5 Awesome Success Lessons From Stupid Characters in Disaster Movies

If your life was a disaster movie, which character would you be? Would you be the brave, smart, proactive hero or heroine, or would you be one of the other idiots who always seem to populate these films?

Whatever your answer, you may still be able to learn a lot from this big budget popcorn films…

For some reason, I’ve been on a disaster movie kick recently. Turns out, there isn’t really any need to watch more than one because they’re all pretty much the same movie. Bad things happen, stuff breaks, many people die, and somehow some crazy plan saves the day in the end.

Here are a few examples of famous disaster movies, old and new: The Towering Inferno, Titanic, Earthquake, Armageddon, Deep Impact, Twister, The Poseidon Adventure, 2012, Airport, War of the Worlds, Volcano, and Starflight: The Plane That Couldn’t Land (a movie I fondly remember from when I was 8 years old, which I am sure if I watched now would understand to be truly, truly awful…).

I enjoy watching these movies, but every time I do I want to yell and throw stuff at the screen because so many characters do so many stupid things.

Rather than smashing my own entertainment system (which would be a disaster in its own right) I decided to write a blog post about what we can all learn from the stupid characters in these movies.

Every disaster movie has the same stereotypical characters in it. I’ve listed the five most common below. When disaster strikes your life (DING Happens!), big or small, which character do you most resemble…?

1) The Poor Economist

The Economist likes to gamble based on risk and reward. The Poor Economist, sadly, does a very bad job of assessing those risks and rewards.

Just about every disaster movie has a Poor Economist. Rather than caring about long term consequences, the Poor Economist focuses only on short term gain.

For a disaster movie to happen, someone in charge has to care more about something superficial than about safety. In Titanic, there were not enough life boats because they would make the deck look cluttered. In the Towering Inferno, people were not evacuated because it would look bad for the party.

Usually, the issue is short term monetary gain vs. long term safety. Dumb, dumb, dumb. When you don’t keep on eye on the long term, you set yourself up for some serious failure.

Lesson: In your own life, the issue of “safety” may not be a life or death thing (I hope not!), but it’s relevant in other, more subtle ways:

• Safety may mean saving up money for an emergency fund instead of buying the coolest looking clothes.
• Safety may mean building a strong network of friends you support and stay in touch with, instead of just calling on them when you need something.
• Safety may mean taking care of your health now instead of waiting for “someday.”

Choosing short term gain over long term consequences is a fast track to long term misery and suckitude.

This is not to say that it always either/or. It is possible to find paths that offer both short term benefit and long term gain.

The most successful people use their creativity to find those options. If they can’t, they are willing to suck it up in the short term to secure a great future. (for tips on how you can think quickly and be more creative, get yourself a copy of the free audio, How to Think Quick!)

2) The Arrogant Jerk

You can’t have a movie without a bad guy, and disaster movies all have the same one.

It’s not the same actor, but it’s always some dude who believes 100% that nothing can go wrong.

If you look at it from the Empire’s point of view, Star Wars was an epic disaster movie and Grand Moff Tarkin is the arrogant jerk who assumed nothing would go wrong.

The jerk doesn’t ignore the potential problems, he just assumes that:

1. Nothing will go wrong
2. If it does, everything will be all right

In the movies, the arrogant jerk always dies. Always (ok, I suppose Billy Zane in Titanic was an arrogant jerk, and he didn’t die. But he lost Kate Winslet and his super expensive diamond in the end, so that’s worse than death, right? Right??).

In real life, arrogant jerks actually do a good job of seemingly successful. They may not be, but they speak with such blustery confidence that people assume they are. Usually though, the arrogant jerk is underprepared, has no contingency plans set up, and will basically make everyone else’s life a living hell when things go wrong.

(Note: This is not to confuse arrogance with confidence. Confidence is fine. Just don’t be an Arrogant Jerk about it)

Lesson: Simple: Don’t be an Arrogant Jerk. I speak to groups about how to improvise with the unexpected and I’ll be the  first to tell you, the better prepared you are, the easier it is to improvise. Don’t assume that everything will go just fine. Be prepared for some things to go wrong, because chances are, some things will.

