Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Movie Message: Living By Words
Movie Message: Living By Words
The Transporter shows us how to live by words, and Harvard's MBA students give us what words to live by.
"What if we had a code of conduct, the management equivalent of the Hippocratic oath? What if we actually lived up to our billing and became leaders who don’t just make a difference in the world, but make a difference for the world?" - Max Anderson, Cambridge, May 2009
What could a fictional character from a high-energy action movie possibly have in common with Harvard Business School graduate students?
Both have decided to live by words.
In the movie The Transporter (2003), we are introduced to Frank Martin, a highly-effective "driver" whose former Special Forces training gets him in and out of trouble. But what I love most about the Transporter movies (there are now three) is how Frank Martin's character has been designed. Each movie follows the exploits of this mercenary driver - a "transporter" - as he moves all kinds of people and products from one place to another. Although Frank Martin began the first film driving a customized BMW 7-series, and finished Transporter 3 driving an Audi A8, his uniquely-designed character traits have remained the same.
What separates Frank Martin's character from most others is his adherance to rules. He follows, rather, lives by a strict set of rules. For example, Rule One is never change the deal; Rule Two is no names - Frank Martin doesn't want to know who he's working for or what he is transporting; and Rule Three is never look in the package. These are some of the rules that define Frank's character - not just his fictional character, but his fictional character's character.
"Man lives not by food only, but by words." - Tiger Todd
In Transporter 2 (2005), we get a further glimpse into Frank Martin's character and how the words he lives by continue to define him. When the wife of his wealthy diplomat client wants more than a shoulder to cry on - and she seeks out Frank Martin to fill the void in her soul left by her absentee husband - only a strong commitment to his rules can save them both from the consequences. The following dialog from Transporter 2 illustrates the kind of character that heroes should aspire to live into. In this scene, Audrey Billings has come into Frank Martin's cottage and, using her body to seductively push Frank Martin against a wall, is shocked by his resistance:
Audrey Billings: “You said if I needed anything...”
Frank Martin: “I can't.”
Audrey Billings: “Why, because of who I am?”
Frank Martin: “It's because of who I am.”
While average men might dream of this kind of encounter with a beautiful and wealthy woman, it is clear that Frank Martin is not an average man. From living by rules - his governing principles - he has become the kind of hero who is focused on his mission. Frank Martin also shows that respect for another's family begins with developing respect for oneself. Audience members watching Transporter 2 were able to witness something almost unheard of: how a single man’s principles and accurate moral compass could save a family from the consequences of infidelity. By modeling this positive behavior, we can gain inspiration and courage to be “more than mere men,” even if we still need to learn some more rules. Frank Martin - yes, a fictional character – was also able to offer a growing population of unfathered and unmentored young men a powerful lesson on how to be honorable and respectable in relationships with women.
“It is curious - curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare." -Mark Twain (1835-1910)
What words do you live by?
Switching gears to real-life heroes, let's talk about how Harvard's MBA class of 2009 applied the same principle and, in so doing, changed the world's financial system.
Discouraged by the carelessness and lack of respect that many MBA's and financial managers had shown the people of the world, this league of graduate students did what heroes do: they took matters in their own hands. First, they hypothesized that the fundamental issue at the core of the world's financial meltdown was not the overselling of securities, but that those to whom people's finances had been entrusted didn't think about anyone but themselves - the antithesis of both heroism and entrepreneurism - and that what what they were doing was at all unethical. In a coversation I had with the head of UCLA's MBA program just before the financial disaster, I was informed that students are not taught about the connection between people and money because it was irrelevant. Sadly, many MBAs soon after became irrelevant. But not so with the MBA students at Harvard.
Their diagnosis for the activities that led to the financial system meltdown was that MBA's had no Code of Conduct - there were no rules or words for them to live by like there are with other professions, including doctors, lawyers, and warriors. An MBA's Code of Conduct must support fiscal responsibility and honorable dealings with their clients and markets. So Harvard's MBA student-heroes acted, declaring a new standard for ethics in business and financial management that is quickly becoming adopted by businesses and business schools around the world.
“Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.” - W. Clement Stone, 1902-2002
For their commitment to Live by Words, and for taking courageous and Heroic Action to bring human ethical standards to the financial industry, we proudly honor the Harvard MBA Class of 2009. Well done, heroes.
Read about their own words and support their Code of Conduct here.
Are you ready to live by words, too? Repeat the MBA Oath out loud now:
THE MBA OATH
"As a business leader I recognize my role in society.
• My purpose is to lead people and manage resources to create value that no single individual can create alone.
• My decisions affect the well-being of individuals inside and outside my enterprise, today and tomorrow.
Therefore, I promise that:
• I will manage my enterprise with loyalty and care, and will not advance my personal interests at the expense of my enterprise or society.
• I will understand and uphold, in letter and spirit, the laws and contracts governing my conduct and that of my enterprise.
• I will refrain from corruption, unfair competition, or business practices harmful to society.
• I will protect the human rights and dignity of all people affected by my enterprise, and I will oppose discrimination and exploitation.
• I will protect the right of future generations to advance their standard of living and enjoy a healthy planet.
• I will report the performance and risks of my enterprise accurately and honestly.
• I will invest in developing myself and others, helping the management profession continue to advance and create sustainable and inclusive prosperity.
In exercising my professional duties according to these principles, I recognize that my behavior must set an example of integrity, eliciting trust and esteem from those I serve. I will remain accountable to my peers and to society for my actions and for upholding these standards.
This oath I make freely, and upon my honor."
The Transporter shows us how to live by words, and Harvard's MBA students give us what words to live by.
"What if we had a code of conduct, the management equivalent of the Hippocratic oath? What if we actually lived up to our billing and became leaders who don’t just make a difference in the world, but make a difference for the world?" - Max Anderson, Cambridge, May 2009
What could a fictional character from a high-energy action movie possibly have in common with Harvard Business School graduate students?
