Lessons - The Abundance Mindset That Changes Everything | Saul Blinkoff - Disney Animator

Summary

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Success Story with Scott D. Clary: "Lessons – The Abundance Mindset That Changes Everything"

Guest: Saul Blinkoff (Disney & DreamWorks Animator)
Episode Date: December 22, 2025

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Episode Overview

This special "Lessons" episode of the Success Story podcast, hosted by Scott D. Clary, delves into the evolution of success and leadership beyond personal achievement. Renowned animator Saul Blinkoff (Disney/DreamWorks) shares how reaching his career dreams forced him to re-examine what fulfillment truly means. Together, they explore the transformative power of responsibility, adopting an abundance (giving) mindset, and how awareness of mortality sharpens our values and impact.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Redefining Success After Achieving Your Dream

• Saul’s Disney Journey:

  • Saul shares his early career at Disney, working on "Pocahontas," "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," and four years on "Mulan."
  • Despite living his dream (“actually living the dream” – [02:17] Scott), something still felt missing.

• The Awakening:

  • During a period of “downtime” at Disney, Saul recounts how he had the chance to reflect away from work, leading to a pivotal trip to Israel to learn about his Jewish identity.
  • In Israel, he grappled with a bigger question: "What makes us unique, and what are our responsibilities once we achieve what we once desired?" ([02:20]-[03:53])

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2. Responsibility and Service as Fulfillment

• From Getting to Giving:

  • Saul explains: “I always saw my life as like, if I get to Disney, I’ll be happy… But something felt like it was missing… What changed? It was really that one word. Responsibility.” ([02:20]-[03:20])
  • He criticizes the commonly used “abundance” buzzword as a self-centered pursuit of “more,” and instead stresses the importance of serving others ([03:39]-[04:05]).

• Values in Creative Work:

  • Saul now turns down projects not aligned with his values and focuses on work with a positive impact (e.g., producing "Doc McStuffins," which helped children feel comfortable going to the doctor – [05:41]-[06:05]).
  • “Now, I didn’t just see myself as a filmmaker making whatever movies. It was like, well, what are the values that I’m putting in the projects that I work on?” ([05:03])

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3. Rethinking Abundance – A Mindset of Service

• Challenging the Typical Notion:
  • Saul: “You hear [abundance] all the time now, don’t you?...You can have more. Of what?...Is that what life is about?” ([03:39])
• Scott’s Definition:
  • Scott reframes abundance as “a mindset of giving as much as you can...there’ll always be more” ([04:18]-[04:29]), suggesting abundance is truly about generosity, not accumulation.
  • Saul: “I love that. Well, I wish I had your definition back when I was starting, because I needed that.” ([05:03])

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4. Mortality and the Clarity of Values

• The Jewish Lesson – Why Choose a Funeral:

  • Saul recounts a Jewish teaching: “If you have to choose to go to a wedding or a funeral, choose the funeral,” because funerals prompt us to reflect on our limited time and what truly matters ([06:05]-[07:40]).
  • “When you go to a funeral, every single one of us stands there, and for at least a moment, we have a realization that someday that’s going to be me...” ([06:05])
  • Saul emphasizes that this clarity shifts us towards urgency and purpose.

• Stoicism and the Reminder of Death:

  • Scott introduces Stoicism’s “memento mori” concept ([07:40]-[08:34]):
    • “There was somebody in the chariot that would always be whispering in the general’s ear like you’re human, you’re going to die. To make sure they didn’t think they were gods.”

• Steve Jobs’ Wisdom:

  • Saul references Steve Jobs’ Stanford speech:
    • “One of the greatest gifts to humanity is having the awareness that one day we’re gonna die...that should give us the clarity that we need to not wait.” ([10:51]-[11:06])

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5. Legacy and the Ability to Respond

• Personal Legacy Over Public Achievement:
  • Saul recounts interviewing George Foreman and asking about legacy ([12:08]-[13:47]). Foreman replied,
    • “There’s one thing I want people to remember about me...That I loved humanity. That I loved human beings. That when I walked down the street, I had the mindset that I wanted to smile at a person and make their day just a little bit better.” ([12:08])
  • Saul reflects: “Responsibility is really the ability to respond. Response-ability is the ability to respond. And wherever in life we have the ability to respond, we should. We’re responsible.” ([13:36])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Living the Dream:

  • Scott: “Living the dream. Living the dream, actually living the dream.” ([02:17])

• On the Realization of Responsibility:

