Are you Ben Stiller? Or are you Vince Vaughn?

I’m talking here about “Dodgeball” the movie, as opposed to the sport. Is it even a real sport anyway? I thought it was something kids did to torture each other in the playground.

Anyway. Back to the movie.

If you haven’t seen “Dodgeball,” it pits the underdog (Vince Vaughn) who genuinely cares about the folks who come to his gym, but can’t get his sh*t together to run it as a business, against the uber-branded, uber-successful gym overlord (Ben Stiller), portrayed as more than a bit of a dickhead.

Most yoga teachers seem to be like the Vince Vaughn character: passionate about what they do, interested in the welfare of their students but useless on the business front. There’s a lot of chatter that you can’t make a living teaching yoga.

On the other end of the scale, there are the Ben Stillers.

I watched a yoga video clip on YouTube the other day that made me laugh my ass off. “This is hilarious,” I thought, “how this guy is doing a yoga version of dodgeball.”

He was shirtless and muscular. Of course. He said that his yoga brand was for everyone while, in the background, impossibly beautiful people (in teeny-tiny shorts) were doing implausibly difficult yoga poses.

Then I realized he wasn’t joking.

He was serious.

When he said his yoga was for everyone, I guess he didn’t mean me. After all, I don’t look good in hot pants and I don’t bend right for yoga.

Now, this bloke? According to his video, his yoga is among the most popular in the world.

I don’t know if that’s true.

After all, he also said that his yoga was for everyone, and that clearly isn’t true.

But I am sure he’s not complaining that he can’t make a living teaching yoga.

The reason “Dodgeball” was so funny was that it hit on a nerve of truth: the world does seem to be polarized.

Yoga teachers, which one are you? The business loser with a heart of gold, or the dickhead with an empire?

You don’t want to be either one, do you?

I know. Neither do I.

So let’s forge a new way: get business training, learn the skills we need to make a decent living doing what we love, and still retain our integrity.

Or, I guess, we could all hold out for a dodgeball tournament to save our collective asses.

Nadine Fawell’s edit button doesn’t work: if there is something inappropriate to be said, she will say it. Often in yoga class. She managed to be fairly appropriate on her DVD though. She drinks coffee and swears and sometimes she thinks deeply about life. You can find her at www.yogawithnadine.com. She’s on Twitter and Facebook too.

 

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Editor: Lara Chassin

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