might be a good agent, Dave agreed.

He thought he had learned much about being an agent from his snooping. He didn’t think it could be that difficult.

Except Dave was a mailroom clerk, and most agents were not coming from mailrooms, which was the lowest-level job in the agency.

But when he heard William Morris needed an agent, he knew he had to apply.

However, not only was he a mailroom clerk, there was another problem, too.

The agent job required a college degree.

And Dave did not have a college degree.

But somehow, Dave landed the coveted role of a talent agent in just a few short weeks.

How?

First, he lied.

Then, he stole.

And forgery helped, too.

2.

Alex was feeling the pressure.

He was a college student during final exam week.

Like most college students during this time, he was stressed.

Projects were due, and finals were rapidly approaching.

He was worried about one particular final exam the next day, and grades were especially important to him and his family.

His parents had immigrated to the United States a few years prior, and they placed college grades and a degree above everything else.

His family expected Alex to go to med school.

Alex had two choices in his family's eyes: either he would become a doctor or a failure.

Alex's grades were good, and he shared his parents' dream of becoming a doctor.

But on this particular night before his most challenging exam, he was doing what many other college students were doing - watching videos on YouTube unrelated to his class and exam.

He was watching YouTube videos about the game show The Price Is Right.

But watching these videos was no study break.

These videos were research for Alex.

And watching these Price Is Right videos that night changed his life.

3.

In 2007, Len Kretchman was inducted into The North Dakota State University Athletics Hall of Fame.

He was described in their bio as a 'speedy wide receiver.'

While a member of the Bison football team, he won three NCAA Division II championships.

His Hall of Fame bio also said he 'caught six TD passes in the NCAA playoffs.'

Kretchman was a good athlete and also competed on the North Dakota State track and field teams.

He was a good football player but not good enough to go pro.

And his athletic career and his Hall of Fame bio might be mildly interesting if you were from North Dakota or went to North Dakota State.

But the last line of Ketchman's Hall of Fame write-up is the most interesting.

It says, 'Following graduation from NDSU, made a career in the food service industry.'

'A career in the food service industry.'

Behind this line lies a product you've likely heard of and used because his career in the food service industry' resulted in a billion-dollar product.

But it almost didn't happen.

Because some thought it was a dumb idea.

The Takeaway:

So what do a failed actor, a stressed-out college student, and a North Dakota State Hall of Fame football player all have in common?

They all stepped off the well-traveled route and carved a career path that started with ill-advised decisions that some might call stupid.

But behind most stories that result in massive success, they started with one risky- or hair-brained - choice.

The three all took on the mindset of 'let's see what happens when you make something happen.'

Let's take a look.

***

In the 1960s, Dave was struggling to find acting jobs. But he did find a mailroom job at a talent agency.

But he quickly grew bored with the mailroom. He felt he had the grit, the personality, and a little movie knowledge to make him a successful agent.

But he wasn't qualified when an agent role opened up at the William Morris Agency.

Recall that he did not have the college degree required.

But Dave quickly got the job.

How?

He lied.

Dave decided that UCLA seemed like a nice college. It was in Los Angeles and had a good reputation.

So he doctored up his resume with a few taps on the typewriter.

A few minutes later, he was the proud graduate of UCLA - at least according to his fake resume.

He lied.

Knowing he was a charismatic and hard worker - and now thinking he was an alumnus of UCLA, the William Morris Agency hired him.

Dave was now a Hollywood agent. He left his acting dreams behind.

But a few weeks later, Dave heard that a recent employee had been fired because he had lied on his resume - the fired employee had lied about graduating from college.

Now Dave was panicked. He could feel his dream job slipping away.

He knew his new employer had likely written to UCLA to check to see if he had actually graduated from the institution.

He figured it was only a matter of time before the college would send back a letter to the talent agency saying Dave was certainly not a graduate.

But Dave had a plan.

He had worked in the mailroom. He knew when letters arrived and when they went out.

So he decided to scour every single piece of mail in the mailroom until he saw a letter from UCLA arrive.

A few weeks later, Dave came across the letter from UCLA. It wasn't addressed to him, but he opened it.

The UCLA correspondence let Dave's supervisors know that he had not graduated from the university.

So, the newly hired Dave took the letter and made a few 'adjustments'.

When he was finished, the UCLA letter now said that Dave was an official Bruin - he had graduated from UCLA.

Dave figured he had already lied on his resume, so what harm could stealing and forging a letter now do?

His lying and forgery did no harm at all, as it turns out.

In fact, his false resume and doctored letter launched one of the great careers in Hollywood.

Dave went on to become a high-powered agent and manager, a record producer, a movie producer, and a Broadway producer, and he even founded a movie studio.

Dave founded Asylum Records, Geffen Records, and DGC Records during his career.

But Dave didn't go by Dave. His name was David. David Geffen.

And along with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, David Geffen founded DreamWorks SKG studio.

Today, the one-time actor who couldn't get a job in Hollywood and had to lie about being a college graduate has made scores of movies and produced hundreds of records.

He is now worth billions.

And he is generous with his wealth. He gives millions to charities, especially medical charities.

In fact, he has donated so much money to one university medical school that they have named the school after him.

Today, the David Geffen School of Medicine is one of the largest med schools in Los Angeles and one of the best in the country.

And what university is home to The David Geffen School of Medicine?

UCLA - the school Geffen lied about graduating from decades ago.

