Groundhog Day and Small Business Ownership Are a Lot Alike
6 similarities between Groundhog Day and small business ownership
Just the other day I noted the movie Groundhog Day was on the TV again.
I swear it must be shown at least once a week on one channel or another. And if it is on, I almost always make an effort to watch it. This movie about a day that repeats over and over just makes me laugh every single time I see it. But this last time, I had Latin Business Today on my mind, and as I was watching it, I kept thinking that so many elements of the movie are just like owning a small business.
Here are the six similarities between Groundhog Day and small business ownership:
First step – Blind Ambition
The Bill Murray character, Phil, is good at what he does, is a tad arrogant, is very ambitious, and he thinks he has things figured out. He has a certain momentum in his life and is going with it. This is where I think a lot of small business people start, particularly professional practitioners (but not just). Entrepreneurs, particularly as they get started, can be a bit full of themselves and are so focused on their glorious future triumphs that they aren’t always aware of where they are right then – the first step in a long journey like a kid in a candy store, eyes bigger than their means and super-excited.
Second step – Reality Strikes
The TV film crew gets stuck in the snowstorm that Phil, as a local TV weatherman, predicted wouldn’t hit the area, so he has to return to Puxatawny with egg on his face. This felt to me like the first big fat dose of reality when things don’t go as swimmingly perfect as most entrepreneurs hope (and even expect) would happen. But at this point he is still a bit of an arrogant jerk and still thinks he has everything figured out despite the obvious reversal.
Third step – Stuck in a Rut
Forced to stay in Puxatawny, Phil is annoyed but even in his self-absorbed state, starts to fall in love with the Andie MacDowell character, Rita. But at this point the fun starts – the same annoying Sonny and Cher song (I’ve Got You Babe) comes on at exactly 6 am and one Groundhog Day after another starts to roll in. In the business context, this is just like the reality of just doing the work, over and over, day after day.
It isn’t glamorous, and it can get tedious, and compared to the excitement of just starting, it can feel like you’re stuck in a rut. And then there is Ned, the really annoying insurance salesman who dogs Phil on is way to Gobbler’s Nob (where the groundhog event takes place). And we can’t forget the icy pothole Phil steps into day after day. Watching that moment again was what really made me think this was just like opening a small business. Who among us has not had a rude awakening like stepping into an icy pothole? And then we do it again. And again.
Fourth step – Despair
As the Groundhog Days repeat, Phil goes through a series of dramatic reactions that would not, hopefully, be typical of a small business person. He acts out in his professional context, he behaves badly with women, he engages in criminal activity (because there won’t be consequences in his looping world), he even resorts to several suicide attempts, and every morning he wakes up again to Sonny and Cher. Argh. But in the small business context, an ambitious entrepreneur who expected the world to beat a path to his or her door can feel some of these same emotions when it turns out you aren’t setting the world on fire as you hoped. You might not be the next Elon Musk, Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg, but it looks like you will be the little business down the street that people like and depend on.
Fifth Step – Figuring it out
Eventually Phil starts to see that if he wants to win Rita’s heart (Rita for us representing our customers), that he has to be worthy of her, and he starts to take on tasks like taking piano classes, learning CPR and the Heimlich maneuver, helping the old homeless man, catching the kid from the tree, noting tiny details that make people happy like their favorite drinks, how they drink their coffee, and generally being nicer to people. It has taken Phil, our prototypical entrepreneur, some time to figure this out, but he stops focusing only on himself and his ambition, and starts to focus instead on his customers, the people around him, and what they need.
Sixth Step – Deserving it
By the end of the movie, Phil has really become a great guy. He is attentive, helpful, thoughtful, considerate and skilled. He has become what every entrepreneur hopes to become – competent, appreciated, a real pillar of the community, and deserving of the success he so desperately wanted.
Conclusion
In my own entrepreneurial journey and seeing Phil’s progress in this hysterical and timeless movie (pun intended), I have seen that when you want something too bad, you’ll swing and miss more often than not. You don’t necessarily get what you want by simply wanting it. You have to earn it, you have to deserve it, and you have to see that it isn’t just about yourself and your ego. It’s about much more than you – it’s about your customers and deserving their patronage, their respect and their loyalty.
Let’s make it Groundhog Day again!
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