Take Your Staff To See Cinderella Man!

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We all love underdogs, which is why the story of James J. Braddock is probably one of the greatest sports stories to hit the silver screen in recent years. Director Ron Howard did a fantastic job directing this extraordinary, true story of a heavyweight boxer (if you call 190 lbs. a heavyweight) whose commitment to his family inspired him to win the heavyweight championship of the world.

No, I'm not pretending to be Ebert and Roeper, but Cinderella Man is a movie that your whole staff should see. It's not just the rags to riches to rags and then back again story that makes this more than a swallow-hard tear-jerker. After previewing the film the weekend it came out, I took one of the sales staffs I consult to see it - yes, in the morning on a workday. When we emerged from the theater, we compared notes on the lessons each person learned:

Motivation Lesson: The sales staff I took to the movie started behind this year in revenue. Their manager left early in the year, and one of their top two sales reps suffered a freakish accident that kept her away from work in the vital prep months of November, December and January. They are facing 10-1 odds against hitting their annual goal this year, but they'll do it - just like Jimmy Braddock did. Braddock, who fought for the heavyweight championship just a year before, was at the soup lines and on federal relief coming out of the great Depression. Many people during his era related to him because he personified their own struggles.You might be behind your goal for the year, and have been humbled by forces out of your control, but never give up. Jimmy Braddock never gave up.

Family Lesson: My father was 7 years old when Braddock took on Joe Louis for the championship. He had to walk a half-mile with my grandfather to another person's house to hear the fight, because his family didn't own a radio in 1937. Are we really helping our children by giving them economic outpatient care (giving them money) beyond their childhood? In one scene, Braddock gives up his only food of the day when his daughter comes to the table hungry for breakfast. He told her he had a dream about food and ice cream (three helpings) when he really hadn't, so his little girl wouldn't feel bad eating his food. If you don't swallow hard on that one, you have guts of steel.

Management Lesson: In the harsh winter of 1933-34 in Jersey City, NJ, the Braddock family's electricity was turned off. As she watched her children freeze in their beds, Braddock's wife (Renee Zellweger) went outside to weep, out of the sight of her children. Never let your staff see you sweat - although if you're with your staff at the movie, it's not bad to let them see you cry.

Sales Reps Lesson: After the crash of 1929, it wasn't uncommon for Braddock to walk 12 miles during the day to look for work on the docks. If one dock didn't have work, he walked to the next. In 1986, when I got into radio sales, I didn't have enough money to pay for gas to drive around all day and walk in on people. I walked a mile every day for three months to downtown Laredo,TX, to sell advertising to local shop owners in 100-degree weather. Braddock never gave up, and nether did I. How many miles would you walk to get the order? How bad do you want it? What causes you to come back every day without an order?

Overall Lesson: Believe in yourself even when nobody else does (and it doesn't hurt to have your manager in your corner). During his comeback - his second chance - nobody believed in him except his manager. We rarely get a second chance; if you do, I hope you make the most of it, just like Jimmy Braddock - the people?s champion, and his family's, too.