One movie is about Matt Damon getting stuck somewhere he shouldn’t be, and the other is about bald Glenn Howerton risking everything into an idea that everyone had already tested and didn’t work. If you are cinema obsessed like I am, you may have guessed the two movies I am referring to: the 2015 film, The Martian, and the 2023 film, Blackberry.

While one movie was more of a wide-spread success than the other, both are rated fairly similar on IMDB. Reviews aside, they both have very valuable narratives and conflicts that are very polarizing to either film, for reasons I will get into. So get your popcorn ready and let me explain why these movies are so crucial for anyone expecting to own a business, lead a department, a team, a crew, or just be a mentor to someone at work.

WARNING: Spoilers Ahead.

First off, The Martian.

Andy Weir’s book and Ridley Scott’s film have one key detail that makes both mediums so enjoyable to read or watch. Every person in the film exceeds at their job. Each character is respected and trusted to do their job, and they are the only ones who do it. There is no character who is under performing at any part of their job, they all have unique skillsets and have found a career that matches those skillsets practically perfectly.

This is all possible in a book/film setting because the main antagonist of the story, is a planet. Sure the planet has issues surrounding water, oxygen, temperature and isn’t exactly easy to leave. Meaning this red ball of mass is trying to kill the main character by purely the conditions set forth. The conflicts of this movie largely lie with Mark’s (Matt Damon) fight against the elements. That said, there are other conflicts but they either have to do with subjective, grey areas or a overbearing time limit.

An example of this grey area conflict is best reflected in Jeff Daniel’s character (Head of NASA), and Sean Bean’s character (Flight Crew Director). They understand and respect each other’s vision, but naturally need to prioritize two separate things. Light spoilers ahead.

One solution to save Mark Watney, was to send the original crew back to Watney when they realized he is alive. The Head of NASA, didn’t want to risk the rest of the crew nor the ship they were on, in order save one man, and the Flight Crew Director believed the decision should actually be left to the crew who abandoned him if they wanted to change their mission. It brings up the simple morality question with either men picking opposite sides. And its done in such a masterful way, that the viewer doesn’t prefer either character’s narrative but understands both viewpoints and ponders the difficulty that Jeff Daniel’s character will need to have the final say on.

What Leaders Should Learn from The Martian.

People are more often than not, trying their best and being the best at the job they can be. Employees are naturally motivated to do the best job they can because employees like recognition, raises, meaningful work, promotions, and a degree of autonomy.

Sometimes leaders don’t have access to these things, nor do the employees they lead. But it’s important that in any case, employees are shown respect and the trust to do their job UNLESS they are purposely trying to not do a good job.

At the end of the day, when you trust and respect your employees to get the job done, they will come through for you. If they don’t? You aren’t leading them, you are managing them.

Now onto the less known film but a real-life example.

Blackberry

The film which is the namesake of the brand, focuses on three flawed individuals and cronicles the growth of Blackberry up to the apex of success and steep decline into obsolescence.

It may just be my opinion, but the individual’s flaws are actually the reason they succeed. And in the first 10 minutes you are introduced to each character and can somewhat deduce their flaws. Mike Lazaridis, the CEO of Blackberry (played by Jay Baruchel) is neurotic and a perfectionist. Douglas Fregin (played by Matt Johnson) is unprofessional and puts work second to fun. Lastly Jim Balsillie (played by Glenn Howerton) is narcasistic and power hungry.

Yet despite these flaws, those exact flaws showcase benefits that each character possesses. Lazaridis has amazing quality control, and when he is interested in an idea, he stops at nothing to complete it. Fregin prioritizes a fun workplace where employees enjoy coming to work. Balsillie has the confidence to sell to anyone, anything, and pushes the employees to deliver their best.

Light spoilers ahead.

So with this new found collaboration they find themselves pitching a technology that others thought impossible. Blackberry is off to the races, and you can tell that each character is contributing in their own, unique way and its driving a path to major success.

Business is exponentially growing alongside their aspirations and technology. Unfortunately, it can’t be all rainbows and sunshine because the third thing to grow starts the downfall: their egos. And then they discover the key to their success and unknown to them also the lock that limits them, free text messaging.

Not sure how much of this story is true, or if the technology really did have the limitation, but the start of Blackberry was their internal servers allowing to send and receive messages to avoid crashing networks, but the popularity of Blackberry lead to the potential of it happening anyway.

By this point, they had grown so big, each had lost their own, unique contributions. They had been stagnant in tech growth, the workplace was no longer enjoyable and lead to long, hard hours, and the soaring confidence of their brand had lead them into the sun.

What Leaders Should Learn from Blackberry.

Success is hard to get, even harder to maintain. It requires sacrifice, understanding, dedication, luck, and 23 other ingredients. Its important to recognize what people are good at, while also understanding the flaws they have may also be a contributing benefit to their work.

Secondly, growth happens. And its important to not just focus on the money, because while its the gas that makes the machine go, you will stop focusing on the other maintenance that is required. And while its hard to argue with profit, its worth noting that profit does not equal growth and longevity (see Atari, Blackberry, Blockbuster, Circuit City, and thats only 3 letters into the alphabet).

Lastly, don’t compromise on the key factors that made your business successful. Markets change, people change, and yes its important to be accommodating, but a large reason why businesses fail is because they move away from the elements that make that business, that business. And if circumstances are changing that, its important to re-evaluate.

Conclusion

Yes, its a lot. If you haven’t watched either film(s), please do. And if you have, I hope I have provided insight that pushes you to watch them again. Be the best leader you can be, and don’t be a dick to your employees!