Jerry Maguire

Summary

Twenty years ago today, on December 13, 1996, Jerry Maguire debuted at the box office. Tom Cruise played the titular sports agent (based on Leigh Steinberg), who has a moral epiphany, writes a long mission statement and shares it with his company, and ends up being fired for expressing it.As a result he decides to put his new philosophy to the test as an independent agent with the only athlete Rod Tidwell (Gooding Jr.) who stays with him and his former secretary. Tom Cruise in his role follows the instructions and guidelines of Dicky Fox, a fictitious mentor role, that aims to create and develop something more than the typical agent-client relationship.He wants meaning in his work. He wants to feel that he is actually helping and guiding a professional athlete to success; not just representing him for the right deal, with sole purpose to cash out on him.

It is considered a classic by many. Its cast has one of the greatest actors in the leading role; the story is mesmerizing and leaves you with a very positive and good feeling at the end.It is a movie, it is fiction, but as a viewer you can parallel it to real life in so many ways. It has all the ingredients to guide you and show you a hell of a good way to pursue dreams, to remain loyal to your purpose and of course at the same time to influence and guide those around you.

It is a movie with incredible lines and catchphrases that withstood the passage of time. The two men as the movie and story progresses become very close and form a very strong relationship. When Rod Tidwell (Gooding Jr.) coerces Jerry to scream “Show me the money” into a phone, a world-famous slogan was born. The one however that gives depth and meaning in the duo’s relationship, is Tidwell’s speech about making Jerry (the agent) his ambassador of “the Kwan”—an adage embodying the combination of community, love, respect, and money; in other words purpose and not just cold hard cash.

In the movie, there’s another amusing, but touching, scene, that gave birth to another of the greatest movie quotes of all times. In this scene, the slick sports agent Jerry Maguire implores his one and only client, the narcissistic Rod Tidwell (played by Cuba Gooding Jr. in his Academy Award-winning role), to help him understand how he can help Tidwell. “Help me…help you,” Jerry Maguire implores repeatedly, complete with melodramatic gestures and voice tone. This emotional explosion reveals the relationship that needs to be built in coaching is the one that Jerry says after reaching a point where they are both stuck with their strategy towards success.

To fully appreciate this scene, watch the video clip from the movie below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1B1_jQnlFk

The quote “Help me help you” helps the viewer realize how little this Sports Agent can do without a little help from the other party. His hands are tied and can do little to help. This is a situation that occurs often in the cases of any supervisor and coach. Individual managers and leadership teams would experience much higher levels of productivity, initiative, and overall employee engagement if they delivered their own version of the Jerry Maguire request.

Contributed by: Demetris Vassilakkas