12/20/2023-On This Day: It’s a Wonderful Life

What is at the core of success in sales besides integrity and good character? Let George Bailey show you the way to those fine traits when you watch It’s a Wonderful Life this season.

On this day in 1946, Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life starring Jimmy Stewart, premiered and later became a holiday classic.

Why is this important to you, you wonderful life-living seller?

Because you and George Bailey, the movie’s star, share something very important: you make things happen and, thus, matter a great deal to many people.

Many themes in this movie are synonymous with a seller’s life, but one of the main takeaways – character is more important than cash – is one to paste on the inside of your forehead.

Make a date with someone you love (or strongly like) and watch It’s a Wonderful Life. It’s a beautiful movie packed with everything that could interest a seller like you – family, work, life purpose – it’s all there.

Watching it will reaffirm your belief that your community is important and should never be taken for granted. Your prospects, clients, internal enablement team, managers, peers, and competitors are your sales community and should all be valued, respected, and honored.

The movie is a great Feel-Gooder that will inspire you and put a smile on your face.

Selling can be a solitary job filled with pressure, stress, and rejection. For many, that feeling gets overwhelming and is a cause for why people leave the profession. It’s a job that can feel too dang tough.

This is why you must continually set goals that transcend the sole pursuit of commissions; you need to invest in growing your skills and traits.

And it’s also why you need to view the big picture and focus on the process! Yes, you go through a lot as a seller, but what would the world look like without you? How would your customers receive the value your company’s offering provides them?

In It’s A Wonderful Life, George Bailey gets a chance to see a world without his presence, and the revelation is magical. Imagine what your world would look like without you in it, and maybe you’ll feel better about why you fight the good fight.

The movie’s director and co-writer, Frank Capra, was an Italian-American film director, producer, and screenwriter who became the creative force behind some of the major award-winning films of the 1930s and 1940s. Born in Italy and raised in Los Angeles from age five, his rags-to-riches story has prompted historians to consider him the "American Dream personified."

What a gift Frank gave to us sellers – and humans – for many holidays to come!

Listen to Frank Capra explain how he made It’s A Wonderful Life in this 2-minute audio interview. Capra comes across as genteel, empathic, and very human when describing the essence of what critics acknowledge as one of the best movies ever made.

The enduring appeal of Capra’s holiday movie lies in its toughness. Yes, the film lets us know that no man is a failure who has friends and features an angel called Clarence to guide that lesson, but it also touches on bankruptcy, suicide, frustrated ambition, and the dark underbelly of small-town American life.

Excluding this gem, Capra was a huge success, but it is definitely his masterpiece.