fun

 I have been involved in the teambuilding industry since 1994 and as a result I often get asked by industry publications if I’d like to write editorial or them.  When I agree, they want to charge me a fee because they feel that my article will constitute “marketing”. 

The real message behind this practice though, is not that they want to charge me for marketing, but they are willing to place anyone’s contribution if they are willing to pay.  Irrespective of the author’s experience and / or standing in the industry. The teambuilding industry has changed dramatically in recent times, in part due to the recession, but for the most part because people have changed along with companies' expectations of these excursions.

 “People rarely succeed, unless they have fun in what they are doing.”  Dale Carnegie

Haven’t we all dreamt of doing something we really enjoy?  We’ve been on long training rides dreaming that we could this everyday.  We watch Ernie Els, thinking that he has a dream job.

In a business environment where everyone wants to streamline their business, cut costs, reduce the headcount but still remain in business, I often find that those decisions – fiscally astute as they might be – backfire.

Yesterday I called the SABC about my TV license. (For my international readers: All South Africans are required by law to be in possession of a license in order to own a TV. This has to be paid annually in order to fund the public broadcaster. They are in dire financial straits due to mismanagement and have cancelled virtually all new programming placing many actors, producers and thousands of related jobs in jeopardy. They’re only broadcasting re-runs on all three their channels. Most, if not all, affluent people here watch satellite TV from a private supplier similar to cable for which we pay a monthly fee.)

I spoke with the lowest common denominator – a call centre agent. The conversation went something like this: (I might even call them again, record it and podcast it...)

While sitting down (or standing if you have good balance), lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles with it. At the same time, repeatedly draw the number 6 in the air with your right hand.

Your foot will change direction and without an awful lot of practice, there's nothing you can do to prevent it.

You're standing on the edge of an ocean with a high powered rifle and a ball. The ocean is smooth and there is no wind. Holding the rifle level with the ground six feet high, you fire a bullet out to sea. The very instant the bullet leaves the barrel you drop the ball from the same height as the rifle. Which will hit the water first, the bullet or the ball?

Answer: The ball will hit first. The curvature of the earth will cause the bullet to travel farther down, even though they both drop at the same rate of speed.

A boy was told to identify a polygon. The teacher gave him 3 clues:

1. I have 4 equal sides.

2. All my angles add to 360 degrees

3. I'm not a square.

What am I?

Answer: A rhombus, because all the sides are the same length, all the angles add to 360 degrees and it isn't a square.

Take an empty beer bottle and a small coin which is wider than the mouth of the bottle but no wider than the rim (a British penny is ideal). How do you move the coin without moving the bottle, touching or blowing the coin, or using another object to contact the coin and move it?

Solution:

Drip some liquid onto the coin so that a seal is made between the coin edge and the mouth of the bottle. Clasp your hands around the bottle and wait a few seconds. The air inside the bottle expands from the heat of your hands. As the pressure builds, air escapes bubble by bubble, by repeatedly dislodging the coin.

A farmer has a dog, a sack of grain and a live chicken, all of which he must take across a river. The boat will only carry him and one of the things at a time or it will sink. Without the farmer, the dog would kill the chicken, and the chicken would eat the grain. How does he get all three across safely to continue his journey?

Answer:  He takes the chicken and comes back; then he takes the grain and comes back with the chicken; then he takes the dog and comes back; then he takes the chicken.

Three men eat at a restaurant. The bill comes to £25. They each pay £10. When the waiter brings the £5 change they take back £1 each and leave a £2 tip. So each man has paid £9, which totals £27. The waiter has the £2 tip, which makes £29, so where's the other £1 gone?

Answer: The figures will not add to £30 because they are not from the same equation. Equation 1: What's been paid is £25 for the meal - which is in the till, and £2 for the tip - in the waiter's pocket, leaving the men with £1 each, ie £3, which all adds up to £30. Equation 2: The men have each paid £9 for the meal and the tip together, ie £27, and they each have a £1 in their pocket, ie £3, which all adds up to £30.

Write down any three-digit number, with different first and last digits.

Reverse it.

Subtract the smaller number from the larger one.

Write down the answer.

Reverse it (including the zero at the beginning if less than a hundred).

Add together both numbers.

Your answer is 1089 - works everytime!!!