3 Business Lessons I Learned From My Favorite Movies Movies have a lot to teach us about life. They are often lessons we learn implicitly, by watching how other people live their lives. Here are some of my favorites and the lessons they taught me about business and life.
By Yakup Özkardes-Cheung Edited by Chelsea Brown
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One of the most popular questions to ask friends and family is, "What was your favorite movie growing up?" The answer might be different for each person, but there are some movies that transcend generations. There are even kids who have fallen in love with these movies, who weren't alive when they first came out.
Movies have a lot to teach us about life. They have the power to make us feel, to make us think and to help us understand what it means to be human. The most important lessons from movies are not always the ones that are taught explicitly in the films themselves. They are often the messages that we learn implicitly, by watching how other people live their lives. Here are some of my favorite movies from my childhood and the lessons they taught me about business and life:
Your future is the result of your daily decisions: Back to the Future
Back to the Future was released in 1985 and is one of the most successful films of all time. The film follows Marty McFly, a teenager from 1985 who accidentally travels 30 years into the future, to 2015. The main character has to adjust to this new world and make difficult decisions about his future that will affect him for decades. By far, Back to the Future is my most favorite movie of all, because I identified so much with Marty McFly as a child. The way he speaks, acts and solves problems fascinated me. I am sure I watched the movie series more than 1000 times, and I still enjoy watching it to this day. The biggest lesson for me is that I, as a human being, have my future in my own hands. It is my daily decisions that determine the direction in which my life goes.
Related: 18 Movies Every Entrepreneur Should Watch
Train, train, train: Star Wars
Star Wars is one of the most popular film series of all time. The franchise has been around for 40 years, and it is still going strong. The Force can be used to achieve many things. It can be used to create life and destroy life. It can also be used to heal and cause destruction. The Force only has one limit: your imagination. Luke Skywalker is getting guidance and training from Obi Wan Kenobi and Yoda. As a little kid, I was fascinated about how Luke got his training to become a full Jedi. It taught me that I also have to train, both physically and mentally, to become stronger. Therefore, I started to do Taekwondo, Korean Martial Arts and started working out more regularly. I just wanted to be in good shape and ready to rock my day. Being in physical shape is the starting point. Working on your mind is the next step.
Related: The Entrepreneurial Genius of 'Star Wars'
Fight for your values, and don't compromise: Ready Player One
Ready Player One is a novel written by Ernest Cline. It was published in 2011 and became famous for its portrayal of virtual reality and the future of humanity. A film adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg was released in 2018. The story is set in 2045 and follows Wade Watts, a teenager who lives in a poverty-stricken city on the edge of Oklahoma called "the stacks." The digital avatar of Wade Watts, called Parzival, gets this offer to work for Innovative Online Industries (IOI), which is a multinational corporation. Parzival denied the deal even though it was lucrative, because of the wrong values that IOI follows. Always make sure that the people you work with share and live the same values! Other lessons we can learn from Ready Player One are that virtual reality and artificial intelligence will be a significant part of our lives.
Movies are a great way to learn life lessons. These lessons are not always blatantly obvious, but they can be found if you know what to look for. Watching movies is important as a business owner or leader, specifically, because it helps us understand the world around us better and the people in it. By watching movies, we get a deeper understanding of our own emotions and those of others, as well as the challenges that they face on a daily basis. Learning from movies is one of the best ways to prepare yourself for life's challenges, because it allows you to explore your emotions and how you would react in certain scenarios before they happen in real life.
