Oh Joy, the movie gets it right

HOLLYWOOD GETS IT RIGHT with the release of Joy starring Jennifer Lawrence. The film has been described as the "wild true story of Joy Mangano and her Italian-American family across four generations centered on the girl who becomes the woman who founds a business dynasty by inventing the Miracle Mop."

For someone who has worked with entrepreneurs for decades, much of the movie rang true. Achieving entrepreneurial success is messy, demanding work that is full of hazards and advice. Consider the following scenes from the movie:

• Raising dumb money. Joy finds funds for her invention from her father's new girlfriend, a widow whose husband left a fortune and four dubious rules for investing. It's the only place she knows to go for money but the money comes with strings that almost destroy the business once it takes off.
• Getting bad advice. The money also empowers her father and other family members to give advice and take actions on their own. The advice gets Joy in a bad business relationship while her step sister's "initiative" nearly sinks the business.
• Aggressively trusting her instincts. After a failed HSN pitch of her product puts her business and her personal financial situation at death's door she insists on pitching the product herself. She gets it right and the business soars.
• Facing down financial ruin. Joy has to mortgage her home and nearly loses it after a business downturn. The stress and anxiety that accompany this are vividly portrayed.
• Working very long hours. After being told she cannot prevent her invention from being stolen and coerced into signing bankruptcy documents, she stays up all night to read through all the related paperwork. While others are sleeping Joy and calls China to verify some critical facts. What she discovers gives her the leverage to reclaim her invention and keep her company together.

In the end, Joy prevails and creates a great and diversified business. But even as she does that and provides for the family members who nearly sank her business, she finds those same family members suing her business to try and take it away. This kind of "loyalty" is not uncommon in entrepreneurial ventures.

Joy prevails again. By this time, she and her business have the kind of qualified professional advisers her business could have used earlier on.