JOY: An Inspirational Movie for Entrepreneurs & Women

JOY stars actress Jennifer Lawrence as inventor and HSN superstar Joy Mangano.

The movie JOY opens this week on Christmas day.  If you’re wondering if this is a movie you should see, the answer is a resounding yes.   JOY tells the story of Home Shopping Network superstar and inventor Joy Mangano.   The movie follows Joy as she struggles to to bring her invention the Miracle Mop to market and into production, eventually selling the mops on QVC.   Anyone who have ever had an idea, or a dream can appreciate Joy’s.   To become successful Joy has to learn many tough lessons, from who to trust, how to protect her intellectual property and how bringing family into her business is at first a help and later a hindrance.

Joy Mangano at the world premiere of “Joy” at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York. Photo: AP via the New York Post.

The movie opens with the adult Joy trying to make peace at home amid the family she supports, her divorced parents, her ex-husband, her kids and her grandmother.   Her grandmother, beautifully played by Diane Ladd is Joy’s best support. In flashbacks we see the grandmother offering her support as a child and reminding her that she has value.  Later, the grandmother continues to encourage Joy as she invents first a dog collar and later a self-wringing mop with a removable head that can be washed in a washing machine at home.  Most entrepreneurs know that no matter how much you believe in yourself, it’s crucial to have support and encouragement from your family or a partner.   Joy’s largely unemployed husband who wants to be a singer, also believes in her–he just doesn’t have ideas or the drive to succeed that she does.  It’s through her ex-husband that she gets a life-changing meeting with the sales executives at the new QVC shopping network in Pennsylvania. While her grandmother and ex-husband support her drive and determination, Joy’s parents and half-sister provide lukewarm support and later even undermine her business.

The thing that makes this movie enjoyable to watch is how Joy just keeps going and breaks down all the barriers in her way to become successful.   She doesn’t believe it when the spokespeople at QVC can’t sell her mop on air.  She knows that she is the best person to sell it, because she knows how it works and how to demonstrate it to women who have to mop their own floors.   She stands up to the suits at QVC to get on the air to sell her own invention, and when she becomes the sales person as well as the inventor, the mops sell out on air.    When she discovers that the factory making her mops is ripping her off and marking up the price of the parts, she goes to war with them.   When she discovers that the alleged patent holder for a mop design idea similar to her own, really doesn’t have the right to charge her royalties, she effectively goes after that individual.

I saw the movie with a group of fellow women bloggers, all entrepreneurs in their own right.  All of us were moved by Joy’s struggles and her determination.  If you’ve ever run your own business, or fought to bring and original idea to market, then you know that single minded drive and determination is essential.  And you must believe, like Joy comes to at the movie’s end, that you are the only one that knows what is best for you and your business.   You can listen to advice from others, but at the end of the day, you have to trust your gut and do what is best after doing your own research.  That is the powerful message that Joy the movie offers all business owners, and especially women, believe in yourself and push for your ideas.  If you have a good idea, see if through, don’t believe the naysayers or the people who will try to profit off your hard work by convincing you they know how to do it better that you do.  JOY the movie offers this inspirational message making it a great feel good holiday movie.   Most of the holiday movies are heavy on special effects and fantasy–JOY offers a refreshing change the story of a real woman, a single mom facing adversity and overcoming it.

The movie is largely fact based, with a few departures. In the movie Joy’s ex-husband and later best supporter is an unemployed Venezuelan singer; in real-life he was her classmate.   In real-life Joy had three children, the movie gives her just two children.  Today Joy Mangano successfully sells her inventions on HSN from handbags with organizational pockets to foldable hangers.  She is worth an estimated 50 million.   What does Joy think of the movie?  “I hope it inspires and delights and it brings happiness and so much more to everybody that sees this movie. I think it’s going to be a multitude of emotions, and if it inspires anybody to say ‘I can do anything,’ that’s a really good thing.” said Ms. Mangano in an interview recently published in People magazine.