Small Business Lessons We Can Learn from Watching Movies

Movies have a big impact on our everyday life. There is no denying that even with DVRs where we can record everything on cable television, we still take a lot of time to watch movies. The 2009 movie “Avatar” now has become the highest grossing film in history — by a wide margin.

In fact, technology has increased our appetite to watch to entertain ourselves since we can now watch not only on television, but computers and smartphones.

There’s no reason to feel guilty about watching a movie, thinking you should be working instead.

Relax! You can actually learn about business by watching movies!

I asked a few small business leaders what were their favorite movie quotes of all time and then I thought about what I learned from that movie. Grab your popcorn and take a look at what they shared:

NO EXCUSES!

Movie: Goodfellas. “Business is bad? F-you, pay me. Oh, you had a fire? F-you, pay me. Place got hit by lightning, huh? F-you, pay me.” (From Bob London)

• Lesson: If you are part of the organization, there are no excuses for results. It is also an incentive to keep your company overhead low so you have cash to pay for what you really need.

FOCUS FIRST, GROW LATER!

Movie: Jerry Maguire: Remember the Mission Statement? “We are losing our battle with all that is personal and real about our business. Every day I can look at a list of phone calls only partially returned. Driving home, I think of what was not accomplished, instead of what was accomplished.”

• Lesson: Fewer clients, more personal attention makes for a better business. Growth for growth’s sake is a bad business strategy.

STAND UP FOR YOUR BUSINESS!

Movie: Road House: “Be nice. Be nice until it is time to not be nice.” (From Prasann Thakrar)

• Lesson: Being nice in business does not always get the results you want. Many times, we need to press our point.

RISE TO THE OCCASION

Movie: Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium: “Your life is an occasion. Rise to it.” (From by Phillip Zannini – @PhillyMac)

• Lesson: We need to remember that we are responsible for our own success. Never look for that one magic bullet in business or for someone to save you because no one is coming. The magic comes from the hard work you give to your business.

EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE ABLE TO SELL

Movie: Glengarry Glen Ross “Good leads are for closers”. (From Vicki Donlan)

• Lesson: You need to know what to do with a lead if you are going to close a sale. There is no substitution for being able to sell. We all need to learn and have skilled sales people on our team.

GET TOUGH — DON’T COMPLAIN!

Movie: A League of Their Own: “There is no crying in Baseball”. (From Scratch at Boston Baby Dolls).

• Lesson: No matter how bad it gets, long term, crying does not help us in business.

From the same movie “Of course this is ‘hard’:

• Lesson: People always tell me that their business is especially hard. Guess what, every business is hard.

RELATIONSHIPS ARE POWERFUL

Movie: Hustle & Flow – You’re in charge of your business and the power of marketing relationships. (From Elizabeth W. Wilson)

• Lesson: No matter where you come from, you can become successful.

DON’T LET ANYONE TELL YOU WHAT YOU CAN’T DO

Movie: Legally Blonde: Elle uses what she has to achieve her goals. (Submitted by Phillip Zannini)

• Lesson: We all need to make it work from where we are right now

LEAD BY EXAMPLE

Movie: It’s a Wonderful Life: The movie shows the principles of leadership. George Bailey puts his customers, employee and family interests first by taking responsibility. (From Stephen Antisdel of Precept Partners)

• Lesson: If more financial institutions has operated this way maybe the “Great Recession” would have been avoided.

LOVE YOUR LIFE

My favorite movie quotes are from the movie, Jerry Maguire, as said by Jerry’s mentor, Dickie Fox:

”Hey, I don’t have all the answers. In life, to be honest, I failed as much as I have succeeded. But I love my wife. I love my life. And I wish you my kind of success.”

Want more? Check out Kevin Coupe and Michael Sansolo, the co-author of The Big Picture: Essential Business Lessons from the Movies interview on my radio show.

What are your favorite quotes or business lessons from movies? Share them below.

From Small Business Trends

Small Business Lessons We Can Learn from Watching Movies

I Apologize To No Computer! Ctrl + Z Cards

I Apologize To No Computer! Ctrl + Z Cards: "

These Ctrl + Z cards let a computer savvy recipient know you wish you could undo a particular operation. Probably not a bra strap either, although you're welcome to try. Just don't come crying to me when you get your face Ctrl + P'd with an open palm. Kidding, I'm here for you. Yesterday. I'm here for you yesterday. Call me when you invent a time machine.

The ultimate 'I'm sorry' card? Yes! [myextralife]

Thanks to Lisa, who sends anthrax-laced delete cards."

Thanks to Geekologie.com

Google Replaces SearchWiki with Stars for Customized Search [Search]

By Lifehacker

Google's messed around with personalizing search results for years, and changed its tactics often. Their latest idea kills SearchWiki in favor of adding a 'star' to a result you want to see up top in the future.

