--- product_id: 39016599 title: "To Pixar and Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History Hardcover – November 1, 2016" brand: "lawrence levy" price: "€ 62.96" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 9 url: https://www.desertcart.hr/products/39016599-to-pixar-and-beyond-my-unlikely-journey-with-steve-jobs store_origin: HR region: Croatia --- # To Pixar and Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History Hardcover – November 1, 2016 **Brand:** lawrence levy **Price:** € 62.96 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** To Pixar and Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History Hardcover – November 1, 2016 by lawrence levy - **How much does it cost?** € 62.96 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.hr](https://www.desertcart.hr/products/39016599-to-pixar-and-beyond-my-unlikely-journey-with-steve-jobs) ## Best For - lawrence levy enthusiasts ## Why This Product - Trusted lawrence levy brand quality - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Full description not available ## Images ![To Pixar and Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History Hardcover – November 1, 2016 - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61XO02UXiYL.jpg) ![To Pixar and Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History Hardcover – November 1, 2016 - Image 2](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91J7yqwDU0L.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read *by C***M on Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2024* What a fascinating journey and very well written book. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend to anyone interested in learning more about the animation world and overcoming challenges and obstacles in life. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.0 out of 5 stars What he left out is as interesting as what he wrote *by T***N on Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2016* There are few books written by ex-Chief Financial Officers. For good reason – for a general audience just how exciting can an income statement, cash flow and balance sheet be? No one will confuse this book with literature, but surprisingly Levy makes the financing journey of Pixar a really interesting and readable story.As Chief Financial Officer of Pixar, Levy stakes claim to five things he accomplished for Pixar - all of them critical to its survival and success.1. He put together the first business plan for the companya. Killing off several ancillary businesses (Renderman, TV Commercials, Video Games) and focused the company solely on full length animation filmsb. He assembled the first financial/accounting model for an animation entertainment company2. Over the objections of Steve Jobs, he got an employee stock option pool approved before the company’s Initial Public Offering3. He led the 1995 Initial Public Offering for Disney raising $140 million - a pool of capital large enough to keep the company solvent, funded its ability to finance its own movies and made Jobs a billionaire.4. He renegotiated the initial Pixar deal with Disney to one with much better terms for the company5. He was a board member approving Pixar’s sales to DisneyOften, the things authors don’t describe makes you question the veracity of the rest of the book. This book is no exception. There are two minor puzzles and two glaring omissions in the narrative.First, the minor ones:• Levy names his controller “Sarah Staff.” It was a weird enough name that made me Google it. When you do, you will find that her last name wasn’t “Staff”. But nowhere in the book does it say why he changed her name.• Given that the story stands on its own, there seems to be a lot of “look how close I was to Steve Jobs” passages. From the numerous mentions of how many walks he and Steve took together. To the “I just dropped by his house…” Yet there are fewer, “here’s how closely I worked with Ed Catmull” who at the time was his Pixar co-president. Almost of all of Levy’s mentions of Catmull were of the “we showed the plan to Ed and he approved it.” Either Ed wasn’t really involved in any of the Pixar business decisions or there’s a missing story here.The two glaring omissions from the story:• After Disney acquired Pixar in 2006 their auditors reported that Pixar had been backdating stock options since 1997. Getting caught backdating stock options was not some “oh I forgot to mention it” story, it was the dominant Silicon Valley financial story for years. Backdating investigations involved Steve Jobs, Larry Sonsini (Levy’s mentor at his old law firm) and tens of other companies. CFO’s in lots of tech companies lost lots of sleep over this for years. Executives in companies around the valley were fired, and some of them fined by the SEC (the CFO and controller of Apple included) and one went to federal prison. Levy was the Chief Financial Officer of Pixar during the alleged backdating. Did he sleep through this turmoil?• As Levy recounts, Jobs refused to give his early Pixar employees stock before the IPO. What Levy forgot to mention is that Jobs had “crammed down” his early employees so their initial stock was essentially worthless. He spends several pages telling us how hard he worked to get Steve Jobs to give all the employees pre-IPO stock. What he conveniently leaves out of the narrative is that Jobs compensated John Lassiter and Ed Catmull with generous pre-IPO grant stock of 1.6 million shares, (Guggenheim and Reeves got 1 million and 840,000 shares respectively) but others were left with almost nothing, some having worked a decade or more at the company. Oh, and one more thing. Levy who literally just showed up in the company also got a pre-IPO grant stock of 1.6 million shares. Must be great when you’re the CFO in charge of stock option grants. Not a single reference to this in the book.Overall a good a read. However, it’s clear Levy is suffering from selective memory as it appears to be not the whole story. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars A very fun, readable, educational, and enlightning book. *by C***K on Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2016* Lawrence Levy is to blame for my lack of sleep last week. This book was for me a real page turner, as Levy narrates his move to Pixar, and his involvement with Steve Jobs and the folks at Pixar to make the leap from a long struggling startup to a mega force in the entertainment world - a company that would change the world.Levy has a very readable style of writing - casual, but not in a gee whiz sort of way that is all too common for insider books like this one - from non professional writers. Levy takes us behind the scenes of how Pixar was turned from a company with great potential in to the entertainment powerhouse of our generation. I knew a little about this from watching a DVD called Pixar Short Films Vol 1, but Levy provides so much more detail, particularly with regard to Steve Jobs (and his own) personal transformation through his involvement with Pixar, from both a creative and a business standpoint.I've met Lawrence at several Juniper mediation events, but do not know him, so it was especially fun for me to read about his motivations and more recent personal transformation from hi-tech/entertainment executive to working to help found and fund the Juniper (juniperpath.org) organization. A big thumbs up for a great story and a great read. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.hr/products/39016599-to-pixar-and-beyond-my-unlikely-journey-with-steve-jobs](https://www.desertcart.hr/products/39016599-to-pixar-and-beyond-my-unlikely-journey-with-steve-jobs) --- *Product available on Desertcart Croatia* *Store origin: HR* *Last updated: 2026-04-23*