Let me begin this blog by telling the summary of an episode of one of the greatest cartoons of all time....Spongebob Squarepants.
In one particlar episode of Spongebob Squarepants, entitled Chocolate with Nuts, Spongebob and his loyal friend Patrick diced to become *drum-roll* entrepreneurs!
I know, right? What seven-year-old watching this show wouldn't know they were talking about?!?!
Any-who, the episode begins with Spongebob waiting for the mail, after receiving it, he discovers a magazine entitled "Fancy Living." After Spongebob' neighbor Squidward comes to retrieve the magazine that is really his (apparently their mailman isn't good), Spongebob asks his neighbor just how did those people in the magazine get so rich (rich enough for the fish inside to have shoes!). Squidward replies "They're entrepreneurs, they sell things." From this, Spongebob and Patrick decide they would like to be rich, and that they should sell thins as entrepreneurs.
The two decide to become traveling chocolate bar salesman. At first it doesn't go so well, the two become distracted, and they eventually sit down to think of tactics to get ahead in the game. Patrick offers the idea of getting naked, but Spongebob insists that they save that for selling real-estate.
By the end of the 11 minute episode the two eventually become greatly successful (actually one customer buys all of their chocolate bars)...and that's it, the end.
This of course relates to the next topic....
Jon Goodman.
And no that's not a typo. Trust me, I know how you feel. When I hear the name "John Goodman," I instantly think of an overweight man that played Fred Flintstone in the "real-life" movie of the old cartoon.
But this Jon Goodman is minus the "H" and a certain man part....because the he is actually a she. And therefore not a man.
Anyway, how do these two relate? Well they relate in the negative side...so technically they do not really relate at all. The two support completely different ideals.
Within her lecture, Jon Goodman said "Those that become an entrepreneur to get rich, will never be rich." Yet, to rebuttle, to get rich and have a "fancy living" is exactly the reason that Spongebob and Patrick became entreprenures...for a day..or 11 minute cartoon episode, but that is asides the point.
The point is the CHILDREN. What are they being told? That it's all about the money? Well for shame Spongebob.
In all honesty though, through Jon Goodman's lecture, it was this episode of Spongebob that entered my mind over and over again. It made me laugh how her words seemed to sync up with the episode.
Jon Goodman said "Failure is an extraordinary experience," and in the beginning that was what Spongebob faced. She said that "there is no such thing as a new idea," and Spongebob and Patrick took their idea for a marketing scheme (which was to lie to the customer) from a billboard.
The two do have things in common, even if aiming for opposite purposes.
Where the talking sponge and starfish are for profit, the woman with the same name as the guy who played Fred Flintstone and who is impossible to find in a google search is for passion.
