Nine Things I Learned From Paul Newman

Paul Newman, who died on September 26, was one of the biggest movie stars of all time, and for a teenage boy like me in the 1960s, there was nobody cooler than the star of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, and “Cool Hand Luke”. Sardonic, hip, cocky, and handsome, he personified everything that I aspired to.

I’m older now, and instead of casting aside my boyhood heroes as so many of us do, I actually admire Paul Newman even more. Not for those roles he played so many years ago, but for the way he lived his life. It turns out that the man Paul Newman was a lot more interesting than the movie star, for the lessons he taught us all in how to live a fulfilling life.
Here are the nine lessons I learned from Paul Newman’s life.

1. Work hard. In his 56 year career Paul Newman acted in 81 movies or TV episodes, directed six movies, produced ten more movies, and was even credited as a writer on one film. He also did voiceovers, soundtracks for animated movies, and innumerable political advertisements. The man never stopped working, even into his 80s.
2. Play hard. Newman had an impish sense of humor, often playing practical jokes on his friends and co-workers. He owned a Volkswagen Beetle that had a souped up engine in it, and he loved to pull up next to teenagers at traffic lights and then beat them off the line when the light turned green. The look of shock on their faces was priceless, he said.
3. Look for new challenges. Newman took up auto racing when he was in his mid-40s, at the height of his movie career. How many people do you know who would scale back a successful career to take up something as difficult and dangerous as car racing? But Paul Newman knew that the best life is one that is lived by meeting new challenges and overcoming them, not sitting back on your laurels.
4. Nobody is immune from tragedy. Newman once said that any successful person who doesn’t admit that luck played a part in their success is lying. He knew he was a lucky man, and he was grateful for it. Even with all his luck and success, however, he had tragedy. His son Scott died of an accidental drug overdose in 1978, which left him grief-stricken. Somehow, he pulled himself together and went back to work, and he was nominated for five Academy Awards and one Emmy for movies and TV work he did in the ensuing years. He also established the Scott Newman Foundation for education about drug abuse.
5. Give something back. Not content to be a movie star and race car driver, Newman started a company, Newman’s Own, to raise money for charity. The food products he sold raised $200 million for charities, including his own Hole-In-The-Wall camps for sick children. 
6. Don’t get too full of yourself. Paul Newman was a very humble person, who often downplayed his acting. He said in recent years that he couldn’t stand to watch his performances from before 1990, because they were too mechanical. People who met him always talked about his down-to-earth qualities.
7. Do what you love, and the money will follow. His father ran a sporting goods store, and Paul was expected to follow in his footsteps. However, he had a love of acting, and after his father died he sold the store and used the money to finance his acting studies. He was broke and poor for awhile in New York, but eventually he got his break. It’s a clear example that by following your heart you can also achieve financial success.
8. Don’t worry about conventional wisdom. Most movie actors live in California, so they can be near Hollywood, the center of their industry. The conventional wisdom says you have to be close to Hollywood because that’s where the producers, agents, and the studios are. Paul Newman didn’t do that – he had a permanent home in Connecticut, far away from the Hollywood scene. He liked the East Coast and simply decided that was where he wanted to raise his family, conventional wisdom be damned. And it worked for him.
9. Commitment means something. Paul Newman was married for 50 years to the same woman, Joanne Woodward. There was a time in the 1960s and 70s when he was the biggest movie star on the planet. How many stars of that stature today can stay married for 50 months, let alone 50 years? There are countless temptations, and it’s the rare star who doesn’t succumb to them. For Paul Newman, though, that was never an option. He stayed married, raised his children, enjoyed a successful career, and gave back to the world.

Those aren’t bad lessons for any of us.