I’m a casual fan of the UFC but this story is just simply inspirational. The moral of the story is pretty obvious because of my headline: persistence and determination pays off!
I heard a fantastic quote from someone:
If you don’t risk, you don’t get to drink champagne.
Some people take on too much risk which leads to utter failure but every once in a while foolish risk, IMHO (In My Humble Opinion), pays off.
I would never condone or encourage extreme risk like what this man took but his tremendous risk is what makes this story so great.
==Begin Story ==
If anyone needed a huge postfight bonus at UFC 104, it was Pat Barry. The heavyweight out of New Orleans, scored Knockout of the Night and Fight of the Night for his victory over Antoni Hardonk. That was good enough for $120,000. Good thing, Barry needed the infusion of cash in the worst way. He confirmed to MMAScrapsRadio that he was completely down on his luck before the fight, agreeing that he had little to eat in Los Angeles the week of the fight.
“I still had my apartment but if something would’ve happened and the fight had been canceled, I would’ve been evicted six days later.”
Barry, 30, said he didn’t even tell his trainer Duke Roufus for fear that he would think the fighter had the wrong motivation going into the fight. Barry said he didn’t ask anyone for money including his mother:
“I could ask someone but then at the same time, how hard are you going to work for something if everytime you get in trouble somebody catches you? I did something to put myself in this position I have to work my way out of it.”
Listen to Barry talk about his troubles before the fight:
Barry got his $120,000 bonus check last Tuesday. He couldn’t believe it. When he went to deposit the check, his truck wouldn’t start. Barry got a jump and hit the bank sporting a black eye and pink striped shorts.
“I go to the bank, I’m sweaty, I’ve got the black eye, I haven’t shaven in two
days, I’m strung out because I haven’t slept, I have green circles under my eyes
so I’m like ‘Can I have a deposit slip mam?’. She gives it to me, I fill it out
hand it to her. She looks at the deposit slip, then the check, then
looks at me and says ‘Excuse me I’ll be right back.’ Then a manager
comes out, a guy in a suit and says ‘What seems to be the problem?’ I was like
‘Well I have a black eye, that’s the only problem I know this looks
really ridiculous.’ So he asks me for my ID, I hand him my license an
he’s like ‘Your license says Pat Barry, but this check was written to
Patrick Barry.’ So I decided to be funny and tell him Pat Barry is in
my trunk right now. He didnt laugh. So I told him take your time man do whatever
you need to do because I have no where to go and my truck probably wont start
when I go outside so you can just do whatever you need to do. An hour later he
came back and everything was fine, the check was in my bank
account.”
I typically never hear ‘inside jokes’ before anyone else but this is a first for me and I have the feeling a lot of people are scratching their heads ‘huh‘, ‘what‘, ‘I was at all the SEO conferences and I still don’t understand‘, etc. This post is aimed to include all the outsiders on this joke. In the spirit of an SEO community.
After hanging out with Martin Bowling at SEOmozBlackhat Expert Seminar 2008, I learned an ‘inside joke’. A joke so funny that it’s not, but it is. Napoleon dynamite style (why is it funny? Idk, it just is). Now, every time I think about “Martin Bowling loving Zima“, I smile. If you asked me why, I honestly couldn’t tell you. It’s just funny. Trying to explain a joke, especially this one, is like trying to explain why you shouldn’t eat sand… :p
Either way, I’m writing this post because Zima is becoming big, bigger than an ‘inside joke’, it’s evolving into a brand (which I’ll get into later).
His Zima Loving Beginnings
Martin Bowling started drinking alcohol when he was 16 21. His preferred beverage has been beer. I’m not sure which brand he prefers more but beer none-the-less. In my opinion, I’d categorize Martin as heavy-weight, it takes a lot to intoxicate him. Disclaimer: Martin Bowling is not an alcoholic, not even close, just a social drinker like 98% of the SEO community. Martin thought his life was complete, until he was introduced to, his long lost love, Zima by Andy Beal.
He went to Andy Beal’s Reputation Management Seminar. There, during the after hours, they were enjoying a few drinks. Andy said, “It’s on me, I’ll cover the tab.” So, Martin enjoys himself, not overly doing it, just a couple of brewskis. After a few beers, Andy is like, “Man, this guy is drinking up the bar. They are out of cranberry juice because they were making me so many cosmos.” Govisithawaii then told Andy Beal that he (andy) should start saying Martin Bowling loves zima (even though andy had no idea what zima was) and it caught on like wild fire
Martin Bowling and Zima blossom together
So that’s how this Meme Marketing was birthed. Then only a few days later, Martin went to SEOmoz’ Expert Training 2008. He was treated to a case of Zima by the Moz crew. During the session’s Martin shared the Zima love. In one of the after hours event, Rand Fishkin and Danny Sullivan were fighting over the last bottle. Danny won.
Then before you could blink twice, a blog was started about Martin Bowling loving Zima. Just a few days later, Google rolls out with Google Suggest as the default to the homepage. Martin then realizes this would be a reputation management nightmare. Noting how when you type in [martin bowling] in Google, it suggests [martin bowling zima]. At this point, the love between Zima and Martin Bowling began to blossom in such a way, it was uncontrollable. This Meme Marketing has branded Martin and become apart of him.
Dr. Pete had an idea, to create a SEO friendly URL shortening service and call it ‘zi.ma’. Martin asked for some help to buy the domain because it was going to cost 200$. With the help of a few people and Andy Beal, Martin acquired the domain. Surprisingly, this happened within one day. Then a few days later Matthew Inman decided to help out by creating some logos/graphics.
In short, the future of Zima and Martin Bowling is the Scary SEO contest and Zi.ma, a SEO friendly url shortening service. I hope you all enjoyed the history behind the beginnings and the early developments. If you got some thing interesting that you created that has Zima as a theme, tweet it to Martin Bowling, I’m sure he’ll love it.
Day after day, I watched Home Improvement. I remember those days vividly. Eating mac and cheese from breakfast, lunch, and dinner (no joke…). Getting home from school, I always had to watch Tim Allen and Home Improvement. Brad, Randy, and Mark were like my brothers. Doing things I would do.
I strangely related to Tim ‘The Tool Man’ Taylor. Even though I was young, before my teens, I still related to Tim because I was clumsy. If you remember correctly Tim, during every episode, asked Wilson (Tim’s neighbor) for advice but Wilson’s face was ALWAYS hidden.
If Wilson wasn’t behind the fence, hiding his face, he was wearing a mask or a plant would block the bottom half of his face. It was always a mystery throughout the entire T.V. series. Some say the reason why this happened was because when Tim Allen was young (in real life), he was too short to look over the fence to see his neighbor’s face. Others say it’s because Earl Hindman (Wilson) had a scar on his face. Since Tim Allen was the Executive Consultant, in the first two years of the show, I think the first story holds more weight.
Without further ado, here (at the top), is a picture of Wilson. On the left you’ll see Wilson as his is typically seen throughout the T.V. Series and on the right you’ll see him without anything hiding his face. Although the picture is a bit of a mug shot, this is what the famous ‘Wilson’ looks like without any disguises. I hope this made you smile.
If anyone needed a huge postfight bonus at UFC 104, it was Pat Barry. The heavyweight out of New Orleans, scored Knockout of the Night and Fight of the Night for his victory over Antoni Hardonk. That was good enough for $120,000. Good thing, Barry needed the infusion of cash in the worst way. He confirmed to MMAScrapsRadio that he was completely down on his luck before the fight, agreeing that he had little to eat in Los Angeles the week of the fight.
