Brian Dean Eslick | Professional Voice Actor for Animation & Character

Script:
This book, Arts Principles, is a pithy, pragmatic compilation of uniquely personal ideas that have powered my leadership in building a remarkable firm. Do not expect sophisticated, interlocking theories of organization or a treatise on the behavioral idiosyncrasies of design professionals. Rather, you will find a rich array of common-sense approaches to managing a firm, a team, and one's own work. These ideas are unified by my commitment to ensuring the success of others, which in turn ensures the success of the greater firm. Primary in this commitment to others is client-first, which is also the essential mantra of the most successful professional service firms in every field. I built a large-scale firm that focused on organizations' energy-unserving clients, as opposed to who was winning the internal game of king of the castle. My principles will enrich the understanding of effective leadership for anyone trying to lead—or herd cats—in a professional services firm. My ideas are broadly applicable and have enriched the heat generated in a crucible fired by high creative energy. All professional services firms have strong, highly talented individuals with deep, narrow expertise who vigorously express their very strong, typically self-centered opinions. But these kinds of pressures are especially high among design practitioners. Few design professionals innately understand the issues of managing professional services firms. Many are artists—or think they are—who have a deep-seated disdain for structure and managing. As a result, my ideas have probably been tested more vigorously and realistically than any peer-reviewed journal on management could achieve. Not surprisingly, these well-tested ideas are reliably applicable to any professional services firm. I always wanted to be an architect. When I was six years old, I would draw house floor plans and build models. I constructed buildings with my Lincoln Logs and Erector Sets—Legos had not yet been invented. A few years after I started our company, it became obvious I needed to know more than how to design and construct a building. It was essential that I learn how to be an entrepreneur and run a business. Today, Gensler is the largest architectural design firm in the world, with 4,800 professionals and 46 offices in 14 countries. People often ask me whether I knew I would create such a large firm. Definitely not. My original dream was to have about a six-person firm to design houses and perhaps some small buildings. The reality is beyond anything I ever dreamed.

Script:
Albert Einstein published his paradigm-shifting theory of relativity at age 25. At 25, Pablo Picasso painted his groundbreaking modern art masterpiece. Bruce Springsteen was 25 years old when he created his rock-and-roll masterwork, Born to Run. What a bunch of show-offs. I'm now more than twice that age, and I haven't even picked up some dry-cleaning that's been ready since I was 25. It's on my to-do list, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet. The real problem is that my to-do list is rapidly becoming my bucket list. Time really does fly when it's no longer on your side. Mick Jagger may still sing about time being on his side, but he's now doing it in a lycra jumpsuit developed by NASA to hold his wrinkled, jumping Jack Flash approximately in place, making the whole spectacle far too ironic. He's now in his 70s and still ain't got no satisfaction, so time is clearly not on Mick's side now. Time never has been on his or anyone else's side. Time is only out for itself. Time's sole purpose is to destroy us, like a slow-motion flesh-eating virus. Time devours us whole. From the moment we are born, we're actively engaged in the process of dying, and it's only for the luckiest among us that it's a really long, slow, lingering death. I know that sucks as a daily affirmation, but it's true. But they say that with age comes wisdom, and being on the outer edges of middle age, I'd certainly like to believe that's true, but I'm certain someone old came up with that. So, it feels to me a little too self-serving. It's increasingly harder for me to believe I'm getting any wiser as the world around me changes more quickly than the arrival of the next iOS upgrade. The technological explosion happening during my middle age is changing the world more profoundly and quickly than it has for any previous generation, and the rate of that acceleration itself is accelerating. My generation is the first whole offspring have a better understanding of technology and the world around them than their parents did. My parents never needed my help understanding a goddamn thing, ever. But the average middle-aged parents now have to ask their prepubescent kids to explain something new to them on a daily basis. Usually, they're things that were unimaginable to us until about last month. I have no children of my own, so I myself, I'm often reduced to cruising schoolyards with Fruit Roll-Ups and a PS3, trying to lure 13-year-olds home with me just to get some IT help. It's become impossible for me to deny the feeling that, no matter how much I may have accomplished in my life, with each day I move further and further away from any kind of relevance to the world around me, it's as if the coach has decided to take me out of the game of life. More and more, I feel like I'm just a spectator, being moved higher and higher into the nosebleed section. Any day now, I won't even be able to see the game anymore, and I'll just be wandering around the parking lot, trying to remember where the hell I left my damn car. Ironically, my generation has been behaving like children for longer than any generation before us has. I bet you've got little toys in your workspace, don't you? And you know you play air guitar if you're alone and a car of Metallica comes on. Don't deny it. My age group is so much about refusing to grow up that, as a generation, we've decided now that 40 is now 30, and 50 now equals 40. We just declared it so. Physics, math, in time, space, continuum be damned. Occasionally, someone younger than I will have heard the whole wisdom-comes-with-age thing, and having presumed it's true, people ask me for some kind of advice about how to navigate a life for at least as long as I have. I always answer with the best advice I feel I can ever give anyone who foolishly asks me for advice, which is, never listen to anyone's advice. Now, I feel I need to amend that with, anyone's but me.

