Leadership/Business Insights from the movie "Imagine That"

“Only those who can see such signs of life are able to find treasures”

The above quote from Paulo Coelho well acclaimed “The Alchemist” stresses the point that the signs are always around us. If we can recognize, understand them and act accordingly, then our lives will far better. Often I have found that movies are a good source of motivation and the reel lives contain many insights which is applicable in our real lives. I have always found when I watch movies (maybe, not all yet some), they depict the reality of life and the humdrum which we lose ourselves into. If we look closely enough, then there are certain gems waiting to be taken and embellish our lives.

So, here we go, with understanding some insights from the movie “Imagine that”, a 2009 American comedy film starring Eddie Murphy. It centers on the relationship between a workaholic father and his daughter, Olivia, whose imaginary world becomes the solution to her father's success.

Disclaimer: This is not a movie review, I don’t have the skills to write movie review hence if you are expecting that you can read the movie plot here. The movie bombed at box office, though let that not keep you away from the amazing insights which it had.

Insight 1: Remember to have fun, not be serious always

It is interesting to note that the main protagonist of the movie, Evan is a top financial advisor ,a job which can be as serious as it can be. The pressure to be on the top and to be perfect is very high in all our work. However, it is important to have fun as we focus on work. The metaphor in the movie where Evan accepts his daughter imaginary world and starts doing childish things like dancing to please the guarding dragon etc, is an indication that fun should be an integral part of our work lives. When was the last time you had fun/real fun with your colleagues and most importantly, spending quality time with your family too.

Insight 2: Important to package your work differently to be noticed

Evan’s competitor Johnny Whitefeather has the whole company under some spell as he shares his views which sounds like nonsensical idioms filled with Native American mumbo jumbo. While, it is important to have strong content, this aspect shows why it is important to package our content with stuff which attracts the audience attention. Packaging can mean lot of things, how you structure your content, how do you deliver it, how to brand your initiative or position it to your target members. While focusing on packaging, ensure the content is solid and has value addition, without which the process will fail, which leads to our next insight, which is.

Insight 3: Air talk doesn’t win always, hard work matter

Evan gets used to his daughter’s help with her blanket “Go-gaa” to get financial investment tips. When the golden opportunity of leading his firm comes up, he and his competitor has to crunch numbers and present their analysis. Both Evan and his rival Johnny end up looking for help from imaginary sources instead of doing the hard work. Johnny tries to impress the client by talking mumbo jumbo, which gets called out as Air talk for lacking any meaning. Fortunately for Evan, his daughter ends up spending time at her friends and isn’t available, so even though he forcibly gets the “Go-gaa”, he eventually ends up working late through night to crunch the numbers and make solid analysis, which helps him make a better impression to win the coveted deal.

Bottom line, all said and done, if you are really keen to win, ensure you don’t compromise on hard work. Hardwork after all is the secret to success.

Insight 4: Family matters, focus on quality time with family

Everyone has pressure to prove at work. And everything comes at a cost. Most often, people run behind material success, money, fame at the detriment of their family relationships. Work is important no doubt about it, and there is nothing wrong in aspiring high and working hard for the promotion. Yet, it is wise to realize that all said and done, our true (invaluable, if I can add) possessions will be our family relationships with our spouse/kids and parents, and true friends/dear ones.

It is unfortunate to see people spend their peak time of their lives in making money and not being there for their kids and when they are ready to spend time with kids, they have grown and gone out to make their own lives. Look back at your life and ask this question, how much quality time you are having with your family and dear ones.

Insight 5: Find your style, don’t copy others blindly

Johnny assumes that Evan is using a shaman technique to make hit guesses about whether to buy or sell company stock, which has led to his popularity. So, when the big moment presents itself, where both are given a task to analyze portfolio holdings of the legendary investor, Johnny resorts to forcing his son to the medium to get shamanic insights, in the process, forgets to do the required analysis of the holdings, where as if he had done it properly, he would have walked off with the prize.

At work and life, we may sometimes be amazed by others style of doing things. While it is good to derive inspiration from others, one should blindly copy someone else style, at best it will give you mediocre outcome and worst, leave you looking like a fool. In business too, this becomes important, when companies try to adopt other’s best practices without customizing it to its own culture.

Hope you found the above insights useful and relevant. What other insights have you had from the movie. Would love to hear your thoughts, leave them in the comment section.

Stay Safe and Sound.