Making a movie recommendation on a Monday is almost like talking about cocktails at 10 AM, but here I am, doing what I am not supposed to.
If you haven’t seen “A million miles away” on Amazon Prime Video, it is a deeply inspirational movie, with a story of struggle and persistence. The movie is an adaptation of José Hernandez’ book, “Reaching for the Stars”, where he tells the story of how he went from being the son of migrant workers from Michoacán,, to be the first Hispanic to get in orbit
The story brought some memories to me when it gets to Livermore, CA; where the late Bill Soto -probably the best sales person I have ever met- and I worked together at the headquarters of Intellicom, Inc. The story is divided in sections, in what I think is the basic entrepreneurial and strategic process, it goes more or less like this:
- Know where you are going
- Find where you are in the process
- Figure out how far are you from your goal
- If you don’t know how to get there, learn
- Work hard towards your goal
- Once you think you arrived, you will probably have to work some more
Fairly simple. With all the credit that it deserves, Hernandez’ journey, is one of being selected. Without spoiling anything about the movie, he has to apply many times before he is accepted in NASA’s space program. And the thing with this type of process, is that they tell you when you failed, but the also tell you when you succeeded, and once you did, you still have to work hard, but there is someone there to guide you. This is the one difference with the entrepreneurial process. You will know for sure every time you’ll fail, but success doesn’t come in one big moment. Many times, it comes in drips, and you’ll have to recognize it. Small successes that build upon each other, and most of the time, there is still no one there to guide you.
Enjoy the movie!