Here is a list of 12 movies that will inspire every finance professional.
As we get in to the New Year, many of us would make resolutions determined to give ourselves the best chance of making 2014 a truly satisfying year. In this spirit, we thought it’s a good idea to share with you a list of movies that can inspire all of us – engaged in financial services, and also entertain us.
Wall Street
Though famous for the line, ‘Greed is good’, the movie concludes that greed comes in the way of real success and that there is no short cut to success. The most entertaining movie ever made against the backdrop of Wall Streetit is a ‘must-see’ for everyone in financial services.
The Pursuit of Happyness
One of the most loved and inspiring movies, it holds a few lessons – eagerness to improve one’s situation by upgrading skills; in chasing business, go for the key decision makers and finally, don’t follow the pack, get ahead of them. Dare to be different and achieve success!
3 Idiots
‘Follow your heart’s desire, be relentless in your pursuit of excellence and success will be yours’ is the core message of this hugely entertaining movie. It also highlights the futility of mindlessly chasing outcomes (grades/marks, wealth, success) without appreciating the process.
Gafla
One of India’s rare movies made against the backdrop of a stockmarket scandal, it reminds you of the Harshad Mehta scam. Unbridled ambition and greed without a moral compass can only lead to disaster is the moral of this grippingstory.
Rocket Singh – Salesman of the year
A brilliant illustration of how a start-up with limited means can succeed and take on established players by sticking to principles -doing the right thing by clients, delivering value to clients, being there for them 24/7, and most importantly, empoweringand motivating your team.
Boiler Room
This is a case study that all finance practitioners,who deal with other people’s money, must watch.It exposes the murky underbellyof capital markets - mis-selling and fraud, utter disregard for client needs, misalignment between high commissions and client ignorance, high pressure sales pitch, etc.
Too Big To Fail
An interesting movie for those curious to know how things unraveled in the financial meltdown of 2008 and how the decisions to bail out the banks and financial institutions considered too big to fail were taken.
Jerry Maguire
When the movie begins, Tom Cruise’s character hasmanyclients but is left with only one client when he ventures out on his own. Even as he continues to tread the right path, he does away with the fear of losing clients by investing in client relationships and, in the process discovers success in business and life.
Moneyball
This is a story about how Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt, assembles a baseball team on a thin budget to build a misfit team which eventually goes on to win big. The movie shows that you can win by challenging conventional wisdomof doing business,even with little to no money.
Life of Pi
The movie, based on Yann Martel's Booker Prize winning novel, shows how teenage boy Pi survives on a lifeboat with limited food for 227 days adrift in the Pacific Ocean with a hungry Bengal Tiger! Pi learns fishing to feed the tiger. It is a story about surviving in adversity with will power.
Social Network
This is a great story about taking a concept, giving it a form and turning it into a very profitable business. It also deals with ambition, friendship and betrayal and raises issues about what one would do and how far one would go to achieve success.
Margin Call
Yet another movie with
the financial meltdown as backdrop, it is a riveting story about the way in
which individuals are coerced or incentivized into taking action on behalf of
their employing organizations that eventually turn out to be toxic for the
economy.
