In light of the recent events happening in the United States, as well as the worldwide political situation (i.e. Italy and the brain-washer Salvini fighting against African immigrants), no movie has been more contemporary to watch nowadays than the empowering “Hidden Figures” (2016), the incredible untold story of the mathematician Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), the programmer Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and the engineer Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae), an African-American trio that crossed all gender and race lines, whose intelligence and stubbornness turned out to be essential for one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of the astronaut John Glenn into the orbit.
This movie is based on the non-fiction homonymous book written by Margot Lee Shetterly, set in the America of the early ’60s, this movie shows how these three sharp-minded women are subject to racial and gender discrimination by a racist and sexist system that humiliates them and denies them to thrive.
Apart from being an extremely well-done movie (with great actors, costumes, topics and color grade), it also inspires and empowers you in so many ways, giving you invaluable take-home points applicable in pretty much every aspect of your life, helping you to be a better human being, a better employer, a better employee, a better partner, and a better parent.
Here are 12 ****life lessons that I have learned from this movie.
Don’t let others decide who you should be
“You are married and have two children, you should only be a housewife, so don’t you dare applying for that job or that university degree”, “You are gay! You shouldn’t be working here”, “You really think you are going to be a doctor if your A levels suck?”, “Sluts behave the way you do”, “You are too old for this”, “You are black, I will arrest you on suspicion grounds”.
Discrimination comes in all forms: gender, race, politics, religion, sexual orientation, marital status, and many others.
This is due to the society we live in that likes to put labels on you, throw you in a box and define who you are and what you do: only a housewife, only an employee, only a black person. It expects you to behave and live according to the prejudicious label assigned to you.
So the best thing you can do is to prove them wrong. You are more than a label, first and foremost you are a person, you are you! It is up to you to decide who you want to be, living your life playing with your own rules.
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right hook
Apart from being a marketing strategy, the homonymous book by Gary Veynerchuck gives a good insight on how to gain trust with your clients in the noisy and overcrowded environment of social media, but the same concept has been applied by the main character in this movie: gaining trust and respect in a racist and sexist system with a jab, jab, jab, right hook technique.
A jab is a quick, sharp poke, which is usually harmless, but in this book it has a metaphorical meaning: small doses of free content that create engagement, triggering an emotional response; a right hook is technically the proper punch that knocks someone out, in this book it is seen as the content that aims to sell and self-promote.
In other words, if you were to create a Youtube channel with lots of free valuable content for your audience, you will create a community that likes you and trusts you (these are the “jabs”), and if you were to release a course/product asking those people to pay for it, the chances are that they will pay for it (this is the “right hook”). This is because you have gained their trust with the previous small free doses before asking them to pay for something.
Although this concept is not really apparent in “Hidden Figures” I think it is well applicable to it. Katherine Johnson was simply hired to triple check some (flawed) calculations, and by taking advantage of some subtle opportunities to show what she was capable of she gained the trust and the respect of her peers, debunking the ideology of white males supremacy and giving the right hook proving that she could send a living human being in the orbit.
Let your work speak for yourself
In other words, be humble! There is nothing worse and more annoying to brag and “over-sell” yourself. It might put your listener in an uncomfortable position as it might make them feel inferior as well as giving the impression of being annoyingly egocentric. Instead, let your actions speak for your ideals, and let your work speak for your skills, they are a better business card than your words.
Show your teeth
There is no doubt that kindness is always the best approach for a happy life and to maintain good social relationships. However, sometimes people can take advantage of your kindness and manipulate you for their own purposes.
So be assertive, let other people know where they stand with you. And if they still don’t get your point, don’t be afraid to show your teeth. This will make them understand that you know your rights and your worth and you are not afraid to fight for them.
If Nothing Changes Nothing Changes
This is my probably one of my favourite sentences, and it is linked to Newton’s first law:
“Unless acted on by an outside force, an object at rest, stays at rest; and unless acted on by an outside force, an object moving with uniform velocity continues to move at that velocity.” – Isaac Newton
So, in other words, things will stay the way they are unless an outside force tampers their actual state.
If things are not going as planned, or if you think they would be better off if done differently then try to change them, even if that means going against what the society thinks is right and should remain unchanged, and this also means that sometimes it OK to break the rules.
