Girls Gone Zen

What makes William Hung so endearing? Nevermind what he is like now. Back when he was singing She Bangs for the very first time in the American Idol audition, I distinctly remember cringing for the Asian male population as he "stung like a bee" in front of the public, and then miraculously regained all respect plus more with the statement, "I already gave my best, and I have no regrets at all."

Marc Lesser, author of ZBA: Zen of Business Administration, is a business coaching entrepreneur affiliated with the SFZC. I sat in one of his lectures to hear this recount of an improv class he once took:

The [improv] teacher lined us up against the wall and placed an empty water bottle in the middle of the room, about 10-15 feet away from us. He told us to carefully estimate the distance of the water bottle from the wall. Then, one by one, he had each of us blindfolded and walk towards the water bottle. When we think we are in front of the water bottle, the instruction is to grab at the bottle as if you can see it.

So each person went. And each tried to grab at the bottle. Most people caught nothing but air. One or two touched the bottle. But the most important thing that happened was - it was those who swooped down with the grandest gestures, and acted like the bottle was REALLY there - those are the ones who got the applause of the room, even if they weren't any where close to the bottle.

I remind myself of this whenever I decide to do something new - moving to a new city, working a new job, loving some one. I ask myself to do it with the right attitude, the passion and the resolve. This way, I, too, can say, "I already gave my best, and I have no regrets at all."