Of all the TV shows and movies created in entertainment, the best entrepreneur movies tend to hit home the hardest for small business owners. As a young entrepreneur in Nigeria, you will need to get inspiration from time to time. And there is no better way to find inspiration than to d watch some movies that can increase your level of thinking. Regardless of where you currently stand on the entrepreneurial path, you’re sure to find some much-needed inspiration by watching the movies featured in this list.
From scrappy underdogs trying to succeed against powerful, established competitors to simple explorations of the daily struggles faced by businesses especially in Nigeria, there are dozens of classic movies about the business of doing business. There are a number of important lessons any budding new entrepreneur can learn from Hollywood’s version of business as depicted in these movies.
Here are 10 of the best movies’ entrepreneurs in Nigeria need to watch as soon as possible and why they relate to small business owners everywhere.
1. JOBS
A relatively unflinching look at Apple founder Steve Jobs, this movie details both his success and his failures, and his struggle to keep Apple a leader in tech innovation. Jobs’ story is both inspirational to entrepreneurs and a cautionary tale of what happens when one man becomes the very soul of the business they founded – and what happens when that person leaves the company. A must-see for every entrepreneur.
2. THE FOUNDER
In this retelling of the founding father of McDonald’s, Ray Kroc is a businessman who cashes in on a restaurant with a new style of food delivery—hamburgers made in 30 seconds, not 30 minutes. Kroc is relentless in his pursuit of building the world’s greatest fast food empire, and his path to greatness doesn’t come without troubles. With endless ideas and determination, Kroc cements the McDonald’s name in history as one of the greatest franchise restaurants of all time.
Building an empire isn’t easy—especially when you’re challenging the status quo. “The Founder” explores the side of business that requires a persistence unknown to many, but will surely inspire entrepreneurs that are determined to create “the next big thing.”
3. The Wolf of Wall Street
This movie narrates a true story with the plot revolving around Jordan Belfort, a scam-artist stockbroker. He takes a basic job at a Wall Street brokerage firm. The movie shows that Belfort was a successful entrepreneur to have built something out of nothing. However, the company could not be successful due to deceit and corruption. This could be a great lesson for budding entrepreneurs as it shows that they shouldn’t be crook.
4. Money Ball
This movie is a true story about the Oakland A’s and their general manager. Because the team didn’t have the finances to spend tons of money on players, the manager discovered a unique way to scout players using numbers and data. The big takeaway from the movie is that you can use data to level the playing field as an entrepreneur. This movie teaches entrepreneurs to take an innovative approach to an existing way of doing business and beat your competition, with fewer resources
5. The Social Network
Undoubtedly one of the best entrepreneur movies of all time, The Social Network tells the story of Mark Zuckerburg and the things that he went through as an entrepreneur and developer to get where he is today. It also addresses the darker side of entrepreneurship and the things that can come with becoming successful quickly. The Social Network provides evidence that patience and hard work is needed before success can happen.
The Social Network can also be used as a reminder that large companies, such as Facebook, didn’t get where they are today by accident or luck. This movie shows there is no easy-way to becoming a billion-dollar business.
6. CHINA HUSTLE
This movie demonstrates the devastating effects when two corrupt systems cross-pollinate. The film fits squarely into the trendy subgenre of financial corruption documentaries that have propagated since the 2008 housing crisis. “The China Hustle” lets its many players tell the story through interviews about their shady involvement, their visages framed through cold, sober lights. These are fraudsters, lawyers, businessmen-turned activists; some are frank and honest, others mealy-mouthed and defensive.
7. Rising High
With high similarity with wolf of wall street, but in this case, the story does attempt to find an emotional structure. “Rising High” is a story of struggle and decadence, Charting the rise and fall of three corrupt real estate agents who accumulate absurd wealth in no time but fall into a vortex of fraud, greed and drugs. This film depicts a man crippled by his own deceiving desires.
8. Inside Bill’s Brain
This documentary shows the trajectory of Gates’ life following his exit from Microsoft in 2008 and his focus to bring about change through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. But where it is found wanting is in its exploration of his personal beliefs, ideas and decision-making process. One of the more interesting pieces in the documentary is Gates’ “think week.” It is the time when he shuts off from the world, and simply reads and processes. During this think week — armed with a bag full of hefty titles by erudite scholars on myriad subjects, which can hardly be fascinating for even the most avid readers — he disappears into his own mind.
9. Bad Boy Billionaires
This movie tells intriguing stories of Indian tycoons who, have run afoul of the government in their native countries. The first episode gives a pretty complete and compelling picture of a man who let his pursuit of a certain image get the better of him. A lot of Mallya’s flamboyance came from his fight to be considered a respected industrialist, because he made his money making a product that’s banned in large swaths of the country. That fight for respect likely factored in his decisions regarding the airline, ones that eventually got him in trouble with the government.
10. Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru
This movie captures both the immense effort of producing this live seminar and the transformations of the participants. This documentary aims to open the curtain on Tony Robbins, an internationally renowned life coach, motivational speaker and business strategist. The film shows the intensive planning and detailed postmortems that accompany each daily session during its annual seminar.
Conclusion
The truth is that you can always consume more media to help you learn even more about business and entrepreneurship. There are a large number of successful stories from young Nigerian entrepreneurs that took a chance, while there are a lot of the opposite as well.
Entrepreneurs in Nigeria face alot of hurdles they must negotiate on their way to success.Entrepreneurs need to know how the system works so that they can survive this challenging and difficult terrain
Doing research and understanding the do’s and don’ts of business will go a long way for an up and comer. It is as crucial for people in business to learn the failures as it is to hear the successes. It’s far too easy to get wrapped up in the fame, money, and more and forget where you’ve come from. Many of these films help ground the viewer and teach them the realities of being a greedy, selfish businessman.
NB: These Movies were recommended by Catalyst (Hammed Olawale), founder and CEO of Catalyst Business Consult (CBC).
