Smart Ass License

I have a confession. I like screwing with people. Call it a sick hobby or a misfire in the old synapses but it's something that I do. Now I will admit my humor is never intended to insult or impugn anyone, unless you count me in that equation. Most of my humor is self effacing. However it is always done in good fun. I will let you in on a little secret, it has helped me immensely in getting out of my introverted shell; I have discovered it to be cheap therapy. My smart ass license, as you might imagine, gets used quite often.

Now I am certain my wife and dad will not necessarily agree that this is the purest form of therapy as they are often pulled, unwillingly into my devious cravings to make people laugh and smile.

My wife for example almost refuses to take me to the grocery story any more. I have a tendency to joke about her using the "stolen checks" or using her "real license" when she is completing her transaction with the cashier. I consider it great fun and it often gets a rise and a guaranteed look out of who ever is serving us. Which is, in all likelihood, why I do it in the first place! To pull and impersonable cashier, waiter or whoever out of their mundane (and likely pissy mood) approach to serving us. It works like a charm every time!

Now my situation with my dad is entirely different. We fight, when we are together over the check. It has literally become an outright competition to see who pays. For an old guy, he is still pretty crafty and has one-upped me a number of times and to give him proper props, he gets his smart ass license renewed every time we are together!

Our normal ritual when the check arrives is to debate with the waitperson as to who he or she should give the check to. I launch into my various reasons as to why I should be given the check some of which include:

• "Don't take his credit card, he' on a fixed budget! He and my mom won't be able to eat again for two weeks!"
• Looking at my dad I will say...."Man, the credit card company reissued you a card after LAST TIME!"
• "You might not want to take his card because he picks pockets at the senior center and I believe you could be implicated in some sort of crime if you use his card."
• "He just got out of prison and I know for a fact that he made that card in the slammer."
• "Look at him....could you really trust him? He looks shifty to me!"
• "This is my father and I haven't seen him in 30 years since he left home with his secretary. As you can imagine I am still pissed and the least I could do is pay for his last meal on Earth!"
• Looking at my dad, "Look man, I don't want to go jail again like last time. Please just let me pay."
• "Sir, my dad get's credit cards in the mail all the time in some dead guy's name. He thinks it's okay to use them. I would just be real careful trying to process that thing!"
• "Hey Dad, what's the name of the waitress that didn't listen to me and went ahead and processed your card? Is she still doing time?" Looking at the current waitress, "I have no idea why she went to jail and dad didn't!"
  

Now I know people will criticize me for picking on my lovely wife and my poor old dad. But before you fire off any hate comments or emails, there is a point!

I have a blast doing it!

Being a smart ass helps me think fast on my feet. It makes me be creative and often results in a smile or a laugh from all concerned. Well except for my wife who doesn't think much of my "form of humor" but we won't entirely count her. It's my BLOG after all!

Pulling out and using my smart ass license has had other benefits as well. For example, I was having dinner recently before I was to speak to a business group. The waitress seemed overly personable for some odd reason and I couldn't put my finger on why. Then she asked if I remembered her which unfortunately it did not. She told me that she remembered me from six months earlier when she worked at another restaurant and what crazy wild tales I told about my friend whom I wouldn't let pay. She said I really made her smile and she told people about me for months!

How cool is that? To be remembered because you changed someone’s day? Seems like a pretty good way to be remembered if you ask me. I got extra catfish in my dinner from the young lady as well so I will submit there are ancillary benefits too!

All I can say is I am giving you permission to pull out your smart ass license and give it a try. You will be remembered, you will likely get a rise out of whoever is around and I bet you will find you will enjoy it. Who doesn't want to smile after all?

Ripple On My Friends!!!

Steve Harper
www.ripplecentral.com

Goodbye Steve Irwin

I just finished watching the memorial service for Steve Irwin from the Australia Zoo on Animal Planet. I guess his passing and the actual impact he made on me and my family didn't really sink in until tonight. To watch his 'Mates' tell their stories and recall fond memories of what made him just so special was both heart warming and inspiring.