Script:
No branch of the United States government is currently involved with or responsible for investigations into the possibility of alien life on other planets, or for investigating unidentified flying objects, UFOs. The United States Air Force and the National Aeronautic Space Administration, NASA, have intermittent independent investigations of possibility of alien life on other planets. However, none of these has produced factual evidence that life exists on other planets, nor that UFOs are related to aliens. From 1947 to 1969, the Air Force investigated UFOs. Then, in 1977, NASA was asked to examine the possibility of resuming UFO investigations. After studying all the facts available, it was determined that nothing would be gained by further investigation, since there was an absence of tangible evidence. In October 1992, NASA was directed by Congress to begin a detailed search of artificial radio signals from other civilizations under the NASA Towards Other Planetary Systems, TOPS, better known as the Extraterrestrial Intelligence Program. Congress directed NASA to end this project in October 1993, citing pressures on the U.S. federal budget. The TOPS did not detect any confirmed signals before it was stopped. However, similar work will continue in a more limited manner through efforts of private groups and through academic institutions. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute, SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, effectively replaced the government project, borrowing the signal processing system from NASA. The SETI Institute is a non-profit corporation conducting research in a number of fields, including all science and technology aspects of astronomy and planetary science, chemical evolution, the origin of life, biological evolution, and cultural evolution. During several space missions, NASA astronauts have reported phenomena not immediately explainable. However, in every instance, NASA determined that the observation could not be termed abnormal in the space environment. What you're about to discover in this book was compiled of almost 600 unexplained flying objects. What follows is a brief history of the three most important official UFO-related United States government projects, Project Sign, Project Grudge, and, of course, Project Blue Book. Of the estimated 12,000 sightings in these programs, it all comes down to about 600 that were officially declared unexplained. Of that, 218 listed here are the ones made by the military's own. Some of these sightings are incredible. These are available to you right here to review. After you review these, and all the other sightings listed here, make up your own mind as to how you might explain away these unexplained reports.

Script:
What's this? Her mouth thrived and the sting of disappointment hit her. He wasn't proposing. It's the key to my apartment, he said, taking her hand in his. I thought we could move in together this summer. You want to move in together? she asked, removing her hand and picking up the key. Oh. Oh? His eyebrows burrowed together as though he were confused. I thought that's what we talked about, for when I graduated and landed the job at the firm. When we got engaged, she replied. Jack sat back in his chair. Her confusion instantly changed to annoyance. They'd had this conversation multiple times, so that's why she was confused when he wasn't proposing. I can't propose to you now. What? Muriel's eyes widened. Why? Because I haven't passed the bar yet. Jack looked around the restaurant, then back at her, and in a whisper said, we'll get engaged at some point. This isn't a My Cousin Vinny scenario, is it? One of her favorite childhood movies would haunt her forever. What? Jack shook his head. No, Muriel. I'm not willing to get engaged until I know I have a job. I'm going to get fired from the firm if I don't pass the bar. But the test is in two months, and then you'll have to wait to hear about the results. She didn't understand why he was making such a big deal out of it. I love you now, as much as I'll love you in five months. Why not just move in together? She didn't understand why he had to wait. Because I want to be engaged to be married before I move in with anyone. Why is that important to you, he said, shrugging. I love you. What's a ring going to do? She instantly thought of her mother. The ring had done nothing to keep her father around. Not that she worried about Jack cheating on her like her father had with her mother. Jack was too concerned about following rules and procedures to worry about finding a mistress. But why was he always dragging his feet? What's so bad about being engaged? Why are you pushing this further out? We've been together for five years. He asked her out on a date for her 20th birthday. They'd both been juniors at the University of New Hampshire. They both wanted to have two kids and a dog. They both wanted to live on the seacoast. They both wanted to start a family together. But he kept pushing things off. How long would she have to wait? I just got out of law school, he said. I want to be able to enjoy that for a little bit. His apartment wasn't big enough for the both of them. What about moving back to Portsmouth? They both had lived in the seacoast city for the last year of college. She loved the harbor city and wanted to go back. Jack shifted in his chair. I like it here. I like not having a commute. It's a really nice town. I thought we wanted to start having a family soon. Her throat started to close.

