Name
Roll no
Subject
Section
Instructor
: Abuzar Ali
: 241564678
: Management Communication 106
:G
: Ma’am Soha Naveed
Business lessons I learnt:
1. Put customers first. One of the early scenes shows Jules taking a customer call and helping
this customer get dresses for her wedding. The ceremony is three days away but someone sent
bridesmaids dresses in the wrong colour. In another scene, Jules opens a box delivered from
her own company and the wrapping is terrible. She goes to the shop early in the morning and
demonstrates a better wrapping technique. Jules is focused on the business and getting it right.
We should all do the same.
2. Look for unique staff members. At first, Jules is not happy about the older interns. In the
end, she realises that she was making a mistake and that people who have spent many years in
the workplace have a lot to give. They can be very successful in terms of making positive
changes and giving advice. She was being ageist and realised the error of her ways.
3. Have fun. Jules has a bike that she rides through the office and there is a success bell. Staff
members ring the bell whenever there is a big success. These sorts of activities create a sense
of playfulness and fun in the workplace. Startups are hard work but there are a number of ways
to make things more exciting. How do you bring in the fun, even when you are working alone?
4. Protect your relationships. Sadly, Jules also finds out that her husband is cheating on her
and her relationship with her mom is deteriorating rapidly. She realises that she needs to get
real about her relationships. Jules neglected the people who supported her, which has real and
painful consequences.
These are just a few of the business lessons I took away from the film.
Life lessons I learnt:
1. Avoid prejudices. Jules didn't like Ben at first because he was old and besides the fact she's
not good with old people, there's that other thing: in this computarized world with apps and
websites, what can a 70 years old man add? that's what she thinks. But soon she realizes Ben
has not only great skills but an iron will for learning. He's capable of learning anything he want
to. So yes he's not very skill with computers but he tries and managed to work with them. How
wrong was Jules at first. We gotta give people the opportunty to surprise us.
2. Respect older people. This one's kinda related with the previous one. Respect not only
means giving them a seat in a crowed bus or the subway. Respect means to treat them kindly
and recognizing they are valuable to society and that their experience can be an important asset
for us. We should listen our parents, ants, uncles and grandparents, they have lived more than
we have. If we learn how to live by experience, how can we be better prepared for life than
those who came before us? In the movie, Ben earns the respect from his coworkers and
becomes something of a father figure to several of the younger, offering advice about issues
such as love, clothes sense and work/life balance. And they listen to him.
3. It's never too late. In the company, Ben develops a romantic relationship with the in-house
massage therapist, Fiona (Rene Russo). He's a widower, she's divorced. They both have kids
and have come to a place in their life where many people just resign living. They don't. He, as
the gentleman he is, ask her out and she says yes right away. Their first date it's at an unexpected
funeral but they take it very well. Are they old? no, just older. They're still willing to commit
in a relationship, to love, live, laugh, who cares what other people says? who says there's an
age for happiness? for learning something new? who says there's a time to stop chasing your
dreams?
4. Keep the faith in yourself. It is possible that after having achieved success, having climbed
a mountain and overcome a series of difficulties, there comes a time when things begin to
stagnate or decay and we have doubts. Am I the best for this? Is this the best option? but when
that happen, as Ben tells Jules "remember who did that". You climbed that mountain, sure you
can handle any situatuion that comes after. But here's also very important that number 5 we
talked about. In times like these a friend, a good friend, can be a great reminder of what
sometimes wa tend to forget.
These are just a few of the life lessons I took away from the film.