This whole movie is based on real events but, it barely scratches the life of Pablo Escobar so, if you want to know more about him in an entertaining way, feel free to watch the TV show Narcos. But, this movie should be a solid start.

Disclaimer: I have to note that these are my opinions, that I took from the movie, but I advise you to watch it yourself, maybe you will feel differently or pick up on something I missed.

Respect

One of the things Pablo tried to acquire throughout his whole life, and it’s illustrated very well in this movie, is respect. He wanted to be respected by the people around him, and that is an understandable desire. This pursuit for respect is met even in the last words he had for his son. I don’t entirely agree with its words but, they can constitute the basis for a solid lesson.

“If you can’t get people to like you, then you have to make them respect you! And if they don’t respect you, then make them fear you!”

If you get people to like you, to admire you, that’s a good start because you can build a strong relationship with them from there. But, likeness is a very fragile thing. People are getting influenced from a lot of places that might disagree with each other nowadays, and that love they feel for you can quickly turn into hate. It’s hard to get people to like you but, it is very easy to lose all that.

The next and the best level would be to gain respect from people. But, the way I see it, there’s only one way to make people respect you genuinely, and that’s through your work, through your day-to-day actions. Yes, you can enforce some sort of respect upon people with a stick but, that will never be genuine, it will only look like it is. Why do people respect the greatest minds in the world? They never met them in person, but they still have tremendous respect for them, and that’s only because of their work.

The last option you would have is to make people fear you. And, quite a couple of people from the past agree that it is better to be feared than it is to be loved but, I don’t share the same opinion. Yes, from a completely practical point of view, fear could be a substitute for love because these feelings have similar power. But, even so, I think that it’s best to be genuinely respected by people than any of the other two options.

Help

The movie manages to greatly showcase Pablo Escobar’s philanthropic side, right from the beginning of the movie where he’s being presented helping the poor by building them houses. Yes, he didn’t produce his money in the most honorable way but, he still had a desire to help those in need which few people have, regardless of who they are and how they make their money.

You may not be able to build thousands of houses for the less unfortunate, you probably don’t have that kind of money but, help doesn’t have to be tied to money necessarily. Yes, money can be of tremendous help to plenty of people but, there are a lot of other ways through which you can be of great help.

If you have some knowledge, you can share it for free since you never know how the information you’re sharing can impact the lives of others. You might think that you’re doing nothing but, somebody could stumble upon your work, and get impacted by it so much that their whole life changes, without any of you knowing that you were the actual cause for that change.

But, don’t help others just because somebody else is suggesting you to do so, don’t do it to get something back, do it only if you want to. Build something for yourself, put yourself in a great position, and help others out of gratefulness, out of the desire to give back, not to get something in return.

Family

If there’s one thing Escobar valued the most, that’s family, and you can see that very well from the beginning until the end of the movie. His life scaled up quickly, and he found himself in a position of total abundance but, he never turned his back on his family, and nor did his family turned their back on him.

And, that love for family is amazingly showcased in the ending of the movie where he still decides to talk to his kids through the phone, even if he knows that he’s being tracked down, even if he knows that it will end up killing him.

The family doesn’t necessarily have to be only your blood family; it can mean so many more things, it can be used as a metaphor to illustrate the people you value the most in life. But, you have to keep your values well alive in your mind all the time because once you start to be successful, many appealing opportunities will present to you that will fight with those values but, you can never turn your back on them.

Lessons Learned

There are so many more things I could talk about because, as I said at the beginning of the post, regardless if you love or hate Pablo Escobar, he’s a rather fascinating human from which you can still take up some healthy lessons.

You probably want to be respected by people but, what matters the most is how you gain that respect, and, you can only do it through your work and actions. And, once you get what you want, you can also use your power and position, regardless of what that means to you; to help others without asking for anything in return. If you’re doing all these, while staying true to your values, your life will undoubtedly take an impressive turn for the best.

These are the most essential lessons I have picked up from this movie, I hope you enjoyed them, and I’m looking forward to your movie suggestions in the comment section below.