Both have decided to live by words.
In the movie The Transporter (2003), we are introduced to Frank Martin, a highly-effective "driver" whose former Special Forces training gets him in and out of trouble. But what I love most about the Transporter movies (there are now three) is how Frank Martin's character has been designed. Each movie follows the exploits of this mercenary driver - a "transporter" - as he moves all kinds of people and products from one place to another. Although Frank Martin began the first film driving a customized BMW 7-series, and finished Transporter 3 driving an Audi A8, his uniquely-designed character traits have remained the same.
What separates Frank Martin's character from most others is his adherance to rules. He follows, rather, lives by a strict set of rules. For example, Rule One is never change the deal; Rule Two is no names - Frank Martin doesn't want to know who he's working for or what he is transporting; and Rule Three is never look in the package. These are some of the rules that define Frank's character - not just his fictional character, but his fictional character's character.
"Man lives not by food only, but by words." - Tiger Todd
In Transporter 2 (2005), we get a further glimpse into Frank Martin's character and how the words he lives by continue to define him. When the wife of his wealthy diplomat client wants more than a shoulder to cry on - and she seeks out Frank Martin to fill the void in her soul left by her absentee husband - only a strong commitment to his rules can save them both from the consequences. The following dialog from Transporter 2 illustrates the kind of character that heroes should aspire to live into. In this scene, Audrey Billings has come into Frank Martin's cottage and, using her body to seductively push Frank Martin against a wall, is shocked by his resistance:
Audrey Billings: “You said if I needed anything...”
Frank Martin: “I can't.”
Audrey Billings: “Why, because of who I am?”
Frank Martin: “It's because of who I am.”
While average men might dream of this kind of encounter with a beautiful and wealthy woman, it is clear that Frank Martin is not an average man. From living by rules - his governing principles - he has become the kind of hero who is focused on his mission. Frank Martin also shows that respect for another's family begins with developing respect for oneself. Audience members watching Transporter 2 were able to witness something almost unheard of: how a single man’s principles and accurate moral compass could save a family from the consequences of infidelity. By modeling this positive behavior, we can gain inspiration and courage to be “more than mere men,” even if we still need to learn some more rules. Frank Martin - yes, a fictional character – was also able to offer a growing population of unfathered and unmentored young men a powerful lesson on how to be honorable and respectable in relationships with women.
“It is curious - curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare." -Mark Twain (1835-1910)
What words do you live by?
Switching gears to real-life heroes, let's talk about how Harvard's MBA class of 2009 applied the same principle and, in so doing, changed the world's financial system.
Discouraged by the carelessness and lack of respect that many MBA's and financial managers had shown the people of the world, this league of graduate students did what heroes do: they took matters in their own hands. First, they hypothesized that the fundamental issue at the core of the world's financial meltdown was not the overselling of securities, but that those to whom people's finances had been entrusted didn't think about anyone but themselves - the antithesis of both heroism and entrepreneurism - and that what what they were doing was at all unethical. In a coversation I had with the head of UCLA's MBA program just before the financial disaster, I was informed that students are not taught about the connection between people and money because it was irrelevant. Sadly, many MBAs soon after became irrelevant. But not so with the MBA students at Harvard.
Their diagnosis for the activities that led to the financial system meltdown was that MBA's had no Code of Conduct - there were no rules or words for them to live by like there are with other professions, including doctors, lawyers, and warriors. An MBA's Code of Conduct must support fiscal responsibility and honorable dealings with their clients and markets. So Harvard's MBA student-heroes acted, declaring a new standard for ethics in business and financial management that is quickly becoming adopted by businesses and business schools around the world.
“Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.” - W. Clement Stone, 1902-2002
For their commitment to Live by Words, and for taking courageous and Heroic Action to bring human ethical standards to the financial industry, we proudly honor the Harvard MBA Class of 2009. Well done, heroes.
Read about their own words and support their Code of Conduct here.
Are you ready to live by words, too? Repeat the MBA Oath out loud now:
THE MBA OATH
"As a business leader I recognize my role in society.
• My purpose is to lead people and manage resources to create value that no single individual can create alone.
• My decisions affect the well-being of individuals inside and outside my enterprise, today and tomorrow.
Therefore, I promise that:
• I will manage my enterprise with loyalty and care, and will not advance my personal interests at the expense of my enterprise or society.
• I will understand and uphold, in letter and spirit, the laws and contracts governing my conduct and that of my enterprise.
• I will refrain from corruption, unfair competition, or business practices harmful to society.
• I will protect the human rights and dignity of all people affected by my enterprise, and I will oppose discrimination and exploitation.
• I will protect the right of future generations to advance their standard of living and enjoy a healthy planet.
• I will report the performance and risks of my enterprise accurately and honestly.
• I will invest in developing myself and others, helping the management profession continue to advance and create sustainable and inclusive prosperity.
In exercising my professional duties according to these principles, I recognize that my behavior must set an example of integrity, eliciting trust and esteem from those I serve. I will remain accountable to my peers and to society for my actions and for upholding these standards.
This oath I make freely, and upon my honor."
Behavioral Change for Changing Lives
Drug-Free Behavioral Change also Changes Lives
by Dr. Alonzo M. Jones, Ph.D.
“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.” - Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President (1861-65)
ADHD or SID? That is the question
I teach martial arts, drug prevention, and behavioral modification classes at the Richard Steele Health and Wellness Center. One of my students, a young girl I'll call Destiny, had severe problems with reading, spelling and math. Her teachers suggested to her father that he place her on ADHD medication. He responded by saying he would never place his daughter on that type of medication, “After all,” he continued, “How could a teacher diagnose my child?” This is not an article on the pros and cons of ADHD medication. Rather, it is one family's journey to having their lives transformed through an alternative route.
