Personal Development Training and Motivational Humor from the Motivational Smart Ass! » Just Funny

HolidayFun Guide!

Avish — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:13:54 +0000

Today is December 23^rd. For many people, myself included, this will be the last day of work before a week-long holiday.

I don’t know about you, but I like to spend my holiday time doing three things:

1) Spending quality time with friends and family

2) Reflecting on the previous year and planning for the next one

3) Kicking back and relaxing with some good books, movies, TV shows, and other fun distractions!

I hope you have planned some time in the next week or two to do some serious relaxing. If not, re-consider – this should be your recharge time!

To help you properly prepare for your relaxation time, I have created a list of books, TV shows, games, and music that you should consider reading/watching/playing/.etc. They brought/bring great joy to my heart, and I think you may enjoy them too:

Fiction Books

Fantasy – A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

This is book one of Martin’s A Song of Ice and fire series. It is unlike pretty much any other fantasy book I have ever read:

There is a lot of character development
There is a lot of political intrigue and discussion
Magic, while present, plays a relatively small role
Martin is not afraid to have stuff…happen. I can’t say more without spoiling, but suffice it to say, you can’t ever say, “no, he would never do that.”

Books 2 and 3 are excellent as well. Two warnings:

1) I haven’t read four and five yet, but I understand they take a drop in quality from the first three

2) There are projected to be two more books. Martin took something like five years between books 3 and 4, and another six years between books 4 and 5. So there’s a chance you’ll get hooked, read the first five books, and then have to wait for years to finish the series…

Consider yourself warned.

Get it from Amazon…

Thriller – Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

This is the only Lehane I have read and all I can say is, “Wow!” This was awesome. I didn’t know what to expect, so this book sat on my shelf for over a year before I finally picked it up. When I did, I tore through it, unable to put it down. Just a great book that keeps you reading right up until the end.

If you’ve seen the movie or know how it ends, you won’t enjoy it nearly so much. So go read it now before someone spoils it for you!

Get it from Amazon…

Non-Fiction Books

The Invisible Gorilla by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simmons

I’ve written about this before. Go read that post, or just pick up the book before. It’s very interesting…

Get it from Amazon…

Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries by Peter Sims

This is a great book that stresses the importance of making “little bets” when it comes to developing new ideas, strategies, and innovations. The premise of the book is that rather than spending a ton of time and effort researching, thinking, and planning, the most innovative companies and people make many “little bets.” These are “low-risk actions taken to discover, develop, and test an idea.”

These small actions let you quickly get feedback, see if an idea is worth pursuing, and discover what adjustments you might need to make before moving forward. I have started applying some of the approaches from this book into how I do some of my own work.

If you think about it, “taking little bets” is a very “Say ‘Yes, And!’” of idea…

Get it from Amazon…

Movies

I don’t know, I’ve been struggling with this one. I saw a few movies this year, and some were very good, but none have me jumping out of my chair wanting to tell people to run out and see them.

Instead of a long write-up, here’s a list of movies I saw this year that I enjoyed, and you might too:

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
CaptainAmerica
The Help
Super 8
Bridesmaids
Rise of the Planet of the Apes

If you saw some great stuff this year, let me know what I missed!

TV Shows

I am going to recommend three shows that are actually quite popular, so you may have seen them already. But they are great, and all three have most or all of their episodes available on Netflix streaming.

Mad Men

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, since it’s won something like four Emmys for Best Drama. But I didn’t get around to watching until a few months ago, and I have to say, it had me hooked.

I can’t really explain why. It’s not like the usual type of show that hooks me in (24, Lost, Alias, etc). Sometimes it can seem downright slow. The main characters are often annoying, mean, and unsympathetic. And yet, as soon as I finished each episode I wanted to watch the next.

Get it from Amazon…

30 Rock

Here’s another one that people have been telling me about for years, and yet I only recently got around to watching. Turns out, I was missing out on a great show.

This is a ridiculous, off the wall, and downright hilarious show. Give this show a chance and watch the first episode or two. If you like those, you’ll like the whole series.

Get it from Amazon…

Psych

One of my favorite shows. This one I have been watching since day 1, and it still makes me laugh, every single time. This is the only show that consistently makes me laugh out loud, even when I am watching alone (think about it – how often do you truly laugh out loud when no one else is around…?)

