Went to see “Slumdog Millionaire” yesterday afternoon and it was packed.

This movie is one that can educate on so many levels and it was one of the best movies that I have seen in a long time, and I believe it has some lessons to teach entrepreneurs…

I know that it is NOT even close to seeing this squalor and filth in real life.  Watching the movie we don’t smell the sewage, feel the burning heat and cold rain, experience the bites of the flies and bugs, or withstand the terror that these millions of people experience every day.  The attack on the slum at the beginning that changed the lives of the main characters was brutal, random and senseless.

Yet they were able to roll with the punches and find ways to make enough money to live, by finding opportunities…

We are blessed to live in a world with abundant opportunity.  Everyone reading this has access to a computer and thus to the combined knowledge of the world.  Today we can communicate at the speed of light with people around the globe and the infrastructure is in place to deliver products to almost anyplace on the globe.

There is no excuse that any of us can make to feel sorry for ourselves.  I saw another movie years ago that hit me in the same way, “Life Is Beautiful”, and it involves a young boy and his father stuck in a Nazi concentration camp and the incredible strength of the father to help his son cope.

Some movies, like these two, make me feel so blessed to have been born at this time, in this place.  Of course it is not perfect, but 99.99% of all human beings who have ever lived would welcome the conditions that we complain about. 

If you haven’t seen Slumdog Millionaire, go see it before it leaves the big screen.  And stay to watch the end credits…

Happy New Year to all of you reading, and I wish you a Prosperous and Opportunity-filled 2009!

Seize the Day,

Rob Northrup

Is Your Corporation Protecting You?