Motivation, it's defined in the American Heritage Dictionary as to provide with an incentive; move to action; impel. People know what this word means and most might describe it simply as a self driven impulse to get a job done whether it be something in the workplace or personal life. The seminar held at the HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York just last week had an agenda with big names speaking about their accomplishments in the work place, finances and promised to motivate or shed some light on to the Average Joe who's assumed attitude was a little less than motivated. I had the opportunity to attend this seminar with mixed feelings about it. I wanted to go to the arena with an open mind thinking maybe people will get some good advice from the speakers but as I approached the doors hearing over the loud speaker “you can do it” and other clichéd words of encouragement my open mind quickly closed. The speakers at the seminar were motivated for sure, but it wasn't the motivation to get all the attendees at the seminar to make a better living in their workplace, their motives were to sell you their products or endorse the companies that are paying them to talk about it. What seemed as a seminar for companies to send their unmotivated employees to for advice was actually one big sales pitch for products from the speakers.
This seminar had a lot of promotion before the date, I heard it everyday on the radio on my way to work and they had sent out mail to probably every company in the region. The pricing was right and I'm sure they accommodated to offices that wanted to bring in large groups which made me curious about the two hundred twenty five dollar face value on the ticket, maybe they wanted it to seem like it was worth a lot more than companies actually paid? Anyway, turned out that about fifteen thousand people attended. Fifteen thousand people took the day off a work to listen to the “almighty go getters” and try to change productivity in the work place. I believe that majority of the people there weren't even there to listen but to take the day off thus showing a lack of motivation right there. Upon entering the arena going upstairs to search for a seat almost everyone was taking the escalators and I thought to myself how are people going to get motivated to change their work habits when they're too lazy to exert the extra energy of taking the stairs. Another observation I made was the twenty dollar workbook they were selling to take notes on, luckily I had brought my own pad of paper and pen to take note of the greed that was taking place right there as the vendor shouted “Twenty dollars, get your workbook!”. Some ticket holders did have a voucher coupon on their ticket which got them a workbook free of charge.
They had already began shortly before I got to my seat in the three hundred level which was at the very top of the arena. Not a horrible view as they did have several monitors showing the motivators every movement. The display was exactly as I suspected, very tacky, with a small stage located in the center with flowers bunched up around the sides and lame pyrotechnics every time a new speaker entered the stage. The announcer that introduced and spoke between speeches was obnoxious very loud and using a lot rhetoric to influence the audience to get into the seminar with words like “amazing” or “outstanding”. I took note of her actually saying that “every time we come back to Buffalo..” and I thought to myself how many times do people actually need to listen to these speeches before the get motivated?
There were a total of eleven speaker s at the seminar and there were two that were even worth listening to, Joe Montana and General Colin Powell. Those were probably the only two that weren't trying to sell something and had interesting stories about their lives. Joe Montana shared some football stories and those that inspired him to be one of the NFL's greatest quarterbacks. Colin Powell spoke of his time as Secretary of State and how he had to meet with foreign leaders and communicated country leadership ideas and concerns. For someone so accomplished he seemed pretty down to earth. The rest of the speakers just spoke of things that people should already know, rags to riches stories, overcoming the odds, we've all heard them before I don't think going to a seminar is going to make people realize again how they should be taking charge of their lives and getting things done.
One speaker that really stood out was Tamara Lowe, wife of the CEO of Get Motivated Seminars, Inc. After she revealed that she was a former drug addict and drug dealer with no high school diploma it ruined her credibility. She tried to convince the crowd that since she overcame all her history and is now spewing her life stories on stage she a perfect example of a motivated person. I disagree. There are far more educated people in the world that doesn't have a past of that nature. She exclaimed that since she just received her Master's Degree she will be going from “LSD to Ph.D.” That statement made me cringe in my seat as I started thinking about the people who weren't on drugs getting their Ph.D. Why is she so special just because she used to be an addict? She had tasteless planned jokes as she entertained the crowd with relationship exercises and at the end she left you hanging just enough to promote the book she had coming out this fall. It was a little curious to think that majority of these speakers had a book coming out all around the same time this fall, which means they've probably had this planned for some time now. Those books most likely weren't even written by the speakers and ghost writers were hired to write and they just slapped their well known names on the cover to sell the product.
My opinion about the seminar was that it was way too long. The speakers all had similar stories, it got old quick and the corny song and dance numbers made me laugh out loud. Maybe some people who attended this seminar really got something from the speakers. I find it hard to believe but it's possible. My views on motivation is that it's more individualized, you really need to want something yourself to go after it. Being lectured by some people who have accomplished something really won't change the way you view your current job or lifestyle. Many people want big and better things or had higher expectations but that doesn't mean after attending the seminar they went out and started accomplishing them. People aren't very susceptible to change and once they're locking in grooves of routine it's hard to get out. There are many ways to feel accomplished in life but going to seminars attempting to find out something you don't already know isn't one of them. Motivation isn't something you find from a seminar. People shouldn't be so naive about motivation, research can be done on your own to make ways to better lives. Engaging in small activities and small successes can motivate you to keep going and eventually tackle bigger challenges. All these speakers are doing is taking advantage of the ones that don't have the common sense to start something on their own.
