A handful of well known figures from politics and sports are in Richmond today for a mega motivational seminar at the Richmond Coliseum.
Colin Powell will be there along with Rudy Giuliani, whom promotional materials describe as “America’s Mayor.”
At a similar event two weeks ago, swimmer Michael Phelps told a Baltimore arena, “My whole career started from one dream as a 7-year-old kid,” Phelps said. “I always wanted to do things that nobody had done. I hate settling for second best.” You can read more about that event from a Baltimore Sun story here, which explains that the series is:
“a program that travels to 25 cities a year for large arena shows and promises to teach attendees cutting edge business skills, expert sales training and wealth building strategies through a blend of classroom lecture, inspirational speaking and infomercial complete with pitches to buy books and follow-up training.”
Tickets cost $20 for an entire office. Cameras and video recorders are not allowed.
I’m deeply skeptical of the entire motivational-speaker phenomenon and would like to hear from any readers who can explain exactly how listening to these folks motivates some sort of behavior by the attendees. And what would that new behavior look like?
Would a sales person make more cold calls after hearing from Terry Bradshaw? Would a lawyer litigate more after inspiring words from a so-called sales expert?
More specifically, what does Sarah Palin have to say to business people? She happened to be governor of a rural state at exactly the moment in U.S. politics when an aging senator/presidential candidate was running a campaign in need of something new and fresh. There is a lesson in that somewhere, but I’m not sure it’s motivational.
Am I missing something?
For people looking for motivation, I can recommend several books and movies. Start with “Touching the Void,” and read anything about prisoner of war camps during WWII. Also read “Adrift,” and watch “Rocky”and “Rudy” and “Trading Places.”
A handful of well known figures from politics and sports are in Richmond today for a mega motivational seminar at the Richmond Coliseum.
Colin Powell will be there along with Rudy Giuliani, whom promotional materials describe as “America’s Mayor.”
At a similar event two weeks ago, swimmer Michael Phelps told a Baltimore arena, “My whole career started from one dream as a 7-year-old kid,” Phelps said. “I always wanted to do things that nobody had done. I hate settling for second best.” You can read more about that event from a Baltimore Sun story here, which explains that the series is:
“a program that travels to 25 cities a year for large arena shows and promises to teach attendees cutting edge business skills, expert sales training and wealth building strategies through a blend of classroom lecture, inspirational speaking and infomercial complete with pitches to buy books and follow-up training.”
Tickets cost $20 for an entire office. Cameras and video recorders are not allowed.
I’m deeply skeptical of the entire motivational-speaker phenomenon and would like to hear from any readers who can explain exactly how listening to these folks motivates some sort of behavior by the attendees. And what would that new behavior look like?
Would a sales person make more cold calls after hearing from Terry Bradshaw? Would a lawyer litigate more after inspiring words from a so-called sales expert?
More specifically, what does Sarah Palin have to say to business people? She happened to be governor of a rural state at exactly the moment in U.S. politics when an aging senator/presidential candidate was running a campaign in need of something new and fresh. There is a lesson in that somewhere, but I’m not sure it’s motivational.
Am I missing something?
For people looking for motivation, I can recommend several books and movies. Start with “Touching the Void,” and read anything about prisoner of war camps during WWII. Also read “Adrift,” and watch “Rocky”and “Rudy” and “Trading Places.”
No, you’re not missing a thing. The only thing being motivated here are the speakers. They’re being motivated by their own lack of relevance and probable declining bank balance. They have to keep themselves out there.
You also forgot to mention that Sarah Palin won’t actually even be there. It’s a SATELLITE feed… Heck, it’s probably pre-recorded too!
Aaron,
I went to a similar program a few years ago. The seminar is actually an advertising platform, just like RBS. The content is the speakers such as Palin who draw people in but have nothing to sell. The paid advertising comes from professional motivators such as Ziglar who want to sign you up for their program.
The headliners are actually the opening act(s) for a flood of informercials. Attendees will have the chance to listen to “leaders” for a total of +/- 10 minutes at a shot, followed by hucksters flogging real-estate-with-no-$-down programs, “can’t fail” sales and investing “systems”, and a host of other high-dollar, low-value crap. The real motivation is on the part of those flog-a-licious hustlers…who are highly motivated to sell as much product as possible, after Zig et al pump them up to take advantage of opportunity. Which will be interpreted as “Don’t let this real estate/investing/personal motivation opportunity pass you by! Buy… Read more »
I suspected it was a sales scheme. Kind of like the “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” seminars that are really sales pitches for [sc]Amway…
First off I’m not going to the seminar. But there’s no reason to be skeptical. Just state it like it is, facts only. Is it wrong to be motivated to actually do something? Or would you rather just do whatever mundane thing you do on a daily basis for a couple measly bucks? Give me a break. Someone gets motivated and all of a sudden it’s a “scam” or a “scheme”. great things in this country have happened because people were motivated not because of unmotived liberals looking for a handout.