Need a Dose of Optimism? Read Jerry Maguire's Mission Statement in Full
Ever wonder what else was in the mission statement by Tom Cruise’s title character in Jerry Maguire? Thanks to a recent post on writer-director Cameron Crowe’s website, we now have The Things We Think and Do Not Say in its full, unfiltered, 5,614-word form. Here are five things that occurred to us after reading it.
1. It’s obvious why the mission statement was only quoted from and not read in its entirety in the film. It is long as hell.
2. One can also kind of understand why distributing said mission statement ultimately led to Jerry Maguire getting fired and walking out of Sports Management International with a goldfish in a baggie. The memo rambles a lot and, while inspiring and lovely in many places, doesn’t make many concrete recommendations about how to run the business, other than to recommend that SMI take on fewer clients, give back to the community more often, and remember that “everything is about personal relationships.” You can get why a creep like Jay Mohr’s Bob Sugar would have zero patience for this, is what I’m saying.
3. The writing in this is so Cameron Crowe that it physically hurts to read it. That is meant as a compliment, though people with little patience for the writer-director’s wild-eyed optimism will probably feel pain when they read this for other reasons.
“I care very much about the fact that I have learned to care less.”
“Most of us would easily say that we are our jobs. That’s obvious from the late hours we all keep. So then, it is bigger than work, isn’t it? It is about us.”
“The relationship between a phone call and a letter is the difference between a magazine and a phone book. One you leave on a plane, the other you save.”
So, so Cameron Crowe.
Related: Jonathan Lipnicki on His Viral Video and Life After ‘Jerry Maguire’
4. This line in the mission statement — “I have the distinct feeling that what I have written is ‘touchy feely.’ I don’t care.” — could be a mission statement for Crowe’s entire career.
5. Watching Tom Cruise read this entire memo on-camera would be time much better spent than the hour and forty-five minutes I devoted to Crowe’s Aloha. Maybe someone can convince Cruise to do just that in honor of Jerry Maguire’s 20th anniversary in December? Just a suggestion.
