Real-life resilience - Ryan Reynolds

Self-deprecation fueled his stardom and business success.

Ryan Reynolds is a Canadian actor and entrepreneur known for his quick wit, self-deprecating humour, and ability to turn setbacks into success across film, business, and pop culture. His current net worth is estimated at $350m.

He started out as a young actor in Vancouver and managed to land a few small roles in Canadian shows as a teenager. However, he soon saw acting as too much of a grind, so he quit to enroll in college. He lasted a grand total of 45 minutes into his first class before dropping out. He described it later: “I got this galactic-sized black hole in the pit of my stomach that this was the wrong place to be.”

A buddy and fellow actor encouraged him to give acting one more go, but this time it had to be a real shot. So at 19, Reynolds and his buddy drove his Jeep from Vancouver to LA with the desire to make it and zero back-up options.

Things didn’t start well with his Jeep stolen, later discovered a few blocks away with the doors and stereo stripped out. But he couldn’t afford to fix it or get a new car so he continued to drive it without the doors to get to auditions.

After plenty of rejection, he landed his break on the sitcom Two Guys and a Girl and a Pizza Place. This gave him exposure, and, over time, he took bigger risks that led to action roles, romantic leads, and eventually comic book heroes.

He was starting to define his place as a leading man.

And then he headlined Green Lantern - a big-budget superhero film expected to launch a franchise. But it flopped, big time! Critics trashed it and audiences simply didn’t show up.

Shortly afterwards, another flop. This time The Change-Up, a forgettable comedy with Jason Bateman. Back to back zingers.

These flops would likely hit the ego and mindset hard, but instead of hiding from the flops, Reynolds actually leaned into them. In interviews he would joke about Green Lantern and openly admit it had tons of flaws. He also roasted himself on talk shows.

Basically, he gave audiences the one thing Hollywood rarely offers: self-awareness with humour.

And people loved it.

He called it “mental judo”.

“…. you take that energy that is hurtful or maybe it's something that's dragging you down, and you end up creating a sort of mental judo with it. You're using its energy against it and creating something positive out of it.” - Ryan Reynolds.

It turns that audiences didn’t want a polished, untouchable star. They wanted someone real. Someone who could laugh at his mistakes. Someone who reminded them that celebrities are just people.

When we’re the joke, tell it first

That insight became his secret weapon. He got noticed for it and soon landed bigger roles and more opportunities. And when Reynolds bought Aviation Gin in 2018, he didn’t hand over marketing to a traditional agency.

Through his own agency, he created ads that mocked his fame, his past flops, and even the product itself. One ad claimed Aviation was the best gin on the planet “according to Ryan Reynolds.” He poked fun at competitors, at branding clichés, at himself.

It worked. Aviation Gin exploded and was later acquired for $610 million.

He repeated the formula with Mint Mobile. T-Mobile bought it for $1.35 billion.

And then, perhaps his boldest move of all, he bought a severely struggling Welsh soccer team with the hopes of turning the club around. This was Wrexham and he invited film-makers to come on the journey with him, offering behind the scenes access to his decisions, mistakes, learnings and, of course, his personality.

The Ryan Reynolds resilience move.

Let’s dive into how Ryan Reynolds demonstrates resilience, and how we can too.

  • He stepped back to step forward. He enrolled in college to discover it wasn’t a good fit. Sometimes it’s ok to let go of something to know that we really do want it. A small pause or a different path can help us realize that perhaps the way it was was the right way after all.

  • He got out of his comfort zone. He left the comfort of his home and went to the big world of Hollywood. This is our reminder to start without guarantees. Nothing is certain in life, but we’ll never know if we don’t try. If that idea has been in the back of our minds, we can take the first step today. One of my favourite acronyms WIN (What’s Important Now?) can help. Find the very next thing that is required and do that.

  • He refused to quit. He lived humbly, drove a beat-up Jeep, did what was necessary because he believed in a bigger reason. When we have a solid mission in mind, the ‘broken doors’ on our journey are insignificant.

  • He used the difficulty. When movies flopped, he squeezed whatever he could out of it - learnings, laughter, love (he married his co-star from The Green Lantern). We can always flip the flop. Next time something bombs (a project, a pitch, a presentation) let’s not bury it. We can lean into the loss to focus on the growth. People connect more to our recoveries than our perfections.

  • He never takes himself too seriously. A little self-deprecation never hurts. Nobody is perfect and it’s quite freeing to remember that we all make mistakes. Reynolds showed that honesty and humour builds trust. Next time we have a team meeting, we can invite discussions about the mess. We can’t change it after the fact - we may as well get something out of it, even if it’s a collective moment of laughter.

Not all of us want to be a celebrity superstar, but if we want to be happy and successful at what we do, there’s wisdom in the ideas that Ryan demonstrates.

Keep leaning in. Keep laughing.

Until next time friends, stay resilient!

PS - a friendly reminder to please add your thoughts to my survey about resilience if you have the time. Takes just 2 minutes.

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