5 Lessons from the Trail - the movie Cowboy

I recently watched the movie Cowboy for the first time. This western stars Glenn Ford (as the trail boss Tom Reece) and Jack Lemmon (as the hotel clerk Frank Harris), and I really like both actors.

I took several lessons from the movie, and here are 5 of them!

(1) The nature of reality

Have you ever done a plumbing project at your house? (I am talking to non-plumbers! :^) Isn't it always a surprise how there seems to be a part you need, but didn't buy at the store? Or how the tight space under the sink won't let you get proper purchase with the wrench on the fitting?

When we actually have to move from the theory, to the actual work, many of our ideas of how things will work out, just don't.

That's the nature of the real world.

In Cowboy, the hotel clerk becomes quickly disillusioned once he hits the trail. There are rattlesnakes, shady trail hands, and dangerous Mexican taverns along the way. The hotel clerk bought into the herd and went on the trail in order to impress a senorita in Mexico, but once he meets up with the woman at her father's Mexican cattle estate, he realizes that she has been given to marriage of another man.

The entire reason he became a trail man has evaporated. He meets the hard reality of life.

Plans and dreams are "overcome by events" (OBE). It takes some humility for the hotel clerk to accept reality, but once he does, that's where his development really begins.

(2) The work must be done, who will do it?

Lemmon's character - the hotel clerk - catches the Ford's trail boss in a drunken moment of weakness after the trail boss is low on cash at a poker game. Lemmon "invests" some money with Ford to be a minor partner in his cattle operation. Then they set off on the trail.

(Picture credit - the movie Cowboy)

The hotel clerk is embarking on the trip to impress a girl. He has no idea of the work involved with keeping a trail team together, surviving on the trail, and then once they reach Mexico, driving the herd all the way north across half the continent.

Our projects often don't reveal all their work until we are part way through them.

Lemmon realizes that he still needs to finish the project of riding the herd back to Chicago, but he is reluctant and demoralized. And Jack Lemmon is such a great actor, that our own emotions "ride" up and down with Lemmon's whenever he is in the lead role in a movie!

That's the case here - we know that riding the herd back to Chicago is going to be brutal, but the work must be done. The project must be completed through just plain old grinding it out.

(3) We may not always like how we appear to others

Glenn Ford plays the "man's man" character of the trail boss. He's a whiskey drinking, pistol toting, king of the trail.

Even though Lemmon becomes a minor partner (much to the sober Ford's dismay), Ford is still boss on the trail. There can only be one team leader!

(Picture credit - the movie Cowboy)

And Ford runs his the operation with a cold determination, which really bothers Lemmon at times. At one point, Ford throws a steel bar at Lemmon's' legs and prevents him from going to help one of their cowboys who has getting into trouble (yes, with a senorita!) at a Mexican tavern.

But then later, Ford gets shot in the leg while trying to rescue Lemmon from Indians, and Ford is out of work for some time.

At that point, Lemmon takes over as trail boss, and he adopts the same cold and callous leadership style as Ford!

At this point, Ford gets face-to-face with how he has been appearing to Lemmon and the rest of the crew. He doesn't like what he sees, and vows to improve himself and his leadership style.

(4) Partners share the difficulties first, and then the success

When Lemmon catches Ford in a whiskey-induced moment of weakness, he buys in to the cattle operation as a minor partner. Ford retains his role as trail boss, and gives the orders to the crew.

Both partners must painfully learn to work together. Lemmon has never ridden trail before, and Ford has never had a partner.

(Picture credit - the movie Cowboy)

The difficulties of trail life are constant, and Lemmon realizes that once he leaves the easy hotel clerk life. They aren't always easy for the trail boss either, as he is responsible for his very expensive herd and all the cowboys along with him.

In fact, most of the movie is just one problem for the partners after another. It isn't until the end, when the herd is successfully delivered and sold in Chicago, that the success happens.

Remind you of any projects you might have done recently?

It's worth it in the end (usually). At the end of Cowboy, the two partners march as victors of the trail into the hotel (where Lemmon used to work!) and request rooms, whiskey, and hot bath water for a couple weeks.

And then Ford introduces Lemmon as "my partner" to Lemmon's former boss, the hotel head! Success at last!

(5) The world looks different through ownership "glasses"

Even though he is a minor partner, and is just learning the ropes of running a herd, Lemmon views the herd and the operation differently than if he had just been a hired gun cowboy.

At one point, a calf has gotten separated from the herd and is having a tough time walking. One of the trail boys tells Lemmon to just leave it.

(Picture credit - the movie Cowboy)

Lemmon, now a minor partner, views the situation differently. He says, "that calf is worth $20 in Chicago." And then Ford, the major partner, backs his pardner up, telling the trail boy, "bring the calf back into the herd."

If you want to get a different vantage point, own your business and your projects.

This ownership mindset is detailed in the book "Extreme Ownership" by Jocko Willinck and Leif Babin, and it is shown perfectly in the movie Cowboy!