John Wick 3

I came away from the movie with a few lessons you probably wouldn’t have guessed…

If you listen to the news you might think I’d come away from such a gory violent film with the desire to slaughter a small Japanese village.

And there's something to that because according to one study — violent movies make aggressive people more aggressive.

But for me I came away with a desire to…

1. Be More Professional

Bloodied and beaten, John Wick collapsed under the hot desert sun.

As he was about to close his eyes for a final time, he was rescued by a man on camelback. He was then taken to a canopy where there was a hot bath and a new black suit awaiting him.

In other words — even in our darkest, hottest moments its important to dress well.

All the main characters in the film look so glossy and are so deliberate in their movements. Their style and behavior reminds me of the quote,

“How you do the little things is how you do everything.”

2. Join an Organized Crime Ring

Okay, maybe not, but there’s something to be said to belonging to a larger group of people who share similar interests, talents, values, goals, and rules.

You never know when you might need someone to stitch up your bullet wounds.

3. Live by Rules

Part of what makes the movie so interesting is the paradox of how a lawless underground society is so strongly governed by laws.

I am a firm believer in setting personal rules, but they can be difficult to adhere to when there aren’t any clear consequences for breaking them.

John Wick 3 is all about consequences.

“Consequences.” — John Wick

It’d be a lot easier to not skip “gym day” if you knew that in doing so an army of trained assassins would come to kill you.

“He knew the rules. He broke them.” — Winston

As the movie argues — rules are helpful because they are the only thing that separate us from animals.

“Rules… without them we live with the animals.” — Winston

4. Become Great at Something

Whoever comes, whoever it is… I’ll kill them. I’ll kill them all.” — John Wick

I don’t have any interest in becoming great at Kung-Fu but watching someone be great at something inspires me to want to be better at the areas I care about.

Mob Boss: It’s not what you did, Son, that angers me. It’s who you did it to.

Son: Who?! That fucking nobody!?

Mob Boss: “That “fucking nobody” is John Wick. He was an associate of ourselves. We call him Baba Yaga.

Son: The boogeyman?

Mob Boss: John wasn’t exactly the boogey man. He was the man you sent to kill the boogeyman.

Son: Oh

5. In-Case-of-Emergency

When we’re young we don’t have as much of a safety net for when things go wrong, but as we get older we start building up our cache of guns (metaphorically speaking, of course ;).

It’s smart to build up a cache of tools: duct tape, locks, pepper spray, financial diversification, backup credit cards, etc.

Better to have multiple-lines of defense for when the inevitable storm comes.

Do these things and you just might be called, Baba Yaga.