What My Bare Buns Can Teach You About Success

Welcome to Jams TV. Fools, take two.

Hey, this is Jams and you’re watching Jams TV, the place to be, to create a business and a life that you love. And this is Q&A Tuesday. Today’s question comes from my mom. My mom writes, “Son, why are you always wearing silly costumes in these videos? Your father and I agree that you’re much better than that and you should be hosting the show by now. Doesn’t Marie recognize true talent? Great question mom. So many people struggle with this same question. I’m asked it all the time. People are writing me emails, they’re pissed off. People are approaching me on the street. They’re saying, “You’d be so good at this show, Marie’s fine. She’s a seven, you’re a 10.” I agree with you. And…

Jams, get out of my freaking chair.

Sorry about that. Just trying something new. Trying to spice things up a little bit. I really didn’t mean anything by it.

April Fools, I had to take advantage of that. This is the one Marie TV and in 8,000 years that falls on April Fool’s Day. So if you’ve been watching for any amount of time, you know that we love to poke fun at ourselves. Why? Because having a sense of humor is critical for survival in both business and life. I don’t care how smart you are, how great you think you plan, all that good stuff. Shiz is going to go wrong. It is going to smack you upside the head, and if you don’t learn how to laugh at yourself, you’re in for a sad, sad journey.

Having a good sense of humor is critical. It means that you can get back up on the horse and get right back in the game. I know laughing at myself has allowed me to move on from some majorly embarrassing moments. Here’s one. Years ago, I was dancing at a club in New York city and I had this whole crowd of people around me and I thought I was hot shit. I dropped it low because I could and bam, I split my pants apart. My ass was out in nothing but a thong. Basically my pants turned into assless chaps. Now, this was the summertime in New York city, so I had no sweater, I had no jacket, I had nothing to cover myself. Pretty classy.

Now, I’ve also done some pretty embarrassing stuff in business too. For example, we were doing this launch a few years back and we sent out an email to tens of thousands of people and one of the links didn’t work. Now, that wasn’t the worst part. It wasn’t our fault that the link didn’t work. It was actually the fault of our email management company. So what I did was, I wrote them an email with all caps, screaming at them in text, telling them they basically ruined my life, they ruined my brand and I was going to make them pay for it. Not one of my finer moments. Now, when I collected myself again, I realized that was probably not the best way to handle that kind of situation, and I let them know that I’m so sorry for being a crazy pants and everything turned out okay.

The point here is that having a sense of humor about yourself is crucial for big success. It does two important things. First up, laughing at yourself allows you to get right back up on the horse and get back in the game faster. And it is a magical elixir in relationships. When you have a sense of humor, it can heal just about anything. Now if you find it difficult to laugh at yourself, here’s a trick that can help. You’ve got to ask yourself, did any small children die in this situation? This came in especially handy when I found myself crying over my apartment renovations. Specifically, I was weeping because I hated my custom sectional, “I hate this frigging couch, I should have chose another fabric. I wasted so much money.” I thought to myself, “Really Marie?” Have any small children died over this? Of course not. And that helped me put things right back into perspective. So let’s finish this up with a tweetable that will help you stay on the top of your game.

Finding the funny is the key to never losing your edge. So on this April Fool’s Day, I would love to hear from you. What is the biggest faux pas that’s ever happened, that you can now laugh at? Is it something that you’ve gotten over, or is it something that you do on an ongoing basis? Tell me all about it in the comments below. Now, as always, the best discussions happen after the episode, all the way over at marieforleo.com. Very nice place. Please go there and leave a comment now.

Did you like this video? I did. If you did, subscribe and share it with all of your friends. And if you want even more awesome resources to dance like this, to help you create a business and life that you love, plus some personal insights from me that I only talk about in email, get those sweet buns over to marieforleo.com and sign up for email updates. Stay on your game and keep going for your dreams because the world needs that special gift that only you have. Thank you so much for watching and I’ll catch you next time on Marie TV.

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

I represent the Lollipop Guild. It’s such a funny little skirt. Side fart extravaganza. What does it say about me? Or what does it say about you? Eh.