We Had A Bad Time (And Why That's Great)

Aug 30, 2016
Self Growth

Today's Toastmaster session was different than the rest, today we had a humor contest. One of the contestants, a former stand up comedian, delivered a wonderful set. He had the audience laughing over and over captivating his audience with his every word. However, he did say one thing that really stuck out to me: "Bad times make for really great stories."

The comic, John, was describing a time when he was performing in a tiny tavern where the audience consisted of 7 guys sitting at 2 tables. Everyone else was passed out, playing darts, or flirting with the bartender. So John starts doing his bit, sets up the audience, delivers his punchline...and silence. No a smile, not peep from the 7 guys. He was tanking hard. He looked over his audience, these were not the high society sophisticated type so he made his new joke more low brow, talking about dumb politics. He sets up his audience, delivers his punchline...and silence. One guy smiled... or perhaps he just twitched, it was hard to tell, the room was not well lit. Still no laughter could be heard. He felt he needed bring his comedy even lower, and delivered the most vulgar laced dirty joke he had in his repertoire. A couple of the guys looked surprised, and even looked at each other but still no laughter. This was possibly the toughest crowd he had ever had to perform in front of. There was not even a pity laugh thrown his way. John saunters away feeling absolutely defeated. The next day John went to a concert, and was recognized by one of the 7 guys at the bar. "Hey you're that comedian from the bar, I thought you were pretty good". John replied "Thanks" but in very much a thanks-for-the-charity tone of voice. "I have got a confession for ya, before your routine, I made a bet with my friends that whoever laughs first would have to buy a round for everyone." John could not believe it, the whole reason he was doing so bad and having such a bad time was because there was this bet going on in the back. The whole situation turned out to be a pretty funny story.

The idea that bad times are just good stories is a great concept. For many people we are too afraid to go for what we want because we are afraid we will have a bad time. This often means we will not even attempt that job or career or investment. We do not try because the risk of having a bad time is too overwhelming. Think about all those rags to riches stories that we have heard about and how wonderful they make us feel. If it was simply a story of riches to riches, we would not be very impressed. It is the hard times that help build and define who we are. Those are the stories that we can talk about, where we truly test our metal, and came out on the other end. We can use this tool to get us over what is holding us back. We know that if we succeed,  we win; if we fail, then we have a great story.