7 Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks' long and varied career—actor, producer, writer, director and app developer—makes him among Hollywood’s elite, and he’s done it while maintaining a reputation as the nicest guy in Tinseltown.

His likability and ambition were apparent from the start. When he was just an 18-year-old kid, he wrote a letter to acclaimed director George Roy Hill that outlined all the ways Hill could ‘discover’ him as a star. The letter exemplifies the entrepreneurial tenets we often talk about on this site: Hanks took a risk, saw an opportunity to network and had a clear vision of what he wanted.