If you grew up in the 80s and like pop culture references, then you absolutely have to watch this show. Even if you didn’t and don’t catch the refernces, you’ll still enjoy the show (trust me – my fiancée can attest to this)

Get it from Amazon…

Video Games

I am not a hard-core video game player. In fact, I don’t own a Playstation or X-Box, and the only reason I have a Wii is that my fiancée brought one with her when she moved in.

However, I do enjoy a good PC game (yes, my nerdery knows no bounds). For whatever reason, I have been playing older games, and I have been loving it. Below are two PC games I enjoyed this year. Both are set-up as “first-person shooters,” but are very different from your traditional “Doom” type games.

System Shock 2

This game is literally more than a decade old (it came out in 1999). I dusted it off and played it early this year, and I was sucked in. I couldn’t stop until I finished. Even more telling, as soon as I finished playing, I immediately started replaying it, using different skills and strategies (the game is designed in a way that you can use a variety of tactics to get through it). After my second run-through, I played it again. Then again. Then again. I honestly lost track of how many times I played it.

It’s immersive, entertaining, engrossing, oftentimes scary, and definitely one of my favorite games of all time.

Get it from Amazon…

Portal

Portal is a much newer game (it came out in 2007) and very different from System Shock 2.

In Portal, you play a character who has a “Portal Gun.” This gun lets you shoot portals onto floors, walls, ceilings, and other surfaces. Step through one portal and you will come out the other.

What makes the game really interesting is that the portals maintain your physics. That is, if you jump off a ledge and fall through a portal on the floor, you will emerge from the other portal with the same velocity you had from your fall!

There are no enemies (for the most part) in the game. Just about every mission involves you figuring out how to get from Point A to Point B by creating portals. At its core, it is a puzzle game. And a damned good one.

Get it from Amazon…

Board Games

Even as technology improves and video games get more and more sophisticated, I have found myself playing more board games with friends. They offer a social element that video games lack (even the multiplayer online ones). Also, as someone who spends most of his day on the computer and quite a bit of time watching TV, it’s nice to be able to turn off the tech for a while.

The Settlers of Catan

I am just starting to get into the world of “Euro-Gaming.” These are games that are much more involved and strategic than what we here in theU.S. think of when we hear the term, “board games.”

If your only experience with board games is games like Monopoly, then you don’t know what you have been missing!

Settlers of Catan is a strategy game where the players compete to set up villages, cities, and roads on an island. You have to manage resources, trade with other players, and carefully plan your expansions. It’s a fun game that has tremendous replay value.

Get it from Amazon…

Taboo

If nerdy strategy games aren’t your thing, then you might enjoy a good party game instead. I enjoy quite a few of them. For this list, I went with Taboo.

For those who are unfamiliar with Taboo, the basic mechanic of the game is that one player has to get their teammates to guess words without using five words that are “Taboo.” If you say one of the taboo words, the other team gets a point. You try to get your teammates to guess as many words as they can in a short time period.

I picked Taboo for two reasons:

1) It’s a ton of fun

2) It’s high-energy

3) You can scale the length of games

4) It’s a great game to practice/develop improv skills

Yes, I realize that #4 is where my bias comes from. But think about it: Taboo is a game where you have to consistently try to achieve a fixed goal without being able to go down traditional paths. It’s a great way to have fun and practice your creativity!

Get it from Amazon…

Music

Anything by Rush

Do I really need to explain this? If you have been reading my site for a while, then you’ll already know that Rush is my favorite band. .If not, then read the following posts:

If you don’t know any Rush songs, then watch my “Intro to Rush” Youtube playlist:

Get some Rush on Amazon…

Happy Holidays!

That’s my list. Whatever you celebrate this time of year, even if you celebrate nothing, I hope you got some ideas you can use to relax and recharge.

Happy Holidays, and I’ll see you in 2012!

Friday Web Roundup: Talent and Vendors, Harassing Debt Collectors, Suing For Lack of Sex, Losing a Gold Medal Because of a Ponytail, and Darth Vader’s Ridiculousness

Avish — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 12:57:22 +0000

It’s Friday! Stop doing work and start checking out some fun links from around the interwebs…

Talent and Vendors

Here’s a post from Seth Godin’s blog about the difference between a “talent” and a “vendor.”

