The 7 movies I recommend to any entrepreneur - From a business consultant.
You can see pictures of the most delicious platter in the world, but you'll never taste it that way. Similarly, you can read tons of books (which I can't explain how highly I recommend this.), but it's a totally different experience watching movies about an entrepreneur and how she/he got there. The beauty of books is that they allow you to have your own imagination of the process. The beauty of movies is that they don't. They're showing you how it was (as much as possible).
I'm an avid reader. I read every day in the morning, and I explained multiple times how it literally changed my life. While I don't support binge-watching or wasting numerous hours watching movies, I believe that some movies could shape the vision of an entrepreneur for the best.
Here's my list of the five movies I highly advise that you watch, in case you're an entrepreneur or planning to be one.
1. The Social Network - Focus keyword: Fast Growth in a business
It's your typical Facebook story. It focuses on whether Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea of Facebook or not. While that's not what I care about in the movie, there are a few elements that show any entrepreneur valid and vital business lessons. The most important visualization that you can get from that movie, is how important is fast growth in a tech company, how vital an investment could be, and how it could reshape the future if it was timed perfectly and chosen wisely.
2. The wolf of wall street - Focus keyword: Sales psychology
People will buy if they're convinced, and that's the lesson that's to be focused on when watching this movie. Again, I'm ignoring the negative aspects of Jordan Belfort's life, and focusing on what one should learn from this movie. Whether you like him or not, he's a fantastic salesman. The story of how he evolved from almost no one to what he became is definitely worth learning from.
3. Steve Jobs (The one with Michael Fassbender) - Focus keyword: Customer experience and journey
You know him as an artist when it comes to the business world. However, this movie depicts it from a further interesting perspective for entrepreneurs. It shows how his vitality was in the business. How a person could implement a vision in a company is truly what to be learned from this movie.
4. Boiler Room - Focus keyword: Customers as humans
In any sales process, there's a buyer and there's a seller. They are both humans. They both have stories to be told. This movie shows a negative aspect when it comes to simply focusing on the money-making business. There's someone at the end of the line, and one should always keep that in mind when starting a business. Your product or service will be used by a human being out there.
5. Fyre Festival - Focus keyword: Fake it till you make it
"Fake it till you make it" - Silicon valley's hidden motto. You can say whatever you need to say to convince the investor or the customer, knowing that you can pull it off. The organizers of the Fyre Festival are only getting this negative attention because odds were not on their side when they implemented the phrase. You see, fake it till you make it, but if you don't you're in danger, and it all depends on how much fakeness are we talking about it. Is it a huge festival? or a tiny product? or is it maybe a medical device (I'd highly recommend you keep on your watchlist the movie starring Jennifer Lawrence "Bad Blood", I have no idea whether it's going to be a good or a bad movie, but the story, from the book, is worth reading and learning from.)
6. The big short - Focus keyword: Market Bubbles
If anyone confirms to you that cryptocurrency will still be around in the upcoming 50 years, they wouldn't know what they're talking about. It's a game of chance. There's a chance that crypto would stay and evolve. In fact, I'm one of the believers of this. However, one must always put the possibility that it might not. This movie is fantastic in depicting this to any entrepreneur. Not so long ago, people thought of real estate as the perfect investment. Not a single thought in anyone's mind was moving towards that this is a bad investment (Except a few.)
7. The founder - Focus keyword: Product-market fit
There were burgers during those days. Mcdonalds created a new product that the market needed badly. Regardless of whether this is a healthy option or not, this business was at the right time at the right place. This movie shows how a couple of ideas creates what entrepreneurs are thriving to achieve with their products, a product-market fit.
Finally, this is my list of the 7 movies one could learn from. This, by no means, indicates that these are the only or the best movies an entrepreneur can learn from. Every person has a methodology of learning that's different from the other. One might learn the biggest entrepreneurial lesson from a space documentary. Another could learn that from a cartoon.
I’m Al, a business consultant in Zurich, Switzerland. I believe in the power of delivering value to you, the reader. I’m focusing my content to be more and more on Medium, and Linkedin. Hence, follow me on both channels to keep in touch and connect.