Tribute To Robert Redford

By David E. Shaw

It is an honor to join in celebrating the remarkable life of Robert Redford. With his passing at the age of 89, the world lost far more than a gifted actor. We lost a director of rare vision, an environmental activist and defender of human dignity, a passionate believer in the power of storytelling, and a trailblazer who transformed the movie industry through the Sundance Institute.

A short tribute video can be viewed here:

For me, the loss is also personal. I am grateful for the friendship we shared, forged in part through our mutual experiences in entrepreneurship, skiing, independent filmmaking, and other passions.  We shared interests in bringing about important change to benefit society via impact media, modern science, stewardship of nature, responsible capitalism, improved healthcare and other realms. 

In a 2002 article, Turning an industry inside out: A conversation with Robert Redford, referring to Redford’s 1987 Harvard Business Review article, Redford speaks candidly about the struggle of driving transformation from the outside. His wisdom was enduring: “A better way to change a system is to work through it as a bottom-up insider…. The best example of a change agent that I can think of is the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs hold inside knowledge about the way industries work, yet they’re not beholden to large corporate interests. In a way, when you’re building an entrepreneurial organization, you’re talking to yourself. You want to find and build a category of enterprise that you can live in. You have a higher purpose in mind.”

That was Robert Redford. Always with a higher purpose in mind.  Congratulations for an enduring legacy via a life well lived,  with courage, imagination, and IMPACT.