Goodfellas

Goodfellas is one of those classic Italian Mafia movies, but it’s also very different from the old ones like The Godfather. The lessons you can learn from this movie are highlighted very well. Maybe one of the best things about movies like this one is the characters because they are very strong and their main traits are easy to spot out and learn from them.

Disclaimer: I have to note that these are my opinions, that I took from the movie, but I advise you to watch it yourself, maybe you will feel differently or pick up on something I missed.

Family

If you look at other movies about the mob, like Godfather, they emphasize the importance of family, the importance of blood but Goodfellas is a little bit different. In this movie, their crew is not only made up of family members but any Italians, they are united under something greater, and anyone that has the right skills and mentality can join them.

You see, you can’t pick your family members, you have to live with the ones you have, but you can pick your other family, your social circles, and those people will surround you often. This is very important because they create your environment, your social circles you spend so much time with specific people they end up shaping who you are.

In Goodfellas, because all the guys are tough and they are often in bigger circles, they influence the other guys to act the same. If your friends are playing video games and eating fast food all day long, because you’re exposed to their environment, the chances of you acting the same are way higher. And even if you’re strong, you may just be tired one day, want to relax and maybe play a game with your buds and the next day or week it will be the same and so on until it becomes a behavior and now you’re meeting up every weekend to play. I’m not saying that games are necessarily bad, just that there are better things in life.

I found this interesting youtube clip, I urge you to check it out if you want to know more about this subject but trust me, having a strong second family is crucial.

Too Big too Fast

If you get to the top too fast, it’s most likely not sustainable because your process is missing some essential steps and you skipped some lessons that would make a big difference. If you’re looking at the history, it almost never turns out good. You could see this in most guys from the movie, but one perfect example of this is Tommy. He wasn’t ready to get that big, and because he got there almost overnight, he became arrogant and started feeling entitled to some things that he maybe didn’t deserve. If you watched the movie, you already know how everything turned out for him, and it’s not so beautiful.

The problem in life and on Steem is that people want instant gratification, they want to skip steps and be at the top as fast as possible, but even if some of them manage to get there like that, they don’t know how to handle it. That’s why you often hear stories about people that won the lottery and got rich only to become poor again a year later; they didn’t deserve it, they were not ready.

And I get it, of course, you want to do it fast, nobody wants to be successful at 60, we want it now, but you need to have some patience otherwise you will just mess things up. If you take the easy path, you won’t appreciate what you have and end up losing it. In life, there are no real shortcuts.

Lifestyle

As for Henry, the main character of the movie, the chase is the lifestyle, that is what makes him happy, and it’s the same for most people in real life. As philosophers from the past believed, the true key to happiness is the lifestyle and even if I think that happiness comes mostly from within they may be right to some extent because your lifestyle highly influences your mood.

If you live the life you desire, a life of freedom, you will always have time to focus on what is important to you instead of doing stuff for others because you have to put food on the table. If you have the freedom to do more things you love, you will certainly be happier, so the lifestyle is what people are chasing whether they know it or not.

But, the way you acquire that lifestyle is more important than what the lifestyle even is. Yes, anyone could have money if they would start doing dirty stuff but it’s more important the way you get your money. As Gary Vaynerchuck said, doing the right thing is always the right thing.

Lessons Learned

Picking up a great second family that you have a solid bond with to work together and help each other succeed is one of the best ways to go in life. Make sure not to miss the lessons life and nature throw at you because they are essential in getting you ready for acquiring what you want in life, without those lessons you will crumble as fast as you climbed the top.

But maybe one of the most important lessons I have learned from this movie is to always pursue the lifestyle you want, as long as it doesn’t harm others. You can do this through various methods, but the best way to do it is by helping others while you also help yourself, doing right by others at all times.

Make sure to tell me in the comment section what movie you would like to see featured in this series because I will check out most comments and put together a list.