I grew up watching my parents balance their careers, responsibilities and personal values, so it makes sense that I view success based on those experiences. A white collar job at an S&P 500 company with a fancy title and my own office with a view is what I thought success meant.
But what changed my view on success — and how to handle work and life — was classic Hollywood films. Psychological research and media studies show that watching films with in-depth narratives can teach people complex social issues and help them develop character traits such as ambition and empathy, influencing how they see the world and interact with others. Movies like “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “Boyz n the Hood” are films that teach some of the hardest lessons about ambition and empathy — ones that not every household or classroom can teach. These films may belong to wildly different genres and contain different stories, but they combine to send a message: In our careers, we will need not only physical skill sets but personal ones that will be tested time and time again.
An in-depth analysis of “Boyz n the Hood” examined how the film helps viewers understand ambition and empathy by showcasing real-world consequences of location, opportunity and choice. These are lessons that can technically be taught in a classroom, but films can be raw and immediate by immersing us in the emotional consequences of real choices. A few films that I have watched, such as “The Wolf of Wall Street,” have exposed the dangers of defining success by money and status, forcing me to rethink the version of success I once believed in chasing. When I first watched the film, I fell in love with it so much that I remember telling everyone I wanted to be a stockbroker just like the characters in the film. Being in that industry would let me reach that level of success the movie showcases — minus all of the illegal activity that is shown. I was wrong to think this way, and more importantly, here’s what I learned.
At first glance, the movie seems like a glorified tale of ambitious people seeking wealth and celebrating it. I later realized the movie isn’t a celebration of wealth but rather a lesson on how being overambitious can lead to your downfall.
Ambition on its own is not the problem, but the biggest challenge lies in knowing where healthy drive ends and destructive behavior begins.
A healthy level of ambition requires healthy sacrifices, such as working long hours or not getting a full eight hours of sleep. An unhealthy amount of ambition, as portrayed in the movies, requires sacrifices that are also unhealthy, such as abandoning all ethics or, even worse, committing crimes. Attending classes at Northeastern is a healthy way to pursue ambition — one that requires appropriate yet necessary sacrifices, such as taking on student debt. In the classroom, we are taught that all forms of ambition are healthy, but entering the workforce will give you a rude awakening. Watching and learning from “The Wolf of Wall Street” will provide you with the heads-up needed to realize good from bad in terms of ambitions.
If “The Wolf of Wall Street” introduced me to how to think about ambition, then “Boyz n the Hood” taught me something just as important: empathy. At face value, empathy can be misunderstood as giving excuses for bad behavior. The movie follows the life of three young men living in the inner city of Los Angeles, surrounded by gang crime and each looking for a way to make it out of their situation. But this movie asks viewers to use it to understand how environment, opportunity and support shape the choices people make. Watching the film helped me realize how blessed I am and how empathetic I need to be toward others who are less fortunate, rather than simply judging their outcomes or circumstances.
This is where the power of movies accomplishes what other forms of teaching often fall short of — they don’t just explain inequality or circumstance, they place viewers inside of it.
As students prepare to enter the workforce, having this context will give them the skills needed to avoid judging others they don’t know. Empathy is not a weakness in the context of being soft on others but a required skillset that shapes leaders, coworkers and decision-makers.
Before we, as students, leave college and enter the real world with the goal of getting that prestigious job title, salary or company name, we should take a deep breath and ask ourselves what kind of industry we want to be in and what kind of person we want to become. Films like “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “Boyz n the Hood” teach us that ambition without boundaries can be destructive and that success without empathy is incomplete. These movies offer something that we can’t get from the classroom: the moral and emotional realities of entering the workforce.
Netflix and chilling these movies on a Sunday may seem casual, but the lessons they offer might just be the first step toward a fulfilling career.
Kevin Charles is a fourth-year finance and accounting management major. He can be reached at [email protected].
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