Movies are not just for entertainment. They can also be for educational purposes. You can learn a lot from movies. It doesn’t matter what they are, whether they are fictional or non-fictional or even animated.
Film making is a great art and through that film-makers express amazing stories and amazing characters. Entrepreneurs can learn a lot of lessons from movies.
You might be thinking that watching movies might be counter intuitive because you are not actually working on your business and not making any results. However take a break and get motivated, get inspired and learn how to run your business by watching some movies.
Check out the best movies for entrepreneurs below and get watching.
Limitless
Imagine if you could take a pill to become successful. You just take that pill and all of a sudden you become more focused and smarter.
This film featuring Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro shows a struggling writer who has writers block and just cannot finish his book. He also is not doing well financially. The writer meets an acquaintance and he offers him a drug in which the user becomes much more focused and smarter.
After taking the drug the writer has super human intelligence and becomes successful. But the drug also comes with its side effects.
The Pursuit of Happyness
The story starts with Chris Gardner (Will Smith) who is a salesman struggling to sell something he believes in. He is also struggling to to build a future and look after his five year old son (Jaden Smith), while his girlfriend walks out on him leaving him to look after his son on his own.
After this Chris is evicted from his apartment and left homeless. He is forced to live on the streets, benches, shelters and wherever else he can.
Chris perseverance and determination pays off when he lands an unpaid internship at a stockbroking firm. He works really hard, never gives up and always believes in himself. After much perseverance Chris becomes a Wall street legend.
This is a very moving and gripping story. This is based on a true story of Chris Gardner’s struggles and successes which makes it even more inspirational.
This is one of the films that I highly recommend you watch.
Scarface
Say Hello to my little friend! Scarface shows the story of Tony Montana (Al Paccino) who comes as an illegal immigrant from Cuba to America.
Tony Montana is a very ambitious individual and the film shows his rising from illegal immigrant from Cuba with nothing to powerful millionaire drug kingpin. He does not let anyone come in his way between him and his success and if someone does come in the way he eliminates them.
This movie is great for entrepreneurs because it shows you how you can succeed in business. It shows you how to be ruthless and shows you how rise to the top. Scarface is a very inspirational and motivating story.
The Coca-Cola Kid
A romantic comedy based on Coca-Cola! The movie shows the story of Becker (Eric Roberts) who is a marketing executive at Coca-Cola and his job is to market and advertise Coca-Cola and their products so more people buy them and are more interested in them.
Becker goes to a small part of Australia and is baffled to why they are not interested in Coke. While doing all this he also bumps into a pretty woman who happens to be interested in him.
It also has a few humorous parts to it as well but it is a great movie for an entrepreneur as it shows you just how a big organisation works and runs.
The Wolf of Wall Street
Leonardo Di Caprio stars in this epic true story of Jordan Belfort who in 1987 started working at an Wall Street brokerge firm. In a couple of years Jordan opens up his own stock brokerge firm with his trusted friend and with some other brokers working for him.
In his firm he defrauds wealthy investors of millions and millions of dollars. He makes them believe they are investing money whereas in reality they aren’t investing into anything. Mr Belfort makes an insane amount of money in a short period of time.
With all that money Jordan gets all the things that money can buy, drugs, sex, sports cars and million dollar houses. Jordan also does an unbelievable amount of drugs including cocaine, heroin, crystal meth and many other dangerous drugs. I do not recommended you do this as it can backfire on you.
The thing you can learn from Jordan Belfort and The Wolf of Wall Street is that he had an determination, passion and drive to get to the top of his profession. Fair enough, he never did it in a legitimate way but he still had that focus to get to where he wanted to get to.
Rocky
Who doesn’t know the story of Rocky. The story of an underdog semi-pro boxer who is giving a shot for the heavyweight title against Apollo Creed. The story of a man who never gives up and always goes the distance.
Rocky who is played by Sylvester Stallone shows the classic traits that every entrepreneur should have such as determination, always working hard, having belief and confidence in himself and never giving up.
Rocky is a very inspirational film. In fact all the Rocky films are very inspirational and motivating. You should watch all six Rocky films as they are all very inspirational and you can learn a lot from them as an entrepreneur.
In particular I like watching the training scenes of Rocky, they are very inspiring and motivating.
Office Space
Do you hate your job? Do you hate going into work everyday? So do most people. The film focuses on Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) who hates working at the software company that he works at. He spends most of his time starring at his desk rather than working.
Peter really hates his job and he goes to extreme lengths to get fired. However instead of getting fired he gets promoted instead.
This is an awesome film that shows you why working a job is so crap, boring and repetitive. Every entrepreneur hates working for someone else. This film will unleash the entrepreneur inside of you.
The Godfather
I’m going to make you an offer you can’t refuse! The Godfather is considered to be one of the best films of all time.
The Godfather focuses on Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) and his crime family. It also shows the reluctance of Don Corleone’s youngest son Michael (Al Paccino) to get into the family business.
As an entrepreneur you can learn so much from The Godfather. You can learn how to become a proper leader and get respected within your community. It teaches you how to become diligent with your work and persistent.
This is one of the best movies ever made and there is so much you can learn from this movie.
Final Words
I am sure this is not a full list of the best movies for entrepreneurs to watch and I am sure I did miss quite a few movies.
Let me know what movies I missed by commenting in the comment section below. Have you seen any of these movies and what do you think of them? I would love to hear what you think of them, leave a comment in the comment section below.
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4 Comments
Lawrence Berry · May 7, 2015 at 3:27 pm
Hi,
I think every entrepreneur should watch the pursuit of happyness because would give the more confidence even in the worst situations. This movies proves that anything can be done through grit and determination. This was one of the most inspiring movies and I loved every minute of it. We know that entrepreneurs face challenges all the time, but the ones who never quit are he ones to make it to the top! Great!
Adnan · May 9, 2015 at 1:59 pm
Hey Lawrence,
Thanks for the comment! Yeah The Pursuit of Happyness teaches us to never give up no matter how much adversity or difficulty you face. Another great movie that I would recommend is Glengarry Glen Ross. Excellent movie about Sales!
Dennis Seymour · June 3, 2015 at 2:19 pm
Hi Adnan,
Of the eight movies you shared I am only familiar of “Rocky” and “The Pursuit of Happiness”. The rest? Well, I had just heard them by name. With these two, I like the film Rocky more. And yes, I agree with you, this film is a must see for every entrepreneur. Rocky’s character is truly inspiring and it can certainly motivate not only business minded people but also everyone else around.
Thanks Adnan for sharing these films. I have watched the trailers. They seemed to be very interesting to watch.
Dennis
Adnan · June 4, 2015 at 9:59 am
Thanks for dropping by Dennis. Rocky is a great movie. In fact all of the Rocky movies are great. It tells us to never give up and always keep on going. Probably one of the best movies I’ve seen.
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