Taxi Driver

It’s 1975.

Film director Martin Scorcese is working on a new film.

“Suffering from insomnia, disturbed loner Travis Bickle takes a job as a New York City cabbie, haunting the streets nightly, growing increasingly detached from reality as he dreams of cleaning up the filthy city…”

You’ve guessed it, it’s “Taxi Driver.”

At first, Scorcese offers the role of Travis to Dustin Hoffman, but he refuses it, stating that the film director is “crazy.”

He then turns his attention to Robert De Niro, who gladly accepts. There was only one small problem: they had a tight budget of $1.9M. The pressure was on to make the most out of this film which required the actors to over-deliver in their roles.

Robert De Niro took this challenge to heart, even though he was filming another movie in Rome, Italy.

• He would take a plane to NYC every Friday to drive a taxi all weekend.
• He would also listen to a taped reading of the diaries of criminal Arthur Bremer (who tried to kill a US Democratic candidate, which is a similar plot to the movie).

All of this made him lose a reported 16kg!

The result?

Well, I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie, but it’s fantastic.

A work of art.

A dark masterpiece.

Rotten Tomatoes agrees: “A must-see film for movie lovers, this Martin Scorsese masterpiece is as hard-hitting as it is compelling, with Robert De Niro at his best.”

De Niro chose to become a taxi driver instead of just pretending to be one, even if it meant traveling 6,886 km back and forth every weekend for the privilege. He went above and beyond. His tacit knowledge of what it meant to be Travis Bickle helped to deliver a stunning acting performance.

If just like Scorcese and De Niro, you need to deliver results with a tight budget, it might be a good idea to become your customers, even if you think you know them well enough.

Ask yourself:

• How can you experience what they experience?
• How can you see things from their perspective?
• Can you follow your customers around while they’re going about their day?
• Can you use the products they use?

That’s how you stand the f*ck out.

Louis
Πηγή: ckarchive.com