Paths and Consequences
Ryan Holiday is the bestselling author of Trust Me, I’m Lying, The Obstacle Is The Way, Ego Is The Enemy, and other books about marketing, culture, and the human condition. His work has been translated into thirty languages and has appeared everywhere from the Columbia Journalism Review to Fast Company. His company, Brass Check, has advised companies such as Google, TASER, and Complex, as well as Grammy Award winning musicians and some of the biggest authors in the world. He lives in Austin, Texas.
Usually your posts are dead-on, Ryan, but wow, this was ignorant.
Wow. I generally really enjoy this blog as well, but I have to agree, this post is incredibly ignorant. Everyone knows his suicide attempt directly resulted from involvement with “You, Me and Dupree” and “Night at the Museum.” Not even starring in Wes Anderson films can make up for those crimes against cinema.
Ignorant in what sense Justin??
Post was pretty dead on to me.
Heh, it makes the tagline for this movie a bit ironic, eh?
You get what you pay for indeed…
Selling your integrity generally means doing something that conflicts with your inner moral principles and sense of self. Like say if you felt prostitution was wrong but you sold your body anyways, or if you cut a deal with ruthless mobsters you knew to be bad people just to get ahead in the world.
So are you saying that in some way, acting in Drillbit Taylor, a light-hearted family movie about three high school Freshmen who hire a down on his luck soldier of fortune to protect them from a school bully, conflicts with Owen Wilson’s inner moral principles and sense of self?
I imagine that it feels soft and cool, while you float in moderate sized hottub full of money. With the exception of the occasional paper cut from one of the millions of bills surrounding you, I really can’t see a downside to selling your integrity.
If I had an opportunity to sell out for the sort of money Wilson pulls, my only moment of pause would be to consider if I could get more money out of this transaction.
I’ve never understood criticism of ‘sell out’ commercial artists, especially in the context of artists who work in Hollywood. Nobody in hollywood is all about the art, they’re about getting paid, the quesiton is just do we end up better off making art, or making shit?
The post was arrogant and obtusely concluded.
Have you ever seen a picture of yourself that you didn’t like? Or felt some shame when you caught a glimpse of yourself doing something you’d probably make fun of other people from doing?
What do you think it feels like to see that picture 8 stories tall on the side of a building? Do you think 5 million dollars would do anything to take that feeling away? They’re totally unrelated. Taking 500,000 to lose your pinky finger might be a good deal but the money isn’t going to stop it from fucking hurting as the cut it.
I must’ve missed the interview where he said he was ashamed of that one sheet.
Or, maybe it’s that you figure he and everyone else filter themselves through your weathered and weighty integrity meter, crushing their souls with its mighty girth.
Agreed, dead on. And funny.
Wilson took $10M for wedding crashers alone. Honestly for $10M, they could take the worst picture of me ever taken, draw a huge hairy cock on my face, blow that picture up to be the new outer hull of the goodyear blimp, and I’d giggle like a schoolgirl everytime I saw it.
Is it any stretch of imagination to think Owen Wilson considers himself an artist? Imagine dedicating time and effort to a project and in the end all its worth is a few cheap laughs and comments. Do you think viewers take him seriously and see his work as art? After his suicide attempt what did he change? How did he divert his course from running against the same walls? Ryan’s right, there is no mystery to this.
Look at Wilson, and look at his life. Seriously, this is not ignorant – it deals with a very important issue. It’s like Ryan said: you can’t put a price on your integrity.
Maybe I’m just different, but there is no amount of money you could give me to do something repulsive. And don’t say “you’re a liar, you would act in that movie for 10M”. Why, to what ends? Ferris said it best – no one wants to be rich. No one. People only want the freedom that being rich supposedly provide. I’m not there yet, but I am sufficiently cognizant to realize that that money would change nothing, not really.
Ryan’s point is a good one simply because of Wilson’s suicide. Is that not direct evidence that this isn’t where he wanted to be? That instead of feeling this life right now, his hollow feeling of failure that every one of us feels encroaching upon us every day won, and dominates his life? Call it resistance, whatever. He didn’t make it, he apparently lacks the fortitude to change his life, and as such he puts himself into a perpetual cycle of depression.
The difference between Wilson and the average bum on the street? Monetarily, materially, large. Spiritually, in things that matter? Nothing. They’ll both go in the ground just the same, just as I will, just as you will.
It isn’t even about Wilson looking at his work and seeing it as art or not. You think he wants to live like this? Do you truly believe, deep down, that if Owen Wilson looks inside himself, that this is the man he can become, the man he wants to become? Money is no issue to him, he’s caught in a maelstrom of self-doubt, loneliness, and a distinct hollow feeling that accompanies the knowledge that you were born for more, that you can become more. And that knowledge is breaking him.
there’s no evidence that his professional life influenced his suicide attempt. if anything, it’s likely that his success was the best thing in his life, shielding him from having to face unresolved personal issues that had plagued him his whole life.
How I interpret the actions of others speaks volumes about how I understand myself. Sometimes it even says more about me than it does about anyone else.
A study proving something we all pretty much know anyway:
http://www.physorg.com/news6991.html
I didn’t know so many of Owen Wilson’s close friends read this blog. You people have some deep insights into the motivation behind his suicide attempt.
I’m actually surprised, you lot seem so much more high minded than a run of the mill movie star. Maybe you can help him straighten out his value system. Good luck with that.
@ RyanH
That’s one heck of a cheap jibe. I had to rub my eyes and take a second look.
He’s not selling his integrity, he’s selling his dignity. Subtle linguistic difference. Selling your integrity might be more along the lines of, idk, writing a book with someone who glorifies violence, drug dealing and criminality via “Thug Life”.
It’s a lot easier to sell your integrity than your dignity, because you can rationalize anything. The only cure for your whole life being a joke is “dehydration” apparently.
I would consider your personal integrity to be the same thing, but you’re right, dignity is a better word.
Your Robert dig is misplaced, btw.
My problem with your post isn’t the post, it’s your delivery. I made fun of Owen Wilson myself, but your post gives you an air of superiority. You might even say “narcissism” (Although that word’s a little too strong).
It is obvious that you feel like you’re better than him. Are you? Possibly, but this looks more like a cheap attack on a man (who you feel is inferior) than a statement about selling your dignity (which is what I believe you were aiming for).
Exactly, Mr. Asterisk.
Also, just the other day a gate hit me in the face and I yelled, “Owen nose! Owen nose!” so, toss politically correctitis out the door.