What I Learned From "Yes Please" By Amy Poehler Explained By Leslie Knope Gifs

"Yes Please" is great and anyone interested in improv, acting, writing, or the entertainment industry in general should read it. Here's what I learned from the smart and delightful Amy Poehler.

1. Embrace who you are.

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In "Yes Please" there are pictures of Amy dressed as many different things, and she never once seems ashamed of who she is.

2. Use the word "no."

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The Powerful Poehler described a time when she told someone "no," and used powerful body language when in a difficult situation. The situation didn't turn out how Amy would have preferred, but the message stuck.

3. Drugs are good and drugs are bad.

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Amy said she had good experiences and bad experiences with drugs. I think everyone can agree that getting drunk with Amy Poehler would be amazing.

4. Like the people who like you.

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Some of the chapter dividers were little snippets of advice, like this one. My favorite one was about how short people do not like to be picked up without their permission.

5. You don't have to get a lot of sleep to be successful, but it definitely helps.

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Amy wrote about how she's an awful sleeper. She became very good at sleeping standing up, at work, and especially traveling.

6. It's okay to accept help when you're vulnerable.

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Amy briefly talked about her divorce. She emphasized how her personal life isn't anyone else's business, and I loved it. She focused more on how much her friends helped her through tough times.

7. Friends are important.

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The majority of the book was about how much her friends helped and inspired her. Amy talked about each of her costars on "Parks and Recreation," Tina Fey, her childhood friends, and Seth Meyers even wrote a chapter.

8. It's never too late to apologize.

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Amy did one segment on SNL where she played a highly intellectual Dakota Fanning who played with a doll. The doll was "strange and twisted" according to Amy, and represented disabled twins in an upcoming movie called "Hurricane Mary." Amy thought the movie and people were fictional, but they were actual people. She received an angry email about the bit and felt awful about it for years. Amy eventually had the opportunity to apologize years later, and felt much better because of it.

9. Have no shame.

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I learned how improvisation requires someone to literary say "yes" to everything and have no shame.

10. Don't think about the pudding and you might get the pudding.

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I really like the metaphor she used for awards, so I'm keeping it. Amy talked about how she tried to be ambivalent toward awards so she wouldn't be disappointed if she lost.

11. You don't have to get the pudding to feel like you got the pudding.

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Amy wrote about all the funny bits she did during award shows with the other nominees in her category, and I think those were more important to her.

12. We sometimes won't remember important people (or how Amy Poehler forgot she met Seth Meyers before they became friends).

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Amy and Tina were doing an improv show and needed an audience member to come up on stage. A young Seth Meyers was in the audience. He raised his hand and was picked. Amy didn't remember it was him.

13. People should hate you.

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In one of the chapter dividers Amy wrote she was worried that not enough people hate her.

14. An entertainment career will be mean to you.

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Careers are like bad boyfriends, according to Amy. They're rude, leave you hanging, and won't always call you back.

15. Life holds everyone accountable.

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In the last chapter, Amy told the story of how she almost lost her computer and all her progress on "Yes Please" at an airport. An employee emailed her about finding her computer, and Amy retrieved it. Celebrities appear to be untouchable, but even they make simple human mistakes.