“I got some business books at the library. This is not going to be that hard at all. We can totally do this. And it was, I don't know, I say often my two greatest strengths at the time were arrogance and ignorance that just drove me forward because I should have thought it through maybe a little bit more.”
How I Built This (Guy Raz) · Startups & Venture · October 2026
League on signing the lease for his first movie theater about eight days after spotting the for-lease sign. Guy Raz points out he was around 23 at the time.
Transcript
…of your language. It seems to imply some sort of thoughtful approach to decision making. It was a methodical, strategic plan. Yeah, I think the amount of time we're talking about from turning left on Baker Street and seeing that for lease sign to signing the lease, I think was about eight days.
Eight days.
Yeah. So I mean, I know I talked to Carrie immediately and was super excited about the idea. And then probably the next conversation was that we're going to do this. We're going to make this happen. I got some business books at the library. This is not going to be that hard at all. We can totally do this. And it was, I don't know, I say often like my two greatest strengths at the time were arrogance and ignorance that just drove me forward because I should have thought it through maybe a little bit more.
And I mean, I'm not criticizing you at all, but I think you were like 23 at the time. And I mean, there's a romantic idea of running a movie theater, but there's a difference between the idea and actually doing it and knowing how to do it.
Yeah.
And it had everything you needed inside. It had a screen. It had projectors. It had seats. You just had to do some dusting and it was ready to go.
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