By Joey Ricard - June 7, 2021
Disney and Pixar have been a part of our lives ever since we were kids. Well, to be completely honest we watch them till now. It is like these movies not only ignite the child in us but also drive our wildest imagination crazy but also bestow us with a lot of lessons. There’s something about these movies that pulls the right chords and gets etched in our memories forever.
But, apart from the moral lessons and life lessons, did you know that these movies are great learning experiences for entrepreneurs as well?
Wondering how? Let’s find out!
The success of these animated movies offered multiple lessons for up-and-coming entrepreneurs to take their businesses to the next level. Well, it is time for us to dive deeper and take a look at some of the lessons that these movies taught us!
Based on a Scottish book by James Matthew Barrie, Peter Pan hit the theatres in 1953. The plot revolves around Peter Pan- a young adult, who denies growing up, and ushers children who lost their directions into a place Neverland that looked like a fantasy land.
When Peter meets Wendy and her brothers, who are the epitome of maturity, he assures them that “if you can think it, you can do it”. So, in order to fly you just need to think about it with all your heart! With that message, everybody moved to Neverland and lived a great life.
The very thought “if you can think it, you can do it” has since become the aphorism of many people and serves a great purpose for entrepreneurs. The perfect example of this line is Steve Jobs. According to him, if you want to create something, you need to imagine it and come up with a smart concept.
Peter Pan tells us that if we can dream, be confident, and put in the hard work, we can achieve anything in life.
The Lion King gives us a lot of valuable lessons and it is my all-time favorite movie. If you are not living under a rock then you probably have at least heard about this one.
Well, when you step into the business world, everything is not glitters and unicorns. It is a tough walk but you cannot give up. Spoiler alert ahead!
When his father passed away, Little Simba was scared and heartbroken. Taking advantage of this situation, Scar, his evil uncle held Simba responsible for his dad’s death and advised him to run away. Simba was gullible and went away. He forgot his true identity and became a totally different being. He had no confidence or self-esteem.
This teaches us that it is important for us to maintain our focus and not let anyone harm our self-esteem. In this world, the competition is fierce and everybody wants to be king. That does not mean we will let negativity ruin us. It is important to keep our calm and remain strong, standing still like a mountain even when the strongest storms arise.
Also, remember the song “Hakuna Matata”? Try and interpret the lyrics into your mindset and watch yourself and your business flourish like a flower. I am sure many entrepreneurs would find this classic as a true inspiration in their professional lives.
Every entrepreneur, irrespective of the size of their business, needs to have a commendable sense of responsibility and no animated movie teaches that better than Robin Hood.
Well, he is originally a pirate who robs people of their riches and then donates those to the poor. He is an expert in archery and weaponizes his skills to do social work and show humanity to the poor even though his way of doing it was wrong.
But, nobody hates Robin Hood for that. Rather we love him to date for his sense of responsibility towards society and how he put his life on the line for feeding the poor. Especially in a world where everyone is facing the wrath of nature and karma, it is only right that we come forward to help each other.
An entrepreneur, with an amazing sense of responsibility, can be a blessing for the business, employees, and society too. They have the power to make this world a better place.
Now be honest and tell me how many times have you watch Finding Nemo? You are lying if you say you haven’t watched it ever or watched it only once!
Finding Nemo is one of those movies that makes you feel something while watching. It is like you are living the movie. I think it came out somewhere during the first half of 2003 and ever since this movie has been a pleasure to watch.
The most important lesson that we learn from Finding Nemo is to “just keep swimming”. You saw it coming right? Lol! Finding Nemo is incomplete without this phrase.
Similarly, in life or while running a business you will face a lot of challenges that might demotivate you and want you to give up. When Nemo lost his direction, he just kept swimming even though he felt like he wasn’t going anywhere.
Sometimes in life, you feel stuck and lost but whatever the case may be, we must never give up and never stop swimming. It is also important to step out of your comfort zone if you want to grow. This way, no matter how lost we are, we will eventually find a way out. And that’s a great lesson for entrepreneurs.
Wall-E maybe gives us the biggest life lesson – “Don’t Just Survive, Live!”.
McCrea, the plump and chirpy captain of Axiom- the stylist starliner shouts while protecting the happy and chubby crew from making its way back to earth.
Sometimes, we get too overwhelmed in the job that we are doing, we forget the purpose of why we are doing it and continue doing that just for the sake of it. To put it simply, we forget to live.
You might be habituated to living in a certain way and you have your schedules. Sometimes, it doesn’t work and you need to break free from it, create a new schedule and do things differently.
This works both for professional and personal lives. You need to have perseverance, desire, and determination to achieve your goals. This is something entrepreneurs should understand well.
Nothing showcases teamwork better than the talking toys in Toy Story. It is a story where all the characters untie and never give up.
Any company needs to have efficient teamwork to ensure the smooth running of the business and it cannot be achieved without your teammates being on different boats.
According to the words of Light Buzzyear “The important thing is that we stick together”. Sticking together will literally help you overcome the toughest of times as well as produce the best work. And when entrepreneurs get great teams, nothing can stop the business growth!
The end line is that even though we used to watch these movies for fun, there’s a lot to take away from them and it also shaped us into who we are. No matter how old you are, you can never stop learning. Especially for entrepreneurs, every step can be learning strife. So, next time you watch movies or series, pay extra attention and take away a few things.
You can also binge-watch the mentioned movies and see for yourself, how these lessons have been embedded into our minds.
If articles like this intrigue you, check out our article archive and keep following us on social platforms. Also, let us know in the comment section below, which are your favorite Disney and Pixar movies to learn life lessons!
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Joey Ricard
Klizo Solutions was founded by Joseph Ricard, a serial entrepreneur from America who has spent over ten years working in India, developing innovative tech solutions, building good teams, and admirable processes. And today, he has a team of over 50 super-talented people with him and various high-level technologies developed in multiple frameworks to his credit.