Script:
The practice of hypnosis can be complex or simple, and can be used in a variety of applications. I hope that you find hypnosis to be as fascinating and useful as I do. Every year, through hypnotic shows and corporate seminars, I introduce thousands of people to the power of hypnosis, and I'm happy that you have joined me on this journey today. It is my desire in this book to reveal to you how you can take control of your life and achieve your goals with remarkable ease using hypnosis. This book will guide you to higher personal and professional satisfaction while revealing the power of hypnosis. I know these are strong claims. Coming from a skeptical and scientific background, I would hesitate to even suggest such benefits, but the data is irrefutable. It may be too early for me to tell you that your life may never be the same, but it will not. You alone hold the control and power of your mind. You see, with hypnosis as your tool, you have the ability to tap into the power of your mind, to control your destiny, and enrich your life and the lives of others. This tool does not take a lot of time, nor is it expensive. It only requires a small investment of your energy and willingness to experience its usefulness. Nothing more. Hypnosis is a gift. My goal is to teach you how to use this gift in a way that will positively influence your life. You can make healthy physical and mental changes to yourself to become the person you want to be. Only you can change your attitudes to become a better person. Continuous improvement is not something that just happens. Just like anything else, you have to put effort into working on it. You and those around you will be happy that you invested time in yourself. May you enjoy the journey as much as the destination. I'll see you on the path.

Script:
Even though she could hear the sirens blaring in the distance, deep down, the woman knew the man standing over her would have plenty of time to kill her before they arrived. She lay on the bathroom floor of her house, the cool tile offering no comfort as she stared upward into the night. When she had first purchased the house, she thought the extravagantly large skylight in the bathroom was a waste of money. But now, she was thankful. There were worse things one could be forced to look at as they lied dying than a beautiful, peaceful, story-filled night. She tried to moan, producing a phlegmy cough instead that bubbled out of her lips. The medication he'd stabbed her with worked so fast. She was on the floor almost immediately and hadn't moved since. At first, fear had overwhelmed her. Then, that was replaced by shock. And finally, after the second breaking, acceptance. The sirens were further away now, and she knew they hadn't been coming for her. How could they? The man had disabled her alarm system, and even if she were able to scream, there was no one to hear it. As he stood up, looking down on her, at his handiwork, she just wanted it to be over. There was no fight in her, no hope left. Where was the indomitable will to live that she had always heard humans possessed? Truthfully, it was the opposite. She had falsely been under the impression that drugs would dull the pain, but that hadn't happened. She wanted this over. The man leaned his head to one side. His forefinger pressed to his lips as he studied her. Now, this one's going to be tricky. The knees typically aren't meant to do what I'm about to do, but lucky for you, this isn't my first time at this rodeo. He bent down over her, his rough hands on her legs. Was she crying? Maybe. She felt like she was crying, but she couldn't feel any tears were actually being produced. She could feel his hands on her limbs and knew what was coming. Maybe the pain would make her lose consciousness this time, and if she was lucky, she wouldn't wake up. But knowing something was coming didn't mean she was prepared for it. Nothing could have prepared her for the searing pain that accompanied, the harsh snap and breaking sounds that were as loud as gunshots in her ears. For a second, her breathing stopped as she prayed that heralded the end of her. The pain she felt was indescribable as he stood up. His breath came in labored huffs as he smiled at her. Wow. I know you're experiencing this as an incredibly painful, but I really wish you could see it from my standpoint. It's a thing of beauty. He walked around her. She couldn't move her head to follow him, but could hear the tapping of his shoes on the tile as he came up behind her. His lips were close to her ears, he whispered. Don't worry. Not much more. If you're still alive when I get to your hips, I promise I'll make that the last pain you feel in this life.