Destiny's father asked if there was anything I could do to help. From my experience with countless young people, as well as from from education and training as a Health and Wellness clinician, I informed him that Destiny could be suffering from learning disabilities like dyslexia or dyscalculia. Among English-speaking children, an estimated 2 to 15 percent have trouble reading or spelling, problems broadly classified as dyslexia. From 1 to 7 percent also struggle to do math, a disability known as dyscalculia. Many times these “Learning Disabilities” have been confused with ADHD*.
(*ADHD is typically identified in children between the ages of five and 11 years. The condition is more common in boys than girls and is conservatively estimated to occur in two to three percent of the school population. Symptoms persist into adolescence in as many as 80 percent of the children diagnosed with over 30 percent still suffering significant symptoms into adulthood. There are three different subtypes of ADHD including the Primarily Inattentive Type, the Primarily Hyperactive/Impulsive Type, and the Combined Type. Symptoms in the Inattentive Type include failure to give close attention to details with frequent careless mistakes, problems following through with instructions, and susceptibility to distraction by extraneous events. Examples of overactive and impulsive behaviors include excessive talking, difficulty taking turns, and being overenergized.)
In listening further, I thought Destiny might not be experiencing ADHD, but rather SID (Sensory Integration Dysfunction). After 15 years of research, investigators now believe these conditions frequently involve so-called partial functional problems with the senses: in affected children, the eyes and ears accurately register sights and sounds, letters, numbers spoken syllables, but that information is misinterpreted as it is processed in the brain. Dyslexic individuals are more likely to make mistakes performing tasks that involve regulating small eye movements, which suggests that a lack of control over visual attention may contribute to some cases of dyslexia, according to Dr. Burkhart Fischer.**
(**Dr. Fischer is emeritus professor of neurophysiological biophysics and founder of the Optomotor Laboratory at the University of Freiburg in Germany.)
I recommended that if this little girl's dad was opposed to drug use, we should try targeted sports training to improve sensory processing. The research suggested that this approach could have a positive effect in helping his daughter learn to control her visual attention - the possible culprit behind her problems with reading, writing, spelling, and arithmetic.
"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." - Proverbs 22:6 KJV
Destiny's father seemed willing to try anything - except drugs - since his daughter was consistently failing in school. He wanted her to succeed in school and in life without drugs, particularly after hearing from friends that many of their children who were prescribed ADHD medication early in life, began self-medicating with Alcohol, Marijuana, Methamphetamine, etc., when they became adults.
Our behavior modification sessions began with Destiny learning to focus on her stance and basic movements. As she advanced, I could then begin teaching her how to hit the focus mitts, as well as lead her through focusing exercises such as meditation and kata, typical components of the martial arts.
Now two years later, Destiny is considered to be in the “maintenance stage" of her development by the Transtheoretical Model of Evaluation. Her family has noticed a substantial change in her behavior and comprehension. Much to their delight, she is also on the honor role in school and has received several awards for academics and behavior. This should not be viewed as an isolate instance either, for I have seen the same drastic changes in behavior and academic development occur with many children who receive assistance with their sensory processing. It must be noted that most marital arts programs are great conduits for behavioral and academic development with youth diagnosed with ADHD. I must also add that it is not martial arts alone that rewrites children's behavior, but a holistic training process directed toward these outcomes. Many of my martial arts colleagues can attest to similar positive outcomes as those witnessed with Destiny. This strongly suggests that what has been often labeled "ADHD" may actually be a dysfunction of the senses that can be corrected through a specialized training process.
Destiny's family no longer needs to worry about ADHD or an increasing tendency toward adult self-medication. Based on the knowledge, coordination, and character-building lessons that Destiny has learned in the process, her parents can also have confidence that they are raising a daughter who can take care of herself. -AJ
Note* It is noteworthy that for all the behavioral changes typically brought about by medicines, there are proven psychological techniques which can have the same effect. There are a wide variety of mental training methods designed to increase concentration, manage emotional intensity, improve decision making under stress and optimize performance under adverse conditions. These methods have been proven effective in the performance environment; however, there is still little or no research on the use of these interventions with the ADHD athlete.
DR. ALONZO M. JONES, Ph.D. is Chief Operating Officer of the Richard Steele Health and Wellness Center and is also co-chair of the Southern Nevada Community Gang Taskforce Intervention Subcommittee. A Former Health and Wellness clinician for the U.S. Air Force, Dr. Jones remains a celebrated behavior modification coach. He was recognized by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations for achieving success rates in prevention that far exceeded national standards. His D.Min. Degree with specialization in Pastoral Psychology supports his holistic approach to human and community development. As a sought after trainer for clinical prevention programs, Dr. Jones is also certified through SAMSHA. He is a Grand Master 10th Degree Black Belt and has received numerous national and community awards, from the Clark County School District, the Foundation for an Independent Tomorrow, and the Metropolitan Police Department, to name but a few. His community contributions have led to the City of Las Vegas receiving the Outstanding Achievement Award for Local Government Innovation. Hero School is privileged to be strategic partners with Dr. Jones and the Steele Center in our Community Transformation Initiative.
by Dr. Alonzo M. Jones, Ph.D.
“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.” - Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President (1861-65)
ADHD or SID? That is the question
I teach martial arts, drug prevention, and behavioral modification classes at the Richard Steele Health and Wellness Center. One of my students, a young girl I'll call Destiny, had severe problems with reading, spelling and math. Her teachers suggested to her father that he place her on ADHD medication. He responded by saying he would never place his daughter on that type of medication, “After all,” he continued, “How could a teacher diagnose my child?” This is not an article on the pros and cons of ADHD medication. Rather, it is one family's journey to having their lives transformed through an alternative route.
Destiny's father asked if there was anything I could do to help. From my experience with countless young people, as well as from from education and training as a Health and Wellness clinician, I informed him that Destiny could be suffering from learning disabilities like dyslexia or dyscalculia. Among English-speaking children, an estimated 2 to 15 percent have trouble reading or spelling, problems broadly classified as dyslexia. From 1 to 7 percent also struggle to do math, a disability known as dyscalculia. Many times these “Learning Disabilities” have been confused with ADHD*.
