Get Motivated!

I went to the "Get Motivated" business seminar, which was held yesterday in Rochester. The speakers at this event included NFL legend Terry Bradshaw, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Rudy Giuliani (NYC mayor during 9/11), Bill Cosby, Steve Forbes (Forbes Magazine) and Erin Brockovich, along with some other big-shot names. Each speaker focused on a different theme; for example, Colin Powell talked about "leadership", and Erin Brockavich talked about "achievement".

I went into this thing thinking this has got to be a scam; the tickets were only about two bucks, and a discount of $9 for a group. Any one of these guys could hold a seminar by themselves for $150, easy. What was really odd was that it was about two bucks in advance, but $225 dollars a person at the door. What?

The Blue Cross Arena, where it was held, could hold about 15,000 people; and if each person payed $2, that still doesn't seem like enough to cover the cost of having all those high-profile people; this would be in addition to paying to use the arena or advertising the event. They even promised to give one person in the audience $10,000; but for some reason, the guy didn't make himself known, and didn't come to claim his prize, though the entire audience was waiting to cheer for him. The emcee said they'd announce another winner if he didn't show; I don't know if anyone ever got it.

But amazingly, everyone that was advertised showed up.

The event opened up with a "Grammy Award Winner", singing the National Anthem, who was absolutely terrible. During one intermission, the guy was basically shouting at the crowd to "make some noise" over the horrendous one he was making. I think his name was "Robbie" or "Robbin" Williams Jr. Apart from that, there was one of those football-stadium style jumbo screens hanging from the ceiling, and some impressive pyrotechnics bursting from the stage, that went on whenever a new speaker entered the stage.

The entire seminar had a religious theme to it. A woman in a glittering, blue mini-skirt, was the emcee. She said that past surveys taken regarding the event, had a high amount of people requesting the speakers to speak more on spirituality. In fact, the emcee mentioned this twice on two different occasions. She repeated herself a few times, to the point where I wasn't sure if she was doing this for emphasis or simply forgot that she mentioned it already.

I first noticed the spiritual theme when I thumbed through the work-book given to people who ordered it in advance. It had different celebrities like George Forman, Mary Lou Retton, Joe Montana and William Shattner. A lot of them talked about their faith in God, like Foreman and Retton. Bill Cosby and Terry Bradshaw and a few others, talked about God and His importance in their success at length. One speaker, Krish Dhanam, basically evangelized and preached to the crowd. In fact, just before Bill Cosby went on, there was even a Christian rapper named KJ-52. I knew he was a Christian rapper from my religious days; I wondered if anyone else in the crowd knew it.

On that subject, did you know that "Christian" artists are white, and "gospel" artists are black? Kinda sad, in a way.



The event kicked off with Rick Belluzo, who had a good, simple message about the basics, like not giving up and being humble. But at one point, Rick Belluzo said that business people should "always maintain intergrity"; and people actually wrote this down, nodding their heads in agreement. It's sad that human beings are so screwed up, that this is something thousands of people feel the need to jot down in their notes.


Here are some of the more noteworthy speakers:







Krish Dhanam went next, and killed; he was hillarious and engaged the crowd beautifully. He started off with the question, "Where does the white go when the snow melts?" He also talked about when he met Mother Teresa. This was because his view of success was more wholistic; he said that your spiritual and family life are the most important things to have in order, if you want to succeed. At one point, he asked the crowd to raise their hand as high as it will go; he then asked the audience to raise their hands a little higher. When the audience did, he said, "Why didn't you raise it that high the first time?"

Dhanam also had a story about the first time he emmigrated to the U.S. He spoke to his wife, and said "We'll be alright"; his wife said "How do you know?" And Dhanam said "These people think they have problems!"






Steve Forbes went next, and talked about returning to the Gold Standard, and said the U.S. has too many taxes (social security, property taxes, endless taxes on phone bills, etc.) He also mentioned that Scottish people have a stereotype of being stingy (he's Scottish). I'd never heard of that stereotype; but it made me understand for the first time, why Scrooge McDuck from "Duck Tails" was a Scottish Character.






Rudy Giuliani followed, and talked about 9/11, being the first Republican Mayor of New York City, and the importance of reading books. He also talked about the importance of learning about computers, and talked about how important computers were with setting up a system to fight crime in New York City, which he said went down 80 percent from time he entered office to today. This made me think of a line in a song from a gangster rapper named Jadakiss, in which he said Gulliani might as well be "murkin" (killing) criminals, because the "time he's handin' out is hurtin'" them. What an honor it must be, that even hardcore rappers acknowledge what a great job you're doing fighting crime.

Rudy was a little tame and restrained, for someone who played an irate cab driver on Saturday Night Live, and once dressed in drag and while Donald Trump fondled his "breasts". However, his imitation of a burly New York City construction worker, bear-hugging George Bush shortly after 9/11, was one of the best moments of the seminar.





