Inspirational Movies for Personal Growth

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We are not only in a crisis right now we are in a world of (opportunity for) self-discovery and personal growth and that scares the dong out of many people. For the first time, an opportunity to absolve ourselves from the “responsibility” of making everybody and everything ELSE first and making ourselves last is a foreign concept. Yet, we are all still a work in progress.

How can you say “I Love Myself” when you don’t even KNOW yourself? It is no wonder that so many people are terrified of spending too much time alone. How terrifying it must be to be spending so much time in the house with complete strangers as in husbands, wives, partners, kids, or worst of all OURSELVES. If you are at peace with the situation … KUDOS you are on the right track.

But if you can’t spend quality time with your SELF … you must be draining the hell out of the people around you and that’s a hard pill to swallow. When you are at peace with enjoying your own company FIRST, you are experiencing a true quality of life.

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How can you be a prisoner in your own living space? A place that you pay a majority of your earnings for each month that you have never truly spent as much time in as you can now and you can’t find ways to enjoy that space for a long period of time? The world is at your fingertips from that space with technology. Don’t you DESERVE to enjoy your time in that space? YOUR space? Where you can be yourself? If you cannot find peace at home and you don’t know who you are, don’t ever retire. Everybody I have talked in this last week, I have asked the same question, “How does it feel working from home” Every one of them said “I LOVE it” and they went on to tell me how they were grateful to spend time with their kids and family and save money on gas and cooking meals at home. I feel the exact same way. While we are in a crisis, there is an eerie peace to the situation that brings about a positive quality of life which we have never seen.

Self Love Meaning

We are not “prisoners,” conversely for the first time … we are actually FREE. We can walk around our living space and finally relax in it. We can walk around the neighborhood look at the trees and listen to the birds’ tweet and shit. When was the last time you stood still and listen to the damn birds tweet? (lol).

We can take a drive, we can go to the grocery store, we have the world at our fingertips IN our homes BUT we have no way to avoid OURSELVES right now and THAT’s the problem for some people. Do you know what a blessing it is to be able to start your car and go somewhere? To be able to get up, take a shower (I hope) make breakfast, and have money to buy groceries? Do you know what a blessing it is to be SINGLE right now (lol) for those who are single? We COMPLETELY take things like that for granted and complaining about it on a daily basis and we have a deep-rooted fear of being alone. But is that fear really “being alone” or “being with ourselves?” If you can’t be by yourself and with yourself that is a clear indication of why you are where you are. It is NOBODY’s job to complete YOU. That’s YOUR damn job and right now, you’re on the MF’ng clock.

It’s no wonder why many people die when they retire. They never got to know themselves and their purpose is contingent on everything and everyone ELSE?

The one thing that we can do is find ways via media to be inspired? I’m not sure that you will get the same bang out of these movies as I have but watch them with a new perspective because they have a greater meaning for self-esteem which is what many of us battle with on a constant basis whether we know it or not.

Self Discovery – Personal Growth – Best Quality

In each of these movies, there is a common thread of inspirational and powerful messages. Know that there is a HUGE difference between Self Esteem and Confidence. “Self Esteem” is believing in YOURSELF, “Confidence” is believing in what you DO. So a great Chef can be an amazing cook and an alcoholic at the same time. I know a LOT of people who are amazingly confident who have no Self Esteem and visa vis. I myself have been on that end of the spectrum too but I have learned over the years these important messages BY spending quality time with myself …

  • Surround Yourself with the People who Inspire and Encourage you. Do the same for them, it’s not a one-way street.
  • Build a Legacy in instead of a dash between birth and death on a tombstone
  • Be Around People Who Know What You Don’t
  • Dare to Dream in order to have Purpose 
  • Ask Questions: know that you DON’T KNOW What the Answer Will be. You are either Curious or Cynical
  • Hone in on Energy and Vibes. When it feels shitty, walk away. Your “gut feeling” and “intuition” is the God IN YOU telling you something. You don’t need a man or a woman of the cloth to confirm YOUR OWN power messages. YOU are the GOD in YOU.
  • Vision, Patience, and Implementation is the Key to a life of Opportunity. Just because you can’t see it NOW doesn’t mean it can’t exist later.
  • If You Don’t Gamble You Can’t Win. You’ve got to be in it to WIN it.
  • It’s Never Too Late to Be Who You Were Meant to Be and to live in Fulfillment instead of Existence
  • The Blind Can’t See Stop so Trying to Convince them that they can.
  • Know What’s Next and What’s Gone
  • Use Obstacles to Inspire You
  • You Can’t See the Top of the Mountain laying in the Gutter
  • Know the difference between what you NEED and what you WANT. What you NEED is always more important and if you handle that what you WANT will come to you.
  • There is power in worship but preachers fart and have problems just like the next man or woman. Never give your power away to another man or a woman as your GOD.
  • In order to Love, Yourself KNOW that it’s OK to be a little Selfish about it
  • You have the ability to adjust the volume of your Potential, you can turn it up, turn it down or leave it in the one position
  • Failing is the precursor to Winning
  • Self Esteem is Taking a road trip ALONE, playing your favorite music, playin an audio book or making yourself a Great Dinner or Doing what You enjoy Most. Don’t be afraid to introduce yourself to YOU.

