** Joy Discussion Paper**
There are many trials and tribulations that entrepreneurs encounter throughout their journey. There are multiple heartaches, hard decisions, and tough times that can potentially breed success. Joy presented many examples of this throughout the film.
Throughout Joy’s early childhood majority of her family members would rather have seen Joy as an unemployed, desperate housewife that is barely making ends meet, rather than becoming a successful entrepreneur. She had to beat many of the usual startup hurdles to be successful. After a long forty-year battle and finally reaching the top and feeling untouchable at the end of the film, Jennifer Lawrence playing the character of Joy let her life experiences do the talking, and those memories begged the question, “was the success worth it?” All the financial and bankruptcy disruptions were one thing, but Joy showed what truly agitates entrepreneurs and sticks in their hearts is after you pour your time, support, and efforts there are always individuals who come out of the woodwork to impose that they arbitrarily are owed something. In Joy's case, her father, half-sister, and the father’s new girlfriend filed a lawsuit against Joy for control of ownership after Joy secured success before her family's brute efforts to sabotage it. Her magic mop had value that would separate her from everyone around her, that value would increase the volume of product and consumer exchange. This aspect of society is something seen more often than not today. We see many upcoming entrepreneurs faced with many unfortunate circumstances.
But those circumstances trickle over into society and lessons can be learned from them. The lemonade principle can be applied to our everyday lives in society and within the film. The lemonade principle refers to an effective entrepreneur’s ability to embrace disruptions and turn unexpected or detrimental circumstances into profit. Joy was presented with many challenges along her journey to becoming very successful. From going door to door trying to market her new innovative miracle mop, to going in front of a K-Mart shopping center selling to customers on their way to their vehicles. Joy was trying absolutely everything in her power to find a product that would fit a market that was unheard of at the time.
Entrepreneurship in society is greatly intertwined and lessons can be learned from them that were shown throughout the film as well. As an upcoming business owner in today's time, there is a culture in that people do not want to see you succeed. In the film, this lesson intentionally set Joy back years as it does most entrepreneurs that we see today because we want everyone we are surrounded by to see our vision and be completely on board with it. As well as have a team that is pulling for the company that we cherish so dearly. Sure, entrepreneurs have their great supporters and enablers but there are also more inner and outer parties than we think praying for the downfall of one's business, largely because they will no longer need them; they will need you.
This behavior happens in society so often that it comes from all directions as Joy’s half-sister when given the chance to be a company representative completely where she undermined Joy with her manufacturers who stole her product designs, while her sole supplier largely increased the price so it would be cost prohibitive for her to sell her innovative Miracle Mop on a national scale, and her father, who was played by De Niro, went back and forth as a supporter of Joy’s vision and the next day he was an adversarial crank. The ultimate but sad truth of the film spelled out: as a broke unemployed housewife, Joy needed all of them. In other words, they were all on top and she was on the bottom. If she succeeded with her product she would now be higher on the “food chain” for lack of better terms and her family would be at the bottom. It is our innate human nature to want to be on top and see others beneath us and no matter how much this stifles entrepreneurs, they need to understand this truth and not take it personally and learn to rapidly move on without the people who are not one hundred percent supporting the company to succeed.
Although sometimes the people surrounding you do not want to see you succeed, you may have to do things for yourself. If you want to hit a home run and create a new and profitable market as Joy did, it is best to gather feedback, ask for advice, and then do what you think is right, not what you were told by experts, employees, or friends. Although Bradley Cooper's character in the film had great intentions and gave the impression of a very smart and competent QVC executive to help Joy as a rising entrepreneur, he was very wrong in his approach to selling the Miracle Mop on television. QVC had become successful by selling gemstones and fitness equipment with hired television salesmen; they did not know how to market a mop. The only person who would know how to market a mop would be Joy herself. It was obvious that Joy was going to be successful when she told him he was wrong and stated, "I got to sell my own mop". Her family and friends were not equipped for adversity and were honestly her informal board of advisors. They were all disasters and had horrible advice except for her ex-husband and best friend. It is evident in the film and even in today’s society that there are people who are there to support and aid not so much to give advice.
The interactions between entrepreneurs and society are simple. Entrepreneurs have the ability to thrive in the chaos and dysfunction and soon create the friction that is necessary to build something great and of high value from virtually nothing. It is difficult to come to the conclusion that Joy would have made it as far as she had without her hopeless songwriting ex-husband and deranged father living in her basement, her mother living upstairs addicted to Soap Operas, and still, effortlessly fighting with the father, three small children below the age of eight, a loud open gun range next to where her Miracle Mop design originated, her lights getting cut off for late payments and constant plumbing, all of these “lemons” gave her the incentive to create a solution for a problem and the Miracle Mop was the answer. It is evident that there is a time and place for organization and management in a company but both are factors that can be a real detriment when launching a new idea.