***

Remember Alex?

In 2010, he was a student across town from The David Geffen School of Medicine.

He attended USC, The University of Southern California.

Alex was a freshman and worried about his finals.

But not worried enough to study.

Alex's parents wanted him to become a doctor. And while that was his dream, Alex was fostering a new one.

He thought he wanted to be a writer.

And he already had an idea for a book.

His idea was to travel across the country to interview people at the top of their fields and gather their advice about succeeding in a book.

He wanted to know what these Titans did early in their careers that led to their success.

How hard could writing a book be really, Alex wondered.

He figured he would visit these successful people, schedule an interview, and write up the results into a book.

He admits now he was a little naive at 18.

The first person he wanted to interview was Bill Gates. But Gates didn't usually do interviews - especially with a random eighteen-year-old freshman who had never published anything.

As Alex said in an interview, he was a little naive.

His idea wasn't even incredibly unique - similar books existed.

But his grit and determination were unique.

He was going to make his book come to life.

How?

Well, that is why he was watching The Price is Right videos on YouTube the night before his most difficult final exam

Why?

Because he knew he needed money to travel and interview people for his book project.

And he had a plan.

And most considered his plan stupid and ill-advised.

Alex figured he would figure out how to become a contestant on The Price is Right. He then hoped to win a spot on the show and the showcase showdown and use the winnings from the game show to fund his travel and book project.

If you were Alex's friend, you would have told him to stop watching YouTube and start studying. You likely would have laughed at his plan after calling his idea dumb.

However, Alex ignored others and followed through with his plan.

Deep in the Google search pages, he found a video describing how to hack the Price Is Right to become a contestant.

Alex watched this, memorized its advice about what to do, and put it into action.

The show was filmed in LA, and he was a student there.

So the next day, he skipped his important final and found an undercover producer at the taping who selected him to become a contestant.

He was then selected as a contestant and found himself in the showcase showdown at the end of the show - where he won the grand prize.

The grand prize in that episode was a sailboat, which he then sold a few weeks later.

He used the sailboat money to fund his book dream - his plan had worked.

It's an unlikely and true story.

Years later, he did interview Bill Gates and dozens of other successful people.

Alex Banayan's book The Third Door: The Mindset of Success was published years after his Price Is Right appearance.

It is a slightly different book than he imagined.

Much of his entertaining book details the story of his success- success mainly because he decided to ignore others' advice and follow a 'stupid idea.'

***

Len Kretchman's North Dakota State Hall of Fame bio described his post-football career as one in the 'food service industry.'

And this is true.

Kretchman did have a career in this industry.

The most crucial day in his 'food service industry' career came on a summer day in 1995.

He and a friend, Dave Geske, were hanging out with their kids.

It was lunchtime, and the kids were hungry. The dads decided a couple of sandwiches would be in order.

The dads grabbed some bread and whipped up some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for their kids.

But like many young kids, they didn't want the crust on the sandwiches.

So the two dads sliced the crust off - a commonplace activity that has probably occurred in houses for decades.

But Geske and Kretchman were in the ice and food business. And while the adults watched their kids scarf down the sandwiches, the men's wives, Kristen and Emily, had an idea.

The wives hollered, 'You guys should make a sandwich with no crust.'

But they were not suggesting the men make more sandwiches for the kids. They were suggesting a product for the men to work on in their business.

At first, the idea seemed 'stupid.'

Parents already cut off the crust of the bread on sandwiches. Why would anyone buy a sandwich with the crust already cut off?

The product idea seemed dumb.

But Kretchman and Geske decided maybe this idea wasn't as dumb as others thought.

They took this 'dumb' idea and went to work.

In a short time, the two men were 'mass producing pre-baked, crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for schools.'

They 'crimped' the crusts so the filling stayed in between the bread.

A friend's son named their sandwich the 'Incredible Uncrustable.'

The 'Incredible Uncrustable' became a local hit in area schools, and the men secured a patent for their crustless sandwich.

And when a retired Smuckers executive's wife saw the product, Kretchman and Geske's lives would change.

Smuckers, a food company, also knew a hit when they saw one - the company wrote the dads a $1 million dollar check.

And Smuckers renamed the product.

They called it Uncrustables.

The PB and J sandwich without crust was a massive national hit.

One source said net sales for the sandwich were over $800 million in 2023.

That's a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Uncrustables have become a staple in kids' lunches, and pro athletes have jumped on the bandwagon.

It is estimated that most NFL teams eat over 3,000 Uncrustables every week. A Spokesman article estimates the league eats close to 800,000 of the sandwiches every year.

Not bad for a 'dumb' idea.

***

But stories like this often involve lots of luck, too.

Sometimes, ideas and businesses don't work out.

Often, passion and persistence aren't enough to make something successful.

But when you hear and read 'success' stories like these, they often start with one thing - the bravery to take a chance.

And sometimes that courage means taking a risk and following a path others might call 'stupid' or 'dumb.'

But it is rarely a bad idea to see what happens by trying to make something happen.

3 things before you go:

1. listen: Pocket Berries- a duo from Bloomington, IN; a mellow and acoustic and catchy song with a touch of harmonica; and…friends of my daughters

2. listen: Twin Forks- Scraping Off the Pieces: ran across the song by chance; upbeat

3. listen: Avett brothers- Orion’s Belt - always quirky

Thanks for reading. Please feel free to share with 3 people - thanks.

-Jeff