I recently attended a motivational seminar by someone who nobody knows about today—the seminar had less than forty people—but mark my words, he is soon going to take over the philosophy world by storm! His name is Abhimanyu. He calls himself the Thinker (pompous much?) The experience was irritating, frustrating, and left me completely embarrassed. And was it not for the fact that it completely and utterly changed my life, I would never be speaking of it again.
When the fat guy first appeared on the stage, I couldn’t help exclaim to myself, “Thinker? He looks more like a Software geek!”
He slowly walked to the center of the stage, adjusted the mic, and then started speaking in a voice that boomed over the crowd and cast an instant spell of silence.
“Before I begin, I would like to get to know my audience better. Who here thinks of themselves as a beginner in the field of self-improvement; or ‘metamorphosis’, as I like to call it,” he said, glancing towards the banner hanging behind him which read –
“THE ANATOMY OF METAMORPHOSIS”
Hands slowly started going up; first a couple here and there, but then, as courage level of the room started going up, so did the hands! Within a minute, a dozen hands were up.
“Very well! And who here considers themselves as an expert in the field of self-improvement?” he said.
Without even waiting for my permission, my left hand shot up!
I glanced around the room to check if anyone else had raised their hand too. None. I turned back to the speaker. He was intently peering at me from under his spectacles.
After a moment of slience, he spoke, “May I know your name young man?”
“Abhimanyu!” I shouted so that I could be heard over the crowd.
He smiled. “Mr. Abhimanyu, can you please come up on stage? I would like to have a chat with you,” he said.
I immediately got up from my chair and started making my way through the rows of people.
“Everyone, please give Mr. Abhimanyu a big round of applause!”
The entire crowd started clapping and cheering in encouragement (which I didn’t need)
I live for this stuff!