Good morning.
And welcome to morning cereal
Okay, good morning and welcome to Friday.
As far away as this Friday
may have seemed on Monday,
you finally made it. And it's a Super
Bowl weekend Friday, so
that makes it even better.
And perhaps you're lucky enough to be
working from home today, and I'm sure
your employer knows and
respects the fact that today is National
Work Naked Day. And it's
not what you think. It sounds
suggestive, but it's actually just about
working from home. The
naked part is totally optional.
It's also National Bubblegum Day. Give
kids a smile day. Hug an
addict or an alcoholic day.
And my personal favorite, wave all your
fingers at your neighbor day. Like we'd
wave anything different, right? Alright,
well, it's time for
today's quote. As usual,
it's one fun, one nostalgic quote. And
then a second quote to
tease our book review later
in the episode. Hopefully one of these
quotes will speak to you
and jumpstart your Friday in
a positive direction. Alright, the first
quote is from comedian
Chris Rock. And he said, quote,
"You're probably not going to get hit by
a bus, and you're going to
have to live with the choices
you make for the next 50 years." End
quote. This is actually very insightful.
Along with the saying,
make sure you're living for the day in
case we get hit by a bus. We
actually should probably be
planning for the future as well. So well
done, Chris. And today's
teaser quote from the book
review is, quote, "A man convinced
against his will is of the same opinion
still." And as usual,
we'll unpack that here in just a few
minutes during the book
review segment. But first,
let's jump into our usual dose of fun and
historic facts from this day
in history. Today's news facts
and birthdays are for February 7. Charles
Dickens was born on this
date in 1812. And in 1927,
the Harlem Globetrotters, they played
their very first game. Then
in 1940, the animated film,
Pinocchio, had its world premiere, and it
became one of Disney's most beloved
classics. The British
Invasion launched when the Beatles landed
in New York City on this
day in 1964. And two nights
later, as you might recall, as
Beatlemania was storming America, their
performance on the Ed
Sullivan show was watched by 73 million
viewers. Then in 1974, Mel
Brooks Western spoof film,
Blazing Saddles, starring Cleveland
Little and Gene Wilder. Well, it
premiered at the Pickwick
Drive-In in Burbank, California. And
apparently, all the moviegoers watched
from horseback rather
than from cars. Then in 1984, NASA
astronauts took their first untethered
spacewalk. They were
hovering freely in space, and these
pictures from the spacewalk
became some of the most iconic
images of the 1980s. In 1985, the song
New York, New York became
the official anthem of New York
City. And finally, in 1990, you might
remember when Billy Idol
suffered serious injuries when
he crashed his Harley Davidson motorcycle
into a car. Well, happy
birthday. If today's your
birthday, you share a birthday with NFL
quarterback Matthew
Stafford. He turns 37 today.
Actor Ashton Kutcher, he's 47. And
Canadian basketball
player slash coach Steve Nash,
he's 51 today. Comedian Chris Rock, he's
60 today. And country music legend Garth
Brooks, he turns 63.
And the number one song on this date back
in 1992 was Don't Let the
Sun Go Down on Me. That was by
George Michael and Elton John. The song
was actually written
originally in 1974. And it was
released by Elton on his eighth album in
1974. And it had some success, but it
only peaked at number
16 on the charts back then. However,
George Michael used to cover the song on
his tour in 1991. And
for his final show at Wembley Stadium, he
surprised the crowd and
brought out Elton to sing as a duet.
It was the recording of that live version
of the song that went to
number one. And lastly,
for our Gen X Music Knowledge catalog,
the music video that we all
remember of George Michael
wearing that bright blue blazer with
let's say aggressive shoulder
pads was shot at a different
concert in Chicago. The more you know.
And the number one movie on
this date in 1999 was She's
All That. This movie is a classic 1990s
teen rom-com starring
Freddie Prinze Jr. and Rachel
Leah Cook. That was made for just $6
million and it grossed over
$100 million at the box office.
It also featured the song Kiss Me by Six
Pints None the Richer,
which hit number two on the
Billboard Top 100. Okay, it's time to
move on to some personal
growth in the book review segment
of Morning Serial. This is where we take
a few moments to reflect
on lessons learned from the
current book of reading. And currently
we're still reading
through Dale Carnegie's How to
Win Friends and Influence People. As you
all know, it's a timeless
book that is consistently in all
the must read lists and it's packed with
rock solid advice and
actions for all of us to use
and build healthy foundational concepts
to live by. Yesterday we finished up
chapter six of part two,
which was entitled How to Make People
Like You Instantly. And
Carnegie reminded us throughout
part two that by taking real sincere and
genuine interest in other
people that will in turn make
them interested in you. Carnegie reminds
us that "the desire to be
important is the deepest urge in
human nature" and the effect it can have
on someone else's sense
of importance. So using
people's names, being a good listener,
talking about their
interests, and even smiling at other
people and doing it genuinely, that's the
secret sauce to making
and keeping true friends.