From the post: “That’s the key economic argument for the distinction: if you treat an artist like a vendor, you’ll often get mediocre results in return. On the other hand, if you treat a vendor like an artist, you’ll waste time and money.”

It’s an interesting distinction, and it may make you re-think how you approach some of your “vendor” relationships.

Worst Customer Service Ever?

This is an article from CNN.com about institutions collecting debts from family members after the original borrower passes away.

Scroll down to heading that says, “Hey Social Security, I’m not dead!” and you’ll read the story of a woman who received harassing phone calls every 15 minutes at her husband’s wake!

She continued to get the calls, as many as 48 a day, and when she called and explained that she would pay as soon as she received her husband’s life insurance check, she was told the calls were computer generated and could not be stopped until the debt was paid.

Wow…just…wow…

If you have a business where you (or someone) can’t override an automated harassing message, either you’re lying or grossly incompetent. And I’m not sure which one is worse.

Frenchman Ordered to Pay Wife Damages for Lack of Sex

Headline kind of says it all. Looks like you really can sue for anything.

I don’t know if there’s a business of life lesson here. I just thought the story needed to be shared.

Missed it by a Hair – Literally

Crazy story here of a Belarusian long jumper who missed out on winning the gold medal at the world championships because her hair – which was in a ponytail – touched the ground behind her. Her actual jump distance was good enough for gold, but her hair set her back 0.16 meters which was enough to let someone else take first place. The article did point out the winning jumper had her hair up in a bun.

Let that be a lesson to you: The devil is in the details. Don’t let all your hard work be undone by a silly oversight.

From the Funny Nerdy Video File

George Lucas is releasing the original Star Wars Trilogy on Blu-Ray on September 16 and, much to the chagrin of hard-core fans, he once again went back in and made some “improvements.”

One of the improvements is adding a stupid sounding “Nooooooooooo” to Vader at the end of Return of the Jedi (You can see the new clip here: Darth Vader’s ‘Nooo!’ in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi). I’m with the hard-core fans on this one. The new footage looks dumb.

However, from stupidity comes genius. Someone took a bunch of different clips of Darth Vader saying “no,” and “yes,” and mashed them up so it looks like the trailer for the Jim Carrey movie, “Yes Man”. Very funny stuff. Take a look for yourself:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgMJQM1Cb04

***
Do you want help making better long term decisions? How about help figuring out what exactly it is that you want? Or maybe you know, but your problem is that you don’t know how to put together a plan to get you there? Or perhaps you have a plan, but never feel motivated to follow it? Or you jyst get easily derailed when things go wrong? If so, than the Smart Ass Success! Learn the 7 Steps to Getting What You Really Want – Even If You Have No Idea What That Is! FREE E-Book is for you! It addresses those questions (and more) to help you get on the path towards figuring out what you really want - and then getting it! Don’t let another year pass you by. Click here to download your free copy now!

Friday Web Roundup: Laughter makes You Healthy, Irrational People Get Violent, Rich Kids Have Too Much Time and Too Little Sense, Stupid Infomercials, and Super Mario Gets a Portal Gun

Avish — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 13:07:31 +0000

It’s Friday and, knock on wood, the east coast has not been hit with an earthquake, hurricane, tornado, locust plague, or an invasion of seemingly benevolent but in fact incredibly hostile aliens (though there are still two days left in the week…).

To celebrate our first “natural disaster free” week in almost two weeks, here are some links you can enjoy wasting time with!

Laughter Has a Positive Impact on Vascular Function

You’ve probably heard that laughing is good for your health. Well, here’s another study that confirms it. So get out there and start laughing – watch a funny movie, listen a funny radio show, read a funny blog or hire a funny speaker for your next event (whoops! How did that shameless plug slip in there?)