  • Saul: “I always saw my life as like, if I get to Disney, I’ll be happy...but something felt like it was missing...What changed? It was really that one word. Responsibility.” ([03:20])

• On the Abundance Mindset:

  • Saul: “You hear [abundance] all the time now, don’t you?... You can have more. Of what?...Is that what life is about?” ([03:39])
  • Scott: “It's a mindset of giving as much as you can…there’ll always be more.” ([04:29])

• On Mortality and Urgency:

  • Saul: “When you go to a funeral, every single one of us stands there, and for at least a moment, we have a realization that someday that’s going to be me… What am I waiting for? What else do I want to accomplish?” ([06:05]-[07:40])
  • Scott (on Stoicism): “There was somebody in the chariot that would always be whispering in the general’s ear like you’re human, you’re going to die.” ([08:34])

• On Legacy:

  • George Foreman (as retold by Saul): “There’s one thing I want people to remember about me...That I loved humanity. That I loved human beings.” ([12:08])
  • Saul: “Responsibility is really the ability to respond...wherever in life we have the ability to respond, we should. We’re responsible.” ([13:36])

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Key Timestamps

• [01:51] Saul starts recounting Disney “downtime” and reflection
• [02:20] Realization of “missing” piece after achieving dream; importance of responsibility
• [03:39] Critiquing popular abundance narratives
• [04:18] Scott redefines abundance as generosity
• [05:03] Saul: using creative work to serve, not just create
• [06:05] Jewish wisdom: funerals as moments of clarity; mortality brings urgency
• [07:40] Introduction to Stoicism and memento mori
• [10:51] Steve Jobs’ philosophy on mortality and life’s urgency
• [12:08] George Foreman’s legacy: love for humanity
• [13:36] The true meaning of responsibility: ability to respond

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Tone & Style

The conversation is reflective, honest, and inspiring, mixing humor (Disney anecdotes, playful banter about age and millennial references) with deep philosophical exploration about meaning, mortality, legacy, and what it means to truly live an “abundant” life.

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Summary Takeaway

True abundance isn’t about accumulating more, but giving more. Success is redefined not by what you achieve, but by how you use your talents and time to serve others – especially in the face of life’s impermanence.

Transcript

[Scott]

In this Lessons episode, explore how true.

[Podcast Host]

Leadership begins after achieving success and shifts focus from personal wins to lasting impact. Discover why responsibility and service redefine fulfillment beyond career milestones. Understand how awareness of mortality brings clarity to values and decision making. And uncover how using creative work to help others creates meaning that outlives achievement.

[Scott]

When did you start to think like that? Because this is Leadership Lessons. It transcends growth, it transcends accomplishment. There's many people that are highly successful that don't think that way, and I. We're aligned with everything that you're saying, but you achieved what you wanted to achieve, and you could have just killed it at Disney and never really taken a second thought as to what you wanted to accomplish here in life outside of that.

[Saul]

Yeah, you know, it's. So you ask it beautifully. I mean, I was at Disney. I got my dream. I had worked on Pocahontas, which is the first movie I worked on. And I worked on the Hunchback of Notre Dame and then Mulan for four years. I worked on Milan. Remember that one?

[Scott]

Of course.

[Saul]

Let's get down to business. Right? To defeat. Some people are singing in their cars. The Huns.

[Podcast Outro Host]

Right.

[Saul]

Some people never heard the song. So after Mulan, before I went on the movie Tarzan, we had at Disney, what's called downtime. Basically, they were figuring out the script on the movie Tarzan for like a year. So the animators would come into work with nothing to do. And they said, you know what? We're gonna pay you, but you don't have to come into work at all. This is amazing. Like I said, it's called downtime. I always tell my kids, if anyone ever offers you a job and they say, we have downtime. Take the job. Take it. You're getting paid to do nothing. And you know what downtime is in Disney World? You ride roller coasters all day. It's Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain. Woo. Right. I became quite the mountaineer in Disney.

[Podcast Host]

Disney World.

[Scott]

Right.

[Saul]

And downtime went to six months. They said, you don't even have to come in. So me and my buddies would go to the pools at the Disney hotels. There's over 15 hotels in Disney World. And they had one of those lazy rivers at the Beach Club Hotel. I love those. You know, you don't even have to be alive. And you can swim, right?

[Scott]

And it moves you. Moves you for you, right?

[Saul]

Yeah. I got a cold pina colada in my hand. I remember my brother was in law school, freezing. He's like, saul, what are you up to? These days I'm like, jay, you don't want to know.

[Scott]

Living the dream. Living the dream, actually living the dream.