(*ADHD is typically identified in children between the ages of five and 11 years. The condition is more common in boys than girls and is conservatively estimated to occur in two to three percent of the school population. Symptoms persist into adolescence in as many as 80 percent of the children diagnosed with over 30 percent still suffering significant symptoms into adulthood. There are three different subtypes of ADHD including the Primarily Inattentive Type, the Primarily Hyperactive/Impulsive Type, and the Combined Type. Symptoms in the Inattentive Type include failure to give close attention to details with frequent careless mistakes, problems following through with instructions, and susceptibility to distraction by extraneous events. Examples of overactive and impulsive behaviors include excessive talking, difficulty taking turns, and being overenergized.)
In listening further, I thought Destiny might not be experiencing ADHD, but rather SID (Sensory Integration Dysfunction). After 15 years of research, investigators now believe these conditions frequently involve so-called partial functional problems with the senses: in affected children, the eyes and ears accurately register sights and sounds, letters, numbers spoken syllables, but that information is misinterpreted as it is processed in the brain. Dyslexic individuals are more likely to make mistakes performing tasks that involve regulating small eye movements, which suggests that a lack of control over visual attention may contribute to some cases of dyslexia, according to Dr. Burkhart Fischer.**
(**Dr. Fischer is emeritus professor of neurophysiological biophysics and founder of the Optomotor Laboratory at the University of Freiburg in Germany.)
I recommended that if this little girl's dad was opposed to drug use, we should try targeted sports training to improve sensory processing. The research suggested that this approach could have a positive effect in helping his daughter learn to control her visual attention - the possible culprit behind her problems with reading, writing, spelling, and arithmetic.
"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." - Proverbs 22:6 KJV
Destiny's father seemed willing to try anything - except drugs - since his daughter was consistently failing in school. He wanted her to succeed in school and in life without drugs, particularly after hearing from friends that many of their children who were prescribed ADHD medication early in life, began self-medicating with Alcohol, Marijuana, Methamphetamine, etc., when they became adults.
Our behavior modification sessions began with Destiny learning to focus on her stance and basic movements. As she advanced, I could then begin teaching her how to hit the focus mitts, as well as lead her through focusing exercises such as meditation and kata, typical components of the martial arts.
Now two years later, Destiny is considered to be in the “maintenance stage" of her development by the Transtheoretical Model of Evaluation. Her family has noticed a substantial change in her behavior and comprehension. Much to their delight, she is also on the honor role in school and has received several awards for academics and behavior. This should not be viewed as an isolate instance either, for I have seen the same drastic changes in behavior and academic development occur with many children who receive assistance with their sensory processing. It must be noted that most marital arts programs are great conduits for behavioral and academic development with youth diagnosed with ADHD. I must also add that it is not martial arts alone that rewrites children's behavior, but a holistic training process directed toward these outcomes. Many of my martial arts colleagues can attest to similar positive outcomes as those witnessed with Destiny. This strongly suggests that what has been often labeled "ADHD" may actually be a dysfunction of the senses that can be corrected through a specialized training process.
Destiny's family no longer needs to worry about ADHD or an increasing tendency toward adult self-medication. Based on the knowledge, coordination, and character-building lessons that Destiny has learned in the process, her parents can also have confidence that they are raising a daughter who can take care of herself. -AJ
Note* It is noteworthy that for all the behavioral changes typically brought about by medicines, there are proven psychological techniques which can have the same effect. There are a wide variety of mental training methods designed to increase concentration, manage emotional intensity, improve decision making under stress and optimize performance under adverse conditions. These methods have been proven effective in the performance environment; however, there is still little or no research on the use of these interventions with the ADHD athlete.
DR. ALONZO M. JONES, Ph.D. is Chief Operating Officer of the Richard Steele Health and Wellness Center and is also co-chair of the Southern Nevada Community Gang Taskforce Intervention Subcommittee. A Former Health and Wellness clinician for the U.S. Air Force, Dr. Jones remains a celebrated behavior modification coach. He was recognized by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations for achieving success rates in prevention that far exceeded national standards. His D.Min. Degree with specialization in Pastoral Psychology supports his holistic approach to human and community development. As a sought after trainer for clinical prevention programs, Dr. Jones is also certified through SAMSHA. He is a Grand Master 10th Degree Black Belt and has received numerous national and community awards, from the Clark County School District, the Foundation for an Independent Tomorrow, and the Metropolitan Police Department, to name but a few. His community contributions have led to the City of Las Vegas receiving the Outstanding Achievement Award for Local Government Innovation. Hero School is privileged to be strategic partners with Dr. Jones and the Steele Center in our Community Transformation Initiative.
Comic Column: Teamwork and the Justice League
Comic Column: Teamwork
Article by Bryan Stroud
“Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” - Vince Lombardi (1913-1970)
The Brave & the Bold No 28. 1960 featured the first appearance of the
Justice League Of America
Article by Bryan Stroud
“Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” - Vince Lombardi (1913-1970)
The Brave & the Bold No 28. 1960 featured the first appearance of the
Justice League Of America
Heroes, I’ve found, share common traits with one another and I’ve used this little column to explore some of the attributes that make each heroic in their own sphere of influence. We’ve looked at courage, honesty and sacrifice and this time, I’d suggest that heroes are nearly without exception altruistic. They like to help others because they can. Furthermore, they often work well in teams. Think of your local fire department, members of a military unit, or smoke jumpers who protect our forested areas. There is most certainly strength in numbers, and maybe that’s one of the reasons that a team of heroes can make good sense, working toward a collective good.