When Irrational People Attack

I like to post a lot about stupid people making stupid decisions, especially in the moment out of strong emotion (like here, here, and here). This link is to a collection of examples of people getting violent in irrational ways that makes even me, who tries to find these types of stories regularly, kind of shocked. It’s all so very sad and stupid…

Ingrate Rich Kids Sue Their Mom for Bad Parenting

Stories like these are why non-rich people hate rich people:

A Tribute to Doing it Wrong

You know what’s ridiculous? The way infomercials and other “As soon on TV!” type ads display people who “need” their product. From being unable to pour soda, to being vexed by plastic wrap, to being unable to crack an egg, they make the average person look like a grade-A moron. I don’t want to live in the world where the average human can’t get their own shoes on and off, but I sure like to watch a video of all of those demonstrations strung together to Beatles music:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=08xQLGWTSag

Mario Meets Portal

If you’re familiar with Super Mario Brothers and the first person puzzler Portal, then you’ll love this video of how Super Mario Brothers would play if Mario had a portal gun:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtcGiZelPfk

Friday Web Roundup: Confronting Stupid, Lessons from Border’s, Bill Gates’ Crappy Plan, and the World’s Worst Video Game Armor

Avish — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:40:33 +0000

Its Friday, Friday, Gotta get Down on Friday, which means it’s time for a little good old fashioned procrastination.

Here are a few links you might enjoy – I know I did!

Confronting Stupid

A great little post fro Seth Godin’s blog about how more and more jobs these days “require a different sort of hard work: the guts to be wrong, a confrontation with the risk of being stupid.” The new form of “hard work” isn’t about working hard, but rather about risking failure and looking stupid.

5 Reasons Borders Went Out of Business

Border’s is officially going out of business. This article gives five reasons why, and they are lessons that any small business owner can learn from. In a nutshell: they didn’t change with the times, they grew too fast, and they lacked focus. Don’t make the same mistake with your business.

Bill Gates Calls for Reinvention of Toilet

This is a news article about Bill Gates’ latest philanthropic cause: the reinvention of the toilet. I like this article not because I love toilets, but rather because it demonstrates an important principle: some things that make a tremendous impact are not even remotely glamorous. “A better toilet” is not a super cool new invention, but it can improve the lives of billions of people. In the same way, some of the biggest improvements you can make in your business or life aren’t going to be glamorous. Be willing to focus on the down and dirty fundamentals to reap massive rewards.

Ghosts n’ Goblins n’ Spectacularly Awful Armor

You’ll only enjoy this one if you have a strange sense of humor and remember the old “Ghosts n’ Goblins” arcade game. I thought it was hilarious, and it demonstrates a simple comedic principle: some of the best jokes come from looking at something and taking the time to ask, “what doesn’t make sense about this?”

***
Do you want help making better long term decisions? How about help figuring out what exactly it is that you want? Or maybe you know, but your problem is that you don’t know how to put together a plan to get you there? Or perhaps you have a plan, but never feel motivated to follow it? Or you jyst get easily derailed when things go wrong? If so, than the Smart Ass Success! Learn the 7 Steps to Getting What You Really Want – Even If You Have No Idea What That Is! FREE E-Book is for you! It addresses those questions (and more) to help you get on the path towards figuring out what you really want – and then getting it! Don’t let another year pass you by. Click here to download your free copy now!

Winners of the “185 Teachers Walk Into a Bar” Contest!

Avish — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:35:29 +0000

The first ever Motivational Smart Ass contest is now officially over, and we have a winner!

I want to thank everyone who participated. This being my first time trying this, I honestly had no idea how it would go. I’m excited to say that I am super happy with the participation and results!

There were 59 entries! If you missed the original post and want to read all of them, you can do so by clicking here.

Before we get to the winner, I want to give out a few…

Honorable Mentions:

Most Groan Inducing

185 is designed to be a groan eliciting game. But a few went above and beyond:

185 Physics teachers walk into a bar

The bartender says, we don’t serve teachers here

The teachers say “Please.”

The bartender says, “well OK, But I’m keeping my ion you.”

- Palmo

185 osteology teachers walk into a bar. The bartender says, “Sorry, we’re not serving liquor to teachers today.” The teachers say, “How ’bout to marrow?”

- Charlie

185 teachers walk into a bar. the bartender says, “Sorry, we don’t serve teachers here.” But as teachers, we just want you to “Beer all you can Be.”

- Ruthie

Best Pop Culture Reference

If you’ve read this blog for a bit, you know I love me some pop culture. So I have to reward this one:

185 teachers walk into a bar and the bartender says, “Sorry we don’t serve teachers here.” The teachers say, “Bartender. Bartender. Bartender.” And the bartender finally says, “Here.”