I’d love to know what you think of these movies. If you didn’t catch what I’m saying about them the first time try to watch them again.  Click NEXT above or below to see the next movie

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The Matrix (original) 1999

Never Look For Someone Else to Make You Whole

You can literally take every Matrix movie after the original one and throw them in the trash because the first one was not only the best one, it should have been the last one.

I have probably seen The Matrix (original version) 20 times over the last 19 years. There are SO many incredible messages in this movie not just for the entrepreneur and self-esteem but about life. At least those who get it.

The movie is about an extremely bored tech employee who is living beneath his potential. He desperately circumvents his boredom by hacking computer systems and selling the information illegally and he goes to a job he hates each day. His life is forever changed when his computer alerts him to an opportunity to do what he has been dreaming about forever, to meet Morpheus. He deems Morpheus as his saving grace but Morpheus teaches him that he is his OWN saving grace by telling him “You’ve been looking for me, But I’ve been looking for you my entire life.”

The original Oracle was played by Gloria Foster who was in the first two movies but the legendary actress died from complications of Diabetes before the third movie could be completed and she was replaced by a miscast. What black person could not relate to her character in the first movie? We’ve seen this woman growing up hundreds of times. The best exchange between her and Neo? In the kitchen in the projects: “Don’t worry about the vase.” Neo, “What vase?” He turns and knocks it over, “That one” He apologizes profusely for breaking it and she says “I said don’t worry about it” then she says “What’s really going to bake your noodle is would you have broken it if I hadn’t said anything?” In other words how much do you listen to what other people say to determine who you are and what you will do?

One of the other favorite scenes is when Neo is in the car and Trinity is trying to remove the bug from his navel but Switch offers a negative response and tells him “It’s our way or the highway.” Neo is about to walk away from an opportunity when Trinity interrupts and says “You’ve been down that road before, you know where it ends and I know that’s not where you want to be” Neo looks at the road and decides he wants something more out of life and stays. If you have not seen the movie it is the BEST representation of what self-esteem really is and is superbly written and acted out. I’d also like to thank Will Smith for turning down the role of Neo, the movie would have never been as powerful as it is had Will taken the part even though he did do a good job in I Am Legend.

In the end, the movie comes full circle as Neo discovers the person he was looking for to change his life … was him. He already had everything he was looking for EXCEPT “self-esteem.” Click NEXT for the next inspirational movie above or below…

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The Founder – 2016

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This movie is amazing. Unfortunately, it flopped at the box office but it is a MUST SEE for those trying to build self esteem as well as entrepreneurs.

Ray Kroc is a frustrated milkshake machine salesman who belies in himself even though everyone else including his own wife has given up on him. He is made to feel over the hill at 52 but he knows he knows he hasn’t scratched the surface of his potential.  He hasn’t given up on himself but everyone around him as given up on him. He has had many ideas over the years and has repeatedly failed at trying his luck as a door-to-door salesman and now he has become a joke to the people in his small town but he keeps going.

One day, he comes across a hamburger shop owner, brothers, who want to order nine of his milkshake machines in their meticulously designed restaurant in California called McDonald’s. He can’t believe that someone wants to order his milkshake machine especially nine of them so he drives down to meet the owners to take the machines and he is floored at the great concept the owners have with people waiting in line to get their burgers and the precise way the burgers are made. This concept is completely the opposite of anything Ray has seen anywhere else. He knows this is an amazing idea … but the brothers don’t. They are content of mediocrity instead of potential.

The owners who are also older are tired and settled are extremely strategic in running the one operation just the way it is but Ray sees something much bigger. I won’t give you all the details but I will say that Ray had something the brothers didn’t have … VISION and Fortitude. They wanted to die running the one shop after one failed attempt at opening another shop but Ray saw the potential for a huge franchise. In the end, Ray ended up owning the McDonald’s brand to the brother’s chagrin but when you see what he was up against you actually root for him. SEE THIS MOVIE, you will learn a lot and be incredibly inspired.


