Prince Peter 15th October 2024 updated.
If you are a small business owner or startup founder, here are the most inspirational movies and documentaries about entrepreneurship that you just cannot miss. Though the listed movies may not always be strictly about entrepreneurs (or even about human beings!), these should be essential viewing for every entrepreneur.
These movies encapsulate some of the most important principles of entrepreneurship, leadership, business, and startups - and portray them in a manner seldom matched on film.
Blazetrue Ratings: each movie is rated by me primarily on the value of its entrepreneurial strength, with its overall cinematic quality being factored in second.
Creators: the key creators of each movie, are listed as a salute to the passion and creativity of the people without whose effort, the beauty of these movies would have been lost to us; exactly like the value of your business would have been lost to us all, without the initiative and courage of an entrepreneur like you.
Jiro Dreams of Sushi documents the life and passion of Jiro Ono, considered by some as the greatest living sushi chef. It portrays the 85-year-old entrepreneur-owner and his tiny 10-seat, ultra-premium, sushi-only restaurant Sukiyabashi Jiro, located in a Tokyo subway station.
Jiro Dreams Of Sushi is one of the best representations of passion for one's profession caught on film. Jiro's dedication to his craft and his work is a blazing, understated devotion that encompasses everything related to his sushi - the precise temperature of the rice, the exact size of the fish cut, everything..
Jiro's sushi is a work of art. But of course, it is not the sushi that makes it art. You could be building a car, cleaning a toilet or cooking a dish: what makes it a work of beauty is your passion, your dedication. It comes from you - the entrepreneur.
And Jiro may not even be the best sushi maker in the universe - Kelb more than suggests it. But that's besides the point because Jiro is aiming for something else entirely - something beyond all concepts of competition. The sushi master reveals it when he says matter-of-factly, with the unassuming humility and extreme arrogance of a totally obsessed man, I have not reached perfection.
Along the way, Kelb also explores obsession, family relationships, tradition, culture, sacrifice and ambition - and how all that ties in with the fabric of human life.
A movie about a master craftsman, perfectionist and entrepreneur - for all entrepreneurs. Watch it!
Jiro: You have to fall in love with your work.. You must dedicate your life to mastering your skill.
Jiro: I have not reached perfection.
Jiro: I'll keep climbing, trying to reach the top, but nobody knows where the top is.
Product Knowledge.
Leadership by Example.
Branding.
Succession Planning.
Company is a thinly veiled retelling of the Mumbai underworld as seen through the life, friendships and enmities of gangsters Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan. It chronicles the rise of their business
empire, during the 1980s, against the backdrop of larger economic, technological and political changes.
Company is a brilliant and rare movie that truly comprehends that all business growth - even in an illegal business - is a product of leadership, vision, initiative and teamwork.
Jaideep Sahni, the writer, brings his business education chops to the table and presents a consistently logical plot that ably details the growth of the company
and the problems that massive growth brings in its wake.
All of the major characters (and even some of the minor ones) have strengths and weaknesses that aid or hinder the success of the company. The term company is used here exactly as it would in a real entrepreneurial venture, except that this company pays no taxes and operates a few illegal businesses. (Since we are speaking of real terms here is the surprising real meaning of 4 business terms.)
From the very first scenes that reveal how Malik, the protagonist, has planned the future takeover of the gang through careful recruitment and a finessed growth strategy, to the way he expands his business even when compelled to be geographically distant from his key market, this movie is a small masterclass for all entrepreneurs.
Saeed: Its's either Malik, or us.
Malik (hidden in their car): I thought so too. The only difference is.. I thought that before you did.
Malik: In this world every act is done for profit.
Malik: He is arrogant because he knows he is useful.
Leadership.
Market Penetration.
Personnel Recruitment/Management.
The Last Lions dramatizes the story of Ma di Tau (Mother of Lions), a lioness in the wild African jungles of the Okavango Delta in Botswana, as she fights for her life and the lives of her cubs.
The Last Lions, is a heartbreaking, exhilarating movie about leadership, choices, and determination.
That it has no human characters, is set in an African jungle, and is not directly about business or entrepreneurship, does not make it any less of a movie for entrepreneurs.
The exquisite portrayals of crushing defeat, rousing courage, and steely resolve in the lioness - and also in her natural enemies - have dramatic parallels with human lives.
