What I realized about Blade Runner…

Recently I had dinner with a friend of mine, a very successful and accomplished entrepreneur.  He was clearly in the twister; he later said how grateful he was he didn’t do a face plant into his dinner plate that night due to the stress and exhaustion he was feeling.  I see this a lot in the entrepreneurs and small business owners I work with – a drive so strong that their super powers get used for evil instead of good, often against themselves.

This made think of  Blade Runner, and the arc of Roy.  Roy decides it’s time to meet his maker, and when asked what brought him there, Roy answers, “I want more life….”,  to which his maker replies, “The light that burns twice as bright burns for half as long – and you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy. Look at you: you’re the Prodigal Son; you’re quite a prize!”  Near the end of the film we see Roy on the rooftop about to die, and trying to reconcile the arc of his life.  He’s seen things others can only imagine, lived more life in his short years that most people do with long lifetimes, and you can see the reality of having lived this way settle in newly, producing melancholy, yet also providing peace and an end to his restlessness for good.  Restlessness that allowed him to be the Prodigal Son, restlessness there was no cure for.

As an entrepreneur, what is the thing that has you burn twice as bright?  What restlessness drives you?  Are you allowing it to drive you into the ground?  I’d love to hear your thoughts ~

“I want more life…” minutes 2:36 to 3:26; the burning brightly part is at minute 4:30 to minute 5:08:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK7DBo9Ye6Y
When he calls it quits – the reconciling of how his life has turned out, an embracing of it’s arc:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTzA_xesrL8&feature=related