"Focus on the escape." - Pat Hahn
This photo was my screen saver during a time when a business was failing, money was tight and the thought of escape was never far from my thoughts. I have since found out that the Island Company actually makes a similar shirt, but adds the line “Buy A Ticket.” And the escape quote by Pat Hahn is from his book Ride Hard, Ride Smart: Ultimate Street Strategies for Advanced Motorcyclists. Which actually, has a lot of application in speaking and presentations. More on that in a later post.
Admittedly, this is not laugh out loud, side-splitting funny, but it has an amusing point of view and can make a point. Now, how do you use it? The obvious first place would be as one of your opening slides to loosen up the room… “I know a lot of you are very excited to be here this morning and others prefer the philosophy of this man.” It could also be used later in a program to release some tension, perhaps after a discussion on handling disgruntled clients. Or it could be used to illustrate a goal or dream for someone in the room.
Be on the lookout for the amusing, the slightly off-beat, the unusual. For example I did a program in Albuquerque, new Mexico for a client and mentioned in my opening remark that no matter how much you spent on your automobile, you had to put that bright yellow license plate on it.
(I found the “Quit Your Job” picture a while ago and did not note where it came from (Bad Dan, bad, bad.) So if you know where it is from, please forward that information to me so that I can give proper credit.)
on Oct 28th, 2008 at 7:14 am
i love that shirt, esp being from beaufort! where can i get it??
on May 18th, 2009 at 8:09 am
Island Company
on May 18th, 2009 at 8:30 am
Jennifer,
I actually link to The Island Company in the post. Thanks for mentioning it again. They have a lot of great resort type casual clothing.
on Nov 1st, 2009 at 10:26 pm
There are lots of resources to sort out. Ads, banners, button ads and sample recommendations to give out because the marketer knows that this is one way of ensuring more sales!
on Sep 29th, 2011 at 2:51 pm
Curious as to why the author of this post thinks the quote on this shirt was taken from a motorcycling book. I wrote this quote for our company and have held the copyright since 2004. It’s purely original and has been an Island Company product since 2004. Could someone please refer me to how the quote is somehow a hybrid of something else with just the “Buy A Ticket” added?
on Sep 29th, 2011 at 3:16 pm
Actually you’ll notice I do give credit to The Island Company, and a link, in the post. The caption under the picture is “Focus on the escape.” which is from Pat Hahn’s book. As for “Buy a ticket.” It’s been two years since I wrote this post, I assume it is from this post on the Island Vintage website. (Which appears to be a part of The Island Company’s website, and written by you!) As for how your tee-shirt ended up with “Beaufort, NC” on it, no idea. Check with Beaufort, NC. Thanks for reading!