The Ballsy Award™

We Can All Learn Somthing From My Mom!

How do we usually react when the people around us act irresponsibly and do things we don't like? Things which are not quite so neighborly?

Well, my Mom was confronted with just this situation when she discovered that someone on her floor was leaving their garbage bags on the floor instead of pushing them down the garbage chute.

Did she get mad? Did she get even?

No, she put up this sign and the problem was solved!

Go Mom!

My Mom Has a Blog!

I went to visit my Mom yesterday on the Upper East Side and I realized that she has been blogging for over 40 years.

Way before there was such a thing as blogging.

The front door of her apartment is her photo blog which she shares on a daily basis with 10 other apartments on her floor.

I wonder how many page hits she's getting each day?

Ballsy™ Signage

I encountered these signs in the lobby of Mindshare, a major New York ad agency. What impresses me most about them is not their humor, and they are truly funny, but rather the guy who came up with the idea for these signs and was able to convince upper management to actually place them in the lobby of a major corporation.

I've been in many situations in my life where I had a new idea and I was in a position where I couldn't just do it because I wasn't the decision maker; I had to convince someone above me that it was a great idea. That's the hard part and that's the part which takes balls because when you're pushing for a new idea, you risk looking foolish, being overly aggressive and maybe even not being liked. You may even be risking your job.

So whenever I see a great idea that's actually being done, I always like to imagine a meeting in some big conference room with a bunch of suits sitting around a table, and one guy speaks up and says "Hey, I've got an idea, why don't we _________!". Everyone looks at each other trying to hold back a smirk, then someone looks over at him (usually a very smart and vocal person) and says "That's a good idea but we could never do that because ___________".

It's this moment where most new and great ideas are killed, and it takes balls to overcome this moment.

There's ALWAYS a perfectly good reason why a great idea can't or shouldn't be done, and you can count on one of the smartest people in the room to come up with that reason. And it will sound really good, be really convincing and will get everyone else nodding their heads in agreement.

Most ideas will get squashed in this way.

But a ballsy person will say "I know there are a lot of reasons why we shouldn't do this, but if we could find a way to make this work, can you imagine how great it would be? I say we work out all the kinks and make this happen...I'm convinced it can be done!"

"Every great and commanding moment in the annals of the world is the triumph of some enthusiasm."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

I've found that the best way to combat good reasons for not doing something is simply ENTHUSIASM FOR DOING IT! Sure you can combat good reasons for not doing something with good reasons for doing it, but then it just comes down to people weighing a bunch of arguments and getting cerebral about it. Plus the reasons to not do something will always feel stronger than the reasons for doing it because doing something new is always risky. And no one ever lost their job for NOT embracing a revolutionary, new or great idea. It's safer to analyze it thoroughly, then reject the new idea.

ENTHUSIASM is the tool of Ballsy™ people because it's hard to resist someone who is truly enthusiastic about an idea. Enthusiasm is contagious, infectious, fun and irresistible. I run a sales organization and after 12 years of dealing with salespeople, I still have to say that the number 1 trait of a great salesperson is enthusiasm. You can lack all the other important qualities of a salesperson: being smart, organized, a people person, good at remembering names, etc., but if you have the ability to genuinely convey enthusiasm about your product, people will buy from you.
You can be a good salesperson without this quality, but you'll never be a great one.

I started this entry about a couple of Ballsy™ signs I saw in a lobby and I've come full circle to the topic of enthusiasm. Was this an unrelated tangent? I don't think so because I believe that what makes those signs so compelling is the enthusiasm which lays beneath them. When a person reads those signs they cannot help being infused with the spirit of enthusiasm which it took to get those signs made and hung. They don't think about it in this way, but it affects them nevertheless.

Ballsy Award™ Winner #1: Bill Maher

It's time for me to announce the first winner of the 2006 Ballsy Award™: Bill Maher.

Many of you don't know who Bill is because you don't subscribe to HBO. It's a shame that you have to pay $12.95/month to get access to one of the most courageous guys in American Media. Shouldn't ballsiness be available to everyone for free? Must poor people be cut off from a prime source of inspiration? I take it back, it's mostly the poor who are subscribing to HBO on their giant screen projection TV's.

Bill gets the Ballsy™ because he's one of the few guys left who has the courage to say "The Emperor has no clothes". Bill:
1) Is willing to say on national TV that there is no God and that anyone who still believes in God has a screw loose.
2) That gays should be able to marry, of course.
3) That the food we eat in this country is ridiculously unhealthful and we're killing ourselves every day.