The Last Lions was shot beautifully by wildlife conservationists and film makers, Dereck and Beverly Joubert, over the course of several years, and has a courageous, inventive script by Dereck Joubert that makes the drama palpable.
If you have ever overcome a failure in business - or in life - you might want to catch a reflection of yourself in this movie.
Narrator: And in this moment of strength something fundamental changes - something the pride recognizes.. They sense it in the determination in her step and the look in her eye.. She is transformed into a leader.
Narrator: If she can make water her strength, it will be their weakness.
Narrator: In this moment a pride of lions is born. And now they seem to understand that their future will be
determined right here, as a pride.
Entrepreneurship.
Leadership.
Strategic Planning.
Rocky is a sports drama about Rocky Balboa - a poor, inarticulate, small-time boxer - who gets a once-in-a-lifetime chance to fight the reigning champion for the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship.
Rocky is a without any doubt one of the best sports movies you will get to watch, and an inspirational tour de force, from start to finish.
How Rocky innovates his training regimen to fit his limited resources, and the exceptional resolve shown by the underdog boxer in the long, adrenaline-pumping, climactic bout are deserving of special mention in this awesome ringside view of boxing.
Unlike in the far lesser sequels that came later, the Rocky character in this original movie is an excellent role-model for entrepreneurs: an unassuming person who takes on immense challenges without any guarantees of success.
Rocky's classic climax scripts a result which most inspirational
movies shy away from; and this courage to look beyond someone else's ideas of defeat or victory makes this a powerful movie for all entrepreneurs.
Story Behind The Movie: Sylvester Stallone was a broke, struggling actor when he wrote the script for Rocky, envisioning himself in the lead role. He was made several offers of up to $200,000 for the script - if the lead role was played by an established star.
Stallone refused all those offers and persevered till he finally had the lead role - at a paltry salary of $35,000. The massive success of Rocky, Stallone's huge entrepreneurial bet on himself, paved the path for his emergence as a global superstar.
Rocky: All I wanna do is go the distance.
Adrian: Einstein flunked out of school, twice.
Paulie: Is that so?
Adrian: Yeah. Beethoven was deaf. Helen Keller was blind. I think Rocky's got a good chance.
Rocky: You stop this fight, I'll kill ya.
Resource Management.
Focus.
Business Principles.
Godfather is the definitive Hollywood gangster movie, retelling Mario Puzo's sweeping, fictional saga of two generations of the Corleone mafia crime family of New York as they struggle to retain their position in a world full of enemies.
Godfather is up there with the best of movies from several perspectives: and is equally a treat for fans of crime movies or action movies or gangster movies or entrepreneurship movies - or movies of any kind!
It is unfortunate that some of the best movies that feature businesses sensibly are about illegal ventures and crime. Be that as it may, Godfather deserves a place in any entrepreneur's classroom for its take on several business subjects.
Be it about negotiation (how a minor, intemperate remark by the crime patriarch's son ignites massive bloodshed), or strategic planning (the sheer diversity of actions that achieves the climax of the movie is pure pleasure), or succession planning (the entire movie can be viewed as the succession planning and ascension of the reluctant son) - this is a movie that easily wins its place in any hall of fame for business movies.
That it is human relationships, small and big, that drive business is another valuable insight that is underlined throughout the length of the movie.
A must-see film for entrepreneurs.
Vito Corleone: A friend should always underestimate your virtues and an enemy overestimate your faults.
Vito Corleone: I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse.
Sollozzo: I don't like violence, Tom. I'm a businessman. Blood is a big expense.
Some more awesome quotes about entrepreneurship from real-life, awesome people.
Business Ethics (really!).
Succession Planning.
Negotiation.
Diversification.
Steve Jobs is a biopic of the Apple co-founder set in three acts, starting with the inception of Apple, moving to Jobs' ouster from Apple, and ending with his triumphant return to Apple.
Steve Jobs - the movie and the entrepreneur - highlight how passionate obsession with quality is critical to any business.
Multiple scenes - when Jobs wants the Macintosh to say hello or when he obsesses over the exact dimensions of the Next Cube - depict how Jobs manically pursues and drives (mad) his team till they have it exactly right. As much as it is true that pursuing perfection is seldom painless, it is also true that an entrepreneur builds nothing of value without passion.
