When my boys were living at home (6 teenagers at once), we used to watch games together. They would be for the team that was the most proficient, and I was for the team with the best attitude. The most proficient team usually won. Alas, it's not right, but that's the way it was.
Last night the end of American Inventor awarded a million dollar prize to the person I thought that had the best attitude. The show was about a bunch of inventors that worked their way to the top 4. Each one had an opportunity to develop their product and present it to the judges each week. Each inventor was passionate about their invention. But as the end drew near, the attitude of each person became clear. One man invented a game (a pretty cool one... Word Ace), and the man developed it because he was trying to help kids learn to spell. But it seemed that as he drew closer to winning he got a little cockier. A few weeks back you could see a little cockiness start coming out, but hey what do I know. Last week when the announcer asked him how he was doing, the guy came back with "Well, wouldn't you like to know!?" ???? hmmm, well, okay, then when the guy asked him to announce his commercial he had made, the inventor said, "Wait a minute, it's not my commercial, it's our commercial" ??? But hey, he was probably under a lot of pressure and just wanted to express that it was a team effort, right?
On the other hand, one of the young inventors had made a bike that a 2nd person could ride on. It was an interesting invention, but the inventor responded to questions by saying pretty much that it was all about me.
The guy that won though was the one I thought should have won. This man had lost his daughter in a car accident, and it troubled him so much that he invented a car seat that swiveled in a crash. His attitude through the whole thing was humility. It was all about saving lives. Every time he spoke, it was "thank you", "please help save childrens lives", "it's up to you America", etc.
Well, at the awards last night, the Word Ace guy came in 2nd and he really revealed his real attitude. He was ticked! You could tell that he thought he had the prize, but was a sore loser. One of the cool things I liked about this show was that all 4 of the finalists actually won. Each one, had some company that came out and offered to let them work on their invention. The Word Ace guy had the vice-president of Hasbro (you know, Monopoly, Scrabble ) offer the inventor to come to their company and work with their development staff for several months. Now that was a great consolation prize but the Word Ace guy was not the same enthusiastic guy gushing with praise on every one he met. I saw that and I was glad he lost, but I think the guy didn't have a clue why.
The winner, of course, was very happy. They asked him to say something. He stopped, thought for a moment and said in his humble way, "Thank You America".
It was a perfect ending.
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