ASSGIMENT 1: JOY MOVIE SUMMARY

SYNOPSIS

This movie inspired by the true stories of daring woman. That particular woman is
Joy Mangano who is a single mother, millionaire entrepreneur who created her own business
empire. Joy Mangano is an American inventor known for such products as Miracle Mop and
Forever Fragrant. She also known as an inventor of practical household products, and she got
started with her ideas at an early age, while working at an animal hospital as a teenager,
Mangano devised a fluorescent flea collar for cats and dogs to make them easily visible to
cars at night. After high school, Mangano went to Pace University in New York, graduating
in 1978 with a BA in business administration. After college, she went on to hold a variety of
jobs while getting married and having three children. By 1989, Mangano was divorced and
living in Smithtown, New York. She still lives with her ex-husband and their two kids, along
with her mother, grandmother, and father. Barely able to make ends meet, she’s also faced
with solving the problems of everyone under her roof.

Always inventing things since she was a child, she found that her first idea would be
inspired by the daily grind of housework. While mopping up broken glass and cutting up her
hands wringing it out, she comes up with the revolutionary “Miracle Mop.”

MIRACLE MOP

Cleaning up after three kids is not often inspiring work, but Mangano took her
frustration with one aspect of it, mopping, and spent a couple of years developing a product
that would help take the sting out of the thankless task. She called it the Miracle Mop, -- the
first-ever self-wringing cotton mop. In 1990 Mangano created a prototype and had 100 of
them made, the end of a development process that had cost almost $100,000 that she had
saved and borrowed.

With a little advertising and a lot of boots-on-the-ground salesmanship, Mangano

managed to sell a few thousand of the mops that first year, with her children helping her fill
the orders. The product—whose simple premise paired durability with easy wringing—was
getting a small foothold in the market, but the next step would take the Miracle Mop and
Mangano to the next level.

TV SHOPPING
 The next level was found on TV, when in 1992, Mangano pitched the Miracle Mop to
QVC executives. It hit the air without its creator and didn’t do very well, so Mangano
suggested that if she appeared on the broadcast the next time, the mop would move. And
move it did: Her first appearance on QVC helped the Miracle Mop sell out more than 18,000
mops in less than a half an hour. But that was just the beginning, for both the Miracle Mop
and Mangano’s success. She has since sold millions of Miracle Mops and has created scores
of other products, such as Rolykit, Huggable Hangers and the Piatto Bakery Box. In 1999
Mangano sold her company, Ingenious Designs, to the parent company of the Home
Shopping Network (HSN), and she stayed on as the company’s president.

LESSON LEARNED

1. The Need For Perseverance

Unsurprisingly, Joy struggles as a woman in a largely male-dominated career path.

Throughout the film, those male characters continually take advantage of her--whether
intentionally or unintentionally. Furthermore, Joy is surrounded by stereotypical female
paradigms, from the soap opera characters whom her mother worships, to the wardrobe heads
at QVC, who ask that she wear a revealing outfit when selling her mop on national television.

Joy perseveres in more ways than one. She rejects failure, and her own bankruptcy,
when both outcomes seem inevitable. She refuses to pay for her manufacturing partner's
blunders, even when that jeopardizes her supply chain. And in one charming scene, she
changes back from a dress into her blouse and pants, to present the mop in her every day
wear.

2. You can't go it alone.

 Her father though full of good intentions, is oblivious. Together, along with her
mother (who falls hopelessly in love with their Haitian plumber), they make archetypal
dysfunctional parents. Joy's ex-husband isn't the brightest bulb, but he's sweetly committed to
Joy and her venture, and offers sage wisdom at the times that she needs it most.

Joy lets her own romantic life fall by the wayside, which is a common trope in the
entrepreneurial experience. Still, she isn't alone: Whether intentionally or not, her family
members help her to achieve small (and ultimately, very big) measures of success.

3. The Importance of Imagination

As a kid, Joy had a wild imagination, but it got lost along the way when marriage and
kids and bills became the priority. When she has an epiphany about a self-ringing mop,
though, she trusts her gut and does whatever it takes to get her product made. She goes into
debt and mortgages her mom’s house, not the wisest financial decisions, but entrepreneurs
have to take risks. Eventually she becomes a multi-millionaire, and it's due in part to her
reliance on her imagination.

4. It's All About Passion

There’s a scene in which Joy draws the prototype for the mop with her daughter’s
crayons and paper. She’s feverishly sketching, pacing around the room, and jotting down
notes about her idea. She’s got a bee in her bonnet, basically, and if you’re going to put
blood, sweat, and tears into a project, you better be passionate about it. Joy is, and all that
maniacal sketching pays off eventually.

5. Multitasking

Joy has two young kids, a mom who stays in her bed all day watching cheesy daytime
soap operas, an immature ex-husband who lives in her basement, a deadbeat for a dad, and a
business to create. Like many women, she’s the ultimate muti-tasker, which you have to be if
you’re starting a business. Having a lot of annoying family to deal with while trying to
become the next titan of industry is just part of the deal, and she pushes through.

6. Always be innovating.
 When they put Joy Mangano on the air, she really resonated with viewers and as a
result, her product also resonated with viewers. While the Miracle Mop is Mangano’s most
famous invention, it is definitely neither her only invention nor her most successful one.
Mangano’s most successful invention is actually Huggable Hangers, which is HSN’s number
one seller and has sold over 700 million to date. Impressively, Mangano also holds more than
a hundred patents to her name.

CONCLUSION

Getting a close understanding of your consumers’ needs is critical to know what they
are looking for. Do a lot of researches, ask questions, see things from customers’ point of
view and try and walk in their shoes. This will ensure you understand how to best sell your
product or service to them in a credible and authentic way, and this too will build your brand
in line with your values and your reputation.

Joy believed in herself and her product. She was determined to do it her way. Joy
takes ownership at several critical moments that lead to her ultimate success. She takes
control over her life and takes a risk on her ambitions and ideas. She broke through the fear
and found her wings.