[Saul]

Yeah, I really was. And I had a checklist of every single thing I ever could have wanted. You know what if you could make a list and check off every single thing you want. I had my dream job. I had this incredible girlfriend who I later married. Right. My friends, I'm living in happiest place. I had everything. But something felt like it was missing. And, you know, I grew up. I'm Jewish and I grew up not so religious. My parents definitely had a love of Judaism and a love of connecting to Judaism. But as an individual who is now an adult, I didn't really understand my own Jewish identity. So I got out of the pool one day and I found myself in Israel on a program to learn about Jewish history and my place within the Jewish people. And when I went on that trip in Israel, I started learning about tapping into what makes us unique. And really, like you asked, what changed? It was really that one word. Responsibility. I never, I really never. I always saw my life as like, if I get to Disney, I'll be happy. Then I can make money and I get my name in a movie. I can buy a sports car. And this is. I can get more what I want. You know, there's a big buzzword you hear right now in a lot of people's podcasts, a lot of motivational speakers. They're going to use this word. I think it's a turn off word. I don't like it. I hope I don't offend anybody. The word is abundant.

[Podcast Host]

Abundance.

[Saul]

You hear it all the time now, don't you? It is. Everyone talks about it like, oh, if you do this, you'll have more abundance. You know what abundance means? It means the word more. If you listen to my seminar, you can have more. Of what? Of whatever it is you want. Is that what life is about?

[Scott]

Funny, I've actually heard it in a different context.

[Saul]

Tell me.

[Scott]

So I've heard it in the context you want to live. A mindset of abundance where everything you, you have is meant. Everything you achieve is meant to give to others. Oh, so your mindset is towards giving everything?

[Saul]

I think that's the right mindset for it.

[Scott]

I've never. So I would say that that the way you just define it is. That's a horrible right representation of hearing it.

[Saul]

But I like the way you're saying it. Interesting because you're saying it's.

[Scott]

It's a mindset of giving as much as you can. Like. Like there's so much in the world.

[Podcast Host]

Right.

[Scott]

That even if you make a million bucks or 10 million bucks or 100 million bucks, like, give it as much as you can, there'll always be more beautiful. That's the way that I've heard it.

[Podcast Host]

Okay.

[Saul]

I mean, to what you just said.

[Scott]

Yeah, that's awesome.

[Saul]

Yeah, love it.

[Scott]

That's. That's how I've heard it described. You want to live a mindset of abundance. Like, there's so much. Like, for example, if, you know, if you're in, I don't know, say you're in business with somebody and you have to be ethical and you're gonna lose a deal, you lose that deal because there's so much more out there that you shouldn't be worried about compromising who you are as a person.

[Saul]

There's more.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Scott]

There's a place.

[Saul]

You have other opportunities.

[Scott]

Yes, but not personal. Abundance. Just like the world is infinite. There's so much of everything that's a different form of abundance. Beautiful abundance.

[Saul]

I love that. Well, I wish I had your definition back when I was starting, because I needed that. Well, that's what Israel gave me. They gave me that kind of understanding. More in line with exactly what you said, Scott. More about the idea of. Of the other people, of how do you serve other people? And by the way, that changed everything in my life because now I didn't just see myself as a filmmaker making whatever movies. It was like, well, what are the values that I'm putting in the projects that I work on? And I've turned down projects from studios that I don't think are in line with the values of what I want to do. Like right now, today, I'm a supervising producer at DreamWorks Animation. And I look back at the projects that I've done. You know, I got to direct a show called Doc McStuffins. I don't know if you know the show.

[Podcast Host]

I don't know that.

[Saul]

Ok, so this was only the number one preschool show in the world. That's fine. But it was about eight years ago.

[Scott]

I am older.

[Saul]

You are older.

[Scott]

I'm not that young. Right.

[Saul]

