Running your own business is extremely challenging. To be a successful entrepreneur, you need much more than the love of selling. You need to be passionate about your business, stand by your products or services, and stay motivated.
We’ve listed the top 5 movies that will inspire you as you make it through your entrepreneurial path. We hope these movies will motivate you to persevere, ignore the naysayers, and get you in the right mindset for business success.
- The Pursuit of Happyness
“You got a dream. You gotta protect it. People can’t do somethin’ themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it. If you want somethin’, go get it. Period.”
Based on the true story of Chris Gardner, this movie is filled with heartbreaking scenes, and it doesn’t seem like things will ever go right for the main character. Will Smith plays Gardner who has to support himself and his son during an unpaid internship.
With barely any money, they end up sleeping in shelters and at one point, on the floor of a subway station bathroom. We don’t want to spoil things for you by giving away the ending but the takeaway is never to give up, and that passion and sacrifice is essential to success.
- Forrest Gump
“I just felt like runnin’.”
While many would think that Forrest Gump’s phenomenal business success was purely accidental, it’s really his good-natured spirit behind it all.
People will tell you how cutthroat the world of business is. While that’s true, there are people who succeed by doing what they feel is right, giving credit where credit is due, and that your most brilliant ideas can come to you when you least expect it. This movie epitomizes how good things happen to good people.
- Jerry Maguire
“Help me help you.”
Yes, Jerry Maguire is a romantic movie, for the most part. I think the beautiful lesson that this movie teaches any entrepreneur is that you define what success means to you. Success doesn’t mean having the high-profile clients, multi-million deals, or the biggest billboards. Stick to your values, have a vision for yourself, and don’t lose them in the hustle.
- Steve Jobs
“The musicians play their instruments. I play the orchestra.”
It’s important for every entrepreneur to see the reality of failure in business. This movie shows its viewers just that by being both an inspirational yet cautionary tale for entrepreneurs as Steve Jobs struggles to keep Apple a leader in the tech industry.
- The Social Network
“If you were the inventors of Facebook. you would’ve invented Facebook”
Let’s excuse the fact that The Social Network was an overdramatized version of how Mark Zuckerberg went from a Harvard student to launching the biggest social network in the world. Watching this movie will give budding entrepreneurs a look at what it takes to get a startup rolling and how personal relationships can often get in the way.
Are you an entrepreneur? Is there a line from a movie that’s been particularly inspiring for you? Is there a movie that made you want to go into business for yourself? Tell us about it.
