"Roll With The Punches! Tomorrow Is Another Day!"

After a long sleepless night, which is rather unusual for me as I do sleep like a log, I mustered the courage to sneak out of bed and literally smell the coffee.

Here I am sitting in front of my computer. The windows are open - a cool breeze is blowing in. The sounds of the night, those of crickets and other insects are as melodious as can be. And I stumbled upon a webpage, on one of my favourite movies of all times, on IMDB - Jerry Maguire.

The protagonist, Jerry Maguire, played by Tom Cruise, is a successful sports agent. During one sleepless night, Jerry gets an epiphany, a serious crisis of conscience. That makes him pen down a mission statement, which implores his firm to think long term - think of the ultimate interest of the clients rather than milking clients today! 

What follows isn't any surprise - Jerry is fired! And he walks away with Flipper, a goldfish and Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger), an accountant, who also happens to be Jerry's secret admirer and at that moment is deeply moved by Jerry's "memo".

What follows is a struggle that Jerry has in getting his first client, as a solo agent - that client happens to be  Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.), a football player whose pride and arrogance hindered his path to success. Tidwell's character is a stereotypical Hollywood depiction of an Afro-Americans, but his and Jerry's frequent encounters on "showing him the money" pepper the film with appropriately spaced comic sequences.

Jerry has a hard time convincing Rod to play from his heart, and not to play for the money. Jerry believes that greatness (and money) would follow from playing with the heart. (There's message for us here!)

Rod does achieve his moment from glory after doing just what Jerry had always said - play from the heart! And he does see the money.
Paul McCartney's instrumental piece, Momma Miss America, somehow defines the sense of purpose that Jerry Maguire chases through the movie.

But without doubt, the most enjoyable comic sequences in the films are between Ray, Dorothy's  precocious six-year old kid, played by Jonathan Lipnicki. Ray is an quintessential epitome of cuteness with his spiked blonde hair and round spectacles. (Neeti thinks that as a kid I would have been a lot like Ray!!!!)
Some of Ray's quips are particularly heartwarming and endearing, like the ones here from YouTube.

And then there are those memorable gems by Dicky Fox:

Look I don't have all the answers. To be honest, in life, I failed as often as I succeeded. But I love my wife. I love my life. And I wish you my kind of success. 

Roll with the punches. Tomorrow is another day.

Jerry Maguire is a good mix of entertainment and inspiration and certainly a must-watch for all those who are pursuing corporate careers. I must confess, I have seen this movie at least 20 times over, thoroughly enjoying it end to end. Each time I feel somewhere, somehow, parts of the movie resonate with my life. And I always end up inspired.