Sunday night I went to a fireside featuring Stephen Covey. I figured this would be an excellent fireside to attend, seeing as how Stephen Covey is supposed to be like the Michael Jordan of Getting Your Sh*% Together, if you know what I mean.
I arrived early, settling into my seat before all the good ones were gone and I was left sitting in the back of the room in one of those uncomfortable folding chairs, unable to focus on what was being said because I was so uncomfortable.
Unfortunately, I could have been sitting in a freaking Lay-Z-Boy and been completely uninterested in what Mr. Covey had to say.
His fireside was entitled, "Identity Theft" and initially, it sounded promising. It was everything you'd except a fireside from Stephen Covey to be; PowerPoint presentation, bullet points, charts, graphs, and inspirational quotes. I mean, I felt like I should have brought my day planner or something. However, for someone who makes his living as a motivational speaker, Mr. Covey was a lot of things, but motivating was not one of them. In fact, his entire 85 minute-long presentation seemed like random collection of quotes, thrown between slides of inverted pyramid diagrams and those pictures that look like an old lady or Jesus, depending on how you squint your eyes to look at them.
His delivery wasn't impressive either. I'm a firm believer in phrase, "Fake it till you make it." I live by this phrase. Stephen Covey does not. He was dull, his demeanor was cold and I swear it was as if he didn't even believe what he was saying. I mean, you've got to sell it, Stephen. You know that, right?
I will say the one highlight of the evening was the two minutes during which he told us that during the Presidential transition, he had met with President Bush in Oval Office and gave him some advice. He explained to us how spiritual Bush is and how, after an emotional meeting to discuss his future as an Ex-President, Bush had asked him what was this light that shone through him was. Stephen Covey let President Bush know that it was the spirit and that was the feeling he was experiencing.
Ummm......ok.
Bottom line, I wasn't impressed. In fact, if I ever have the means to drop $50,000 on a motivational speaker, I will turn elsewhere.
3 comments:
Thanks for the plug, Bri! I definitely would have kicked some motivational butt at your fireside.
I think Brother Covey forgot who his audience was! Too bad.
Have you heard Randy Pausch's last lecture? I think its a book too. Anyway, finally watched it and it was amazing.
I'm guessing it was better than your Covey experience.
Last lecture is wonderful. You can see it on You Tube. Highly recommend it, it really helps put life, and the time we spend doing whatever it is we are doing, in perspective.
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