Funny Motivation: Not the Bees!

Have you ever majorly mis-stepped? You know, you mess something up in a way that makes you question your self-worth, your career choice, and whether you have any business doing what you do? If not, you are very fortunate. For the rest of us, I have some good news:

Everyone mis-steps!

Take our friend Nicolas Cage for example. Here’s a guy who is one of the most successful movie stars of all time. He won an Oscar for his fine work in Leaving Las Vegas. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his work in Adaptation and nominated for Golden Globes for Moonstruck and Honeymoon in Vegas. He has made some great movies, including The Rock, Raising Arizona, Face/Off, Fast Times and Ridgemont High, and Trapped in Paradise (a movie most people consider awful that I have a soft spot for, probably because I like all things John Lovitz).

Talented, successful guy.

But he has also done this:

No, not the bees! Not the bees!

You get the feeling he is not even trying to act there.

He also starred in Knowing, 8MM, Snake Eyes, National Treasure, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Ghost Rider, Wind Talkers, Deadfall, and Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. A thousand monkeys on a thousand keyboards typing for a thousand days would surely come up with something better than some of these, right? Heck, I bet the chimp from Project X could have put on a more entertaining one man show than Captain Corelli’s Mandolin…

If you were to take a person who had never even heard of Nicolas Cage before and have him pull 5 Nic Cage DVDs out of a bag at random and watch them and then ask him how good of an actor Nicolas Cage is, that person could potentially say, “wow! He is better than Brando, DeNiro and Hanks, all rolled into one!” That person would be easily likely to say, “what, did they hire this guy because Gilbert Gottfried wasn’t available?”

(Did you know that at one point Nic Cage was cast to play the new Superman?? Could you imagine the awfulness that would be? “What is that?! What is that?! No. no not the kryptonite! Not the kryptonite!” I can’t conceive any context where that movie could be watched without alcohol.)

Cage is also embroiled in some tax and real estate difficulties…

What’s the point? Simply this: If Nicolas Cage, Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage, can mis-step with not one, but many awful movies (and deliver unto the world, “Not the bees!”), who are you to get down on yourself when you mis-step?

Get up, brush yourself off, realize that Ding Happens, and move on.

Easier said than done, but definitely worth doing.

About

By Avish Parashar. As the world's only Motivational Improviser, Avish uses techniques from the world of improv comedy to engage, entertain, and educate audiences on ideas around change, creativity, and motivation. Connect with Avish on Google+

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