The Silver Age was beginning to kick into high gearat DC Comics when a new/old team was introduced to the world in the early months of 1960. The Brave and the Bold title contained, with issue #28, the first appearance of the Justice League of America, which was based on the old Justice Society of America from the Golden Age. Interestingly enough, this debut story didn’t contain anything like an origin story for the team, which consisted of the best known heroes in the DC stable: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, the Flash and the Manhunter from Mars. The cover was done up courtesy of Mike Sekowsky on pencils with Murphy Anderson inking while the interior art was accomplished by Mike Sekowsky again on pencils, inked by Bernie Sachs in chapters 1, 3, and 5; Joe Giella in chapter 2 and Murphy Anderson in Chapter 4. Gardner Fox is the writer of “Starro the Conqueror!”
Starro is, in essence, a gigantic, space-going and intelligent star fish who has come to Earth, doubtless up to no good. When it enters the ocean, it creates three duplicates of itself from native star fish and the mischief is afoot.
Aquaman learns of the threat from one of his finny friends and promptly contacts the other members of the League for an emergency meeting. Superman and Batman are indisposed, so the remaining five members gather at their concealed HQ to discuss the menace and how they’ll deal with it. Assignments are swiftly made and the team goes out to divide and conquer, with Green Lantern tackling one of the Starro creatures in the Rockies, engaging it with his famed power ring in a titanic battle until ultimately prevailing and returning it to its natural state as a harmless sea star.
On another front, Wonder Woman and the Martian Manhunter join forces to face off against another Starro at Science City, where it is in the midst of attempting to absorb the brainpower of the gathering of prominent scientific minds at a convention hall. The massive creature literally lifts the building containing them and heads for the upper atmosphere. Wonder Woman is close behind in her robot plane and uses her magic lasso to try and stop the beast, but she’s having some trouble. The Martian Manhunter, meanwhile, aids with his super Martian breath to blow the shattered remains of some meteors into the Starro duplicate. The aerial battle rages for some time, but through determination and teamwork, the two heroes overcome the menace and are hoping their teammates are equally successful.
The Flash, meanwhile, has rushed to Happy Harbor, home of Snapper Carr, a local hipster, who’s been working on his family’s yard with fertilizing components. When the Flash arrives, he notes that Starro has cast some sort of mind-numbing spell on the populace, with the exception of the young Snapper. Flash quickly engages the monstrous menace, creating a spinning vortex around it. Starro barely makes it to a nearby lake, but the Fastest Man Alive isn’t that easily discourages and is next seen using his high speed feet to cause ground vibrations, revealing the creature between the parted waters. Ceasing the rapid movements, the walls of water fall onto the creature, putting it out for the count. Snapper has arrived, meanwhile, and the pair head for the town to check on the residents, who now seem to have been released from the mental spell. He and Snapper head for a rendezvous point with the rest of the JLA.
As the final chapter unfolds, the original Starro is plotting. It has lost its three “deputies,” but has gleaned their collective intelligence and power and plans to finish the task of taking over Earth. Little does it know that five heroes are on their way to thwart the plan. Starro, however, won’t go down without a fight and uses its clairvoyant abilities to probe the mind of Green Lantern, turning itself yellow to be immune to his power ring. It hurls a blast of energy at Snapper Carr, who’s tagged along and it is ineffectual, stimulating the curiosity of police scientist Barry Allen, also known as the Flash. While Wonder Woman and the Martian Manhunter keep Starro busy, the Flash instructs Green Lantern to use his power ring to create a spectroscope to analyze Snapper Carr and see what is making him immune to Starro’s power. They determine a higher than normal level of calcium oxide or lime on the young man. He confirms he’d been using it on the lawn and they quickly deduce that lime will defeat Starro, just as oyster men use it to battle star fish that threaten oyster beds. Barrels and bags of lime are appropriated in the blink of an eye and the members of the Justice League use it with abandon, destroying the creature known as Starro.
So what did this first recorded adventure of the Justice League of America teach us? First and foremost, it taught the value of team work. United in a common cause, the greatest heroes on earth gathered together to formulate a strategy, deploy their assets (dividing and conquering Starro and its duplicates) and came back together for the climactic finish of the terror, pooling their resources for the greater good.
Whether consciously or not, this storyline would become a noted pattern in the future adventures of the Justice League of America. The team would consistently come together to meet whatever threat had appeared; tackled it in teams of two to three members, and collectively neutralize the enemy during the course of the story. It was particularly notable and effective when a similar team of super villains were the foe, because a villain is self-serving and incapable of trusting anyone else. Inevitably those “teams” fall apart in the clutch, while true heroes come together, pooling their strengths, complementing their gifts and watching each others backs to deal with the task at hand.
T.E.A.M.
Heroes look out for one another, and they don’t mind at all being part of something bigger than themselves in order to achieve even more. I’m reminded of the old definition of a team: Together Everyone Achieves More. Obviously, individual preparation is essential, and we must not lose sight of that as we continue to strive to be our best selves, but do be ready to answer the call and join the team. Great things will undoubtedly follow.
The Silver Age was beginning to kick into high gearat DC Comics when a new/old team was introduced to the world in the early months of 1960. The Brave and the Bold title contained, with issue #28, the first appearance of the Justice League of America, which was based on the old Justice Society of America from the Golden Age. Interestingly enough, this debut story didn’t contain anything like an origin story for the team, which consisted of the best known heroes in the DC stable: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, the Flash and the Manhunter from Mars. The cover was done up courtesy of Mike Sekowsky on pencils with Murphy Anderson inking while the interior art was accomplished by Mike Sekowsky again on pencils, inked by Bernie Sachs in chapters 1, 3, and 5; Joe Giella in chapter 2 and Murphy Anderson in Chapter 4. Gardner Fox is the writer of “Starro the Conqueror!”
Starro is, in essence, a gigantic, space-going and intelligent star fish who has come to Earth, doubtless up to no good. When it enters the ocean, it creates three duplicates of itself from native star fish and the mischief is afoot.
