4 Valuable Business Lessons From 4 Movies

Last Updated: May 12, 2016

Thinking of staying indoors and escaping the sizzling summer heat? We’ve got the perfect way for you to maximize your time — a collection of four uplifting movies that will teach you valuable life lessons and help you to become a better entrepreneur. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the shows — the inspiration you’ll get from these masterpieces could lead you to your next big business breakout!

Jerry McGuire (1996)

After giving a memo he wrote in the midst of a panic attack to everyone in his company, sports agent Jerry Maguire was fired. The memo was about how present sports agents (including himself) are all about making money and disregarding the relationships they had with their clients. On the way to making a grand exit, Jerry called out to everyone that anyone who believed in what he wrote should follow him out the door. By following his beliefs, Jerry faced hardships and valuable lessons he had never experienced before, putting him on a path of self-discovery which ultimately led to success in both business and his personal life.

Message: It is not the volume of people who come in to your shop or avail of your service but it is about retaining your customers. Personal relationships are the key to a successful business and there are many ways to show that connection. Show them how much you appreciate their support by engaging in a two way conversation either physically or through social media or launch promotions that provide value to your customers.

Famous Quote: "If the heart is empty, the head does not matter."

Moneyball (2011)

Winning in Major League Baseball was general manager Billy Beane’s goal for his Oakland team. Like any professional sports league, a winning team requires players who are talented and usually very expensive. Beane, however, was forced to work with one of the lowest budgets in the league. The movie, based on a true story, tells how Beane reinvented the conventional system of baseball team construction by choosing undervalued players based on pure statistical analysis.

Message: This is a movie that inspires us to think differently. Start-ups are never a breeze and usually bound by constraints. There will be bigger players out there and competing with them head on is not always an option. Always pinpoint the problem, find the correct solution and change the way you play the game.

Famous Quote: "Managers tend to pick a strategy that is the least likely to fail, rather than to pick a strategy that is most efficient."

The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

Set in the 80s, Chris Gardner sells bone density scanners for a living. It was never a sustainable business and things took a bad turn. However, Chris was determined to provide a better life for his family so he applied at Dean Witter for a competitive internship program where only one intern lands a job. Learning that it was an unpaid internship, his wife left him and his son and they were eventually homeless because he could not pay the rent. This true, inspiring story is about how a man at a point in his life worse than defeat, overcame countless trials and transformed himself into a Wall Street legend.

Message: The takeaway from this movie is that people got to stay focused on your goals. There are bound to be obstacles to your success but by placing your heart and mind into your business, staying focused and making smart decisions; we might someday get to where Chris Gardner is.

Famous Quote: "You got a dream. You gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they wanna tell you you can't do it. If you want something, go get it. Period."

The Social Network (2010)

Another true story, the movie is about  how one of the founding fathers of social media came to be and the events that led him, at the age of 23, to become the youngest billionaire ever.

Message: Business ideas are not worth a lot unless they are materialized. In this case, the Winklevoss twins (founded Harvard Connection) sued Mark because they claimed he stole their idea. But ideas could not be protected unless it is done, marketed and sold to the public. While any computer programming expert could have written the script, the value of Facebook lies in its positioning and strategy.

Famous Quote: "You have part of my attention - you have the minimum amount. The rest of my attention is back at the offices of Facebook, where my colleagues and I are doing things that no one in this room, including and especially your clients, are intellectually or creatively capable of doing."


Reference:

Roth, C. (2014, August 24). Your ideas have no value. Retrieved from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/236605