One small proviso: the advantages of keeping your distance will come only if your hunches are as good as Mr Buffett's, your software as dominant as Mr Gates's or your films as popular as Mr Lucas's.

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When people from the Lucas Films picked it up, they put me into the director's chair.

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But even Pollack admits that Lucas' work should in no way be compared to the films that play at festivals like Robert Redford's indie mecca Sundance.

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