Hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold … Have fun!

Here’s a Help Wanted ad guaranteed to get noticed: Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. It was written by Antarctic explorer Earnest Shackleton, undoubtedly to make it clear that this was one opportunity that slackers could take a pass on. Ironically, the  challenges that my marketing technology team face sometimes seem just as formidable. And they persist in their struggles against the odds — as Shackleton’s heroic team did – for precisely the same reason: To have fun.

I’m sure that’s why it was included in this Eight Principles of Fun web slideshow presentation. Here’s another quote:

Do yourself a favor and watch this brief and inspiring presentation. I ordinarily do not enjoy these types of time-wasters. I’m more inclined to enjoy and share satires of this sort of rah-rah motivational blather. But I didn’t this time. And here’s why:

Most of the “There is no i in teamwork; We can do it if we don’t give up”-type presentations seem calculated to get us working folk more excited about doing the same old stuff faster and cheaper. If you consider your work life dull and frustrating, they seem to imply, “Look again! It’s really more exciting than you think!”

Yeah, right.

This presentation is far more subversive.

It talks not about achievement, but about the fuel that propels us to it: FUN. Yes, fun laughs at adversity. But it also laughs at authority — or at least the pomposity and rote conformity that often come with authority.

Take a look. And many thanks to personal and business coach Lindy Asimus for posting this.

2 Replies to “Hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold … Have fun!”

  1. I’ve loved that quotation by Shackleton. The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun is a brilliant piece too. Very apt.

    Though quite different in context, in application it seems to touch on something that is also in the short film here http://actionbites.blogspot.com/2008/09/history-of-sign-compassion-in-action.html that as you say, brings, motivation and other active motions to things that we normally regard as Values, which are unfortunately often no more than a thought or a bit of lip-sevice.

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