Lessons Business Owners Can Learn From Ozark

Sometimes you have to be ruthless.

In Ozark, Jason Bateman and Laura Linney play a husband-and-wife team, Marty and Wendy Byrde, who are trying to launder money for a Mexican drug cartel.

They move their family from Chicago to the rural Missouri Ozarks region, and Marty sets up an incredibly complicated web of shell companies in order to funnel cartel money into legitimate businesses.

The show is absolutely riveting and the writing is concise and compelling, the plot twists are shocking without being gimmicky, and the acting is superb (season one won Jason Bateman a Golden Globe).

It’s also a great study on business dynamics. Here are a few of our key takeaways:

You can’t do everything alone.

In a lot of ways, Marty and Wendy’s lives were similar to that of the average business owner: dealing with stress, making high-stakes decisions, finding a balance between work and home life.But one of the most important lessons you can learn from the Byrde’s is that there’s no way to do everything alone.

Sure, Marty has his hands full managing a money-laundering operation for a Mexican drug cartel, but he also runs an undercover strip club and casino (where he manages to scare up an invitation from Emily Thorne, I mean Charlotte Byrde, to join her Chicago social club).

He’s constantly having conversations with nervous investors via Bluetooth while he’s driving around as well. There are only so many hours in a day!

The truth is that every business owner will quickly find out it takes more work than they could ever imagine.You can’t be everywhere at once and there are things you’re just not good at or don’t like doing.

And when you’re always busy running your own business, where do you get the time to keep learning all of this stuff?

Change is going to come.

While there’s still a lot to learn from the Byrde family and their associates, one thing you can take away right now is that change is going to come. It’s inevitable. You can count on it. And you need to be prepared for it.

And of course, change isn’t always good. In fact, Ozark is an example of how change can be just as bad as it is good but the key for any business owner or anyone dealing with intense life changes and lets be real, everyone is learning how to deal with both the good and bad with grace and determination.

You can see this in Ozark when Ruth loses her father and Marty loses his brother-in-law; both instances are devastating for the characters but they are forced to carry on despite their grief (especially since they were partly responsible).

They have no choice but to move forward because the show must go on even if they don’t want it to.

People are complicated.

One business lesson that is often overlooked is the fact that people are complicated. And not just complicated in the sense that there’s a lot of layers to uncover, but also in the sense that people are contradictory.

An employee might be doing their job well, but have personal lives going awry. A customer might have money to spend, but not be ready to spend it on your product or service.We don’t always know why people act the way they do, and we likely never will.

In Ozark, Marty Byrde (played by Jason Bateman) has a team of employees working hard each day at his financial consulting firm.

But when he gets into an illicit relationship with a drug cartel and is forced to launder money for his life and his family’s safety, he realizes how much he doesn’t know about his own employees some of whom happen to be ex-cons with shady pasts who can help him navigate this new criminal world.

The takeaway here isn’t necessarily about hiring felons; it’s more about keeping in mind that every person you encounter is more than just their job title or what role they play in your business operations and you never know when you’ll need them for something else entirely.

Money can’t buy happiness or fix all of your problems.

“Money can’t buy happiness,” is a phrase you’ve probably heard before. You’ve probably even said it yourself.But money can certainly buy problematic things like guns, drugs, and people with guns and drugs.

For example, Marty takes out a loan to get his business off the ground but then he gets into money laundering a whole new world of problems and now he’s got people threatening to kill him and his family if he doesn’t pay them back.

So sure, you can make a lot of money from your business ideas but that doesn’t mean all your problems are solved and you’re living happily ever after.

Beware of relatives who want a handout.

Brother-in-law Roy has grated on the nerves of many a viewer over the course of Ozark’s three seasons, with his lazy work ethic and sense of entitlement. If your brother-in-law is an electrician, he may not be as bad as Roy but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be wary.

Relatives may have a sense of entitlement that can lead to resentment if they feel they are expected to do more than their fair share.In business, it is often true that some employees need to carry more weight than others in order for the team to function properly.

When you hire relatives, the stakes are higher if their performance isn’t up to par with their coworkers because it could create tension at home.

Distant relatives like cousins or nieces and nephews might be less likely to cause drama when things go wrong at work; however, closer family members like siblings or parents might want or need more involvement in your business dealings than you are comfortable with providing them.

It’s not always easy to get what you really want, even if you have a lot of money.

In the world of Ozark, the Lannister’s are not alone in the belief that money can buy anything.Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman) and Wendy Byrde (Laura Linney) start off with a lot of money but don’t seem like they have much going on under their belts.

The first season opens with Marty’s business partner skimming money and laundering it through their company.This leads to an encounter with Del (Esai Morales), a Mexican drug lord who is owed a $8M debt.

Marty and Wendy must launder this amount in just five months, so he pitches to build a casino and do it in four months instead.In Ozark, the Byrde’s are able to launder the money for Del with relative ease but his greed is still not satisfied.

At the end of one season when Marty is looking for an investment in a riverboat, Del refuses because he wants more than what he was offered: I want half your business now!

Take care of your family and friends.

As a business owner, one thing you can do to help yourself succeed is take care of your family and friends if they are your support system.

The people who love you will be there for you when times are tough or when things go wrong. These people will give you honest feedback and not sugar-coat it. They may tell you what needs to change or even what isn’t working at all.

Family members and close friends have your best interests at heart, and this can help you make better business decisions.

In Ozark, Marty’s wife Wendy seems anything but supportive of her husband, but that’s because she is so in tune with him that she can see his schemes aren’t going to work out the way he thinks they will.

She has also developed a close friendship with Ruth Langmore that gives her perspective on the situation from outside Marty’s view.

When her family finds themselves in trouble because of her husbands actions, Wendy shows what lengths she is willing to go to in order to protect them even if it goes against everything Marty wants.

Being an entrepreneur is hard and risky but can pay off in the end if you put in the work.

Whether you run a laundromat or an illegal gambling operation, being an entrepreneur isn’t for the faint of heart.

The odds are against you no matter how hard you work, no matter how smart your business plan is, and no matter how great your product is.

But with enough elbow grease and good old-fashioned gumption, it’s entirely possible to earn yourself a comfortable living as a small business owner.Just don’t expect to get rich quick.