Sorkin's clever writing does not try to whitewash Jobs' bad behavior and notably gives a lot of credit to Steve Wozniak, the co-founder who was the technical wizard behind most of Apple's early devices. That too is a worthwhile lesson - most successful entrepreneur have succeeded, in substantial part, because of their partners.
The structuring of the movie also underlines how Jobs' branding genius and famed product presentations played a major role in Apple's success.
An enjoyable, intelligent movie for entrepreneurs.
Jobs: What if the computer was a beautiful object?
Jobs: You had three weeks.The universe was created in a third of that time.
Wozniak:It's not binary. You can be a genius AND be a decent man.
Branding.
Product Design.
Product Presentation.
Rocket Singh tells the engaging story of the eponymous young graduate whose career takes a dramatic turn when he decides to pursue entrepreneurship - by running a parallel operation within the computer sales company that employs him.
Rocket Singh is a well written paean on bootstrapping your company using minimal resources and maximum creativity.
Rocket Singh's clear understanding of business as a people driven activity, propels the plot and is the theme that recurs across the entire movie.
Our hero's wisdom in choosing the right people and then inspiring them to deliver the goods, even when they seem opposed to him, should be an inspiration for entrepreneurs who have indispensable partners (who are not always fun to work with!).
It is also rare and inspiring to see a movie in which an entrepreneur's customer-centric approach is so clearly exhibited. In the several sequences where the hero displays this customer focus, and in many others as well, Jaideep Sahni's writing is right on spec (refer the quotes below for samples!).
This is a movie that all entrepreneurs can learn from - especially undecided, aspiring entrepreneurs.
Rocket: Business is not a number - business is people.. just people.
Rocket: Boss, my grades are low.. not my mind
Rocket: In every person there are two types of qualities - one which takes you up and another that takes you down. And the quality that wins between these two.. the person lives that kind of life.
Rocket: When blood and sweat are printed together on a paper, when the table becomes your bed and the office becomes your home, you forget hunger thirst.. then somehow a goddamn company is born.
Team Building.
Bootstrapping.
Customer Centricity.
Harishchandrachi Factory (Harishchandra's Factory) is a delightful biopic inspired by the life and times of Dadasaheb Phalke. The movie chronicles Phalke's love affair with motion pictures and his journey while producing India's first ever movie, Raja Harishchandra, in 1913.
Harishchandrachi Factory chronicles the founding of the world's biggest film industry (India is the world leader by tickets sold and movies produced) by a determined entrepreneur, Dadasaheb Phalke, who gleefully sells even vessels from his own kitchen to help produce the nation's first ever movie.
Phalke's intense struggles are depicted as near-madcap adventures in this joyous film that repeatedly underlines some of the best qualities of startup entrepreneurs.
In the wide-eyed Phalke of Harishchandrachi Factory, we see intense passion and zeal and creativity - the essential ingredients of true entrepreneurs, whether it's a small town grocer or a multi-billion dollar unicorn founder.
Story Behind The Movie: Almost paralleling the legend of Phalke is the story Paresh Mokashi, the creator of Harishchandrachi Factory, who for years found no producers willing to finance his quirky movie.
Finally, Mokashi mortgaged his house, founded his own movie company, and went on to write, direct, and produce this award-winning movie, that departed from the convention of songs, stars, and compromises.
Saraswati: What did you see?
Phalke: A drama on the screen! Photographs! Moving images!!
Phalke: Then let's make it happen! We'll create a screen drama!
Phalke: And now Professor Kelpha will - vanish!
Startup Funding.
Research and Development.
Entrepreneurship.
Band Baaja Baaraat is a romcom about two entrepreneurs and chronicles their journey as they use their individual strengths and partner together to launch their wedding planning startup, Shaadi Mubarak, in Delhi.
Band Baaja Baaraat is one of those rare movies that intelligently depicts not just the business elements of the movie's entrepreneurial setting but also illustrates how the differing attitudes of the business partner protagonists aid and influence the venture.
Habib Faisal's screenplay effortlessly showcases how the combined skills of two vastly different people - in this case, Shruti (the feisty, focused, goal-oriented entrepreneur) and Bittoo (the cool, customer-centric, tactics-oriented partner) - are indispensable for any successful partnership.
