What A Flash Mob Can Teach You About Life

Forget Self-Help courses! Flash Mobs are improving the lives of people more than most of those could. A Flash Mob is an organized routine performed by a group of dancers in a completely random area. These groups can range from less than ten people to hundreds of people. These large groups of strangers are usually brought together by some form of social media.

What do Flash Mobs have to do with life lessons then? I believe if you asked most people why they go to work, they would respond, “Because everyone else does it.” They are stuck in a routine and are awaiting the “glory” days of retirement. The fire and motivation is gone. What is the cure to this? Can it really be a random dance with strangers?

Watch the video below and observe not only the dancers but also the people who gather to watch. It won’t be tangible but you’ll feel the happiness bubbling up inside of them. The man in the suit is not thinking of his impending deadline as he’s dancing. The smiling and clapping audience members have forgotten everything in their lives for those five minutes. Most of us live each day with a checklist mentality. We need to accomplish certain goals and cannot rest until we get there.

As these dancers in Antwerp taught me, sometimes you just have to let go of everything and dance, even if only for 5 minutes in a train station.

The real question now is: Who wants to organize the next one?

Nikolai De Leo is a Transaction Advisory Services Professional living in Miami, FL. When not working, he enjoys reading (his three favorite books are As a Man Thinketh, Atlas Shrugged, and the Picture of Dorian Grey), running (he has completed two half marathons and a triathlon in his favorite Vibram five fingers), and watching college football (he attended the University of Florida for both his undergraduate and graduate degrees).
  1. Joey Reply

    Incredible video. It's amazing the power that artistic expression like dance can have on people's health and well-being!

  2. Darshan Reply

    this has to be the king of all flash mobs…you have to deal with the first minute and a half though
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyLuIY8IyO4

    • nikolaideleo Reply

      That video is great. I hadn't seen it but it's definitely the biggest one I have seen.

      It's awesome how this has turned into a new art. Right after Michael Jackson died, there was a whole mix of emotions. Some were sad and then some actually went out and danced. I think the latter is what he would have wanted.

      Here is one of the Michael Jackson flash mobs that organized right after he died:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je1KOcBYGjM

  3. Daniel Reply

    Notice how many smiles are in the audience. Dancing is a great form of expressing happiness.

  4. Nate Reply

    How would you feel about a person who not only was willing to spend 5 minutes a day doing something random and fun, but also willing to spend 8 hours a day doing nothing productive and instead merely chasing silly pursuits?

    Flash mobs, and other unconventional events, add happiness to society and to peoples' lives but do these people have any obligation to society to stop flash-mobbing at some point? Would it be okay if a person only chased happiness and sat in a room painting or watching movies for his whole life? I don't see any reason to go back to work if flash-mobbing makes people happy

    • Nikolai De Leo Reply

      I think you bring a much deeper topic of defining happiness and one in which I'll try to address from my point of view.

      We call a man "happy" when he has succeeded in attaining his own ends or goals. A more adequate description may be just to say he was happier than he was before. The ultimate goal of any human action is the satisfaction of some desire or to rid himself of some uneasiness that is within him.

      Dancing in a flash mob would therefore only provide limited happiness to most people as that is not their main desire. If most people were to sit around and watch movies they would eventually feel a growing uneasiness and would be compelled to take action in some more productive means.

      You mention sitting a room and painting for the rest of someone's life as an example. Isn't that what some of the greatest artists did? Did they not contribute to society? If that is their true source of happiness than I think they should sit in a room and paint. They will provide much more value to the world in this way than in any other.

      • Nate Reply

        I like your definition of happiness as it is a difficult thing to define.

        Perhaps in your post I should have noticed that you mentioned Flash Mobbing as a break from stress to find your motivation again–to recharge your batteries. Instead, I thought you were saying we should take time out for ourselves sometimes.

        Personally, I think the greatest service we can provide to the world is finding ourselves; we can most help the world by spending our time making ourselves happy, even if we accomplish fewer things in this manner.

        I think the people who need flash mobs, or other random distractions, the most are the people unsatisfied with their lives. I think these same people may need new careers or new passions to pursue. However this is an idealization of the world. We cannot have everything we want and we cannot always change our careers or lives.

        It is as unfortunate as it is true that people need money and cannot paint or flash-mob all day. Sometimes happiness has to be set aside in order to fit in with society.

  5. Nate Reply

    I like your definition of happiness as it is a difficult thing to define.

    Perhaps in your post I should have noticed that you mentioned Flash Mobbing as a break from stress to find your motivation again–to recharge your batteries. Instead, I thought you were saying we should take time out for ourselves sometimes.

    Personally, I think the greatest service we can provide to the world is finding ourselves; we can most help the world by spending our time making ourselves happy, even if we accomplish fewer things in this manner.

    I think the people who need flash mobs, or other random distractions, the most are the people unsatisfied with their lives. I think these same people may need new careers or new passions to pursue. However this is an idealization of the world. We cannot have everything we want and we cannot always change our careers or lives.

    It is as unfortunate as it is true that people need money and cannot paint or flash-mob all day. Sometimes happiness has to be set aside in order to fit in with society.

  6. Caterina Reply

    I showed you this video(: unless you saw it before i showed you…

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