Aquaman learns of the threat from one of his finny friends and promptly contacts the other members of the League for an emergency meeting. Superman and Batman are indisposed, so the remaining five members gather at their concealed HQ to discuss the menace and how they’ll deal with it. Assignments are swiftly made and the team goes out to divide and conquer, with Green Lantern tackling one of the Starro creatures in the Rockies, engaging it with his famed power ring in a titanic battle until ultimately prevailing and returning it to its natural state as a harmless sea star.
On another front, Wonder Woman and the Martian Manhunter join forces to face off against another Starro at Science City, where it is in the midst of attempting to absorb the brainpower of the gathering of prominent scientific minds at a convention hall. The massive creature literally lifts the building containing them and heads for the upper atmosphere. Wonder Woman is close behind in her robot plane and uses her magic lasso to try and stop the beast, but she’s having some trouble. The Martian Manhunter, meanwhile, aids with his super Martian breath to blow the shattered remains of some meteors into the Starro duplicate. The aerial battle rages for some time, but through determination and teamwork, the two heroes overcome the menace and are hoping their teammates are equally successful.
The Flash, meanwhile, has rushed to Happy Harbor, home of Snapper Carr, a local hipster, who’s been working on his family’s yard with fertilizing components. When the Flash arrives, he notes that Starro has cast some sort of mind-numbing spell on the populace, with the exception of the young Snapper. Flash quickly engages the monstrous menace, creating a spinning vortex around it. Starro barely makes it to a nearby lake, but the Fastest Man Alive isn’t that easily discourages and is next seen using his high speed feet to cause ground vibrations, revealing the creature between the parted waters. Ceasing the rapid movements, the walls of water fall onto the creature, putting it out for the count. Snapper has arrived, meanwhile, and the pair head for the town to check on the residents, who now seem to have been released from the mental spell. He and Snapper head for a rendezvous point with the rest of the JLA.
As the final chapter unfolds, the original Starro is plotting. It has lost its three “deputies,” but has gleaned their collective intelligence and power and plans to finish the task of taking over Earth. Little does it know that five heroes are on their way to thwart the plan. Starro, however, won’t go down without a fight and uses its clairvoyant abilities to probe the mind of Green Lantern, turning itself yellow to be immune to his power ring. It hurls a blast of energy at Snapper Carr, who’s tagged along and it is ineffectual, stimulating the curiosity of police scientist Barry Allen, also known as the Flash. While Wonder Woman and the Martian Manhunter keep Starro busy, the Flash instructs Green Lantern to use his power ring to create a spectroscope to analyze Snapper Carr and see what is making him immune to Starro’s power. They determine a higher than normal level of calcium oxide or lime on the young man. He confirms he’d been using it on the lawn and they quickly deduce that lime will defeat Starro, just as oyster men use it to battle star fish that threaten oyster beds. Barrels and bags of lime are appropriated in the blink of an eye and the members of the Justice League use it with abandon, destroying the creature known as Starro.
So what did this first recorded adventure of the Justice League of America teach us? First and foremost, it taught the value of team work. United in a common cause, the greatest heroes on earth gathered together to formulate a strategy, deploy their assets (dividing and conquering Starro and its duplicates) and came back together for the climactic finish of the terror, pooling their resources for the greater good.
Whether consciously or not, this storyline would become a noted pattern in the future adventures of the Justice League of America. The team would consistently come together to meet whatever threat had appeared; tackled it in teams of two to three members, and collectively neutralize the enemy during the course of the story. It was particularly notable and effective when a similar team of super villains were the foe, because a villain is self-serving and incapable of trusting anyone else. Inevitably those “teams” fall apart in the clutch, while true heroes come together, pooling their strengths, complementing their gifts and watching each others backs to deal with the task at hand.
T.E.A.M.
Heroes look out for one another, and they don’t mind at all being part of something bigger than themselves in order to achieve even more. I’m reminded of the old definition of a team: Together Everyone Achieves More. Obviously, individual preparation is essential, and we must not lose sight of that as we continue to strive to be our best selves, but do be ready to answer the call and join the team. Great things will undoubtedly follow.
Three Steps for Getting Power from Quotes
Hero School's Three Steps for Getting Power from Quotes
"Man lives not by bread only, but by words." - Tiger Todd
Quotes are everywhere. They can console us. They can inspire us. And they can even motivate us. But most of the time they just sit there and do nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero. Just more advice from old people or dead people. Super.
So what's the point?
| “How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.” - Henry David Thoreau |
I want more. In fact, I expect more. I don't need some stinkin' quote that was spoken or written by someone who has been dead for a century-or-more to just sit there and do nothing! If quotes are so powerful, why am I not experiencing any of that power?
"But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." - The Book of Hebrews
What if we could experience power from quotations simply by mixing them with something else, like when flour, sugar, milk, and baking powder are combined with eggs to produce cake, or when two-parts Hydrogen is combined with one-part Oxygen to make rain? Even though each ingredient contains its unique properties and latent power, each will also continue to sit alone in the kitchen or the cosmos until they either rot or evaporate unless they are combined with other substances and become something greater.
I discovered the recipe for experiencing the power from quotes - purely by accident - during some traumatic relationship events in 1999. In reading Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People during that tumultuous time, I was introduced to this excerpt from a quote by Albert E. N. Gray:
"The successful person has the habit of doing the things that failures don't want to do." - Albert E. N. Gray
"But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." - The Book of Hebrews
What if we could experience power from quotations simply by mixing them with something else, like when flour, sugar, milk, and baking powder are combined with eggs to produce cake, or when two-parts Hydrogen is combined with one-part Oxygen to make rain? Even though each ingredient contains its unique properties and latent power, each will also continue to sit alone in the kitchen or the cosmos until they either rot or evaporate unless they are combined with other substances and become something greater.
