8. Never Change Routine Before A Big Business Deal (Clifford, The Change-Up, The Santa Clause, A Thousand Words, Etc.)
If movies have taught me anything, it's that first, the worst thing that can ever happen to any business career always happens during the most important deals, and second, this thing that happens inexplicably targets the professional's greatest weakness. And why do these things happen? Because the protagonists step out of their routines, whether for explainable or supernatural reasons. In Clifford, Martin Daniels doesn't want kids. What does he get right before his big deal? The worst kid ever. In The Change-Up, both Mitch and Dave get the exact opposite of what they want in either of their lives. In A Thousand Wordswhich is even more of a hyperbolic one-up from the prototypical movies of Liar Liar or, well, Dr. Dolittlethe fast-talking Jack McCall can't talk. In The Santa Clause, toy advertising executive Scott Calvin becomes Santa Claus. Shockingly, in all of these cases, these obstacles also somehow help the protagonists improve as people, and sometimes even create franchises. What's the lesson here? Never change your routine. Ever. Don't do anything that could ever lead to anything that could remotely lend itself to even the slightest misadventure. Document your flaws and try to improve them on your own. Because in real life, the only thing that zany events would improve in your life is the amount of times you've been fired. Oh, and make sure you don't end up in any alternate universes either.