A lot of people think Bill is a Liberal and that he's against the Conservatives. I think that's completely wrong. Bill is not a Liberal, he's primarily a critical thinker, and if that means criticizing Bush and crew, so be it. As Senator Joe Biden said about Bill:
"He's an equal opportunity offender", which is true because what Bill is about is exposing sloppy thinking and making fun of it.

One of my great heros in life is Bertrand Russell.

Most of you don't know who Bertrand is either, not because you don't subscribe to HBO, but because you didn't read philosophy in college. Big mistake. If you're in college now, you must immediately sign up for a philosophy course, it just may be your last chance to expand your mind before it begins to contract in the business world.

Bertrand Russell in his 1925 essay "Why I am Not a Christian" said:
"You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress of humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the colored races, or every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world."
Download why_i_am_not_a_christian.pdf

Bertrand would have won the Ballsy Award™, had there been one back then.
Bill Maher is a modern day Bertrand Russell and he continues in this proud tradition of critical thinking and constructive debate. This is the tradition that all of us should bring into our own lives. To do that takes balls, and Bill's got 'em.

If you don't already subscribe, you've got three days left before Bill's 4th season on HBO starts this Friday night at 10pm.

Oh, and I'll be sending Bill his Ballsy™ trophy this week.

Ballsiness is all around us

What is ballsiness, really?
Many things in life are hard to define but easy to know when you see it.
With ballsiness it's the other way around: relatively easy to define but hard to spot.
The reason it's so hard to spot is that being ballsy is something you wear in your heart, not on your shirtsleeve.
For example, you could see a guy walk up to a hot girl in Starbucks and think nothing of it. But if you were inside that guy's shoes and you were approaching a hot model you don't know, fully expecting to get blown out of the water, well then maybe you would appreciate the amount of balls it took that guy to make the move.
Most of us go through our daily lives not appreciating what others around us are going through just dealing with the struggles of life.

Today I was rushing through the subway taking my son to the dentist when I walked by a homeless guy begging for money. I looked, smiled, then kept walking.
Well, because I have a blog now I just had to go back and take a picture of this guy because he was demonstrating ballsiness in his own small way.
I hope this guy brightens up your day the way he did mine....
(by the way, gave him only a buck, everything's negotiable)

What is The Ballsy Award™?

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the new home of The Ballsy Award™!
The Ballsy Award™ honors those among us who defy ordinary thinking and exhibit great courage in their life's work. Award winners receive the distinctive Ballsy™ trophy, a six inch solid lucite cube with two solid brass balls suspended in the center.
A Ballsy™ winner has proven his or her ability to defy ordinary thinking and to risk censure, opprobrium, ridicule and loss of face to do what they believe is right and good.
The Jewish word is chutzpah, the Spanish call it cojones. We call it Ballsy™, and now there's an award to prove you've got it.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Q1) Who appointed you to be the arbiter of ballsiness?
Answer: I did.

Q2) What makes you such an expert on ballsiness?
Answer: I've spent the past 17 years launching a series of ballsy ventures, see the "about" link to the right for examples and more info about me.

Q3) How do you pick Ballsy Award winners?
Answer: I just pick 'em based on my own judgement. There's no voting on this site because ballsy people don't ask others to vote on their decisions, they just decide. That having been said, feel free to nominate anyone you want...I'm open to suggestions.

Q4) Why are you doing this?
Answer: From my experience in life and business, there are way too few ballsy people in this world. People who speak their mind no matter what other people will think. People who start a business without worrying about failing. People who visualize a future they want, then make it happen. It's my intention that by rewarding ballsy behavior, more people will feel empowered to introduce the Ballsy™ Factor into their own lives.

Q5) What does a winner get?
Answer: Winners get a genuine Ballsy™ trophy, custom manufactured by me. The Ballsy™ trophy is a 6" lucite cube with two solid brass balls suspended in the center. Each trophy is custom inscribed with the name of the recipient and the reason they won the award. Having this trophy on your bookshelf is an excellent conversation piece and will surely get you laid more often.

Q6) Does a winner have to do anything?
Answer: Yes. Take a photo of themselves holding the trophy and email it to me for posting on this site. That's it. They don't have to hang out with me or be my friend if they don't want to.

Q7) How do you make money with this?
Answer: I don't.

So if you know any ballsy people in your life or simply people who wish they were more ballsy, send them to me, I'll work 'em over for you.

Sincerely,

Alan Wolan