Celebrate the Victories in Life

There's a lady from Winnipeg in Canada - it's easy to find as it's the place in the middle - and she's quite unassuming and quite remarkable at the same time. To many she's an inspiration, and her home country treats her as such. She's unique as she's the only human ever to have won multiple medals in both summer and winter games. She's in the news of late, as she won another medal for speed skating for Canada yesterday, 14 years after winning her first medal - for cycling. Check her out if you like - Clara Hughes is her name.

So, lest we overlook how mind-blowingly incredible some people can reach to, it's important I think to acknowledge this person, and celebrate what we're all capable of. Being the only person EVER to have accomplished something is pretty special, and we won't see that everyday. As Clara only won a bronze yesterday, it's also easy to overlook that in the frenzy of medal-idolatry that the Games can represent. But this person is different, in a truly exceptional way, and deserves our recognition and thanks for showing us what we can do if we put our minds to it.

Craig Ferguson & The Value of Experimentation

Here's a guy who should be playing it safe.

He's in a situation where everyone expects failure, and conformity lest rocking the boat happens. His colleagues and even superiors have shown themselves recently to be shallow and of questionable judgment. He shouldn't be breaking boundaries therefore or pushing limits, he should just do his job, show up on time, be pleasant and not too annoying.

But instead he's elected to stand-out and be different.

He talks openly about his destructive, addictive past, makes enough innuendo to have you guessing about his preferences, and thinks nothing of throwing caution to the wind and doing shows without an audience, with only one guest. He celebrated his 1000th show recently, and hosted it using hand puppets. He regularly bumps planned guests if someone is doing well, and is decidedly not mainstream. On American TV. Imagine.

So, what in the world is he thinking ?

I might suggest that Craig Ferguson has reasoned that his needs to leverage his differences to his own advantage. (Scottish on US TV, No SNL background, not a world famous comedian) And the competition..? Jimmy Kimmel and Fallon are vanilla. Jay's boring, Dave's a has-been-great, and Conan's gone now. So that leaves Craig the opportunity to rise to the top. So is he the best of the late night guys on the broadcast networks ? I think so, and so does the Huffington Post. Because you never know what will happen night to night, and that makes him worth watching.

Late night...worth watching ? That seals the deal all by itself.

What are you doing to set yourself apart and own your space ?

Windows & Operating Systems & The things we get used to

I've had a frustrating time of late with Windows Vista. Yeah, I know, late to the party, upgrade and shut up and all that. This isn't about Windows or PC's for that matter. While I've become a Mac-aholic admittedly, I can see that it's not the choice I've made that is the cause of the frustration, rather it's what we're used to and how that drives our behavior.

If I normally drive on the left side, when I'm in the UK, Ireland, South Africa, Hong Kong or Australia, I'm uncomfortable on the right side. (For a while at least, then it feels natural to operate the gears with my left hand). I'm used to the left-side drive as that's what I do most of the time, and so the level of comfort I have with the alternative is low. Work is the same way - getting used to a new client, I'm amazed often at what they know and don't know based on comparisons to other clients, when in reality that has no bearing on them whatsoever.

So, what's the lesson here ? I'd put forth that whatever it is that you're used to is invariably going to be viewed as more comfortable to what you aren't used to dealing with. I'd go further to say that this is one of the factors at the heart of the "not invented here" syndrome you so often see in business. As kludgy as a given solution is, if it's 'ours' then we tend to think of our legacy approach more highly than anyone else. My Windows issue is the same I'm sure, as I rarely play with configuration settings on it anymore, they are all stupid, not as well as thought out on a Mac...they aren't in reality, it's just different.

Is this so screamingly obvious that it's not news..? Perhaps. But think for a moment about that which frustrated you most - the most recent thing - then ask yourself objectively if that thing is truly 'the worst piece of sh*t ever', or if maybe it's your perspective as you aren't used to dealing with it/them and the missing alignment is actually yourself.

Often it's the truth in plain sight that we fail to see.

Volunteerism & The Nature of Social Responsibility

I've read, seen and experienced a fair share of selfless people supporting causes both good & noble in my time. I'm sure you have too. Some charitable works are clearly designed to help those in stressful or even dangerous situations. Some are 'cause-oriented', and by that I mean they are pushing an idea that seems socially responsible, that is in fact still in hypothesis stage. Some of the green movement falls into this camp for instance. And then you have those that are pushing an agenda, and dressing it up as socially responsible for the sake of seeming to care.

This latter groups bugs me I'll admit, as the bandwagon effect of a given cause often attracts those who are simply seeking association with good works undertaken by others. AC/DC's Brian Johnson recently spoke out about this, seemingly criticizing the likes of Bob Geldoff and Bono, for being so publicly altruistic. While I'm not sure those two deserve that comment, there doesn't seem to be a celebrity anywhere who wasn't on the "Let's help Haiti" bandwagon. Many of them did nothing more than urge awareness, by use of their own celebrity status, but it was a bit much to hear this everywhere. There's nothing about any of these people that makes them worth listening to for their opinions. An acclaimed actor or singer is often a wonderful entertainer, but they aren't lauded because they believe in this or that. Great examples are Charlton Heston and his NRA support or Anita Bryant with her anti-gay crusades. While I don't personally support what they were pushing, I will give it to them both that they seemed passionate beleivers in what they were saying. They walked the talk. It's nice to see true colors occasionally, as at least you know that you don't like what they're saying.