But like this show, which is an incredible show created by Chris Knee, incredible show creator, this show made a huge impact because it's a show about a little girl who's a doctor to her toys. And because of this show, it had the goal of letting kids know that they can be comfortable when they go to the doctor's office. And how many people have come up to me over the years and said, I'm so grateful that you made this show because it shows kids it's okay to go to the doctors. It really made an impact. And now, as a filmmaker, I try to use my love of being a filmmaker to make stories and tell stories that I think are going to impact others and to make a difference. And that's really how I look at my life now, you know, because someday I hope this doesn't sound morbid, but the reality is someday we're all going to die. Like, we're all going to be in the ground. That's a fact. It's true. You know, in Judaism, there's an idea, it says, if you have to choose to go to a wedding or a funeral, choose the funeral. And some people hearing that are like, are you crazy? Like, why would you do that? Go to a wedding. You get to dress up, eat the sushi buffet, celebrate, give a cheers, drink champagne, sing, dance beautiful, eat steak. That's what you want to do. Who wants to go to a funeral? But you see, when you go to a wedding, do you have a glorious time and it's wonderful. Yeah. And you give the bride and groom all this great pleasure. Sure. But when you go to a funeral, every single one of us stands there, and for at least a moment, we have a realization that someday that's going to be me, that I'm going to be in the ground. And when we leave a funeral, hopefully we have the mindset of thinking, you know what? I'm on limited time. What am I waiting for? What else do I want to accomplish? And that's what we have to ask ourselves. What are we waiting for?

[Scott]

Have you ever heard the concept of stoicism?

[Saul]

No, what is that?

[Scott]

That's the concept of stoicism. It's being very cognizant of your own mortality.

[Podcast Host]

Yeah.

[Scott]

I think it goes back to Roman. Roman philosophers. I could be misquoting because I don't have a computer to fact check, but one of the concepts of stoicism is always be cognizant that one day you're not going to be around anymore. And always to humble yourself to that fact so you can accomplish as much as you can. To the point where I think there was this. This is a story that I've heard through a friend of a friend. So excuse me if it's not 100% factually accurate, but the story is when people, when. When generals would come back from war and cities were celebrating them and whatnot, they were in chariots and they were going through the city and people there was like a big parade, right? Because they just were successful in their conquest of whatever part of the world they conquested. And they would have somebody in the chariot that would always be whispering in the general's ear like you' human, you're going to die. To make sure they didn't think they were gods.

[Saul]

Wow.

[Scott]

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[Scott]

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[Scott]

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[Scott]

So that was something. That was.

[Saul]

That's awesome. You know, Steve Jobs, I think, said a quote about that. He was at the Stanford University address he was giving.

[Scott]

I know this. I know that. I've seen this clip.

[Saul]

See this clip, right? It says, like, one of the greatest gifts to humanity is having the awareness that one day we're gonna die and that that should give us the understanding, the clarity that we need to not wait. You know, we don't have the rest of our lives. We don't know what tomorrow is going to bring. And that's why when you go to a funeral, you leave that funeral with more clarity of what's important in life and what. What matters in life. And that's the kind of clarity that I try to put into everything. And I do. And I know that someday my kids are going to see my name scrolled out on a gravestone. The same name that's been in the credits of Mulan and Tarzan and all these big Disney movies. But who cares about those? Because my kids are going to want to know, you know, did my dad try to become a better person? Did he try and live the values that he talks about? Did he try to become a better human being? Because at the end of the day, I really think that's what life's about. How do we grow? You know, I had on my podcast, George Foreman, the boxer, Heavyweight champ. You probably think he's from the Grill. You don't even know.

[Scott]

I do know he's a boxer.

[Podcast Host]

Okay, Right.

[Scott]

But I know him from the Grill.

[Saul]

From the Grill more.

[Scott]

Yeah.

[Saul]

You know, all right. You're that generation, right? So. Right. He was a heavyweight champion of the world twice with a 20 year interval, by the way. I didn't know that he was heavyweight champion world at 20 years old. And then 20 years, goes into retirement after he Muhammad and at 40, does it again. It was a laughing stock that he was even trying. He does it again. He made for the Foreman Grill his first year on that grill. $138 million. The guy is doing okay. He was a gold medal Olympian. That's incredible. Gold medal Olympian, heavyweight boxer, Fortune 500, the Grill. He's on a TV show. I mean, he's done everything. And I asked him one question, George, what's the legacy you want to leave your kids? How do you want the world to remember you. What's your legacy? He didn't mention anything about money. He didn't mention anything about grill or boxing. He says, there's one thing I want people to remember about me. And you know what it is? That I loved humanity. That I loved human beings. That when I walked down the street, I had the mindset that I wanted to smile at a person and make their day just a little bit better. You know, I said earlier about the word responsibility. I heard a beautiful thing about that word once. It says responsibility is really the ability to respond. Response ability is the ability to respond. And wherever in life we have the ability to respond, we should. We're responsible. How can we make a difference in another person's life? Because when we do that, we get that real pixie dust. We get that life of meaning.

[Podcast Outro Host]

Thanks for tuning in. If you found this valuable, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And if you want to dive deeper into this conversation, check out the links in the description to watch the full episode. See you in the next one.