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Finding Hope Through Humor
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All rights reserved
By Ken Chapman, Ph.D.
Ken Chapman & Associates, Inc.
President Ronald Reagan’s popularity in the polls
rose and fell like a roller coaster. Shortly after an attempt was made to
assassinate him, his ratings soared to nearly ninety percent, the highest on
record. But one year later when the U. S. economy was still mired in
recession, his approval ratings had plummeted to a low of thirty percent.
Every other week, Dick Wirthlin, the president’s pollster, reported the
ratings to the president and he now had the unhappy task of telling Reagan
the disturbing news. “How are they? What do the figures look like?” Reagan
asked. “They are pretty bad,” Mr. President. “How bad are they?” “Well,
they are as low as they can get,” Wirthlin answered. “So, what do you
mean?” pressed the president. “Well, they are about thirty-two percent.”
“Anything lower than that in the second year of the presidency?” Reagan
asked. “I think that’s the lowest,” Wirthlin replied. Just then Reagan’s
face brightened and he smiled. “Dick, don’t worry. I’ll just go out there
and try to get shot again.”
The president had a knack of effectively bringing
humor into his problems which, of course, made them easier to handle. Humor
has a way of helping us to find hope and hope has a way of helping us move
on.
For more information about
Ken Chapman and Associates’ Leadership Development Programs, contact Ken
Chapman at 205.366.0265 or email Ken at
kchapman@leaderscode.com.
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