- Rick

(For those not so pop culture inclined, that’s a Ferris Bueller’s Day Off reference).

Nerdiest:

I’m a nerd, so I had to give it up for this one:

185 math teachers walk into a bar

The bartender says, we can only serve 3.14159 of you here

The teachers say “can you repeat that?”

The bartender says, “don’t be irrational – that can’t happen.”

-Palmo

That’s just chock full o’ nerdy goodness!

Greatest Volume

I said you were allowed to submit multiple entries, and some people took that to heart.

The greatest volume, by a landslide, was Ruthie , with 37(!!). Well done!

Palmo also deserves a shout out for breaking into double digits with 11. Nice!

First Response

Thanks to Michelle for submitting the first entries. It can be a weird to enter a submission onto an empty board, so I a) congratulate for doing it and b) thank you for getting the ball rolling!

The Runner Ups

Lots of great ones to choose from. The following two came oh so close:

185 dyslexic teachers walk into a bra.

- Palmo

(I love this one, but you could swap out teachers with any other profession and it would be the same joke. But it made me laugh…)

185 teachers walk into a bar and start banging into things, walking into walls, accidentally knocking over tables. Finally, the bartender gets pissed and grabs one of the teachers and screams: “What the hell do you guys think you are doing?!?”

The teacher looks up, and freaks out the bartender, showing only white in his eyes.

“Sorry sir,” he says “we have no pupils.”

-Nye

The Winner

And now for your winner:

185 teachers walk into a bar. The bartender says, “Sorry, we don’t serve teachers here. The teacher says, “Yea, a Mind is a terrible thing to be wasted.”

This one is great because it fits in with teachers, it plays off a pop culture reference (the old United Negro College Fund commercials), it uses the double being of the word “wasted,” and it seems obvious after the fact. Plus, it made me think of Dan Quayle, which is inherently funny.

- Ruthie

Congratulations Ruthie, and thanks to everyone who participated!

***
Do you want help making better long term decisions? How about help figuring out what exactly it is that you want? Or maybe you know, but your problem is that you don’t know how to put together a plan to get you there? Or perhaps you have a plan, but never feel motivated to follow it? Or you jyst get easily derailed when things go wrong? If so, than the Smart Ass Success! Learn the 7 Steps to Getting What You Really Want – Even If You Have No Idea What That Is! FREE E-Book is for you! It addresses those questions (and more) to help you get on the path towards figuring out what you really want – and then getting it! Don’t let another year pass you by. Click here to download your free copy now!

Friday Web Roundup

Avish — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 13:57:31 +0000

I tend to surf the web more than I should (you might call it, “procrastinating”). Rather than letting all that idle time be a complete waste, I decided to compile the interesting stuff I came across and share it with you.

Enjoy!

Life Lessons From 40 Films in 7 Minutes

Some fan edited together a video that combines self-help/motivation/personal development movie lines into one seven minute short. If you like movies and inspiration (and ridiculous thing) this is for you!

Read more…

When Is It Due?

Short little post on Set Godin’s blog. I just love the last two lines: “When it’s you against the boss, the goal is to do less work. When it’s you against the project, the goal is to do more work.”

Read more…

Motivational Smart Ass Contest

Yes, I am linking to my own blog post from Wednesday. I am running a contest on my blog – check it out, play along, and you could win a copy of my book, Improvise to Success!

TroloLord of the Rings

Just for fun, here’s a video that combines two of my favorite things:

The Lord of the Rings movies.
The Trololo Guy internet meme.

Marine Lands Date with Mila Kunis

Here’s a cool story about a Marine who made a YouTube video asking actress Mila Kunis to his Marine Corps. Ball. The video went viral, and Mila said yes!

There’s a cool lesson about saying, “Yes, And” here:

The marine said, “Yes, And” to himself and went ahead and posted the video, even though it was a ridiculous long-shot and he could have gotten teased for it.
Mila said, “Yes, And” to his offer even though she doesn’t know him and gets no direct benefit from it.

As a result of saying, “Yes, And,” the marine got a date with Mila Kunis and Mila Kunis has gotten a ton of positive press.

