Discussion Paper: Joy
The movie “Joy” directed by David O. Russell is a cinematic masterpiece. Joy is a beautiful representation of the indomitable human spirit, and gives hope to entrepreneurs across the globe. While I found many aspects of this film exceptional, perhaps my biggest takeaway from it was the pure grit and determination from Joy Mangano to keep fighting. There were numerous times throughout the entirety of the movie where Mangano was given a major complication that she would have to overcome. The typical entrepreneur would have given up after just the first roadblock, but Mangano powered through every single obstacle like a freight train.
The movie begins introducing Joy Mangano, who is a mother of two children and struggling financially. Aside from Joy’s financial struggles as an Eastern Airline ticket clerk, she has many family issues on her plate as well. She has her bedridden mother Terri living with her that she must take care of, along with her ex-husband Tony staying in the basement, her grandmother Mimi, and her two children. To add onto this, Joy's father Rudy had yet another failed relationship and was dropped off at Joy’s house since he had nowhere else to live. This causes additional conflict, as Rudy does not get along with Tony and Terri at all, causing constant arguing. Things are looking very bleak for Joy until Rudy meets a new girlfriend named Trudy who is wealthy. As a celebration, the family spends a day on the water to kick back and drink wine. After a sudden jolt in the boat, the wine glasses are flung off the table, resulting in them shattering everywhere. While Joy is mopping the spill, she gets her hands cut up by the shards of glass. As her family is bandaging her hands after, she gets hit with a wave of inspiration on a new potential product. Following this accident Joy rushes to her daughter’s room and begins sketching out designs for a self-wringing mop. Once she got her drawings to look the way she wanted, she asks Rudy if she can meet with Trudy in hopes of her investing in the product with her money. Joy gets Trudy to agree to the meeting, so they go to her father’s shop to discuss the prototype. After several attempts Joy is finally able to successfully show how the mop would work, peaking Trudy’s interest. From this point of the movie and on displays the trials and tribulations that Joy, as well as many other entrepreneurs, must overcome if they want to be successful in the business world.
With Trudy impressed by the idea of the product, she begins asking several questions to challenge Joy. This is when Joy’s half sister Peggy interrupts and claims that Joy will have no idea how to manage everything considering she has never run a business in her life. That scene was one of the first business takeaways I got from the movie in several different aspects. For one it showed how unprepared Joy was to ask for investments on her product when she has never had any previous experience in this field. On the other hand, it was one of the first signs of how driven she was to succeed despite her limitations in this category. This scene inspired me in the sense that regardless of your knowledge in the business industry as an entrepreneur, everyone starts somewhere. Whether you have been working to obtain information about the market and economy since high school, or start your path in your adult years, with the system put in place everyone has a chance at success.
Following her meeting with Trudy and figuring out a manufacturing plant for production, Joy sets out to find a place where she can sell her mops. This may have been the most challenging part of Joy’s journey for various reasons. After trying multiple options to try and sell her mop, she becomes desperate enough to the point where she tries to sell them to people on the street. Her plan to sell in the Kmart parking lot flops as she sells 0 mops and the police confiscate her equipment for soliciting. Joy goes home heartbroken and defeated and tells her daughter a powerful quote by saying “The world does not give you opportunities, it breaks your opportunities and heart.” This statement correlates to society in the fact that it shows the risks entrepreneurs take when investing into their startups. For the majority of entrepreneurs, their startup is a failure and not wildly successful. The scenes leading up to the talk with her daughter perfectly depict how cruel the business world truly can be when you do not have a perfect plan set in place to follow. While all hope seemed lost for Joy, her ex-husband said he knew a guy that could help. They head to a large corporate building where she begs Neil Walker for just two minutes of his time, where she is able to land a infomercial next week but must produce 50,000 units. She hesitantly agrees, knowing the risk of this is massive considering how much debt she would be in if this didn’t pan out well. A week passes, and 50,000 units later her product goes live on television where it is a massive failure since the salesman in charge was clueless on how to use the mop. Trudy recommended for Joy to declare for bankruptcy since the debt was too immense. This is yet another example that shows the risks that come with being an entrepreneur with society. You have to constantly be prepared for the worst to happen, such as in Joy’s case the salesman not even knowing how to use her mop. Refusing to file for bankruptcy, Joy rushed back to the corporate building and demanded a rerun of her product with her being the selling piece on stage. After much argumentation with Neil she was finally granted her wish.
As Joy went live on television she froze until a call came in asking how the mop worked. What followed after was the most brilliant decision Joy could have made in her current situation, and that is to appease and intrigue her target market. She may have not known much about the economy, or stock market, or entrepreneurial tangibles, or business in general, but Joy Mangano knew EXACTLY what her target market was. She shot into action explaining how cheap and efficient the mop is, and has made her life easier when cleaning messes made by her two daughters. Her presentation sent mothers and home cleaners in a frenzy, leading her to sell over 50,000 units in just several minutes.
While that was not the end of the movie and she went on to have great success after having many other tough obstacles to face, I would consider it the climax of the movie. This part of the movie truy made me realize the similarities in the film, and what we have discussed in class. For example, in class one day we discussed how although the capitalist system is flawed in certain aspects, it is our best option in terms of economic freedom for all to have a chance at success. Joy Mangano is a perfect example of this, as she was just an average struggling citizen who had limited knowledge in the business world, yet made it big through pure determination. Another similarity is that in class we have discussed the importance of price and value to the customer. Joy was able to tie together how valuable the product could be to customers at such a low price as well! In the book “The Seen, the Unseen, and the Unrealized” there is a quote that states “Does the economy work?” It goes on to respond to that quote by saying that the economy is all around us and is what we work in, shop in, what we benefit from, and what we contribute to. I would say in the case of Joy Mangano, the economy works very well.