“There is no such thing as a no sale call. A sale is made on every call you make. Either you sell the client some stock or he sells you a reason he can’t. Either way a sale is made, the only question is who is gonna close? You or him? Now be relentless, that’s it, I’m done.” – Jim Young, from Boiler Room.

There’s a drop of truth in every word here. “Every call is a sales call” is the type of thing you should have heard in school and likely didn’t. In school you’re taught about structures; you’re taught about business foundations. In ‘real life’, you’re going to learn about running a business. As any entrepreneur knows, running a business involves a little too much trial and error. Just about any entrepreneur, especially those still wet behind the ears, delve into the business world with limited scope. After all, there’s only so much you can learn until you experience it first hand.

Enter films.

Films are life’s cheat sheets. They let us experience success and failure without the mental wear and tear of going through it ourselves. In two short hours we can undergo an experience that would otherwise takes weeks to years to experience in ‘real life’. And we can learn from these experiences.

There are plenty of business films that can give us a crash course in business. A DIY business training program, if you’d like. According to Coach Deb, a self-made entrepreneur and business coach, you can’t go wrong with Scarface. “My buddies in Miami who moved here from Cuba said this was an educational for running an empire when they 1st moved to America.” Her personal first pick would be Jerry Maguire.

Crystal Litz, a LA-based public relations VP, picks two that emphasizes powerful women in the workplace – Broadcast News and Joan Rivers’ A Piece of Work. While Joan Rivers is the last name I’d think of when planning out a DIY business education, Crystal makes a strong case in favor of the Joan Rivers documentary. “That woman does NOT stop and she was/is amazing. A workaholic. And smart as a whip. And she got thru bad times and re-invented herself.”

If I had to hire anyone to work for me, no matter the field or business role, I’d have them undergo a DIY business training program made up primarily of a lot of good reads and several key smart business films. Hands down, Glengarry Glen Rosswould be one of them. “A story for everyone who works for a living.” The other would be The Big Kahuna, a film I would describe as encapsulate as the soul of business (and a prerequisite for any contemplating a career in business).

These two movies will come across as two things: antiquated and sales-oriented. Don’t be fooled by either. Today’s business world is of course very different, but the nuts and bolts for the 99% remain the same. You’re either thinking the same way or dealing with someone who is. At the very least these choices reflect a business ferocity we seem to have lost with our “everyone’s an equal” mantra. In business, you’re either winning or losing and a lot of that is determined by whether you’re acing for flunking sales.

No matter what your position is, it’s always about the sale. The end goal is always a sale, so you better start learning how to sell. The irony of this is that I used to abhor nothing more than sales. I was horrid at it. I hate convincing people and I downright sucked at closing the deal. That was year ago when I first ventured into ‘real’ business, where there was no safety net and no guaranteed paycheck. As the years went by, I got better and better. Now, I don’t even need to sell anymore. What I do is tell people what they need to know to succeed. If they’re smart, they’ll get on board. I’m not interested in chasing people, in convincing them beyond that first 30 minute chat. So what changed?

Value.

I developed value. I got better at what I did. At the end of the day, it’s about developing value. Developing your business is getting to the point where that value speaks volumes…so you don’t have to.