THE CULT OF MOTIVATION

I entered the Verizon center to see a lot of glassy eyed people with notepads. Folks who had spent hours scribbling notes, and hanging on every word as an endless parade of motivational speakers made their way to the stage. Of course I missed a lot of the motivation. I had a choice to be motivated, or take a nap. I took a nap. Before you laugh just think about my predicament. How bad would it look to see a guy sound asleep during a motivational speech?


Thankfully my wife gave me the condensed version. As I watched thousands of people getting worked into a motivated frenzy I couldn't help but think that the truly motivated were busy working while all of these people were sitting in the audience. I understand that we all need to have our batteries recharged so this is probably a good thing. But pardon my cynicism but what can you really learn during hours and hours of these motivational speeches? The answer is simple. There is no silver bullet. I'm certain a lot of the people in these seats want some simple magic tool to success.

Everything I heard is stuff I already knew. Guess what? You have to work harder than the other guy. You have to dig deep. You have to be driven, blah, blah, blah! The thing that bothered me was this cult like feeling about it. The rah, rah, rah aspect. The pyrotechnics when Sugar Ray Leonard bolts on stage. The red, white and blue confetti that came pouring down when former Secretary of State Colin Powell hit the stage.

Powell's speech was great. But was it about motivation? No way! I got the sense it was the same speech he gives all the time. It dealt with his time as Secretary of State, his time as head of the Joint Chiefs. He talked about foreign policy and encounters with such leaders as Mikhail Gorbachev. But he never once mentioned the word motivation. How did Powell get to where he is? What motivated him? What did he learn along the way? I don't know, he didn't tell us.

I left having enjoyed my time. I felt enlightened, and perhaps inspired and motivated. But I really didn't see this event having any real meaningful effect on my life. That is until my daughter called. She was upset, I tried to comfort her without much success. Then I handed the phone to my wife. Kate had spent hours listening to all these motivators. What I witnessed was truly extraordinary. She managed to calm Courtney and motivate her. So there you have it after all my belly aching I guess you can say I'm ready to join the cult of motivation.