Hey, I've got a real easy one today. It's got no real content, but I just thought, along with everybody else in the world, I'd do a list as well. So what I put together for this Fast Tip Friday is a list of 10 movies that may be great watches on a rainy, possibly miserable Memorial Day weekend. So I thought I'd give you a list. I have watched parts or all of all of these movies. Some of them, I want to tell you—particularly the first one on my list—do not watch it with small children and deeply religious people in the room, as the language and the behavior are rather challenging for a lot of people. So here's my list.
I recommend all of these. Some of them are marvelously entertaining, some of them are heartbreaking, some of them are emotionally challenging, but every single one of them is worth the hour and a half to three hours that it will take you to watch them and enjoy them. First and foremost on my list is a classic. It was a play written by David Mamet. It was on Broadway, won a lot of awards, but the movie version of Glengarry Glen Ross with Alec Baldwin and Jack Lemmon is absolutely devastating. And if you're in sales, it should help you understand why you've got to be better than what most people are in the sales and business development world—and what the world's worst, most aggravating, couldn't-give-a-damn-about-you-or-what-you-do-unless-you-sell attitude looks like. Alec Baldwin's role as the sales manager will drive a knife right through your heart. But I highly recommend this movie. It is awesome, and it'll just shake you to your core. Watch it. No kids in the room. The language is brutal.
Second one is with Danny DeVito. It's Tin Men, and it's about people selling siding. How exciting can that be? Well, it's actually a pretty good movie. A lot of action and a lot of thoughtfulness, and Danny DeVito selling aluminum siding in Baltimore, of all places. But really good movie about the trials and tribulations of going door to door, trying to hustle Sam and Sarah, the homeowners, to decide who to pick, and all the crazy antics and tactics that the shady side of sales can bring into people's lives.
The next one is not necessarily a sales movie, but it is a great movie about progress and change. And I'm a huge Bill Murray fan, and it stars Bill Murray, and the movie is What About Bob? And Bob is a guy who's a little bit of a mental defective at a level and emotionally unaware about some things. Hilarious movie, also very heartwarming, and it's just a really, really good, fun, make-you-think-about-people-and-have-a-lot-of-empathy movie. So I highly recommend What About Bob.
The next one is actually a documentary, and it's simply called Salesman, and it's a true story following these guys that used to run around the country trying to sell Bibles door to door. And it is just brutal to watch the good and the bad of these people, and to listen to all the challenges and all the decisions that they have to make, and how some people will do any and everything to sell a Bible in somebody's living room, and how it's just too hard, too difficult, too slimy for other people to deal with. Salesman, black and white, recorded in the late ’50s, early ’60s. It will punch you in the gut, but if you're in business development, you should watch it and see what some of the world thinks you're trying to do in your profession out there, even though you never want to be doing it.
Number five, all-time classic. Most of you have already seen it, but there's never too many times to watch Tommy Boy. And watching David Spade and Chris Farley go out and try to turn Tommy into a real professional for his father's company that's really struggling—it's hysterical. And it is so much fun because it just blows apart—or really blows up—all the crazy things people think about selling, and Chris Farley does every single one of them, over-the-top, out-of-this-world, not-so-crazy. And the car on fire on the prospect's desk is one of my all-time favorite classic Hollywood scenes. Watch Tommy Boy as many times as you can.
Trading Places—Dan Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy—just a really fascinating movie about people from different cultures and learning how to survive in a world they're not familiar with. It's actually filmed in Philadelphia, so that makes it close to my heart. Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy just nailed this movie. It's so good, it's so powerful. It's heartwarming in the end, but boy, there are some real emotional challenges in it that help you think about how to get your attitude straight when you're in a place of adversity and you're not the most comfortable. Love Trading Places.
Jerry Maguire—anytime somebody yells, "Show me the money!" I'm gonna watch it. And that movie, with Renée Zellweger—"Show me the money!" All that crazy stuff that Tom Cruise does in that role. It's just a really good movie. It's a little bit of a love tale, but the subliminal messages in there about attitude and commitment and what it takes to really get where you want to go—I think Jerry Maguire is just a great business development or sales movie, and it's a lot of fun to watch too.
Number eight is Boiler Room. I've seen parts of this. I've not seen the whole thing, but it's kind of heartbreaking. It is kind of the backside of a dirty business of telephone hustling, and we've all been inundated with people that are calling us and robocalling us and just trying to get a live voice. And Boiler Room—selling stocks and bonds to people. It's just brutal. And it is like, "Are you kidding me?" Do people really do this stuff and say that crap? Yes, they do. Yes, they did. Watch it and get a little inside knowledge on how that world works, and understand why so many of us are not cool with telemarketing campaigns.
The last two are kind of two versions of the same movie. Leonardo DiCaprio in Wolf of Wall Street—and he's just kind of over the top, full speed ahead, to hell with everyone else. "I'm going to get where I want to go, and whoever I step on on my way to the top, that's just because they didn't climb over me first." Wolf of Wall Street will jack you up a little bit, but it's a little tough to take because DiCaprio is so brutal in it as win-at-all-costs.
Number 10 is just Wall Street, and that is the movie where the line "Greed is good" came from. Michael Douglas is standing there in front of his people, getting them to sell investments. And look, I don't like the word greed, but I do like the word selfish. But people kind of really resonated with that line—it really resonated with a lot of people—as, you know what? It's okay to want everything that you can have. I'd like you to want everything you can have, but I don't want you to hurt people on your way to that success. So Wall Street and Wolf of Wall Street are really about the attitude of winner-takes-all and win-at-all-costs, and it's really a check for all of us about our emotional stability and our moral compass and what it means to us to be as successful as we'd like to be.
So there's my list. Glengarry Glen Ross, Tin Men, What About Bob, Salesman, Tommy Boy, Trading Places, Jerry Maguire, Boiler Room, Wolf of Wall Street, and Wall Street. Look, if you're up here on the East Coast—Northeast U.S.—it's going to be a miserable weekend for a lot of us. Get your Netflix account out, download some movies, spend some time, chill out, and enjoy it. Thanks for letting me share my list. Take care, have a great Memorial Day weekend, and we'll talk to you next Friday.