The film also depicts the struggle between personal and professional relationships (it is a romcom, so it has its biases), and how it can affect any business partnership - both positively and negatively.
An intelligently made movie that romantic, intelligent entrepreneurs everywhere can enjoy.
Bittoo: 100% total dedication to one client.. start to finish no compromise.. mother promise.
Shruti: I will become India's the best wedding planner.
Bittoo: Wedding you two.. planning us two.
Partnership.
Work Allocation.
Differentiation Strategy.
Manthan (Churning) is a fictional narrative echoing the story of real-life social entrepreneurship path-breaker Verghese Kurien, who brought together millions of farmers to build a dairy co-operative in Gujarat, India. The movie, portraying Kurien through the fictional Dr. Rao, depicts the hurdles Rao faces when he tries to build a rural, social entrepreneurship.
Manthan's powerful portrayal of the birth pangs of a dairy co-operative in rural India, is based on the resounding success of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation, which is today jointly owned by nearly 2.6 million milk producers.
However, by continuing to focus on the long tortuous road before that success is achieved, Manthan even more profoundly underlines how deeply entrepreneurship can impact social and economic dynamics.
This is an intelligent, humane movie that holds up a mirror to a lesson that no entrepreneur can afford to forget - that change is often very difficult and very complicated.
Story Behind The Movie: The movie was entirely financed by crowdfunding - when the term had not yet been coined - by 500,000 entrepreneur farmers of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation - AMUL, each of whom contributed ₹ 2 to produce a movie about their movement.
Welcoming Committee: Forgive us.. the train was on time!
Mishra: Why blame others for one's plight?
Bhola: Sisoti (the co-operative society) is ours.. Ours!
Entrepreneurship.
Social Change.
Human Resource Management.
Guru is a barely disguised biographical drama depicting the life story of Dhirubhai Ambani, through the fictional character of Gurukant Desai, and follows Ambani's triumphant entrepreneurial journey across several decades.
Guru is a long overdue retelling of the Dhirubhai Ambani story and is a good, first attempt that portrays Dhirubhai's enormous ambition, confidence and creativity.
As with most biographies, the greatest thrill is that this awesome human being actually lived and achieved (most) of what is portrayed in the movie.
Entrepreneurs have no option but to be inspired by the incredible confidence of the young Gurukant Desai, the movie's fictional Dhirubhai Ambani stand-in, who decides to compete with well-entrenched textile manufacturers who are far richer, far more experienced, and far more connected than him.
Desai/Ambani's incredible self-assurance is depicted excellently in several sequences in the movie where he is shown to truly believe that just about anything is doable - that simply because it has not yet been done, is no reason to assume it cannot be done.
Gurukant: What's wrong with dreaming big?
Gurukant: I don't play golf.. but I am a strong, strong player of my business.
Gurukant: I don't want to walk.. I want to run!
Entrepreneurship.
Negotiation.
Business Expansion.
Social Network is a biographical film depicting the founding of the Facebook social networking website, its early days, and the ensuing lawsuits between (disputed) founders Eduardo Saverin, the Winklevoss brothers, and the star of the show, Mark Zuckerberg.
Social Network offers fascinating insights into how, if pursued with resilience, even a simple idea with humble beginnings can become a world changing force.
The movie depicts Facebook's founding by a (disputed) group of college boys, who design a networking program - basically to impress some girls. How Mark Zuckerberg builds on this simple idea and turns it into the biggest social network on earth, while also fighting with his co-founders, is the movie's storyline.
Entrepreneurs will find Zuckerberg's passionate and single-minded pursuit of Facebook's destiny both fascinating and inspiring. It might also be eye-opening, especially to first-time entrepreneurs, to see how much mentors and outside experts can guide a startup by watching Sean Parker, the dot-com pioneer, guide Zuckerberg in everything from branding to negotiation to strategy.
A heady mix of passionate entrepreneurship, breakneck speed Silicon Valley startup growth, and the endless complications of business (and life), Social Network guarantees a thrilling ride for all entrepreneurs.
Mark Zuckerberg: If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you would have invented Facebook.
Sean Parker: We lived on farms, then we lived in cities, and now we are going to live on the internet!
Sean Parker: Drop the THE. Just FACEBOOK. It's cleaner.
Startup.
Co-Founder Value.