I discovered the recipe for experiencing the power from quotes - purely by accident - during some traumatic relationship events in 1999. In reading Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People during that tumultuous time, I was introduced to this excerpt from a quote by Albert E. N. Gray:
"The successful person has the habit of doing the things that failures don't want to do." - Albert E. N. Gray
If Mr. Gray was correct, then successful people have the habit of doing what they don't want to do - but know they must do - while unsuccessful people have the habit of not doing what they don't want to do - even when they know these are the things they should be doing! Whew! Since I was tempted to do only what I wanted to do in my relationship crisis - which included keying her car and giving all of her things to charity - this quote helped me keep my integrity in the midst of challenging circumstances.
This understanding led me to the formula - or recipe - for experiencing the power lying dormant within quotations. After typing the Albert Gray quote into a document, I was inspired to also type a message to myself, instructions on how to live by those words. Here is what the document looked like when I was finished:
"The successful person has the habit of doing the things that failures don't want to do." - Albert E. N. Gray
So Tiger, the very things you don't want to do are the very things you must do first if you want to succeed.
The quote gave me the wisdom regarding success, and I wanted to be successful - particularly in future relationships. Next, I needed to align myself to this wisdom. It has been ten years since I first began living this way, but only recently have I been able to understand the operation of this very simple formula.
I now humbly share the formula with you.
Three Steps for Getting Power from Quotes
Keep in mind, the following formula will work only after first deciding to live by words.
This understanding led me to the formula - or recipe - for experiencing the power lying dormant within quotations. After typing the Albert Gray quote into a document, I was inspired to also type a message to myself, instructions on how to live by those words. Here is what the document looked like when I was finished:
"The successful person has the habit of doing the things that failures don't want to do." - Albert E. N. Gray
So Tiger, the very things you don't want to do are the very things you must do first if you want to succeed.
The quote gave me the wisdom regarding success, and I wanted to be successful - particularly in future relationships. Next, I needed to align myself to this wisdom. It has been ten years since I first began living this way, but only recently have I been able to understand the operation of this very simple formula.
I now humbly share the formula with you.
Three Steps for Getting Power from Quotes
Keep in mind, the following formula will work only after first deciding to live by words.
Step 1. Write out the quote that speaks to you.
Step 2. Below the quote, write a message to yourself of how you will follow the quote's wisdom.
Step 3. Read the quote and the message to yourself every morning and, without a second thought, just do what it says!
EXAMPLE:
Step 1. (The quote)
"Most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year - and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade! " - Anthony Robbins
Step 2. (The message to yourself)
"So (insert your name), stop thinking about what you wish you had done last year, and instead write down some elements of what your dream life would be like in ten years. Now (insert your name), what could you do today that would bring you a step closer to manifesting the life of your dreams?"
Step 3. Do what the message says, NOW!
Find the quotations that speak to you, but rather than simply collect them, invest the time to experience each quote's power by combining them with a message to yourself, and then take action until your quote has manifested itself in your life.
Find the quotations that speak to you, but rather than simply collect them, invest the time to experience each quote's power by combining them with a message to yourself, and then take action until your quote has manifested itself in your life.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Karaoke as Education!
Karaoke as Education
by Tiger Todd
Did we know what the words were before they were on the screen?
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." - Arthur Schopenhauer
As a native Nevadan, I’m also a product of its public school system. In reality, I’m more a product of Nevada’s public school system and my dad’s entrepreneurism, a six-month stint in a body cast after being run over by a drunk driver at age 4 (that explains a lot, huh?), multiple skull fractures from multiple collisions between my big, hard head and even bigger, harder objects (that explains even more), no cavities (thanks Colgate), an ex-wife or two (the fault of my hard head once again), and all of the movies I’ve watched more than twice. Still, my public education was very important in defining who I came to be. While most of my vocabulary did come from my life experiences, it was the school district that actually taught me how to read.
Mr. Morrow’s 6th grade English class at Robert Taylor Elementary School in Henderson, Nevada was where my reading speed really took off. The year was 1975 and Mr. Morrow used a kind of overhead projector that flipped sentences on the screen at a pretty good clip. We were challenged to read each line of text before the next line appeared. I hadn’t realized it until now, but this was like a prehistoric form of karaoke.
In the 1990s, my education from lyrics evolved with the advent of actual karaoke. I’ll not forget the first time I attended a large-screen karaoke party. Initially, I was fascinated by both the quantity and caliber of the "closet" singers in attendance, but I soon found myself mesmerized by the words to the songs that danced melodically across the screen. This was not Mr. Morrow’s machine, and neither were the intriguing sentences, particularly in this case from the Beatles’ song, Come Together:
He bag production he got walrus gumboot
He got Ono sideboard he one spinal cracker
He got feet down below his knee
Hold you in his armchair you can feel his disease
Come together right now over me
Walrus gumboot? Spinal Cracker? Could these really be the words? We are certainly not in Kansas anymore, Toto. Wait...didn't the group Toto record "Hold the Line"? We aren't even in MTV's Real World anymore. Maybe the lyrics were some 1960s code for “We’re invading America and will replace Perry Como.” There is probably some music aficionado out there who understood exactly what these words meant - and the words to every other Beatle’s song - but not me.
Just think for a moment of what these words must have sounded like to a kid hearing or reading them for the very first time? Probably like the other words we made up as kids. Today as an adult, however, what weirds me out the most about Come Together is the thought that there may actually be someone out there whose “feet” are NOT below his knees...
