On Monday, I went to one of the national Get Motivated! conferences at the Qwest Center. My office sent a few of us.
Let’s just say I started to the day off rather unmotivated. I rode with a guy from work who lives nearby and our 20 minute regular drive turned into nearly 2 hours due to all the traffic downtown between the 20,000 people expected to attend the conference and the thousands of people downtown for the College World Series. Once we finally arrived (nearly an hour after it started) all the parking lots were full so we had to walk nearly a mile in the torrential rains to the Qwest Center. We showed up soaked and had to sit in the nosebleed section. I was nearly motivated to turnaround and go back home at this point. Fortunately, we only missed the first speaker – Bo Pelini, the Huskers football coach.
From there, the day got much better. The cast of speakers at these conferences is rather impressive. Here is who I saw:
- Rudy Giuliani
- Steve Forbes
- Gen. Colin Powell
- Sara Palin
- Tamara Lowe
- Zig Ziglar
- Tom Osborne
- Dr. Robert Schuller
- + many more
Overall, the conference is worth attending. Some speakers were clearly better than others {my favorites were Rudy Guiliani, Colin Powell and Krish Dhanam}. It got a little sales-y at times as they were trying to sell tickets to other self-help courses, but I still found it a worthwhile day. If nothing else, it is pretty amazing to be in the same room as some of these people {Sarah Palin was live via satellite in Alaska, but all the others were at the Qwest Center}. The tickets for these events are CHEAP so if you interested at all, it is worth your money {we bought a company pack – it was $19.95 and we could send up to 10 people for the one price – otherwise I think it is $4.95 per person}.
I loved that the presenters were Republican and very spiritual {surprising on both counts – and I think some people there were very annoyed}. The stories were very inspirational and truly prove that you can come from nothing and make something of yourself. Tamara Lowe, who started these conferences, was a drug dealer and user from age 10-17 in Baton Rouge and in her early 20’s found God and turned her life around. She now has consulted for several U.S. presidents and other foreign dignitaries and has organized these conferences.
Common messages that I loved: You must be a positive thinker. Stop making excuses and actually do what you want to do or you’ll never get anything done. Don’t use your past as an excuse for future failures. Successful people do not worry – why waste energy worrying today about something that may never happen tomorrow – worry also shows lack of faith. Keep God in your life and anything can happen.
Overall great experience!
I love your blog! Your sense of self is just so open and cool. I am an accountant and recently started blogging, so I was super excited to read more about you and your financial services career stuff. I love meeting other women in business, especially great bloggers! =)
thanks,
Jenny
Thank you so much! 🙂