Yes And can be a very powerful thing indeed…

10 Reasons You Hate to Cook

Frankly, I don’t really care if you hate to cook. However, this is an interestingly article. When you look closely at it, you realize that all ten reasons can be boiled down to three things:

You’re not good at it (so learn, practice, and get better)
You have the wrong materials – tools and food (so learn what you need and get them)
You set your expectations too high (so lower the bar and go for smaller wins to build experience and momentum)

Those three reasons can pretty much explain why you hate doing anything. So, if there’s something you hate doing but want to or need to do, then learn how to do it and get better, make sure you have the right equipment, and focus on small wins. Simple, right?

Harry Potter Humor

Another nerdy funny one. Since the newest (and last) Harry Potter movie comes out today, I figure why not end with a good bit of Harry Potter humor?

If you, like me, like the Harry Potter franchise and have always been amused by the word, “Hufflepuff,” then you’ll enjoy this video too:

P.S. Hey, if you like this post, why don’t you share the love and click the Facebook “Like” button at the top of this page…?

***
Do you want help making better long term decisions? How about help figuring out what exactly it is that you want? Or maybe you know, but your problem is that you don’t know how to put together a plan to get you there? Or perhaps you have a plan, but never feel motivated to follow it? Or you jyst get easily derailed when things go wrong? If so, than the Smart Ass Success! Learn the 7 Steps to Getting What You Really Want – Even If You Have No Idea What That Is! FREE E-Book is for you! It addresses those questions (and more) to help you get on the path towards figuring out what you really want – and then getting it! Don’t let another year pass you by. Click here to download your free copy now!

MSA Contest: Win a Book! (“185 Teachers Walk Into a Bar…”)

Avish — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 12:09:48 +0000

It’s Contest Time!

As you may or may not know, my background is in improv comedy. As a professional speaker, I show audiences how they can use improv comedy ideas to think quickly, communicate better, and react quickly to change. I wrote a book on it – Improvise to Success – and now you have a chance to win a copy for free!

That’s right, to try something different here at the Motivational Smart Ass, I have decided to run an improv comedy themed contest!

The contest is based on an improv game called 185.

In the game, the performers take a suggestion and turn it into a “stock” joke. The format of the joke is:
“185 _______’s walk into a bar.
The bartender says “Sorry, we don’t serve ______’s here.
The _______’s say “[insert punchline].”

Example:

Topic: Bananas
185 bananas walk into a bar.
The bartender says, “Sorry, we don’t serve bananas.”
The bananas say, “Oh why not, can’t you see we have so much appeal!”

Get it? Appeal. As in, “peal.” Bananas have peals…

Here’s another one:

Topic: Doctors
185 doctors walk into a bar.
The bartender says, “Sorry, we don’t serve doctors.”
The doctors say, “But all we wanted was a shot!”

Get it? Shots. Because doctors administer shots. And a shot is also a type of drink.

Yes, these are groan inducing jokes usually filled with puns. That’s the point.

In this contest, all you have to do is come up with a punchline for a 185 joke. I’ll provide the topic.

Your 185 contest topic: Teachers.

(Yes, this is in honor of a friend of mine. You know who you are…)

Here are the simple rules:

Post your best 185 in the comments below.
Remember, it will be “185 Teachers walk into a bar. The bartender says ‘sorry, we don’t serve teachers here.’ The teacher’s say, ‘[punchline]’”
Feel free to tweak the format of the 185 joke if it makes your line funnier.
Puns, play on words, double entendres, etc. are all welcome – the more groan inducing, the better.
Keep it PG though, please. I’ll delete out any offensive submissions.
You can post as many submissions as you like
You have until 11:59 PM, Monday night.
I will pick a winner based on a vague criteria that involves how funny it is, originality, and which one happens to tickly my fancy.
In order to win, you can’t post anonymously – I need your email to let you know you won, and make sure it is you (no one else can see your email address)
Whether you post a submission or not, feel free to comment on other people’s submissions and lobby for which one you think it the best (positive only please – I’ll delete out any negative comments on people’s ideas.)
I’ll announce the winner on Tuesday (subscribe to the blog via RSS or email to see who wins!).
Winner gets a copy of my book, Improvise to Success! If you’re in the U.S. you have your choice of a physical book or PDF. International winners get the PDF.

This is what you're playing for...

That’s it! Do your best, don’t over think it, and most importantly, have fun!