And when someone comes to you pointing out potential problems with your plan, don’t flip out at them. Consider what they are saying carefully. They may not always be right, but if you dismiss them out of hand you’re definitely on the road to Arrogant Jerkdom.

3) The Weakling

A mainstay of disaster movies is the good hearted person who knew things were not right but chose not to voice his opinion (or who voiced it and then immediately shut up when he was told to). This person is usually overcome with so much guilt that, about halfway through the movie, they take some heroic action that saves a bunch of people’s lives. Of course, they always die in the process.

If this character had simply been stronger in their conviction early on, a lot of damage would have been prevented.

Lesson: Do the right thing. Disagreeing with others and creating conflict can be uncomfortable, but if you believe something is truly wrong that could cause huge problems, then pointing it out is the right thing to do. Besides, strong leaders will value your alternate perspective (if you deliver it correctly). If all you ever do is agree, then what do they really need you for?

4) The Ostrich

Nothing ever just randomly goes wrong in a disaster movie. There are always signs in advance. And when those signs come up, there are always people who ignore them.

The Ostrich is the person who ignores the signs. The person who sticks their head in the sand and says, “ah well, everything will be fine.”

The Ostrich is different from the Arrogant Jerk in three ways:

1. Attitude – The Ostrich is nicer about. He doesn’t yell or rant, he just….ignores.
2. Responsibility – The Ostrich usually has no “official” capacity in the movie. It’s not his job to keep people safe. So he does nothing. Also, once the Ding hits the fan, the Ostrich once again sticks his had in the sand and takes no action.
3. Selfishness – The Arrogant Jerk is 100% selfish. All he cares about is himself, his success, and his safety. The Ostrich cares about others. He just doesn’t do anything about it.

Lesson: Do not ignore the warning signs!! Many of the major “disasters” in our life have ample warning, we just ignore them:

• That weird shaking in your car that has been going on for months.
• The annoying pain you feel in your back that you plan on getting checked out “soon.”
• The fact that you and your spouse don’t talk much anymore and seem to snap at each other with more frequency than ever before.
• The slow decline in sales at the office that everyone says will “turn around soon.”

To avoid being the Ostrich, you must be willing to take action, both before disaster strikes and after it happens

5) The Freaker-Outer

What would a disaster movie be without that one guy (or girl) who just loses his mind at a critical juncture and puts everyone else at risk? You know the person: just as the good guys are undertaking their daring plan to fix everything, he or she goes nuts. Maybe they freeze up and take no action. Maybe they freak out and run off, locking everyone else in behind them. Maybe they just go nuts and start attacking people.

Yes, problems stink. Yes, problems can make you stress out. But I will guarantee you that freaking out will do nothing for you other than make your problems far, far worse.

Sadly, freaking out is the default reaction of many people in a crisis. What’s even worse, they feel justified in freaking out; it’s the situation’s fault, not theirs!

 

Lesson: There are two:

1. Be good in a crisis – practice calming techniques when things are not too bad so that when the Ding really hits the fan you’ll be able to control yourself
2. Watch out for people in your life who aren’t good in a crisis – You probably don’t have to worry about someone taking off with the last escape pod, leaving you behind to face a psychotic killer (I hope), but people who don’t handle stress well can:
   • Snap at an inopportune time
   • Make the problem worse
   • Drop the ball and ruin everyone’s chances for success

Anyone can seem calm and nice and reliable when things are fine. If they can’t do those things when things go wrong, they’re setting you up for disaster.

In Conclusion

First off, if you are looking for some good mindless entertainment, check out a disaster movie or two (be warned though, some of them take themselves too seriously and end up being kind of depressing…).

Second, as you are watching the movie and marveling at how stupid the characters are, ask yourself, “who would I be in this movie?” Would you be the hero, or one of the other dunderheads who gets themselves killed?

Third, think back to your past. When disaster has struck (big or small), how did you respond? Which character from the above list did you most resemble? Are you happy with that response?

Fourth, the next time things don’t go your way, ask yourself, “if I was in a Towering Inferno and I reacted in a similar way, would I survive to the end?” If not, change your response.

This is your chance to be the hero of your own personal disaster movie. Don’t blow it!

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