Guest Author - Katie Byrd
Jack Kennedy was skillful at using his great sense of humor to counteract public opinion. When he ran for president in 1960 and started getting flack because of his family’s wealth, Jack diffused the situation by reading a fictional telegram from his father. It said, “Dear Jack. Don’t buy one more vote than necessary. I’ll be damned if I’ll pay for a landslide.”
When Ronald Reagan ran for president in 1980, he got a lot of flack for being too old for the job at sixty-eight. But Reagan was able to use humor to his advantage. “I don’t mind at all any of the jokes and remarks about my age,” he said, “because Thomas Jefferson said that ‘One should not worry about one’s exact chronological age in reference to the ability to perform one’s task.’ And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying.”
Reagan’s sense of humor clearly diffused the situation, because when he ran for reelection in 1984, at the age of seventy-three, the question of “age” was not even brought up.
Cultivating a sense of humor about yourself can also do wonders for your career. Surveys have shown over and over again that corporate executives hire the candidates with a better sense of humor. They think employees with a good sense of humor do a better job than those who take themselves too seriously. They also believe that a sense of humor means more creativity and a better ability to get along with people.
Don’t you think people would rather work with you if you’re fun and easy to be with? Of course, they would. But that doesn’t mean being a clown or comedian. You just have to be willing to see the absurdities in life and laugh. As Will Rogers, the great political humorist, once said, “I don’t tell jokes; I just watch the government and report the facts.”
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