If you read my article on what The Pursuit of Happyness can teach you about resiliency during a job interview, then you know I’m a big fan of learning from movies. Moneyball is filled with wisdom on entrepreneurship – wisdom millennials can use to start their side-hustles. Check out these 3 keys of entrepreneurship that you can pick up from watching Moneyball.
Entrepreneurship is Enduring Criticism
Entrepreneurs push the boundaries. They not only think outside the box- they build new boxes for others to think in. This kind of innovation involves lots of failure, and with failure comes criticism.
Moneyball is the true-life story of Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt), the general manager of the Oakland Athletics baseball team who revolutionized how teams evaluate their players through his system of Sabermetrics.
What is unique about Sabermetrics is it completely went against the traditional way of evaluating talent that has been used by teams for more than a century. This new system of determining the value of a player let Billy Beane, who had a payroll under $40 million, complete with teams who had three times the payroll.
While the end result was good, absolutely NO ONE besides his Assistant General Manager believed in his system. But he endured the criticism even when the evidence said he should do otherwise, and Beane was proven right in the end.
As a millennial entrepreneur, you’ll endure plenty of criticism. Take example from Billy Beane and stick to your idea – no one else can prove the naysayers wrong but you.
Entrepreneurship is Creatively Addressing Limitations
The movie starts at the end of the 2001 season. The Oakland Athletics have just had a 100-win season, led by rising stars Jason Giambi and Johnny Damon. Beane loses Damon and Giambi to free agency the following season because he only has a $40 million payroll. Beane could have been discouraged that the Goliath in his industry had an obscene financial advantage, but he chose to creatively address his limitations with a whole new system of evaluating player value.
Fast forward 15 years and you can see the impact Beane’s system has had on the game by how many teams are using player-specific defensive shifts during this year’s MLB Playoffs. The lesson here is limitations are the fertile ground on which entrepreneurship flourishes. Millennials have responded to the 2008 recession by opening businesses, and the trend is in full force seven years later. Do you feel limited by the degree you graduated with? Why not put a positive spin on that limitation and think about how you can use your education to start a unique business?
Entrepreneurship is Going All-In
At one point or another your entrepreneurial journey will require you to go all in. When Billy Beane’s 2002 Athletics were 20-26 and every analyst and radio host in the Bay Area was calling for his job, it would have been easy for him to cave to the pressure of self-doubt. Instead, he made some trades which said “I’m all in on this idea even if it costs me my job.”
One critique of millennials is we cannot commit to one career for our entire work life. While there are of course some exceptions, there is some truth to this critique. We like to have a Plan B. When it comes to entrepreneurship, though, you’re going to have to go all-in to have the courage to beat any adversity you face.
If you want to continue the conversation on entrepreneurship or starting your side-hustle, then reach out to me at @BPucino on Twitter!
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