6 Movies You Must Watch As A Business Entrepreneur

Overview

It is known that today, with the ever-growing amount of stimuli, the attention span of the average person is far from what it used to be. Think of how much effort you put into reading these first few lines instead of veering off directly into the paragraph's titles or the conclusion.

Thus, reading a book has become a remarkable feat in itself. So, our ever-growing ADHD minds have started getting aroused by ten-minute-tops Youtube videos and podcasts.

As of these facts, movies have played a significant role in delivering a full storyline in an average time of two hours, instead of reading a 400-page book.

As a business entrepreneur, you have to enrich your knowledge with as many stories, experiences, and data so that you won't make the same mistake and get inspired to act on your own.

Here are some of the movies you must see during your business journey that will most definitely contribute to your way of thought.

1. The Big Short (2015)

In an almost comic manner, the incredible story behind the Sub-Prime stock market crash of 2008 is depicted through three different vantage points.

Dr. Michael Burry (Christian Bale), a near-savant hedge fund manager; Mark Baum (Steve Carell), a griefing Morgan Stanly hedge fund manager and his team, team up with Jarred Vennett (Ryan Gosling), a Deutsche Bank banker; Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittrock) and Charlie Geller (John Magaro) are two avid, talented and mostly young investment managers team up with the experienced stock market veteran Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt).

The film walks you through the atmosphere and the circumstances of the 2008 crash and underlines the inherent flaws in the US financial system.

As to our topic, The Big Short is a must-see movie that teaches you always to doubt the system and its procedures and believe in yourself when you know you are doing the right thing.

Do not go with the flow by all means.

2. Moneyball (2011)

In this movie, based on a book bearing the same title by Michael Lewis, the Oakland Athletics Baseball team's general manager, Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), is faced with an almost impossible task. He just lost two of his most significant players and is left with a team that cannot dream of being a contender for the World Series.

After understanding that practicing more of the same in terms of player selection and old scouting tactics will cause him to fail, he spots an opportunity in the form of Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), which he recruits as his assistant manager. Together, they transform their scouting system to that of the data-driven SABRmatic approach.

Besides the fact that the cast in this movie is phenomenal, you, as a businessman, will learn a lot from it in regards to spotting a problem, understanding the WHY, opening your creative mind to new ideas, and holding your own in the face of adversity.

3. Bohemian Rhapsody (2018)

The story of Queen's lead singer, Freddie Mercury, was known to many. However, this fantastic movie, directed by Bryan Singer, shows his story in a different, more personal light. Add to that the remarkable acting by Rami Malek, and you have one of the most influential movies in recent time.

Mercury faced hardships wherever he went. His physical appearance was made fun of, most of his audience did not appreciate his talent, and most of all, he was condoned by his father. Facing all that and more, he continued following his heart and personal belief.

He was and forever will be a legend.

4. The Founder (2016)

This controversial movie details Ray Croc's (Micheal Keaton) story, a traveling businessman selling milkshake machines. In one of his trips, he spots a local burger shop with a large audience standing queued up in front of. He realizes that this burger shop, named Mcdonald's, has a fantastic product, and he understands that he has hit a gold mine. The movie unfolds the story behind the now $100 Billion worth, almost 40,000 branches in 119 countries worldwide, company.

There will be a lot of criticism on Croc's manner along the way. But you can take his approaches to problem-solving, extracting the highest revenue on a product, and redefining the company's vision in the face of change.

5. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Another super-controversial movie.

Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) was a young stockbroker with a dream of making it on Wall Street. After falling in love with money and power, he found a way to make huge profit margins on "Penny stocks" by selling them in gross and earning almost 50% commission on the way. Thus, he began his destructive way to huge success, and finally to the FBI's hands.

Belfort's story is hard. As a viewer, you can learn a lot about his sales skills, which he teaches to this day, his way of spotting opportunities, being resourceful, and having enough charisma for years.

6. The Social Network (2010)

Mark Zuckerburg (Jesse Eisenberg) was a 19yo Harvard sophomore. After getting dumped by his girlfriend, he found a way of getting back at her. He posted a harmful post on his blog, stole fellow female students' photos from the University's servers, and posted them on his website aptly named "Facesmash" for other students to rate.

After attracting too much traffic, which caused the University's servers to crash, he realized his new social network's enormous potential.

From then on, Facebook and Zuckerberg's story evolves and becomes the success story you are now familiar with. 

Zuckerberg was somewhat of an oddball, an outsider. However, he managed to create a $720 Billion, 2.7 Billion user company with ingenuity, skills, and pure belief in himself.

Conclusion

The movies on the list are only some of the ones you can draw inspiration from. With books, lectures, Youtube videos, and so much more, you can learn from other people's mistakes and success stories.

Also, you can learn what not to do. Some of the movies on the list portray successful businessman and their route to greatness. But their values and manner along the way were not something to aspire to. You can be successful without sacrificing your values and beliefs. You can be great without causing intentional harm to others.

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*Background photo by Mockup Graphics on Unsplash