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The Pursuit of Happyness – 2006

It’s About MORE than YOU … NEVER GIVE UP

In the past, I have actually felt bad for Will Smith. He was typecast as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s goofy nephew and it seems he’s been fighting for a long time to escape that (I have never seen one episode of the show).

Will comes through here giving a good performance as a man who refuses to believe his time has come and gone. Like The Founder, he is selling broken down medical devices and he’s broke. This is the true story of Chris Gardner who’s wife, family and friends didn’t believe in him. He ends up getting kicked out of his apartment and being homeless with his son (played by his real-life son Jaden Smith) in San Francisco.

This movie proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that hanging on to nothing may sustain you but it can also kill you. Sometimes you just have to start over, sometimes you have to hit rock bottom. Gardner lands an internship at a prestigious brokerage in NYC but the job doesn’t pay. He seizes the opportunity because the person who does the best job from all the intern candidates will be offered a job within the brokerage. He ends up struggling to no end then winning the position and his life changes forever. The only negative thing I have to say about the movie is being a stockbroker was not his passion but a way to get rich instead that usually doesn’t play out well in having a fulfilling and long term existence. Passion always comes first. Nevertheless, here is the trailer for the movie.


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Imitation of Life (2nd Version) 1959

Your Children are Watching You

1959’s Imitation of Life is an incredibly tragic movie. The characters Annie Johnson (Juanita Moore) a single mother and her interracial daughter Sarah Jane are homeless and living on a beach when a widow Laura Merideth (Lana Turner) and her daughter Susie are at the beach and Susie gets lost. She is playing with Sarah Jane. When Laura finds her Annie asks if she has any room for them to stay.

Laura says no but finally acquiesces and let’s the two strangers stay in a supply closet in her kitchen and Annie agrees to be cook and clean to pay her rent. Long story short, Annie’s daughter grows up to resent her mother and she is ashamed of her for being so desperate and needy, she misses the point that it was all for her.

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What makes this movie great for entrepreneurs is Annie makes great pancakes and waffles and Laura decides to open a restaurant featuring Annie’s pancakes. She offers Annie 20% of the business as it explodes but Annie turns it down offering to continue to be a servant to the nice white lady (this is the only part that pissed me off because even the DUMBEST person would have not only taken the 20% but asked for MORE).

It has been rumored for decades that this is the actual story of Aunt Jemima pancakes and the black woman who created them and how she got ripped off. Annie’s character didn’t know anything about business so she allowed herself to be ripped off because she was so gracious to have a place to stay and a LOT of black women, unfortunately, have been through this especially during those days and when you add in racism and the lack opportunities for black people which was much more prevalent back then she would have probably had no choice but to give her business to the white lady but the exchange o how it happened is not believable.

The lesson from this movie is balanced and knowing your value. Believe it or not, working in the music industry I STILL see black people give away their ideas to people outside the culture allowing them to profit from black culture and ideas. We are the ONLY race that does that. Here is a belief that we like to save everybody but ourselves which is often true.

The Wizard of Oz – 1939

A lot of people are completely unaware that this movie was made three times before the 1939 feature film classic. By this time EVERYBODY has seen the Wizard of OZ and I have to say that as a kid, the witch scared the hell out of me. She played that role a little too well. The entrepreneur and self esteem lesson from this movie? The Lion, Dorothy, the Tinman, and the Scarecrow were all looking for something they already had (like the Matrix) a belief in themselves. The big booming voice talking to you from behind the curtain may be an old fat short guy misleading you for his own desperation for power (black preachers). YOUR voice needs to be YOUR higher power and you need to listen to it and follow the instruction.

Nightcrawler – 2014

Your Next Blessing May Be Hidden in Your Despair

This is another great movie that eloquently catches the seedier side of LA that is often not revealed to moviegoers but it is to anyone who takes a drive at 3 am in the morning. Jake Gyllenhaal who plays Louis Bloom is unemployed and a thief, he comes across a horrible car wreck and sees photographers taking pictures of the scene. He asks one of the photographers what they are doing and the photographer tells him they sell the footage.

This is a HUGE business in LA and the right image can get the photographer hundreds of thousands of dollars. Louis decides to take the seeder route and get images of gruesome crimes. He builds his business very fast and becomes a successful entrepreneur but the job is dangerous. There are many interesting twists to this film that you should see for yourself. In this scene an aging newscaster and news director needs his help but she thinks he’s desperate too so she tries to play him. He leet’s her know he KNOWS his value and he gets that he wants. How many of us have been through this. Where in our youth we are controlled by older people who make us feel that we should be glad to have a job when in reality, they need us as much as we need them?