Toni Rose T.

Tahil

MBA 212A

December 12, 2016

Movie Review of Joy

The movie was inspired by the life of the successful businesswoman and
entrepreneur, Joy Mangano. It reminded me of the film entitled The Pursuit of
Happyness. It showed the adversities of being a businessperson especially when you
are both the inventor and the seller of the product. In spite of her hardships, she was
able to succeed and become one of the most trusted inventors of the new generation.
The film was narrated by Joys grandmother who inspires her to believe in herself
and encourages her from the very start to never give up on her aspirations. Joy came
up with different inventions on a very young age and one day envisioned of having a
mop that is self-wringing. However, she does not have the ability to make such invention
due to lack of funds. She requested for a financial assistance from her father who was
running an auto body shop and also effectively convinced Trudy, her fathers lover to
invest on her product. Joy also paid $50,000 for royalties to a man who supposedly has
constructed a similar product like hers. She hired some of her workers who were aided
by their community Church. During the production of the mops, the manufacturer of the
parts located at California kept on charging them for the faulty parts they produced, but
Joy refused to pay them. With the help of his ex-husband Tony, she was able to meet
Neil Walker, the QVC executive. Mr. Walker asked Joy to manufacture 50,000 mops for
them to advertise on their infomercials. Joy took a second mortgage on her house to
pay for all the costs. Nonetheless, the initial infomercial flopped because the celebrity
who advertised the product doesnt know how to use it. But then again, Joy as a
believer of her product urged Neil to allow her to personally advertise it on television.
Jackie, her best friend, was the first caller who acted as a customer in order to help Joy
promote her product. This time, she did sell over 18,000 mops which established her
ability to connect to the viewers and potential customers. When her grandmother died,
her half-sister Peggy went to California to pay the overcharged production fees and told
her that together with their father, they have their own product to be send to QVC. Joy
was maddened with the situation so she went to the manufacturing site and discovered
that they were about to fraudulently patent her design so they can claim that they were

the inventors of the mop. Since Peggy was able to pay the manufacturers, Joy was
advised to file for bankruptcy. However, upon her thorough reading of her papers, she
discovered that the manufacturers were defrauding her the whole time. She then went
to Texas to confront the owner, Mr. Derek Markcum and told him that she called the man
she paid the royalties to explain about the product, only to find out that the man does
not have any idea about the mop being made and the royalties being paid. Mr. Markcum
was forced to pay her back with interest. The story ends with Joy having her own
company where she helps other inventors develop their ideas.
Joy has always been creative even when she was still a kid. Her grandmother
saw her uniqueness and constantly encourages her to continue her love for making
different creations beyond ordinary minds. Each person is unique in their own ways and
Joys distinctiveness is her ability to invent and innovate. Shes persistent on making her
inventions valuable amidst her insufficiency of money for capital and productions.
Her educational background also helped her in keeping track of her assets. It
was depicted on the movie that shes an accountant and aside from exceling in her
class, she also practices her accounting skills through helping her father examine his
cash flows and books.
One of the most important issue tackled on the movie was the patent and
claiming of ownership of the product. From the first part of the story wherein Joy
discussed her invention of the reflective flea dog-collar which was later on produced by
another company, to her self-wringing mop, the patents of the products were a specific
matter. Joys intellectual property should always be legally protected through obtaining
patents. In this way, her inventions will be protected from outright thievery.
A patent is a temporary, limited legal right granted to an inventor by the
government to prevent others from manufacturing, selling, or using her invention. It is a
powerful tool that afford her, as the inventor, businessperson, or entrepreneur, the sole
right to her technology and a competitive edge in the market.
The royalties were also a subject that was discussed on the film. Joys mistake
on the very beginning was that she trusted her father and Trudy so much that she paid
for the royalties without appropriate disclosure with the person she will be paying.

The payment to an owner for the use of property, especially patents, copyrighted
works, franchises or natural resources is called royalty.
On advertising her product, the primary person who publicized it failed to study
how the mop works thus, it didnt sell. However, when Joy personally demonstrated how
it functions, potential customers turned to be actual buyers.
It goes to show that appropriate promotion of any product is really a must on
every business. Even though your product is very effective and useful but the way you
advertise it neglected its purpose then the customers will never think of wasting their
time and money for that item.
In order for a person to be a successful entrepreneur, he/she should have to take
risks. Like Joy, she took a lot of risk to make her vision come to reality. She sacrificed
her time, her work and her house just to pursue the production of her invention. She
even risked to take the stage in front of the cameras and big lights to promote her mops
that she strongly believed to be of great help to other people.
However, risks might either push you up or pull you down.

Anticipating the

pitfalls of the risk taken should be considered. Its not all the time that in the end, youll
acquire what you aimed for just like the story of Joy. Every entrepreneur has their own
way of coping to various drawbacks of their enterprises.
Starting up a small business is never a walk in the park. The owner should take a
lot of considerations in making his/her business work. Purpose of the invention, filing for
patents, hiring the right employees for the job, making sure the parts of the product are
properly manufactured, double checking the finish products, forecasting and keeping
track of the cash flow are just some of the factors to be pondered.
Finally, entrepreneurs are not born, they are made. It takes a lot of courage and
determination to make your imaginations come to life. However, only a few pushes
themselves to achieve their goals. No matter how creative a person is but if he/she
gives up easily, then he/she might end up working for someone else who is more
persistent. Entrepreneurs and businesspersons are not super humans; they need trustworthy people to guide them in their decisions. As what Joys grandmother kept on
reminding her, she will become a matriarch to their familys business dynasty and she
believed in that. She was constantly encouraged by her grandmother that helped boost

her self-confidence and in turn, she believed in herself. In the film, it showed that even
her biological family had intentions on putting her down and instead, her best friend and
ex-husband were the ones who became her business allies.
The most important lesson the story illustrated aside from being hard-working, is
to be patient. Success is not achieved overnight, you need to learn form your mistakes,
adapt to change and endure the challenges ahead in order to withstand and succeed.
Sources:
Buchaca, John and Charmasson, Henri. (2008). Patents, Copyrights & Trademarks for
Dummies. Wiley Publishing, Inc.: Indianapolis, Indiana. 2 nd Ed. pp 51-55.
Tutorials Point. (2015). Entrepreneurship Development Transforming Ideas Into
Success.
Tutorials Point (I) Pvt. Ltd. Pp 8-9.