Lessons Learned from Pelé, Barbara Walters, and the Dumbest Thing I Ever Did on a Production

“Pelé changed everything.”
—Brazilian soccer great Neymar

Back in 2007 I was working as a cameraman on a shoot in Brazil when I did the dumbest thing I ever did on a production. We flew into São Paulo which I knew was Pelé territory. The soccor great was one of those rare athletes who reached global icon status. The top of the short list over my lifetime is Ali, Tiger, Michael Jordan, and Pelé.

We were told that São Paulo was not the safest place in the world at the time. In fact, just before we arrived there had been a murder at the ranch where we were supposed to stay. We had a security guy with us most of the time. He told us what it took to provide security for the band U2 and the Pope who were both in Brazil in 2006/2007. In short, let me just say there is a reason the Travel Channel has an article titled How to Stay Safe in Rio.

But one night in Rio de Janeiro, I dropped my common sense when I saw a street vender selling a Pelé jersey I just had to have. I was told it was $10 which seemed like a deal. This is where I made a tactical error and reached in my pocket and pulled out a small stack of Brazilian bills (reais). Later someone on the production crew said every mugger within five miles turned their head to look at me. The good news is it was an uneventful transaction and I still have that Pelé 15 years later.

I remembered that shirt after I learned that Pelé died recently. Much has been said and written about the Pelé winning three FIFA World Cups with the Brazil National Football Team, being the key figure for populaizing soccer in the United States, and in 1999 being named The World’s Best Man Player of the Century.

But the lesson I’m going to pass on from Pelé is a pure rags to riches story. Growing up in poverty Pelé could not afford a soccer ball or soccer shoes so he played the game barefoot with a sock stuffed with rags for a ball. Years later in 1970, Puma paid him $120,000 to simply tie his shoes at the World Cup. While he made millions playing soccer, he made tens of millions in endorsement and advertisements deals long after his career was over. His net worth at the end was estimated to be around $100 million.

The lesson there is the ole, do what you can, where you are, with what you have.

Barbara Walters died the day after Pelé died. Over the years I read many stories of the uphill battle she faced as a female journalist in the 1950s. She started her career in broadcasting doing publicity and writing press releases for WNBT-TV in New York City. But the time her career slowed down she’d interviewed Fidel Castro, Margaret Thatcher, Michael Jackson, Sir Laurence Olivier, Jimmy Carter, and the list goes on and on.

Many years ago someone recommended the book she wrote titled How to talk with practically anybody about practically anything. I picked up a used copy and found it a very useful book. Still have it to this day. I’ve applied many of her principles over the last 20 years. In the book she tells the story about when she had lunch with Aristotle Onassis who at the time was one of the riches men in the world. She was hoping to convince him to do a TV interview with her. At the lunch she first she found him to be intimidating and uncooperative. Then she asked him a question that caught his attention:

“Tell me Mr. Onassis, you’re so successful—not just in shipping and airlines, but in other industries too—I wonder, how did you begin? What was your very first job?

“It was like saying the secret word on the old Groucho Marx show, the one that brought down the floppy duck. Onassis clearly was delighted with the question and immediatley became very animated. He told me that he was born in Turkey but emigrated alone to Argentina after his father was jailed during the persecution of the Greeks by the Turks. In Argentina, young Onassis worked as a dishwasher, a construction worker, and finally as a cigarette salesman, which ultimately led to his first big fortune. He seemed touchingly proud that his beginnings had been so lonely and difficult.”

And he agreed to do an interview—on his yacht.

Walter’s made a career out of asking questions that were then seen as a little off beat in traditional journalist. But I’ve found asking most people something about their hometown and/or the equivalent of their first job are great ice breakers.

Scott W. Smith is the author of Screenwriting with Brass Knuckles