As I watched countless pictures of Steve with his children and his wife at the conclusion of the show it really hit my heart to know that his family has lost an amazing son, brother, husband and father. To look into the faces of his angelic children and to know they will never be swept up into those larger than life arms of his, hurts. To know they will never be able to look into his eyes, eyes that simply danced with his love and adoration for them, brings a lump to my throat. To know that they will never again hear his voice and his now famous "Crikes!" cascade throughout the bush as they venture together as a family, while out on yet another one of dad's adventures simply breaks my heart.

The impact that this man has made in the name of wildlife conservation and education will likely never be matched. I know he will be immortalized and forever a favorite and inspired son of not only his home country of Australia, but also the world.

Today it hit me. It is if I lost a friend, my "best mate" too and my heart is really hurting. Yet through this hurt I find inspiration. I find motivation. Steve Irwin life stands as an example of what one man (or woman) can do if they put their mind to it. In his own little way, he has created such a ripple effect with his amazing efforts. Though he was always entertaining, he was alas also teaching and I can only hope that his lessons will go on for ever. That we all take something away from his special life and realize that we, if only through television, had the pleasure and the honor of seeing lightening in a bottle. He was truly a shining star and will forever stand as immortal proof that passion and shear determination can change the world.

I can only hope that one day I will be able to make one tenth of an impact that Steve Irwin did in this world.

Goodbye Steve Irwin and thank you!

Ripple On My Friends!!!

Steve Harper
www.ripplecentral.com

What Would You Do With Ten Years?

Yesterday morning I got sucked into Entertainment Television’s (otherwise known as "E") True Hollywood Stories special on Michael J. Fox. I must admit, I am a sucker for a good story. Having been a long time fan of Michael J. Fox I settled in to be entertained and what I found, to my surprise, was absolute inspiration.

The story was interlaced with great insight as to how Fox landed his first big series, Family Ties, and through a connection the show's creator had had with Steven Spielberg, landed his super successful Back to the Future. In typical E fashion, they had to inner-mix the good with the bad to insure you as the viewer could see Fox wasn't necessarily immune to the pressures of a young Hollywood up and comer but it was actually minimal. Not sure that was by design but I suspect they simply couldn't find any more dirt to dish on him which in the end made this a better, less tabloid-Esq. show.

What I respected the most was how they told the story of how Fox struggled with the early onset of Parkinson's Disease and after receiving the diagnosis was told that he would only have ten years to work. As it turned out, throughout those ten years, Fox did an amazing amount of work and pursued his passion in acting and eventual activism toward fighting this terrible disease with all the vigor and passion that brought him his early success.

I found myself thinking at that moment, what would I do with the next ten years? What if I had been given this very short sentence. What would I want to accomplish? Would I look at each new day differently? Would I treat each new minute with a different vigor and sense of importance? Would I treat each request from my boys to go toss the football with a sense of urgency and excitement?

Michael J. Fox stands as a hero to me. He has taken a fight to this debilitating disease and refuses to give in and let it win. I have so much admiration for what this man faces on a daily basis and through his foundation, The Michael J. Fox Fondation, continues to help bring awareness and dollars to the search for the cure. I encourage you to click the link and find out more about the great work that they are doing at the foundation.

Ironically it was nearly twenty years ago to the day that one of the first movies Michael J. Fox did, The Secret to My Success inspired me and the entrepreneur bug bit me. Today Michael J. Fox is inspiring me in another way. He reminds me that each day is special and that our future is neither guaranteed nor likely to turn out the way we expect or envision it.

So I ask....what would you do with ten years?

Thanks Michael J. Fox for being an inspiration to so many. I know the work that you and the fantastic people at your foundation will find a cure. And what a Ripple it will be!

Until next time my friends!

Ripple On!!!

Steve Harper

MAKE A DIFFERENCE. START TO RIPPLE.