New Tubbs Fan

Last night Chad and I went to the annual dinner for the Chamber of Commerce of our fair city, and as usual, the evening was ridiculously, absurdly and entirely too long. We got there at 6:30 and did not leave the Holiday Inn until 10:30 at night. The majority of the evening we were sitting at our table after a marginal meal listening to the awards presentations, which always take an obscene amount of time. I won't go into the details since I did that last year, but let's just say I don't really enjoy this particular event.

With that said, I am actually really glad I went last night. We didn't get to hang out with any good friends like we have some years, but the keynote speaker of the evening was totally worth the wait. The speaker was former OU basketball coach Billy Tubbs (who is now the AD at Lamar University, where I got this picture), and he was absolutely hilarious. He had so many hysterical one-liners I'm hoping the Chamber folks taped the speech because it was totally worth watching again. Although it started out just as a bunch of fun anecdotal basketball stories (which would have been fine with us college basketball fans), he actually did end up making the whole thing topical by outlining his keys to success (which he defined as "being the best you are capable of being") and applying them to the success of the city. I liked his talk so much I took notes on my iPhone! Here were his tips for being successful:

1. Set goals.
2. Have a game plan.
3. Have an alternate plan.
4. Be committed.
5. Have a cause.
6. Surround yourself with good people.
7. Get the max out of your resources.

As I mentioned, along with having good talking points, Tubbs kept us laughing the entire hour he talked. Although his language was slightly off color, he was like a stand up comedian most of the time. My favorite line was actually kind of a backhanded complaint about the length of the previous presentations. Tubbs said, "Ya'll don't need a keynote speaker...h*ll, I thought I was at the d*mn Academy Awards!" Loved it!