Book Review: Greenlights
Less impressed, more involved”.
I can’t describe how much this phrase has stuck with me. Matthew McConaughey describes to the reader the heartbreak he went through when he lost his father. He describes it as how for him it was the most significant rite of passage into manhood. No more safety net. No one above the law or the government looking after him anymore. He decided that night it was time for him to grow up and he explains that the following realization came to him:
“the sooner we become less impressed with our life, our accomplishments, our career, our relationships, the prospects in front of us - the sooner we become less impressed and more involved with these things - the sooner we get better at them. We must be more than just happy to be here.
“It is not about right or wrong. It is ‘do you understand?’”
He describes a few amazing trips (adventures really) that he’s taken in between filming. These trips were not just about exploring the world but exploring himself. My favorite moment is a moment he descries when visiting Africa. He describes a situation of sitting one night with his guide (Issa) and two of his friends. Issa and one of his friends (Ali) break in to an argument and it goes back and forth, passionately, for quite awhile. Matthew interjects at the first pause in their discussion and confirmed he agreed with Ali. Ali quickly explains to Matthew “it is not about right or wrong. It is ‘do you understand?’” The scenario is used to describe an African proverb of not trying to “win” arguments of right and wrong. It’s not even about right or wrong. It’s about understanding each other.
Its not about win or lose, its about do you accept the challenge”
The book is full of wild stories about situations he finds himself in. In an African village being challenged to a fight by one of the villages toughest men. Its brutal and it goes on so long its eventually deemed a draw. His guide Issa explains to Matthew that he won the minute he accept the challenge to fight. “Its not about win or lose, its about do you accept the challenge”
“Im good at what what I love - I don’t love all that I’m good at.”
“Great leaders are not always in front. They also know who to follow.”
“The arrow doesn’t seek the target, the target draws the arrow”.
I loved this phrase. Matthew used it to describe how one must be aware of what we attract in life, because it is no accident or coincidence.
“Simplify, focus, conserve to liberate.”
He gives the example of around the time him and his wife Camilla were starting a family, he also had a charitable foundation, a production company, acting, and a music label. He felt like he was making B’s in all 5 things. So he simplified and focussed, he stepped away from the production company and the music label.
At one stage in the book he describes life, like architecture, a verb. “If designed well its beautiful, it works and it needs no directions. It needs maintenance.”
The book covers a lot about choices and there are some beautiful summations like sometimes, which choice you make is not as important as making a choice and committing to it. His choice to refuse romantic comedy roles in the hopes that more varied complex roles would come his way. It perfectly describes how hard the “middle period” of difficult decisions can be. The phase where the adrenaline is gone, and the rewards have not yet been realized.
What matters? It all does.
A sneaky bonus 11th point - “It’s not a risk unless you can lose.”