Finding your "Flugelbinder"
What the 1988 movie Cocktail taught us about entrepreneurship and never giving up on your dreams
Cocktail (A Plot Synopsis)
With the summer of 2023 coming to its’ conclusion, I thought it would be fun to focus on a movie that, although dark at times, gives us that sunset on the beach vacation feel. Cocktail hit theaters on July 29th, 1988 tells the story of Brian Flanagan (played by Tom Cruise) who is looking to find his way after returning from the military. He’s entrepreneurial and begins studying business at a local city college and takes a job as a bartender — a job he’s never performed — under the mentorship of Doug Coughlin (played by Bryan Brown). Doug is a middle-aged bartender and clearly one of the best in the business, attracting crowds of locals and tourists every single night. Doug teaches Brian everything he knows about bartending and life.
The two ultimately make an amazing team and discuss opening their own bar — Cocktails and Dreams — but have a falling out, which sends Brian to Jamaica where he masters mixology at a hotel beach bar. It’s here where he meets Jordan Mooney (played by Elisabeth Shue), who is an artist on vacation with a friend. Jordan and Brian hit it off and quickly fall in love, but Brian makes a huge mistake when Doug shows up with his wife (played by Kelly Lynch) and bets him that he can’t pick up an older wealthy lady sitting at the bar. He does and when Jordan finds out, she immediately goes home to New York City (NYC).
Brian ultimately goes back to NYC as a “boy toy” of sorts with the wealthy lady but leaves her and begins his quest to hopefully reunite with Jordan. At one point, the story takes a sad and depressing turn that fuels Brian’s newfound zest for life and love. Oh, and you get to sing “Kokomo” and “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” a couple times as well!
So, what do a few bartenders and a mysterious artist teach us about our life and workplace?
The difference between dreaming the dream and living the dream is the action that you are willing to take.
My proudest moment in my life was when I realized that I had officially made the transition from dreaming the dream to living the dream. It was in the Fort Lauderdale airport when I was waiting to board a flight and the guy next to me struck up
a conversation over a funky pair of Vans that I was wearing (which is exactly why I wear them — conversation-starter shoes are the best kind of shoes).
Every new person I talk to is a potential opportunity for a speaking gig and because I’m not smooth the way American Light and Fixture’s #1 salesperson Del Griffith is smooth when selling shower curtain rings, I don’t typically invade people’s personal space or take advantage of their valuable time unless there is an outward connection I can see (like someone wearing a sweatshirt from my alma mater Elon University). The conversation that day at FLL went like this:
“Cool shoes,” he said.
“Thanks. They’re my stage shoes,” I said back.
“Stage shoes? What do you do for a living?” he asked.
“I’m an author and speaker. I talk about the workplace and life lessons we can learn from ’80s pop culture. Mainly the movies. I’m heading to Washington, D.C., to deliver a keynote on leadership lessons from ’80s movies.”
There was a longer-than-normal pause as he looked at me with a mix of surprise, disbelief, and amazement. He laughed and then said, “Excuse my French, but how the fuck did you pull that off? Talking ’80s pop culture for a living? Kudos, my man. I can’t wait to tell my wife that all my movie-quote knowledge might have a career outlet, after all.”
I was officially living the dream. Someone else wanted to do what I did for a living. How many people can say that? When I got to my hotel room after the flight, I reflected on that brief conversation, and I cried.
For the previous two years, I had worked a full-time corporate marketing job that required 50-60 hours a week in the office as well as some pretty extensive travel. What little free time I had at night and on weekends, I spent writing and self-publishing my first book, building a website, creating my ’80s pop culture brand, and developing the content that would eventually influence the keynotes that I deliver today.
This is the part that no one sees. At some point, you may have seen the image of the iceberg with only the tip visible above the water and it says something like “what people see” and then says something like “success” or “freedom and flexibility.” The rest of the iceberg (around 95% of it) is below the water line and it says “what you don’t see” and it’s things like “sacrifice,” “risk,” “failure,” “persistence,” “disappointment,” “fear,” and “lack of sleep.” It was a crushing existence that lasted about 20 months with absolutely no guarantee that anyone would care enough about what I was building to actually pay me for it. That’s the scariest part about launching an entrepreneurial enterprise — not knowing if anyone will really care. But when they do, it is exhilarating. And they did!
All Hail the Flugelbinder
I had discovered my flugelbinder. Flugelbinder, you ask?
There’s a great 90-second scene in Cocktail in which Jordan and Brian are sitting at a table at an outside bar. As a quick refresh, their conversation centers around the millionaires “sitting” at their table in the form of the products around them — toothpicks, ashtrays, drink umbrellas, and the plastic tip on his shoelaces, which Jordan refers to as “flugelbinders.” The cliffnotes of the entire conversation are summed up below:
Brian: “We sit here surrounded by millionaires.” That line is followed by possibly the first cinematic reference to what we now call a side hustle:
Brian: “You know, you get a bar job to keep your days free for your real gig. Days get shorter and shorter. The nights get longer and longer. Before you know it, your life is just one long night with a few comatose daylight hours.” He chuckles and says, “Stop feeling so sorry for yourself, Flanagan.”
Jordan, reaching out and grabbing Brian’s hand: “Hey, your flugelbinder is out there just waiting to be discovered.”
Brian: “You think so?”
Jordan: “I know so.”
It’s an absolutely amazing look into the always-on, imaginative-and-confident yet frightened-and-terrified mind of dreamers who seek to take action. In a high school or college business class, they might call them entrepreneurs. Most of us have probably heard the phrase “If you’re going to talk the talk, you’ve got to walk the walk.” Brian was at the talking stage, which is a place where so many people get stuck (and that’s totally understandable). Life has a way of getting in the way. It’s why, in my interpretation, someone I reference a lot — Henry David Thoreau — said, “The mass of men [people] lead lives of quiet desperation.” And he said this all the way back in the 1840s.
And during a similar time, Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “Alas for those that never sing, but die with all their music inside them.” Getting to the walking stage — that is to say, doing what you’ve been talking about — is not easy and it takes a full-on self-commitment and, more importantly, the loyal support of those around you. (And, yes, this can even mean your dog. My dog Bodhi supports me unconditionally and believe me, it helps tremendously.) Brian does eventually move to the walking stage, with the support of Jordan and a very dark and unfortunate incident that helps him find his way out of his talking spiral and into taking action on his dream.
The Flugelbinder Five
So, when we reflect back on that super-simple 90-second “flugelbinder” scene we learn:
Successful people are all around you.
You do what you have to do to get to what you want to do.
For a dream to become reality, you need to take action.
Encouragement doesn’t cost a thing.
Do the thing.
Five life and workplace lessons in 90 seconds, which is about the same time it took Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte to drop 10 F- Bombs in the 1982 cop-buddy classic, 48 Hours.
Now go, dear reader, and discover your flugelbinder! Get yourself a Jordan or Bodhi to encourage and support you along the way. You are going to need it, but when that dream becomes a reality, there is no other feeling like it in the universe. The best way to describe it in ’80s terms is from the theme song to the TV show, The Greatest American Hero:
“Believe it or not, I’m walking on air. I never thought I could feel so free. Flying away on a wing and prayer ... Who could it be?
Believe it or not, it’s just me ...”
It’s time to walk the talk, my friends. Get out there. Fly free.
Stay Rad Everybody!
Very inspiring in light of my recent venture out on my own too. Thanks for posting this Chris!