Quotes And Leadership Lessons From The Lost City

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The Lost City is surprising audiences. I wasn’t sure what to expect when Pamela and I went to the Cinema Carousel to watch the movie.

It looked interesting with Sandra Bullock as Loretta and Channing Tatum as Alan (and Dash the cover model). The movie excelled at the laughs. Our theater couldn’t withhold their laughter. The humor was the best part of the movie.

What is the premise of The Lost City? Loretta is a romance novel writer. She inserts herself as a character, Angela. Alan is a goofy male cover model (think Fabio), which Loretta’s character Dash is based on.

Channing Tatum and Sandra Bullock in The Lost City

Loretta is kidnapped after attending a book launch party (should I be scared for mine?!?). Alan sees the kidnapping. He decides he will be a hero in real life by attempting to rescue Loretta.

This leads us on all sorts of adventures. And romance (for those ladies in your life!).

The Lost City also provides multiple areas where we can see leadership principles. We will look at the leadership lessons in The Lost City in today’s article.

Quotes And Leadership Lessons From The Lost City

1. Social media can be hostile:

Loretta reads some of the reviews for her book, The Lost City Of D, on social media. The reviews were scathing.

Reading the reviews brought Loretta down. It would bring you down too!

We have to be careful what we attempt to read or find on social media. Think about the content you’re consuming.

Look for positive content to consume. It could be other leaders’ Twitter or Instagram feeds. It may be cutting social media out completely.

Don’t let social media become the negativity pit you fall into.

2. Alan:

You’re so afraid of life hurting you.

Alan confronted Loretta about her fear of being hurt. Loretta had previously lost the love of her life. She was trying to recover but going into seclusion didn’t help her.

Alan saw this. He knew Loretta wouldn’t heal if she continued to let her life be ruled by fear.

He let her know this.

Leaders can become paralyzed with fear over making leadership decisions. You may find yourself scared of finding yourself hurt by the consequences of your actions or the consequences of other people’s actions.

Let’s get over our fear of being hurt. The hurt will only last for a short time. The regret of a life unlived will haunt you until the end of your days.

3. Good leaders and bad leaders often have similar experiences:

Abigail Fairfax (Daniel Radcliffe) was the villain of The Lost City. His experience was very similar to Loretta’s.

Abigail had been hurt. His dreams were crushed when his little brother was given control of the family’s business. Everything he worked for was gone.

Loretta had been hurt. Her dreams were crushed when he husband died. All of her hopes and dreams were gone with his passing.

While the circumstances were different, the losses for the two characters were real. The feeling of everything being taken from them was the same.

You may want to judge a lousy leader harshly. I want you to reconsider this.

Think of how your experience may mirror the leader you’re frustrated with. The bad leader may have taken their experience to the extreme and wound up in a bad place. You, on the other hand, reacted more positively.

Though the experiences are similar, the outcomes are different.

4. Understand why you’re following someone:

After Loretta was kidnapped, Alan called on a friend he had met at a meditation retreat. This man was Jack Tracker (Brad Pitt).

Jack agreed to help Alan find Loretta. Alan gave Jack the phone Loretta used. Jack could use the phone to track her smartwatch.

Once Jack received the phone, he began to walk away. Alan followed. Jack asked Alan why he was following.

Alan had an answer. He wanted to help find Loretta.

Think of the people you follow. Who are they? What are they doing? Why are you following them?

There are a lot of wise people out there in the business world. We think we need to follow anyone and everyone who is dolling out wisdom.

We don’t.

Instead, figure out why you’re following someone. Narrow in on the reason. Then, if the reason doesn’t cut the mustard, cut the list of who you’re following.

5. Expectations may not be met:

Alan began loading his luggage into a giant truck. He tossed the pieces into the bed of the truck. Jack kept walking.

Jack stopped when he got to a small, extremely compact blue vehicle. This was Jack’s car.

The car was nothing that the audience expected. The car wasn’t what Alan was expecting.

Expectations were not met.

How often are we like Alan? We see something that fits our perceived reality. We expect a new employee to fit a specific mold. They blow us away when they start working because they’re nothing like we expected.

Our expectations can hold us back. We have to ensure we’re not placing our expectations on someone else. If we do, we’re not giving them a fair shot.

6. Leaders have to accept the facts:

Abigail had kidnapped Loretta for her ability to translate text on an ancient piece of parchment. Loretta translated the text that was on the parchment.

Sadly, the transcription didn’t provide much insight into where the Crown of Fire was located. This infuriated Abigail.

We can be Abigail. We tend to fly off the handle when the facts don’t match what we want reality to be.

If the facts point in one direction, listen to the people presenting them with a calm demeanor. Don’t fly off the handle when you receive an answer you don’t like.

Reality is reality, we cannot change that.

7. Social media can be fake:

Beth Hatten (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) was Loretta’s publicist. She had put together the book tour for Loretta. She also hired a social media manager for her.

The social media manager, Allison (Patti Harrison), began posting for Loretta. She would go to her social media profiles, create content, and then launch the content.

After Loretta’s kidnapping, Allison continued to post on social media. Some of it was silly, others were in regards to the abduction. All of it appeared to come from Loretta.

The social media content did not.

Not only do we need to be cautious of consuming negative social media content, but we also have to be cautious of consuming fake social media content.

This could be from people posting as someone we follow or content that is completely and utterly untrue.

8. Bad leaders don’t care who gets hurt:

Abigail felt as if he was on the cusp of finding the Crown of Fire. Never before had anyone been this close to finding this antiquity.

To get to this point, multiple people were hurt. Some were even killed. None of the injuries or deaths mattered to Abigail.

All that mattered to him was the crown.

We’re called to be laser-focused as leaders. We need to have our eye on the prize.

But, more importantly, we have to make sure we’re not becoming an Abigail.

Great leaders are aware of the collateral damage around them. They also know that people’s lives matter.

These great leaders are unwilling to forget about the costs related to success. They’re also unwilling to take their ambition to a point where people are hurt.

They care about the damage, if there is any. They care about the people.

Don’t be a bad leader.

9. Great leaders listen:

Alan became highly agitated with Loretta. He had an idea. Loretta wouldn’t listen to his idea, though.

Loretta had her opinion. It wasn’t going to be changed by a dufus such as Alan.

This hurt Alan. He was more than a pretty face. He had ideas, dreams, and desires.

Don’t be a Loretta.

Your people need you to listen to them. When they approach with an idea, listen to what they have to say.

Make sure you consider what they’ve shared. Their idea may save the organization.

10. Loretta:

I’m sorry I blew up the book tour. I was selfish. I was scared.

Loretta eventually realized how poorly she treated people. She came out of her shell and apologized to Beth.

Because of her past hurts, she became selfish. She became scared. This led to her treating people as if they had no value.

This is another lesson we can learn from Loretta. We don’t want to be scared as a leader. We also don’t want to be selfish.

When we are, we hurt people. We push away the people who care about us the most.

11. Alan:

This is your story. How do you want it to end?

Alan and Loretta sought out the Well of Tears. Neither one was sure if the legends were true.

Yet, Alan gave Loretta the power to choose. They could pursue the Well of Tears or they could leave the island.

Loretta got to write her story.

Now, here is where I want you to be like Loretta.

You have a story. You’re writing your story. Figure out how you want it to end.

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