Think about how women worked their way up fighting for their right to vote, to study and to work; the LGBT community gaining their right to love, marry and create a family of their own, the BAME group to be accepted in a western world, the factories producing waste materials causing cancer being closed, the awareness of climate change and all the things that could be done and avoided to stop it. These are some of the achievements that we made because someone dared to speak up, break the rules created by a cancerous society, go against the system, and fight for what they believed in.
Focus on what you can control
“I changed what I could, and what I couldn’t, I endured.” – Dorothy Vaughan
There may be more things out of your control that get in the way of your goals, and this might result in an overwhelming sensation that defeats your motivation to go on and fight for your ideals. The best thing you can do is to focus on the things that you can change and control in order to indirectly influence the things you cannot control: like focusing more on your professionalism, your work and your attitude.
This can be appreciated in Hidden Figures too. These very bright, talented women cannot change the color of their skin, neither the fact that they were born with a uterus, and for these reasons they were subject to discrimination and humiliation: black women employees had a separate building, they had to stand in a separate line when greeting the astronauts, Katherine had to walk more than half a mile to go to the bathroom as there were no “colored bathroom” in the building she was working in and she had to drink from a different coffee pot. Instead they focused on they things they could control and worked so much so that their work could not pass unnoticed anymore.
“Sometimes, she knew, the most important battles for dignity, pride, and progress were fought with the simplest of actions.”
Don’t be scared to be the first
One of the best scenes in the movie is when the engineer Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae) needed the judge approval to attend certain classes which were not accessible to her for her skin color and her gender. She convinced the judge with the following speech:
“I plan on being an engineer at NASA, but I can’t do that without taking them classes at that all-white high school, and I can’t change the color of my skin. So I have no choice, but to be the first.” – Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae)
Here’s the scene:
METTI YOUTUBE
So, the take-home message here is: dare to be the first, no matter how hard your challenge is.
Never take “No” for an answer
Failure is inevitable, and you can read the article I wrote on it here, and there is always a way to obtain a “yes”. Never stop believing in what you can achieve, don’t doubt about your skill and your worth, you might have hundreds of now, and you might even question whether it is worth still continuing pursuing your dreams; keep improving, keep modifying your strategy and you will get where you want to be. In this way you will train your mind to be goal oriented, constantly thinking of a solution and not being daunted by obstacles that might get in your way. You need those “No’s” to grow and to develop “immunity” to discouragement whenever doors are shut at you., so you can rise up stronger and more determined as before.
Flying Geese
Geese are role models when it comes to leadership and team support, and we can’t but learn from them.
Geese help each others in many ways, but the two main ones I am impressed about and are applicable in this movie are the followings: when they fly they honk to encourage and motivates the ones in front of them to keep up; The flapping wings of the goose in front creates an uplift for the one that follows, helping them reach greater distance with little efforts. These lessons show us the importance of staying together, the importance of the group and the importance to motivate and encourage your peers.
Small actions create a strong sense of belonging
There is nothing worse than finding yourself in a place where you don’t feel part of it, especially if you are new in that environment. I have been in that place, multiple times: new house, new neighborhood, new school, new classes, new employer, and especially in a work-related environment I found that my productivity was cut off by 80% and I really struggled to show my real worth and value.
In those cases very small gestures of my colleagues unlocked me from my mental prison immediately. And those gestures were just as simple as asking “Do you want a coffee?” or “I am going for lunch in the bar next door, wanna join?”.
So, it’s not a pay rise or being in the profession you love that makes the sense of belonging (although they help), but it is the community around your workplace (or whatever environment you want this concept to applicable to) that create the sense of belonging that can put our mind at ease and boost your productivity and happiness, and this comes from very small actions.
Always be updated
If you want to thrive in something you can’t afford to stay behind. Things change quickly and you must be constantly updated in what you do. This is the only way to be indispensable for others and not risking to be replaced by either someone else with better, updated skills or a machine (as it can be seen in the movie).
Coffee is always behind great minds
Quite self-explanatory, and people who know me do realize how much I am addicted to coffee as it is my personal secret to be more productive. So yes, coffee is always behind great minds and great projects.