The “Wall Street” classic directed by Oliver Stone in 1987 is even now, more than 30 years later, still representative for the financial district, and the Wall Street lifestyle.
Even if some things might have changed on Wall Street in the last 32 years since this movie was shot, some things still remained fundamentally the same, and because of that, the lessons that we can pick out of this cinematographic art piece are still valid nowadays.
Money Never Sleeps
Within the movie, this lesson was first taught by Gordon Gekko to its associate, Bud Fox, trying to teach the aspiring kid how to become rich, and how to think like a wealthy person.
Even if the quote might have been transformed into a cliché by now considering how many people us it, its lessons are still as valid as ever. Money, indeed, never sleep, they either work for you or against you.
Money never sleeps, pal. I just made $800,000 in Hong Kong gold.
If you have money invested in certain assets, they will make you more money, non-stop, even after you work. But, also, if you have a loan, your money can keep on earning interest even while you sleep, slowly robbing you.
The secret is having more money that works for you, then those that work against you, and that is what Gordon Gekko was trying to teach Bud Fox.
Time Is Money
Gekko gets snitched by Bud Fox to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and goes to prison for 23 years. After all of that time in jail, he realizes one important lesson, and we get to hear it in a conversation with his apprentice, Jacob Moore.
Gekko learned something important in prison, he learned that time is actually money. Considering that money never sleeps, and how much he was able to make before going to prison, we can only imagine how much money Gordon Gekko lost while being behind the bars.
If there’s one thing I learned in prison, it’s that money is not the prime commodity in our lives…time is.
This example might be a bit overdramatic, it is a movie after all, but the premise that “time is money” is, indeed, very true. For every hour you end up wasting on things that don’t serve your goals, you could be making more money, which will eventually result in more free time for your passions, which should be everybody’s goal.
Conclusion
Thirty years later, the movie still illustrates some parts of Wall Street perfectly, the rich still want to get richer, and experience and knowledge is the main reason for their success. We surely advise you to watch the movie, we even included it on our The 5 Must-Watch Finance Movies list, that’s how great and powerful we consider the movie and its lessons to be.
