I must say, I completely understand why The Tiger King, Netflix True Crime documentary went viral so quickly. As a True Crime Junkie, I am always ready to delve into the new hot documentary. However, I had no idea how entertained and spellbound I would be. For one, it didn't have that true crime feel I'm used to so I was already intrigued, and I definitely didn't think I would walk away from The Tiger King with any life lessons, but I actually did!
If you are in business or are an entrepreneur, or possibly even wrestling with the idea, let me enlighten you on something you can learn from watching The Tiger King: Confidence is Key.
Let's start with The Tiger King himself, Mr. Joe Exotic. First of all, if you give yourself the name Exotic and you are not a stripper or prostitute, you are clearly one confident MF! Then you marry not one, but 2 men half your age who claim to not have even been homosexual. How that works, I don't know, but what I do know is you have to be a truly confident person to pull that off. RIP to Travis.
Now on to this Tiger Zoo. Wow. Just Wow.
How do you convince a bunch of people to care for your Tiger Zoo with a little over $100 a week, a trailer with no running water, and expired meat from Walmart?! Not to mention the disappearing tigers.
I'll tell you how: Confidence, with a lot of narcissism sprinkled in there. Not only do you have to be confident in yourself (sans narcissism), you must be confident in your business model. I don't care how down on your luck you are, it must take some serious game to convince you to eat expired meat, live in a disgusting trailer, and get paid less that $200 a week to care for vicious animals.
That brings me to Mrs. Carol. I'm convinced Mrs. Carol is a pimp- playa from the Himalayas. She took a very well-off man with a whole family from his wife, while still married to her own husband, he disappears, you inherit millions, and then go on to grow this Big Cat Rescue into a million dollar industry with hella employees that you confidently say "you aren't going to pay because people will do it for free" while giving them color-coded t shirts as they move up the ranks. Wow. If that's not confidence, I don't know what is! I bet her new man knows not to act up because he might end up tiger meat as well (allegedly).
Now Doc, I must say really made me laugh. Like you really have 3 women who live next door to each other that you pay $100 a week to care for your Lions and Tigers and Bears AND they look happy as hell in those little tiger outfits. And they had to be vegan (or vegetarian, I don't exactly remember).
Jeff needs to get slapped. Not only did you take over the Tiger park, but how dare you lust over your future nanny right in front of your baby mama?! And Baby Moms was actually here for it! Did you really say it is good that the nanny is foreign so the baby can be bilingual?! Although that is a good point, you have absolutely no issue with the fact your man is gonna be loving on your new nanny post-child birth?? Wow. Ok girl!
So with all that being said, what I learned from The Tiger King is a little confidence goes a long way, but it can't keep you out of jail. Notice how all the tiger and park owners exude an extreme amount of confidence and lived exactly how they want/wanted to live while making massive amounts of money doing it. If watching Joe Exotic in a metallic leopard print button down run for president and Carol manage plenty of "volunteers" and sue the pants off of an elderly couple because she is beefing with their son doesn't give you the confidence to unapologetically follow your dreams, I don't know what will. If you take nothing else from your 8-hour binge of The Tiger King, take this: CONFIDENCE IS KEY. If you believe in yourself and your dreams, no matter how far out they may seem to someone else, go for it! Only God can judge you!
But don't try have your arch nemesis murdered, confidence cannot keep you out of jail.
Thanks for Reading!
Nasha