Bob Kitell, a business man, talked about how he became a champion pole-vaulter at age 54. He offered to sell a five dollar bill for one dollar, to the first audince member who came up and got it. He then sold a ten dollar bill for five in the same way. Kitell then did this neat little thing where he asked if there was anyone in the audience who needed cheering up; some people apparently nominated this man who seemed to be in his early forties, who Kitell then invited up on stage. Bob Kitell then had the entire audience give him a standing ovation. Kitell joked about selling a hundred-dollar bill earlier, but then gave the forty-year old man the 100 dollar bill. That was awesome.

Kittel was a great speaker, entertaining and funny, with great advise about the stock market; but then, he put a damper on the event by selling seats for a $99 Ameritrade training class on stocks. By this point, I was convinced that these celebs were just trying to do a good thing; but when he started pitching the Ameritrade classes, I was like, "Of course". Bob Kitell mentioned that he was "paid well" to speak, and I was able to see how; he was a killer salesman, who sold a lot of seats, using the old "It's originally $2,000, but I talked to them; I got told them that you guys are motivated, and talked them down to only 99 dollars!"

I thought about leaving after that, but stayed. Only one other guy tried to sell something, and I sort of got over feeling duped.








Terry Bradshaw was one of the best speakers of the night. He was just a natural. Funny and engaging, he talked about his Baptist roots, and frequently talked about God. He talked about how in his day, top NFL players got around 600,000 grand, while top players now are getting 25 million. In a great rant, he talked about how he flew coach on a flight which was long, cramped, delayed, and had to make an emergency stop; on top of that, he had to stay in a cheap motel...all for $1500.

They say great comics take their material from pain; this seems true of Bradshaw, as he talked about his three ex-wives. He jokingly said he "lost everything", in his first divorce, then "lost everything again". He did this in a way that didn't make you feel sorry him, but made you laugh. But his joke about all he went through for $1500, in addition to what he said about divorce, made me wonder just how much pain he's seen.







Bill Cosby was awesome. Starting off by sitting in a chair (like the pic), he seemed completely at home in front of a crowd of thousands. He was one of the most passionate speakers of the night.

Bill ragged on a woman who walked up to the stage and handed him a business card, saying "Why would I--a millionaire--take a business card from you?" He ragged on her for ten minutes straight, staying funny but never coming off as mean. He gave a story about a man asking Jesus to cure him of hypertention, and when Jesus told him to quit salt rather than magically taking it away, the man looked at Jesus and said "I'm disapointed in you"; to which Jesus replied, "Wait 'till you meet my Father."

About a half-hour before Bill Cosby was due to speak, the emcee asked the audience to not mention anything about his birthday; this was because, according to her, Mrs. Cosby asked her to have the crowd sing "Happy Birthday" to him, after he finished speaking. Of course, there was a douchebag in the audience who shouted "Happy Birthday!" The audience gasped, because this douchebag broke the agreement. Cosby bowed his head, almost as if hiding his annoyance; but he politely said "thank you". To the audience's reaction at the douchebag, Cosby said "That's all right; at least he wasn't as bad as the woman with her card."

When Cosby finished, the crowd sang "Happy Birthday", being aided by Robbie Williams, who for the first and only time, actually sounded good. I think even he realized he would've been lynched for messing up Bill Cosby's birthday moment.






Colin Powell spoke after two other men who went after Cosby. He was cool, humorous, and seemed very down-to-earth. He talked about the shock of going from being really important and sought after...to feeling like a nobody, almost instantly; he no longer had bodyguards or his own 747 when his run as Secretary of State was over. He talked about his recent trip to the Sudan, where he took part in signing a peace treaty. He also talked about the importance of public schools, which he attended until starting his military career, and that suburbanites should also be concerned about the inner city, and do something to help.

Colin was surprisingly a gentle speaker, considering he was a former military commander.






Erin Brockavich: She was the last speaker, and I didn't stay to listen. This was mainly because I didn't know much about her, other than that she took down some large, evil company, and had a movie made about her with Julia Roberts, which I saw. I only stayed long enough to see what she looked like, because she was reportedly pretty hot. I felt bad about it afterward, because a LOT of people left after Colin Powell spoke. I could only imagine being invited to speak to a large crowd, preparing your speak, coming all the way to Rochester from wherever she came from, only to witness thousands leaving during your speech. I'm sure she had some important things to say. She even wore a short, tight dress.

If it wasn't for the fact that I left my house at 6:30 AM to get a good parking spot and good seats, and that I was pretty tired when 4:00 PM hit, I would've stayed. I'm sure a lot of other people would've too.


Thinking about it now, I was incalculably lucky to be able to attend this event, especially in light of the insanely cheap price. All the pyrotechnics, and the a performance by the Christian rapper which involved an a dance contest with audience members (the winner getting a free trip to Disney World), and a few thousand beach balls thrown into the crowd just for fun.

It was a great event. It gave me a lot to think about as far as the importance of being motivated, in terms that weren't just cliches. My goal is to be a successful writer; this gave me some much needed fuel.