Carnegie even threw in the old philosophy
of the golden rule and
treating others as we would like
to be treated. Okay, so today we begin
part three of How to Win
Friends and Influence People,
which is entitled How to Win People to
Your Way of Thinking. And
Carnegie throws us straight into
the deep end with chapter one, which is
entitled You Can't Win an Argument. And
to open this chapter,
Carnegie tells a story about himself in a
lesson that he learned early
in life when he was attending
a swanky banquet honoring his client.
Carnegie at that time was
managing a man, Sir Ross Smith,
who for a while was the most famous
person in Europe for having
flown halfway around the world
in a plane, a feat not yet accomplished
at that point. So this was no
run-of-the-mill banquet. It
was filled with the who's who of the
time. Well, Carnegie was having a
conversation with a man who
is telling a raucous story whose
punchline ended with the quote, "There's
a divinity that shapes
our ends. Rough hue them how we will."
And the man telling the story had
mentioned the quote was
from the Bible. And Carnegie says that
he, Carnegie, knew through and through
that that was wrong.
The quote was not from the Bible, but it
was from Shakespeare. He
had zero doubt about it.
And Carnegie says this of himself, "So to
get a feeling of importance and to
display my superiority,
I appointed myself as an unsolicited and
unwelcome committee
of one to correct him."
Well, the two men argued back and forth,
both knowing for sure
that the other man was wrong,
and they finally agreed to let Carnegie's
friend who was sitting
next to them and observing the
fiasco, they would let him decide who was
right. Carnegie says that
his friend kicked him under
the table and then said, "Dale, you were
wrong. The gentleman is
right. It is from the Bible."
End quote. And on their way home that
night, Carnegie asked his
friend why he said Carnegie
was wrong because Carnegie knew that his
friend knew the answer
because his friend had spent years
studying Shakespeare. Carnegie's friend
did indeed know the quote was from
Shakespeare. In fact,
he knew it was from Hamlet, Act 5, Scene
2. But he said this to
Carnegie, quote, "But we were guests
at the festive occasion, my dear Dale.
Why prove to a man he is
wrong? Is that going to make him
like you? Why not let him save face? He
didn't ask for your
opinion. He didn't want it. So why
argue with him? Always avoid the acute
angle." End quote. Our author
learned a lesson that night.
He said he never forgot. Not only had he
made the storyteller
uncomfortable, he also embarrassed
his friend and the whole situation would
have been better had
Carnegie just held his tongue.
And Carnegie's realization was a life
changer for him, a lesson he said he
needed because up to
that point in Carnegie's life, he had
been, as he put it, quote,
"An inveterate arguer." Okay,
quick time out here. Vocab word lesson of
the day. Inveterate means
having a particular habit
or activity that is long established and
unlikely to change. And
Carnegie says he was an inveterate
arguer. He argued with his brother about
everything in his youth. He
argued and debated in college.
Later, Carnegie even taught debating
classes and, shamefully,
he says, considered writing
books on the subject. With that
background and ever since Carnegie's
lesson learned that night,
he says he's witnessed and has been
engaged and watched the effects of
thousands of arguments.
And Carnegie has, quote, "come to the
conclusion that there is only one way
under high heaven to
get the best of an argument, and that is
to avoid it. Avoid it as you
would avoid rattlesnakes and
earthquakes." End quote. Closing out this
Friday's book review, take
this into the rest of your day
and into the weekend with you. Carnegie
says you can't win an
argument. Nine times out of ten,
both parties still believe they're right
as they walk away. If you
lose the argument, you lose.
And Carnegie says if you win, you still
lose because, although
you feel fine, how did you
leave the counterparty feeling? Inferior?
Possibly hurt their pride? Likely
resenting you? The final
Carnegie quote of the week is this,
quote, "A man convinced against his will
is of the same opinion
still." End quote. And you know that's
got to be true because it
rhymes. Okay, more great argument
stories to come next week in this
chapter. So be sure to come
back for that as we make our way
through part three of How to Win Friends
and Influence People.
It's Friday. We've looked
forward to this day all week, so enjoy
it. Give your neighbors the
five fingered hello, and before
you cross the street, look both ways for
those buses. A lot of
wisdom in that, Chris Rock.
Enjoy the Super Bowl. Hopefully it's a
good game, and there are some great
commercials to entertain us. We'll see
you back here on
Monday. Have a fantastic day.
Don't forget to follow and subscribe to
the Morning Serial
podcast on the One Life
Live It channel.
You can find more episodes and videos by
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and at Shawningless.com, where you can
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In these other podcasts, we'll dive
deeper into everyday issues,
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welcome special guests too.
So join us.
It'll be a good time, I promise.
Thanks again for listening.
Have a fantastic day and
we'll see you tomorrow.