Which brings me to the point - spend a moment and think through the rationale and reasoning behind someone's volunteerism or move to say or do something dressed in the cause of social responsibility. Is it without doubt a self-less act we ought to celebrate, or is it in fact posing to get the halo effect of seeming to care. We are lucky as the former situation isn't that rare in this day and age, while the latter situation should be flogged in public. Sadly, there's no lack of poseurs looking to ride a good cause, or convince us that their agenda is the one we should be following.

Always, always be thinking. Always be watching for transparency, and motivation, and be vigilant for those trying to manipulate you and I. Remember there's no requirement to act, rather those that do, are doing so because they were motivated by something.

Lastly, celebrate those that truly are giving to their fellow person as these acts of kindness and leadership are what we all should strive to emulate.

A Day in the Studio

Today, I spent another few hours shooting video - these are lessons my company uses to help customers understand how they can make the most out of their sales teams.

It's always interesting to do this, as I usually am both writer and executive producer of the materials being created. It interesting because laying down two and a half minutes of video takes 30-40 minutes. There can be lots of takes, and some significant prep time as well to say something only a paragraph in length. It makes me wonder if we all had this much prep opportunity for everything we said, how would we say or do things differently.

I imagine, we'd be very precise, and would have carefully considered everything that was said. We'd have considered the consequences of what we say, and imagine the reaction we are looking for from others. There's a parallel here - to days of old when people exchanged hand-written correspondence that would often stretch conversations over months or years. There was no advantage to returning that 'letter' at 11pm on a Sunday evening, as it would still take a long time to deliver. Instead think carefully about what you write, as it's likely to have to stand on it's own for some long period of time.

If we come back to the present, the rash-ness that we routinely employ in our blackberry/iPhone instant responses, or SMS based communications can often lead to different or overly emotional interactions. While that may be 'real' insofar as translating how we feel, the instant response isn't always the best one. The phrase "ill-considered" comes to mind. With more time, we allow ourselves the chance to roll-over thoughts and reactions in our heads, applying our experiences and education. Said another way, while our intelligence levels are often tested in various forms - professional credentials, referrals , reputation and the like, they aren't tested in how fast we can react. If Einstein was a genius, was he also an immediate genius..? Is anyone ?

All of which brings me back to the studio, and the thought that even if we blow things in here today, there's always the post-shoot editing process, to filter out inconsistencies and ensure the message delivered, is the optimum one. Oh, for this luxury in our everyday lives.

The lessons of Mr. Splashy Pants

There's a great little 4 min video lesson that's brought to us by TED - that's Technology, Entertainment Design, and is a forum for innovative thinkers. I referenced Sir Ken Robinson in another post, and this is where I first saw Sir Ken as well.

TED posts online video of the talks they host - think tremendously focused or broad, insightful and sad or funny and quirky...TED does try to offer a full spectrum of thought, and in the spirit of open-sourcing does offer their content to all - no cost, no hassle. I guarantee a quick stroll through TED's archives will be 15 minutes worth wasting.

The one I saw today raised some interesting thoughts in my own head though, about the need to control the message, and why that's not necessary if you're genuine. The examples given by Alexis Ohanian of Reddit deals with Greenpeace and Whaling, but it nicely demonstrates a change in the way we should all be thinking about what the internet does, and what we should be doing as well. The link is here and below too - but before you go there - think about this in a business sense.... If my company's value proposition is geniune, if it in all sincerety builds value for the end user, then it's ok to lose control and let the crowd (the market) run with what they think of it. I think a huge issue we have in the world of commerce these days, and a key reason why the internet is feared and struggled with by big business is that there's too much spin going on, and too little clear value spelled out, experienced, ultimately delivered. Word of mouth can't and shouldn't be "gamed".

You see social media is amongst the purest form of democracy out there, and if the crowd thinks your product is bad, it's very difficult to control that message. (Ask United Airlines what they think of social media after they mangled that guitar). Don't misrepresent your value proposition, and don't exaggerate it either.

So, if you own a company and are attempting to control the social media message, think about how the message is related to the actual value created a little bit first. Ask yourself if you lost control today, would market perception be as good as you're trying to spin it to be.

Now go and enjoy 4 and half minutes with Alexis - he's funny, fast and insightful. And then think about the power each of our voices have, and how to apply that when we're not saving the whales

Potatoes

A friend writes the definitive blog about potatoes. Potatoes. Imagine!

The word is hard to spell, they're an adjunct food to most meals, and most people eat the unrefined variety with ketchup. Hardly the topic worth blogging about. Repeatedly.

But she makes it fun, interesting, and helps develop a hunger for the things. So, she's either a creative genius, a great writer, or the topic has incredible depth we don't normally perceive. The answer I'm happy to offer is all three. Check it out.

So, moving back to our existentialist perspective for a moment...what can we learn from the Daily Spud ? Well I'd put forth the lesson are threefold:

1. No topic, no matter how mundane can defeat a great writer
2. Energy + Enthusiasm can overcome just about any amount of dull topic
3. Being Irish helps one tell a story. It creates positive expectations at the minimum and allows the audience to lower their guard for enjoyment

So, may you all write well, focus your energy and embrace your inner Irish

Music

Do you ever just want music, I mean really want it... just sort of primitively, lusting for it...?

I think that we all do, and it's one of those unrecognized needs. Like the day you crave salt, or the time when you binge on XXXXX (insert your own special vice at the "X").

We're all different, but in many ways, we're all the same.

Here's to finding your groove.