We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lije Sarki a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Lije, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
I think this answer has two parts.
First, I’m a skateboarder. I’ve been doing it since I was a young teenager growing up in Michigan. Back then, we would watch skate videos and see photos in Magazines for inspiration. There was nobody really great in my town. So we sort of had to figure it out on our own. We could see the result but not the process. It was all trial and error. I remember trying to learn to kickflip. Must have taken a year. There was no YouTube. There was no trainer or teacher. Just over and over. On the rough pavement in front of my house. I’m used to failing 10,000 times before getting the trick. So it’s the same with work. Or parenting. Or whatever it is that I’m up against. Trial and error. I’ll always hire a skateboarder because you know they are gonna keep trying.
Secondly, I didn’t grow up with a lot. So I was determined at a young age to “make it”. To get out of the system I was part of. To have success. Not saying anything bad about my family or where I am from, it just wasn’t what I wanted. I was determined to do more and be more. So I’ve always had that drive. It started the same time I was doing kickflips in front of my house.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
It’s funny. When I think about how I ended up doing what I’m do it looks very much like an accident. Or something else was the guiding force. I fell into a short-lived acting career by working at a bar. And then I decided to start making movies at thirty years-old because I didn’t want to wait for someone to give me a job.
At that point I said yes to anything that came my way. I did a lot of producing for others and seemed to be good at that but every time I would get inspired and break off to make something for myself, an even bigger opportunity came out of it. I made this little anti-bully skateboarding film that ended up getting me this huge documentary job in skateboarding with a ton of my idols. My teenage self would have said “bro, you made it!”
I remember someone saying you need to make ten movies before one hits. PEANUT BUTTER FALCON was my eleventh. Since then, I’ve looked for all sorts of stuff to make and do, and strangely the good stuff that shows up at my door or in my head is stuff I wasn’t looking for. Kind of wild how that works. I just had a movie come out via Paramount called SWEET DREAMS starring Johnny Knoxville that I wrote and directed inspired by my journey getting sober and love for baseball. I’ve been producing a ton of stuff as well, all under my banner “1993”. THE LINE, starring Alex Wolff, comes out this Fall.
The most exciting thing for me has been watching my wife’s career take off. I’m a family guy. I want to spend more time with my kids and wife and travel. Being a dad is the best thing I could have ever dreamed of so I want to do more of that. I’m a workaholic so new stuff is inevitable. I just want work less and keep getting better at what I do. So, less but do better. Most of all, I wanna make cool stuff with my friends!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. Be willing to learn. Not be a know it all. Turns out I don’t know much. It’s hard work knowing everything.
2. Be kind. Have a good time and smile. Life is short. People wanna be around people that have fun.
3. Delegate. I used to micro manage everything and it is exhausting. Now I delegate everything. And let other people learn like I did. Mistakes are inevitable. Just learn from them.
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
I think having to fend for myself as such a young age helped me become self-sufficient. I learned how to manage money as a teenager, make my own meals, take public transportation, get around, and so much more. There’s a resilience that I was forced to learn by not having babysitters. I also learned a tremendous amount of responsibility by having lots of brothers and sisters to help take care of. I’m trying to instill self-sufficiency in my kids.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.onenineninethree.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fat_lije/
Image Credits
Mikey Santillan
