Jon Favreau's "Chef": Entrepreneurship by Happiness.

Have you had time to see the movie "Chef" yet? if not, please check my previous post, then come back here.

Ok, after these lines you must have seen the movie. I am about to give a bunch of spoilers.

SPOILERS AHEAD

SPOILERS AHEAD

You have been warned....

I loved this movie, not just because it was made by Jon Favreau, one of my favorite directors, not even because of the fact that I am a hardcore foodie and this movie is based on food, and amazing looking food at that! It is not even Jon is able to show the power of a social network such as Twitter. No, what I loved the most about this movie is that Jon touched two of the most basic entrepreneurship principles: failure and the quest for happiness.

Jon's character, Carl Casper is introduced as a failure as a father and husband, but still quite successful as the main chef of the restaurant he has worked for over 10 years, and we seem him fail at that too, miserably. He doesn't fail when he quits, he leaves the restaurant moved by his own principles, but he fails when he is not able to take the heat from Oliver Platt's character Ramsey Michel, going viral at the same time all over the internet.

But he knows what makes him happy, he knows that making food, really good food for others makes him happy. So, with nothing to lose he goes to Miami to be his kid's nanny with her scheming ex-wife, that is using the trip as an excuse to set him up with her other ex-husband to get a dilapidated food truck that he tries to restore with the help of his son Percy.

We see the transformation on Carl, from depression to excitement. It happens quite quickly, and this is the part that is the most important for me, after all that failure, he is able to take this thing that makes him happy, he gets back up, dusts himself up, learns from his past mistakes and  he moves forward with this idea that he didn't like at the start, but in the end was his stepping stone for happiness. 

When his friend Marvin arrives to help out and work for Carl. Carl, Marvin and Percy go on a road trip to drive the food truck back to L.A. and it is during this trip that Carl finds the new source of his happiness, to cook food with his son. Cooking food alone, makes no sense for him anymore, so his source of happiness is the same, but it is bigger when done along with a loved one that shares his passion. In the end even his ex-wife joins in, and Ramsey Michel comes back to become his investor to set up a nice Cuban restaurant where he has total freedom and in the end he also finds love again with his ex-wife and they all become a big happy family once again.

I'm a sucker for happy endings, I have to admit. Just liked I said before, this movie is just like comfort food, I love it.

If you find yourself in a similar situation, where you principles are compromised, you are pressured until the point of meltdown, you fail at something big in life. Just find your happiness, find your support group and share that happiness with them, success will find you. You just have to go out there and find your "food truck".

Don't stay on the same spot. Keep Moving Forward! 

MrFD