I calls ’em as I sees ’em | Travel Research Online

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I calls ’em as I sees ’em

In flipping through O Magazine (Oprah’s rag), an article titled “The Power of Intention” caught my eye. On the first page, was a photo of a row of toppled dominoes.  The article continued, explaining how a yoga instructor was using dominoes as a teaching tool.

A woman was attending her first yoga class when the instructor asked the class “what happened?”, referencing the photo. The yoga aficionados in the class came up with all sorts of responses, all coupled to some exotic, Sanskrit phrase of explanation. The novice looked at the instructor, not knowing any better, and simply replied, “It looks like they fell to me.”

He responded, “You’re right. Then we can push them the other way and start over. That is good yoga.”

I won’t bet my house on it, but I feel quite confident that there aren’t two readers in Oprah’s worldwide posse that paused like I did after reading these few lines.

I found myself flashing back to the Nagano Winter Olympics and to a story I tell frequently when I address travel agents. This time, it involved the world famous heartthrob, Alberta Tomba, Italy’s finest schussing stud. In this particular event, Tomba was a shoe-in for the gold. Fate had other ideas as he veered to the left upon leaving the chute and in 8 milliseconds, found himself kissing a snow fence.

At the bottom of the slope, along with 2500 other disappointed Tomba groupies, an ABC newsman tried to capture a sound byte worth relaying around the world.

“Alberta. You were a lock for the gold. What happened?”  Italy’s finest, without losing a beat, looked at the guy and said, “What happened? I fell.”–and politely skied off, probably to quaff down a cold one.

I will also place a significant wager that when Tiger Woods is questioned after he blasts a 350-yard drive out of bounds he answers by saying, “I hit it out of bounds.”

Ladies and gentlemen, from yoga to the ski slopes, from the classroom to boardroom, people fall short—all the time. The rank and file will dig into their bag of excuses and begin boring us all to tears. The good ones will pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and start all over again.

Mike Marchev is a non-linear thinker who makes his living shooting from the  hip. Check out his new collaborative project titled The Travel Agent Success Series www.travelagentsuccessseries.com

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