Just for Fun: 290 Greatest Arnold Schwarzenegger Quotes

Avish — Fri, 13 May 2011 13:32:51 +0000

Normally I like my blog posts to have a lesson, but sometimes you come across something that’s just too chock full ‘o awesomeness to not share.

If you are a fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger movies (and why wouldn’t you be?) and love his ridiculous lines and delivery (and why wouldn’t you?) and have ten minutes to kill (and why wouldn’t you make ten minutes for this?), then check out this video:

(Warning: if you’re watching at work, some of these do have a bit of profanity in them…)

160 Greatest Arnold Schwarzenegger Quotes

Then, if you have ten more minutes to spare (and really, if you can find ten minutes to watch the first video, why wouldn’t you be able to find ten more minutes to watch this one too?):

The Other 130 Greatest Arnold Schwarzenegger Quotes

Enjoy!

Halloween Humor Roundup

Avish — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 18:24:31 +0000

It’s Halloween time! This is one of my favorite holidays, and as such, you know I’ve written blog posts about it. As you prepare to go “Trick or Treating,” “Costume Partying,” “Horror Movie Watching,” or just, “Avoiding the Whole Scene Altogether,” here are five Halloween/Horror Movie related posts I have written in the past to get you in the mood.

Read them – if you dare…Bwawawahahahahaha….

Rating the Business Acumen of Horror Movie Monsters

Great movie monsters all have different strengths, weaknesses, and character traits. It is interesting to consider how these traits would carry over in the business world. By making these observations, there may be some things we too can learn about business…[Read more]

Motivational Humor: Stupid Things People Do In Horror Movies

You know who’s stupid? People in horror movies. So many horror movies rely on characters doing stupid things to get going or keep going. But their stupidity is our gain, as we can learn a lot about how to make our lives better (even in a non-horror movie survival sense) by simply not doing the stupid things they do…[Read more]

6 Business Lessons We Can All Learn From Horror Movies

Did you know that you can learn a lot of business lessons from watching horror movies? If not, then keep reading! Here are 6 business lessons we can all learn from horror movies…[Read more]

Halloween Dumbassery – What Are You Giving Out this Halloween?

(photo by rochelle, et. al)

It’s Halloween time, and that means candy! However, some of you will resist the pull of sweets and try to give out alternative treats. Here then are a few guidelines to help you make your Halloween decisions easier. Proceed with caution; your choice of Halloween treats should never be taken lightly…[Read more]

Halloween Humor – Get Dressed to Thrill!

Halloween is upon us! As an adult, I am assuming you are not going trick or treating (although I think we do need a holiday where adults can walk door to door and get free stuff – not candy, but something fun for adults like DVDs or mutual funds). However, you may find yourself invited to a Halloween costume party. If you plan to attend one you will need a costume. Picking one can be a high stress activity, but have no fear! It’s really quite simple. You have three basic costume options when it comes to dressing up for Halloween: Funny, Serious, or Sexy. This article outlines the main points of each so you can decide what approach you want to take this year…[Read more]

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Learn the 16 simple but powerful principles that will lead to personal and professional success! In this 200 page book, Avish explains how the ideas from improv comedy can make your life easier and more successful. Check it out Improvise to Success! now!

New Demo Video!

Avish — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:30:12 +0000

I have a new demo video for my keynote speaking business! This one does a great job of capturing my energy, humor, and crowd interaction. Check it out:

(If you would like a similar video for your speaking business, drop me a line and I will out you in touch with my Amanda, my video editor)

A Small Favor!

Like most independent business professionals, the lifeblood of my business is word of mouth and referral marketing. Since you just watched my video, I would very much appreciate it if you could take a moment and think about anyone who might like to bring this type of humor, energy, and message to their event…

Since it can be hard to think of exactly who would be a good contact, here are three questions that may help you think of some people who would be a good fit.

Are you a member of any associations? If so, a conference committee member or board member is a great contact.
Are you close to anyone (family member, friend, colleague) who belongs to an association or attends conferences?
Do you know anyone who is a meeting planner, director of communication, VP of Sales/Marketing, or serves on a conference committee at any organization?

If you asnwered “yes” to any of the above, I would appreciate if you would send them to my Motivational Humorist Page so they can see the video and decide for themselves!

Thanks!
Avish