The perks of making eye contact

For Brian Grazer, the Oscar winner behind movies such as Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind, a major reason for his success is his ability to connect deeply with other people. “Human connection is my antidote to living a life that would have been more defined by my learning disability,” writes the spiky-haired director in his new book, Face To Face: The Art Of Human Connection, which includes his interactions with people like Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Eminem, Prince and the Afghani rapper activist Sonita. In Face to Face, Grazer, who co-founded Imagine Entertainment with Ron Howard in 1986, offers the several benefits of getting people to open up with one another, starting with basic eye contact. I find it especially true in business, where people can be more interested in ‘getting ahead’ and ‘getting it done’ than getting to know one another—what motivates someone else, what they care about,” he writes.