to the world, we open up an infinite world of possibilities. The words no and but tend to limit our possibilities.
We resist because we think our resistance protects us, but in reality it inhibits our expansion. When we let go, we allow the magical opportunities that are available to all of us to come alive and manifest into reality. And when we really let go, we find we are awarded with a “Return on Improvisation,” as we like to call it. This is our ROI. When we say yes to life and its opportunities, we find that the ROI usually far exceeds any of the fear that may have caused us to hold back in the first place. This is when we discover that our need to control prohibits us from succeeding far more than we could ever have imagined.
Throughout this book, we’ll explore “Yes, and,” Happy Accidents, and our version of ROI, Return on Improvisation, and how these relate to your life and work, and your life’s work with those people around you – family, friends, and coworkers – in a meaningful way.
We’ll also explore what seems to be a long forgotten, easily overlooked, or simply inconvenient idea of giving back and offering a helping hand to those most in need. When we lend those less fortunate than us a helping hand, we offer a pathway to freedom to everyone. We like to call this the “I, We, All” theory. “I” take responsibility for my life, my choices, and my general state of being – and because I take care of myself, I become better for “We” (the company, organization, or family); and when “We” become better, “All” (the whole world) benefit.
How does this happen? I treat every person I encounter with complete integrity and love, and then my organization thrives and then the world thrives. It starts with you. You are the change we all seek. By altering your mind-set and leading a “Yes, and” life, you literally can change the world.
We know many people will not believe that this is possible until they’ve seen definitive proof that this theory works, so at the onset of this book we challenge you with a very simple way to get yourself started in discovering the power of “Yes, and.”
Throughout this book, we’ll offer you resets of your mind-set to think of life in terms of “Yes, and” instead of “No, but.” By adopting these new ways of thinking, you’ll see definitive positive changes in your life. The exercises in this book will lead you step-by-step to change in the way you think of life from “No, but” to “Yes, and.”
People have used improvisational techniques and have fundamentally transformed their lives. And the most beautiful part of living a life of “Yes, and” is that anyone can do it. There’s no secret handshake or elite membership criteria. You do not have to be a genius, privileged, wealthy, or successful to make the transformation. The only thing you have to do is begin the process of saying two magical words: “YES, AND!”
You’re Already an Improviser
We improvise every single day of our lives. With each thought, with each word, and with each action we’re improvising. Contrary to popular belief, we really don’t know where our life is taking us, we’re simply living moment by moment, and those individual moments add up to the “scenes” of our life. In improvisation we always say, “We don’t know where we are going; we only know where we have been” and “Yes, and” leads us down the path of prosperity and harmony.
In the world of improvisation, we have discovered that when we say yes our improvisational scenes move forward into the beauty of the unknown and usually return something amazing that we never expected. This is true of life as well. We say yes and the majesty of this world becomes ours.
The only true requirement in life is that we must take the very first step down the path of prosperity and opportunity before we are offered any proof it is working. By saying yes to this book today, you are taking that very first step. You have sent a signal to the world that you are open to infinite possibilities. Our only other job is to recognize when we are rewarded for saying yes. This affirms our belief in possibility and soon, once affirmed, we notice more and more amazing synchronicities that manifest into our daily lives.
We invite you to set aside your doubts for the rest of this book, to join us on this improvisational journey, and to discover the magic of Happy Accidents and the value they add to your life, your work, your relationships. The only requirement is saying the two most beautiful three-letter words in the English language: “Yes, and.”
P.S. One other thing. We want you to know that when we, the authors of this book, use the word “we” throughout this book, we are always referring to the collective “we,” in the sense of people, companies, and community, the human race in general. There are a lot of us out there in the world, and “we” is about everybody. Because we’re all in this thing called life together.
1
How to Harness the Power of Positive Collaboration
Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness.
In the beginning, it was dark. Literally, we couldn’t see a thing. There we sat – Frank Ford, David Wilk, Troy Grant, and David Ahearn – in a dingy, rundown apartment. The electricity had been cut off, and so too had our dream of the future. Hours earlier, three of us (Ford, Wilk, and Grant) had been fired from a comedy club where we had worked for two years for little to no pay to bring an essentially unknown comedy club from obscurity to a citywide hit.
But that night, we were asked never to come back. Ahearn, for his part, had one month earlier walked away from a career in stand-up comedy due to his own issues with management. On the surface, this might sound like a cast of whining, unemployable troublemakers who just couldn’t get along with the powers that be. But there are two sides to every story. And this is our story of how a few Happy Accidents and the power of the philosophy of “Yes, and” changed our lives and led us down a path that might sound almost too good to be true. As comedians, the four of us would go on to create one of the most successful improvisational shows in the country.
But in this dark room on this rainy night (yes, it was a dark and rainy night; the pun is not lost on us), we were exceptionally close to the unemployment line and a hell of a long way from the president of the United States. And you know what? We were genuinely scared. The thing we all loved the most was taken from us, and nothing makes you feel more disempowered than when something you love so much, that is so dear to you, is snatched from your very grasp. It’s awful.
We have learned quite a few truths since that night, one of which is a tenet of improvisation: we don’t know where we’re going; we only know where we’ve been.
We didn’t really know this at the time, but where we were going was somewhere divine. It would lead us all over the world performing comedy. Yet for the moment, we were a ship out at sea without a captain, without a compass. And it was storming outside. No kidding, it was really raining hard. The windows in the apartment were not weather-treated, so it was storming on the inside of the room as well. We were waterlogged.
If you’ve ever been fired from a crappy job, then you know it’s even less fun to be fired from a job you love to do. There we were, a group of unemployed friends sitting around a darkened, furniture-less apartment with no prospects in the world of entertainment. It’s very hard to see the future when it’s so dark, and the lack of lighting made it next to impossible to see anything.
Darkness, in the figurative sense, can either be a great motivator or it can destroy one’s hope. In the literal sense, it can cause bruises on your shins from bumping into things, which we would have been doing this dark night had we been able to afford furniture. In our case, being broke and almost destitute saved our shins a lot of agony.
