The Unsung Hero of “Jerry Maguire” « start me up! w/Dr. Ron

The Unsung Hero of “Jerry Maguire”

October 21, 2009 in Author's Choice
Tags: customer service, sales

The Great Dicky Fox

You might think that Cuba Gooding Jr. was the hero of “Jerry Maguire.” He did win an Academy Award for the job, after all. You might even think that Tom Cruise was the hero, though Gooding Jr. outshone Cruise’s title character.

In both cases you’d be wrong. The real hero of the story is Jared Jussim, then Executive Vice President of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Intellectual Property Department. Not an actor. Jussim hasn’t been on screen in anything else. But his optimism-spewing Dicky Fox character is the real hero of the story. The legendary sports agent who trained Jerry Maguire, and who trains all of us with what might sound, coming from anyone else, like a bunch of cliches:

The key to this business is personal relationships.
Roll with the punches. Tomorrow is another day.
If this [points to heart] is empty, this [points to head] doesn’t matter.
I LOVE getting up in the morning. I clap my hands and say “This is going to be a great day!”
I’m not saying I have all the answers. I have failed as much as I have succeeded. But I love my life. I love my wife. And I wish you my kind of success.

If you get a chance to read the full Jerry Maguire “Mission Statement” – it’s on the DVD, but right now there’s no Web site with it that won’t harm your computer – you’ll see the final fate of Dicky Fox, which never made it to the screen:

…Dicky Fox, who died on his way to a Chicago Bulls playoff game in 1993. He died gloriously, right by the B gates, a happy man who had actually written a book called A Happy Life. Taken by a heart attack, he left a loving wife and family, and a home next door to his first client. And we won’t talk about the two guys who stole his playoff tickets, right out of his pocket as he lay on the cool floor of the O’Hare airport. They were yanked from Dicky’s seats in the first quarter, and two guards kept the seats empty in tribute to him.

How could you help but love anyone who’s so consistently, overwhelmingly positive? And I find myself thinking that if I want to be remembered, even loved, for what I do, I should follow the Dicky Fox method.

Find Jerry Maguire on Amazon here.