I accidentally bought a movie studio

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Eric had already built a successful career as an entrepreneur. Then he found what seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime: a legendary movie studio.

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He was so excited, he barely did his due diligence.

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How did buying his dream studio leave him on the edge of losing everything?

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👤 Who‍

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Eric Edmeades is a renowned entrepreneur, author, and pioneer in nutritional anthropology and evolutionary biology. He founded WILDFIT, one of Mindvalley's best-selling wellness programs, which has transformed the health of over 10,000 people.

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Eric's personal journey from chronic illness to health inspired his exploration of food's impact on wellness. He also created the Business Freedom Blueprint, a program designed to help entrepreneurs achieve financial and lifestyle freedom. Awarded by the Speaker of the Canadian Senate for improving lives, Eric continues to inspire change-makers worldwide.

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What was your context before you embarked on this new fuckup?

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Eric: I was already a successful entrepreneur when I ended up accidentally buying a movie studio. They have made 200 of the most incredible movies. Pixar and Photoshop were invented over there.

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There were tons of props from the movies. The flying saucer that crashed in *Men in Black* was the umbrella of our lunchroom. I mean… I was in love with that place.

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It was so incredible, and I got so excited. So, I decided to buy it.

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The Real Fuckup

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Eric: Basically, I let my excitement control the decision.

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There was a very limited window of time to do the due diligence, and I didn't really do it very well. We've got to get the money in and pay the insurance. The unions were there, and we had to take care of it right away.

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Part of that poor diligence was that I also did very light background checks on my business partners.

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The one guy's name was Joe Sevitzki. But he told me that his name was Joe Suiki. He was one of the partners in the company I'd just put all my money into.

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I've made the classic entrepreneur mistake. After winning big in my past entrepreneurial venture, I took the money from that one and funded this entire next venture myself. I was basically gambling.

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FuN: When did you realize it was a failure?

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Eric: One day I was in a meeting with this woman called Lisa. She came up to me and said: "Hey, do you know this guy Joe Sevitzki?"

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I said, "No, but I know Joe Suiki." And she said, "I think it's the same guy."

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She told me he was at their office trying to sell them a bunch of 3D technology. I didn't know anything about that. She then showed me Joe's website.

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He turned out to be involved in oil and gas Ponzi schemes.

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He had been facing 405 years in prison, but after plea bargaining his sentence down (you know, that's how the justice system works), he got out. And now he was here, ready to scam me and everybody else.

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FuN: What was happening in your mind?

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Eric: It was one of the biggest emotional lessons of my life. I distinctly remember realizing I wasn't happy. I was living a dream in many ways, working on some of the biggest movies: blowing things up for *Cowboys & Aliens*, and doing water effects for *Pirates of the Caribbean*.

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But I wasn't happy. I was stressed every single day because we were literally on the edge of going out of business. And it went on like this for a couple of years.

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I remember at one point it looked like it was over; we were right at the edge. And I realized that I had sacrificed my happiness for this.

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FuN: What did you do differently?

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Eric: I remembered something about happiness. It isn't about what's going on out there. It is about recognizing: "Hey, I'm alive and I'm breathing and I've got friends."

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So I decided to take charge of my happiness. I decided to be happy.

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The first thing was to be truthful about how bad this would be if I lost everything.

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It was a bit of a drag. I was independently wealthy, and then I had to start all over again in my 40s. That wasn't nice.

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But I owned a place to live. I was married at the time, and my wife had a medium income that could put food on our table.

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All that was better than my instincts telling me I was going to die. Because that's what your instincts do when the business starts going down, and I realized that I actually had some cushion.

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So I decided to start doing the stuff that made me happy: going to the gym, playing tennis, and spending time with friends. Then the weirdest thing happened…

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FuN: How was the failure solved?

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Eric: We got this call, and suddenly we landed *Pirates of the Caribbean 3* and then *Elysium* and did one of the biggest model shots of explosions and ships ever. Suddenly all these deals started coming in.

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Did they come in because they were going to anyway? Or did they come in because I somehow metaphysically bent the universe and, by being happy, I attracted them?

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I don't care. I mostly believe in the objective reality of the external world.

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But what I really know is that if I had waited until those movie deals came in and found happiness then, I would have reinforced the idea that the external world controls my happiness.

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By finding my it before the deals came in, I proved to myself that happiness is an inside job.

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💡 In conclusion

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• Every business screw-up that you ever make is one of the best lessons you're ever going to get. And they are going to be why you were successful as long as you let them be that.
• Learning will not work if you are self-flagellating and victimizing yourself through the whole process. Life is always happening for you… especially when it doesn't feel that way.
• When you're an entrepreneur, one of the toughest skills to master and maintain is state management. You are not the chief executive officer; you're the chief emotions officer. You set the tone.

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