If you ask my friends that go and watch movies with me, they’d tell you one thing. Sixty percent of the time, I walk out of the movie. I literally get up and walk out of the movie. I don’t know anyone that walks out of movies more than I do, because I don’t like to waste my time watching a movie without a point to it, and you can’t keep my attention if there’s no point. To me, watching a movie is like reading a book for two hours. Give me a message! Move me! Tap into my emotions! I want to FEEL it.
I would never walk out on the movies that I talk about in this video. They are worth your time, and if you’re an entrepreneur, each of them has a message for you.
So here are the selected top 10 movies for the entrepreneurs –
1. The Godfather
The number one movie this is going to teach you about leadership and entrepreneurship is The Godfather. It teaches you how to deal with your enemies and competitors. There are lot of stories, where one is different, then two and then three.
Love him or hate him, there is one thing that is certain, The Godfather was an amazing leader. The movies shows about being in power.
When you strip the story of the bloodshed and drama you are left with something entrepreneurs like me savor; pure unadulterated lessons on how to lead an empire.
2. Rocky
Rocky is an all-time great story. I think every entrepreneur has a certain feeling of being an underdog unless you come from a lineage where your family’s been into business and entrepreneurship and they’ve done very well.
But most entrepreneurs typically connect with the underdog story, right? No one believes you can do it. No one believes you have what it takes. No one believes you’re smart enough. You see the vision, you buy into it. No one sees how hard you work.
And you get rejected and knocked around. You lose and fail a lot. It takes people 10 years and 10,000 hours to be an “overnight” success.
That’s what the entire Rocky series is all about. It’s about cherishing what you’ve built, and bringing that hunger factor back. It will encourage you to dig deep and think about the next thing you’re going to fight for.
3. American Gangster
Number three is a movie by my man, Denzel Washington. I love his acting.
American Gangster is purely an entrepreneur’s movie. Some of you guys may say, “Pat, every single movie you’re recommending is a gangster movie or somebody’s getting killed,” but I’ll tell you why American Gangster is #3.
American Gangster is a story of distribution, of membership.
4. The Count of Monte Cristo
Number four is a movie that a friend of mine told me to watch many, many years ago. It’s called The Count of Monte Cristo. The Count of Monte Cristo is a great movie and it really resonates with me because my life today is a complete 180 from what it was before.
I love The Count of Monte Cristo because it’s about a person recreating himself. It’s about how you can recreate yourself into a person that nobody else recognizes, and all of a sudden you can become a person that everybody listens to.
5. Casino
Number five is Casino, and one of the things about Casino is that it underscores the importance of knowing which bridges to burn and which bridges not to burn.
It’s also about knowing that someone who was once your enemy could now end up being your biggest ally and someone who was your biggest friend could now end up becoming your biggest enemy. It also teaches you who to cross, and who not to cross. It teaches you to know that if you keep consistency, and you build street cred, you’ll generally be fine.
And if you don’t, eventually no one trusts you, and you end up being alone.
It also talks about choosing the right spouse, choosing the right partner. I think there’s a lot of great messages in Casino that any entrepreneur can pick up.
6. Cocktail
Number 6 is a movie that I’ve probably watched more times than any other movie. When I was in the Army, me and my buddies probably watched Cocktail 200 times.
The great thing about Cocktail is that here’s a guy who’s a bartender, who’s a dreamer, and he’s always reading books. Always.
He went from having nothing to starting his bar, Cocktails and Dreams.
Entrepreneurship isn’t about wanting things. It’s not just about the Ferrari or the $50,000 watch or living in a multi-million dollar house. That’s fine, but the story of an entrepreneur is a guy that just says, “Man, I want to build my business. I want control. I want happiness. I want to make money. I want to build my own identity. I want to be free. This is what I want to do.”
And they do it. And that’s the story of Cocktail.
7. The Pursuit of Happyness
Number seven is the Pursuit of Happyness, with Will Smith and his son. I love Pursuit of Happyness because it’s is a great story of rags to riches.
What I love about it is that it’s a story of a single father who made it happen with no excuses. Even more importantly it demonstrates the efficient use of time.
The most important skill set that you have to learn as an entrepreneur is selling, and hustling. If you’re not selling and hustling from 5:30 in the morning till 10:00 or 11:00 at night, you’re decreasing your chances of making it.
In this movie, Will Smith takes hustle to a whole different level.
The Pursuit of Happyness is a phenomenal story that touches on a lot of different things that you can benefit from as a business owner. I highly recommend it.
8. GoodFellas
I chose GoodFellas as number eight because it teaches you that sometimes people turn on you, but that you shouldn’t let that change your principles or values. In spite of what happens, you need to stick with your values and principles.
I study people’s trends. A lot of people come and tell me, “But Pat, you don’t understand, I’ve changed. I’m going to do this. I’m the most loyal person.” But I trust trends more than I do words.
You need to trust your gut and your intuition, and sometimes you need a little bit of paranoia with certain people. That’s what GoodFellas teaches you about entrepreneurship.
9. House of Cards
Number nine isn’t a movie, it’s a show, a series. I’ve never, ever in my life watched any show from the beginning to the end. Never. But a good friend of mine, Carl Moss, and my dad both simultaneously, within a minute or two of each other sent me a text telling me that I needed to watch House of Cards.
I put off watching it, but then finally, I decided to watch the first episode. Once I started, I couldn’t stop, and ended up watching the entire series, on episode after another.
This series teaches you the darker side of politics. But there is a part of it that also has to do with business. Because in business there’s a lot of negotiations, a lot of things that happen behind closed doors. On the front end, everything looks great. But behind closed doors, a lot of crazy things happen.
I think there’s a lot of good things to be learned from House of Cards.
10. The Social Network
Many of you have probably watched The Social Network. It tells a very, very good story of Mark Zuckerberg who built Facebook, and what he went through when during that time.
It demonstrates what you’re capable of building when you put your minds together with other like-minded people.
Another important thing to keep in mind as you watch this movie is that Zuckerberg wasn’t the visionary. He was a technician. He was the product guy. He needed people like Sean Parker that said, “This is not a million dollar opportunity. This is a billion dollar opportunity.”
Facebook is what is is today because of both visionaries and technicians, the right people, playing the right role.
I think there’s a lot to be learned from the story, when you watch it as an entrepreneur. It also gives you a lot of inspiration knowing that you’re not the only one that’s going through craziness.