“Ah, you’re here for the job?” As he turns around to the man in the business suit, but his attention shift immediately again to his computer screen, as he exclaims, “Oh no! I’m ruined!” His hands going up to his head for about one second, “Oh…oh, no…I’m okay! Cool…oh…wow….look at that! I just made $10.00 like it was nuthin’!!!”

Some will remember that E-trade commercial from 2002. It is my favorite commercial of all time. Why? Well…no, I don’t use e-trade. But…that guy…no, not the one in the business suit, really typifies what it is like to be in love with your business… on an extreme level.

That qualifies as being a little bit…different.

It is vital to be who you are, to be yourself and to not be afraid of what others think. The point is not to be ego-centric, not to be concerned about yourself – but to understand that everyone around you is probably bored shitless with the status quo. The more you are able to be yourself, the more likely others are to be themselves. It brings down some self-imposed isolation and barriers to developing meaningful relationships.

In Iraq, we had an HR Manager that no one liked – by the book, totally by the book, and nothing but the book. Never laughed. Never smiled. Never joked. Everyone always talked in subdued voices. Almost everyone was hesitant to bring up a new idea. Animosity and adversarial relationships prevailed. I didn’t fit in by trying to be all that.

I needed a laugh…really, really bad. So, I took the opportunity to go online and look for the single funniest thing I could possibly remember…shown to me by a Marine while working at Amazon. Yes… this was a distinct violation of company policy and would probably warrant a Congressional investigation for misuse of government property…I found what I was looking for, and I laughed and laughed hard, it caused a little bit of a commotion. But it was every bit as funny the second time as it was the first, it was so funny I didn’t care who else saw it…

So, one by one everyone came by to see what was so funny. And then, the HR Manager walked in the door…still laughing everyone hurried back to their seats. Sensing something was up and seeing I was having trouble breathing, he came over to my desk…”What are you doing?” Switching the computer so he could see it clearly, I started the video clip from the beginning.

He laughed as a man had never laughed before, he kept laughing…an hour later he was still laughing…something no one could believe. We all lost composure. We all lost professional bearing. Suddenly the HR Manager was showing something he never showed. There was another side to him and it was likable.

And it all was because of one teenager from Canada who made a mistake in being himself…

The Original

One of 106 Remakes

Evolution

Search for Star Wars Kid on YouTube