It's a feature that's rolling out, but should be available to everyone in the next few days, according to Google. When it arrives, any result you click to star is added to your Google Bookmarks, Google Toolbar, and any searches you do in and around that topic in the future. So if you star your local favorite coffee spot, expect to see it in a mini-box up top when you search for 'coffee' in the future. SearchWiki results will stick around for those with Google accounts; if you liked leaving notes on search results, Google recommends its SideWiki offering.

Can you see value in starring results, or is that what bookmarks are for? Share your thoughts on Google's latest personalized search experiment in the comments.

Stars make search more personal [Official Google Blog via CNET/DeepTech]

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Paper Rater Analyzes and Improves Your Writing [Writing]

If you like to write but lack confidence in your skills, Paper Rater is a a free, web-based service that analyzes your writing and offers feedback on your grammar, spelling, and more.

Paper Rater couldn't be easier to use. Just paste in the text you want analyzed, choose what type of content it is—essay, research paper, speech, etc.—and submit it for review. Within seconds, Paper Rater generates a report that analyzes several aspects of your submission.

Naturally the app takes a look at grammar and spelling, but it also gives feedback on your writing style and choice of words. To get suggests on word or phrasing replacement, just right click on the highlighted words.

Paper Rater also detects plagiarism by comparing the content you submit with published online content to see if there are any similarities. This feature can be overridden by simply flagging passages with the proper citations.

Paper Rater is a solid tool for double-checking your work as you prepare your next speech or presentation. What tools do you rely on to hone your writing skills? Share in the comments.

Paper Rater [via Download Squad]

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Social Media Effect

Social Media Effect: "Slightly different from the Social Media Affect which I see at most conferences.

Such an innocent phrase isn't it: 'Content Created'.....

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Microsoft Outlook 2010 Will Make Social Media Mainstream

Microsoft Outlook 2010 Will Make Social Media Mainstream

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

For many readers of this blog social media is mainstream, but I travel the highways and byways of this country and experience first hand in my workshops and presentations the amount of folks that “just don’t get” social media. I think they’ve heard the hype and know they should get it, but it still feels a bit foreign and geeky at best and downright silly at worst.

Microsoft Office 2010, in beta release now, may change the game on social media and turn participation into email plumbing. The MS Outlook 2010 blog reveals the new features that led me to this conclusion. (Although in stunningly Microsoft fashion the first bit of info on the page deals with a crash report update.)

Here’s the deal – depending upon who you ask, Microsoft Outlook, including Exchange, powers somewhere around 65% of enterprise email and probably more than that when it comes to the small business desktop. GMail and other SaaS tools have begun to eat away at this margin, but many a computer user sees the Internet through the eyes of MS Outlook. This post isn’t a plug for MS Office, I haven’t downloaded or tested the new version yet, it’s simply an explanation of the impact I see this new release ultimately having.

In November 2009, Microsoft announced both the beta of Microsoft Office 2010 as well as the Outlook Social Connector. The Outlook Social Connector brings together communications history, contact information, and professional and social networking information into the Outlook experience.

As of today, the beta release includes connection plans that give users the ability to add LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace interaction, giving every Outlook user the ability to enjoy the benefits of social media without any effort. This will get millions hooked and participating as simply a form of enhanced email – social media participation will become email plumbing and that will make it ubiquitous.

Here’s a list of activities, from MS site, that you can do inside Outlook 2010 when it comes to LinkedIn for Outlook

• Connect to your LinkedIn account to view your colleagues’ status updates and photos next to an e-mail message they sent you.


• Your colleagues’ latest contact information from LinkedIn automatically updates his or her Outlook contact. Whenever someone changes a phone number, e-mail address, or other contact details, it’s automatically updated in Outlook — you are always up to date.


• Synchronize your mobile phone with Outlook to stay up-to-date — you don’t have to worry about keeping track of new phone numbers and contact info — contacts’ information from the Web is synchronized to your mobile phone.


• Grow your professional network directly from within your Inbox — add colleagues with one click.

I’ve been preaching the merits of hacking together this kind of integration in your social media system for some time, but now anyone, whether they want to or not, will almost automatically have is handed to them. Combine this with Office 2010 Web Services version in the cloud and Office for Mac 2011 to include Outlook and you may see Microsoft regain some footing.

To recap, here is what you can do today to get started with the Outlook Social Connector.

1. Download the Office 2010 Beta at www.Office.com/beta


2. Update to the latest version of the Outlook Social Connector using the instructions on the Microsoft Download Center.


3. Get the LinkedIn download for the Outlook Social Connector at www.LinkedIn.com/outlook.

Related Posts:

• Designing HTML Email for Webmail Apps
• Give Zoho Credit for Being Aggressive
• The Businesscardless Office
• The Crowd Spoke and Was Heard
• Office Live Will Turn Some Heads
• Powered by Contextual Related Posts

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