Success Advice
5 Success Lessons We Can All Learn From Hollywood
Hollywood is not just about producing and making movies. It is also about inspiring people and motivating them. Some videos made a significant influence on our decision making. They have writers and directors who speak to their audience. These movies have a lesson that impacts our lives mentally and emotionally.
Most people think that movies can only offer entertainment value. But for some, movies can give you lessons about leadership, success, and life. Movies stimulate our thinking and assist us in learning new things through the use of visual arts. But you need to look deeper to find that lesson.
Here are 5 lessons we can all learn from Hollywood:
1. Never give up
In the Pursuit of Happyness, it showed that if you are motivated to succeed in life, you will do anything to achieve your goals. Chris Gardner (Will Smith) struggled as his business failed. When he faced eviction and unpaid parking tickets, he did not give up. He got a job as an unpaid intern to be a broker. He took risks and reached out to high-value customers. As a result, all his efforts paid off. During his last day of internship, he was awarded a full-time position.
The movie also teaches us that being poor must not stop us from getting what we want in life. Our success is not dependent on fate or luck, but on our efforts. Because Chris has a dream, he goes after it.
Even if life humiliates you, you need to taste bitterness first before tasting happiness. After finishing his internship and selling the medical devices, Chris went to the beach and slept in a hotel. This shows that no matter what happens, you deserve a break. You also need to treat yourself and do something nice for yourself because you deserve it.
2. Create a great product
The Social Network movie is a story about the early days of Facebook. How it depicted the story of Mark Zuckerberg may not be accurate, yet it offers a great number of lessons that every entrepreneur must heed.
Mark Zuckerberg operated through a trial-and-error method by learned from the success and failure of others. The movie showed how Facebook took off successfully because of its cool factor. When Mark opposed his partner’s strategy of adding advertisements to drive revenue, it teaches us he was entirely focused on creating an excellent product that drives more users. After it had attracted millions of users, it started to implement a monetization strategy.
The movie also teaches us to take a considerable risk if you wish to be successful. Mark dropped out of Harvard to create Facebook. Although not all risk takers win, you need to risk big to win big.
“The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” – Mark Zuckerberg
3. Surround yourself with successful people
In the X-Men movie, every member of the team has power. Due to this, they always achieve great things such as defeating the villains Magneto and Apocalypse. In life, you also need to surround yourself with successful, smart and talented individuals, because you can rely on them when your abilities and skills fall short. The movie teaches us that success can never be achieved alone. You need people to help you win big.
X-men also teaches us that leaders, too, have limitations. That’s why they need the support of their colleagues. While young leaders may be high on passion, they are usually low on life experience. To succeed in life, you need tools. When soldiers were sent to Vietnam without the weapons, they underestimated their enemies, and Dr. Bolivar Trask admitted it.
Failure is not final. Xavier said that just because a person stumbles, it does not mean that he lost his way. It takes a leader to encourage another leader because they both have credibility. They understand the struggles that come with leadership. That’s why when Wolverine told Xavier that he has confidence in him, it means he trusts him.
4. Know what you want
The movie “The Wolf of Wall Street” offers a great number of key lessons you can learn to help you succeed such as knowing what you want in life. Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) did not get rich by accident. He knew exactly what he wanted and how he could get there because he had a vision. He had an outcome in mind allowing him to steer his decisions.
He also learned how to sell himself by wearing fancy suits. Doing this helped people see him as successful because he ensured his suits were tailored thus people’s perception of him would change. The key here is to know what you want others to see you as and decide how you want them to see you. From there, you can present yourself in that way.
Jordan also adjusted and mastered his strategy. He specialized in penny stocks and sold cheap stocks to people. And when he pitched to ultra-wealthy, he had a strategy that worked for that market. Although at first, it was a failure, he perfected it eventually. You can also apply this to your business. You need to keep in mind your customer base and customize your pitches for your target market.
In addition to mastering his strategy, he also trained people well so that these people would implement his ideas. He taught these people to sound experienced and knowledgeable in the stock market by giving them tools. What you can learn from it is that you need to hire an excellent staff and not do all the work for yourself. You must show your staff exactly what you want them to achieve by training them well.
“The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.” – Jordan Belfort
5. Step out of your comfort zone
Good Will Hunting is another old movie with critical lessons about success. One of these lessons teaches us to step out of our comfort zone and take risks. It seems cliche, but life is about taking risks if you want to be successful.
Some people avoid business ventures because they do not want to risk their money. However, we need to realize everything has an outcome in the future. We are afraid to change because of fear, but as Phil Schiller said, “fear is a great motivator.” In fact, it is an undervalue motivator. Regardless of whether we fail or succeed, we learn life lessons which provide invaluable benefits for our future.
The movie also taught us that education does not always equal intelligence. Will is a self-taught genius and never had formal schooling, yet he could solve complex problems which the average man could not.
In life, you may need the education to get a job. However, you do not need to be formally educated to achieve greatness.