I was sad to hear of the death of Robert Duval, a great actor and, in an odd way, one of my inspirations as an entrepreneur.
One of his most famous roles was Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore in Apocalypse Now, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. In the original 147-minute theatrical cut, Kilgore occupies barely eleven minutes of screen time. Yet those eleven minutes dominate the film. They are among the most quoted in cinema history, particularly the line: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”
What struck me from the first viewing – and I must have watched the film a few dozen times – was Kilgore’s refusal to flinch under pressure. He lands on a beach under artillery fire. Shells explode, soldiers dive for cover but Kilgore walks through the chaos, barking instructions, organising surfing, calling in an air strike, and operating as if the surrounding chaos is just background noise. It’s not stupidity or bravado, but focus.
That ability to calmly focus in the midst of chaos is one of an entrepreneur’s superpowers. There is no point in diving for cover as soon as a shell lands, it’s already too late. The skill lies in identifying the source of the problem and acting deliberately rather than reactively.
I can think of a few commercial situations where calling in an air strike would have been emotionally satisfying. In reality, deleting the angry email and concentrating on the fix is usually the better move.
The alternative is the slow drift into the interior darkness embodied by Colonel Kurtz – losing perspective and mistaking intensity for control.
Kilgore holds the line. That is the lesson.