“Yes Man” and other ideas

 

 

Have you seen “Yes Man” (2008) comedy movie? The main character (starring Jim Carrey) promises to stop being a "No Man" and vows to answer "Yes!" to every opportunity, request or invitation that presents itself. This, as you may correctly expect, leads to many hilarious gags. The film is loosely based on a true story and 2005 book titled “Yes Man” written by British humorist Danny Wallace, who inspired by a phrase he had heard in a bus decides to take it as a challenge and say "yes" to everything for a year.  

Saying “yes” to everything was definitely funny in the movie but it may be quite dangerous in real life if people you bump into tend to be drug dealers and loan sharks. Instead of being compliant with everything why don’t to choose a proper challenge?  

Certain people took the idea to extreme and made it some sort of art and a way of life.  For example experimental journalist A.J. Jacobs spent a year trying to follow all the rules and guidelines he could find in the Bible and even wrote a book about it, titled: “The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to follow the Bible as Literally as Possible”. And I’m telling you, Paramount Picture is going to make a movie out of this, starring Brad Pitt, as it has been announced. 

In 2005 Jacobs outsourced his life – he hired personal assistants from India to live his life and doing things like answering his e-mails, reading his children good-night stories, and arguing with his wife! His other project involved a month of Radical Honesty (it was too difficult to go on for a year with that). An article he wrote about was titled: “I Think You’re Fat” –  and you get the idea. 

Jacobs spent also a year on reading Encyclopedia Britannica from A to Z – all 32 volumes and all four million words of it. He wrote about this experience in a book titled: “The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World”. It was said about that book: "The Know-It-All is a terrific book. It's a lot shorter than the encyclopedia, and funnier, and you'll remember more of it. Plus, if it falls off the shelf onto your head, you'll live."

And what would you say about a blogger, entrepreneur and achievement guru Timothy Ferris? Tim holds Guinness Book World Records’ record for the most consecutive tango spins in one minute; he became a national champion of Chinese kickboxing; within just one week he learned and performed Yabusame – Japanese art of horseback archery. Watch it in his show “Trial By Fire” which was aired on the History Channel in 2008; you may find it on the Internet. Tim Ferris is the author of “The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich”.  

MG