IP Law.
Celluloid is a docudrama detailing the life story of J.C. Daniel, now acknowledged as the father of Malayalam cinema.
Celluloid retells the story of J.C. Daniel from a point in time when he has faded from public memory, after several bitter setbacks.
The real-life Daniel produced the first ever Malayalam movie and went on to establish the state's first film studio. And then, people afraid of change and innovation, harassed and eventually forced Daniel out of his business and finally out of his home state of Kerala.
The entrepreneurial base of the movie, however, is revealed to us as we watch Daniel produce, direct, write, photograph, edit, act in, and release, the first motion picture in Kerala's history. Celluloid encapsulates the exhilaration, excitement, perils, and pain of starting up one's own venture and portrays how very difficult and how very rewarding any entrepreneurial journey can be.
Watch the movie for some real-life inspiration.
Side Note: Celluloid could serve as a companion piece to Harishchandrachi Factory (Nandu Madhav, who plays Phalke in the Marathi movie, was roped in to reprise his role!), though this is much less playful than the Marathi movie.
Entrepreneurship.
Startup Funding.
Research and Development.
Manjhi is a biopic portraying the life of Dashrath Manjhi, the mountain man
, a poor laborer who single-handedly cut through a hill to carve out a shorter path for his village to the outside world.
Manjhi the movie, has its moments, but the best thing about the film is this: that this man, Manjhi, really lived and that he really worked for 22 years - with primitive tools like chisel, hammer, and fire - and that working alone he broke a path across the hill - really. And reduced the travelling distance between the two nearest towns from 55 km to just 15 km.
The points of value and inspiration are too obvious: if a man without any real resources, can persevere to accomplish something that is so far-fetched that he was considered mad, what can you, an entrepreneur with far more resources, not do?
Manjhi: Don't wait for God to do something.. who knows, perhaps God is waiting for you to do something.
Majhi (to the mountain): Ours will be a very long bout.. Ready?
Journalist: You think publishing a newspaper is that easy?
Manjhi: Tougher than breaking a mountain, is it?
(laughing)
Goal Setting.
Resource Allocation.
Determination.
Joy is a biopic loosely based on the real-life inventor and entrepreneur Joy Mangano, who created a business empire selling products, including the famed Miracle Mop, on television shopping channels.
Joy's highlight is a short 3 minutes sequence. Walker, the character representing TV shopping pioneer and QVC founder Joseph Segel, takes Joy on a tour of QVC's revolving studio. The scene is awash with the sheer excitement and joy of being an entrepreneur, and the enormous pride in offering value to customers.
The rest of the movie however may not match up to the beauty of that short segment. The thrilling inventiveness of Joy, whose real-life counterpart has over a 100 patents to her name, and whose invention of the Miracle Mop in a wonderful lesson in practical innovation, is kinda lost in the movie's focus on her somewhat crazy family.
Entrepreneurs who want more, can read up and learn about Joy, QVC, and HSN from other sources and be inspired.
Joy: Don't think the world owes you anything because the world owes you nothing.
Joy: When you're hiding you're safe.. But funny thing about hiding: you're even hidden from yourself.
Walker: I see it as a privilege that we have to go into people's homes and I despise anybody who's cynical about that.
Innovation.
Perseverance.
Initiative.
Fact: most entrepreneurship scenarios depicted in movies exhibit a hilarious lack of understanding of the basics of business or entrepreneurship or work.
While hundreds of films portray the ill effects of bad business practices (some intelligently, but mostly lazily and brainlessly), few movies illustrate the radical, transformative positive change that business and entrepreneurship can have on the social, political, and economic fabric of any community.
Even worse, movies seldom showcase the entrepreneur's vision, creativity, and positive intelligence - even when the movie is supposed to be an ode to entrepreneurship!
Let us hope that today's intelligent, creative film-makers prove themselves worthy of making intelligent, creative movies that do a better job of portraying entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs, and business.
The best, the most real answers to all important questions will always be the ones you find for yourself in your journey as an entrepreneur; but I do hope that my writing serves as additional signposts in your search for those answers.
Thanks again for your time and attention.
Signing off with my best wishes for your business venture,
P.S. each word you have read above is written by me, Prince Peter, and I take personal responsibility for all I have said.
|
|
|
|
|
|---|
