Who is Lazlo?

Lazlo is a fictional character from my favorite 80s geek movie, Real Genius. No slight toward Nerds or Honey, I shrunk the kids, or Weird Science but this hopelessly optimistic college student argues that Real Genius best captured the can-do-anything outlook of a self-proclaimed self-starter.

Back to Lazlo – this lovely gentlemen holding a stack of entries to the FritoLay's Sweepstakes is Lazlo Hollyfeld

Enter as many times as you like and Lazlo does, calculating that he WILL win 32.6% of the winnings

Portrayed by John Grier and his full head of hair, Lazlo is the school hermit who turned inward after a close encounter with greed to focus on the the purity of existence; his work. Obsession and seclusion provide him with plenty of development time to build an elaborate entrance into what is effectively, a normal basement.

Past the hidden door and the train car that travels only 5 ft, the genius himself with time-period-correct computers and line printers and mechanical contraptions, all that make a young geek gawk like anybody starring at kinetic art...

Lazlo has a good heart and that's both his super power and his weakness. As a young student, he believes the people are essentially good and doesn't hesitate to share his energy and talent with anyone who surrounds him. When Lazlo isn't in his lair, indulging in his obsessions, he walks the campus at night doing a good deed or two, all unseen to the benefactors.  

He cares just the same as he always did but now he only cares for those he feels deserve it.  

It takes two plucky kids on the brink of his own mistakes to pull him out of his lair and back into society. Poetically, his recent obsession with obtaining material wealth (freedom) coincides with his re-emergence as a leader of altruists. He drives off into the sunset in an RV with companionship and a theoretically incorrect proportion of the winnings from the FritoLay's Sweepstakes. This missed calculation signifies Lazlo's humanity.

He isn't always right and he doesn't need to be to achieve happiness.

A flash of a smile and the latent protagonist emerges just in-time to fade and not become the villain.  

Why Lazlo?

Because Lazlo has integrity. He's Hollywood liberty with the brilliance, the self-punishment that borders on martyrdom and the meteoric rise from the ashes. The seed of his character is play by the rules, do things the right way and you'll eventually be rewarded. No one reveals the heartaches that await or hurdles on path ahead. But the satisfaction isn't any sweeter when there isn't collateral damage that you have to explain to your soul.

• Be patient.
• Be persistent.
• Be humble.