The Value of Our Words
"You must unlearn what you have learned." - Yoda
The older I get, the more I find that the words to many of the songs I grew up with are not the words I thought they were. In a Junior High assembly in the 1970s, fellow eighth grader Michelle Small and I sang, “You Don’t Have To Be A Star,” by Marilynn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. While we were a big hit with the hundreds of students who filled the gymnasium that day, I recently learned that the words to the song were not the ones I sang. In fact, I was way off. The actual line from the song, “You're rejected and hurt…to me you're worth, girl, what you have within” was beautiful, moving, and unfortunately, not anything at all like what I sang. My rendition replaced this insightful passage with, “Your rejection of Merv, to leave the earth, where you haven’t been” was, in retrospect, just plain scary. Come on, gimme a break! I was only 13, and my 13-year-old self knew less about just about everything than most 13-year-olds know today. Boy, was I naïve. Maybe at the time I was simply too young to understand the complexities of relationships. Perhaps my mental vacuousness was a result of being stuck at Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage of development so I didn’t yet have the ability to think abstractly or draw conclusions from the lyrics. In any case, my substitution was flawless, so no one- including me- was the wiser. It probably didn't hurt that the sound system in the gym was standard government-issue so the hundreds of kids in attendance couldn't really discern the lyrics anyway. Or maybe they thought the words that I sang were the right words, too.
Where are you learning your Life Vocabulary?
My limited vocabulary as a teen illustrates just how influential our social networks and non-scholastic sources are to our competence and understanding of the real world. Incidentally, the real world I am referring to is not the contrived environment by the same name on MTV, but rather, the world of interpersonal communication, business relationships, and respect for colleagues. As teachers and parents will attest, today’s teens’ on-board dictionaries have few if any of these terms since they are not typically comprised of words learned in a classroom or from a Merriam-Webster dictionary. In many cases, their vocabulary and definitions come from their music, experiences, surroundings, and the people they hang with during their formative years.
"I looked up my family tree- and found three dogs using it." - Rodney Dangerfield
Talk about no respect, as a sheltered child in the 1970s, most of the people I was allowed to hang out with were adults. This left me handicapped when communicating with children my own age - but with a distinct advantage with adults. Instead of talking about sex, sports, video games, and sex, like most teen boys (and grown-up boys) do today, I was communicating with old people, listening to old-person songs, and learning old-person jokes. Of course, hanging out with adults - instead of kids - did help me become a pretty good student since I related more easily to my teachers - the ones grading me - than I did to my classmates. My old person communication skills were also embellished by my babysitter- a black-and-white Sony TV- and by my language teacher- an AM/FM clock radio. Dialogue from TV Shows like Lost in Space, Gilligan’s Island, and Star Trek, and the lyrics from songs by the Carpenters, Peter Paul and Mary, and the Bee Gees, also helped to shape my vocabulary, my sense of humor, and my character(s). Judging by the experiences I’ve had and the quotes I still use in conversations today, I have become what I’ve learned.
Hell's Angels meet the Powerpuff Girls
Sometimes it is difficult to get every attendee of our Hero School® programs to understand the gravity of the phrase, “We become what we learn.” I encountered one tough customer about 5 years ago during my Saturday morning class for homeless men at Catholic Charities. He was already hard to forget, this gaunt, graying, 6’4” Hell’s Angel-type sitting in the front row. But it was the series of tattoos on his forehead that made the task of forgetting him utterly impossible. My mind was vacillating between trying to decipher the 3 indistinct blotches on his forehead, and the wonderment over what would possess anyone to be tattooed "there." A tattoo on my butt? Maybe. On my forehead- are you crazy? So I began tactlessly, “Nice tattoos...are they the three Powerpuff Girls, you know, Bubbles, Blossom, and Buttercup?” A sneer and a grunt followed. Of course I thought I was being very clever. Then came the most disturbing response; one that I certainly did not expect. “6-6-6,” he began. “Got ‘em when I was 16.” I was stunned, to say the least, but in this class, my showing any reaction could give these men the upper hand. “Cool!” I responded. “So, your parents were Christians, huh?” He didn’t want to talk about it so my mind wandered back to thinking about the tattoos. Apparently, forehead tattoos don’t hold their shape very well once you get into your mid-50s, but what part of our anatomy does?
“We become what we learn.” –Tiger Todd
The next 45-minutes of the class period elapsed without incident while I continued to rattle-off numerous examples of how people "become what they learn," whether becoming engineers by learning engineering, or becoming plumbers by learning plumbing. I then explained how I had been cursed in relationships by the songs I learned, particularly the songs of Barry Manilow. DON’T JUDGE ME! Of course, the men in the class laughed - as you probably did just now. So I asked the audience what the songs were that they had learned, and suddenly there was a loud “clunk” behind me on the front row. I spun around to find the man with his tattooed forehead pressed against the table. I asked him if he was O.K. and after a bit, he looked up at me with tears in his weary eyes and almost sobbed, “My songs…mysongs…” “What about your songs?” I inquired. “I became my songs- the songs I learned." "What were your songs," I ventured. "Highway To Hell and Born To Be Wild!” It has been 30-years since AC/DC released Highway To Hell, but it had been more than 40 years since a young man of just 15 had been free to live his own life. For 40 years, the lyrics to songs like these played in his head, reinforcing what might have been only a short season of rebellion, until they had eventually taken root and he was made into their image and likeness.
“We can try to understand the New York Times effect on man.” – The Bee Gees
The lyrics to Highway To Hell and Born To Be Wild are not the words that change men anymore. Still, today’s prominent gangs, while very different in appearance from the Hell’s Angels of the 1960s and 70s, have indeed become what they have learned through the same curriculum. “Hell” has been replaced with “crib,” and “babes” have been replaced with “bitches” since the “brotherhood” became a pack of “dogs.” And while it is tempting to get sidetracked here and start thinking exclusively about gangs, the most important and significant component of both groups is the educational delivery system that created them. Furthermore, being judgmental of Angels and Gangstas will probably only incriminate us, since we too have become what we have learned. If our life today is in turmoil, perhaps it is because we have been learning turmoil. It is highly likely that our curriculum for daily living - the newspaper, the Evening News, and the Times - have generated this kind of life - one that corresponds to their agenda and curricula. It may actually take the words to a song like Stayin’ Alive on a Karaoke screen for most of us to truly understand the New York Times affect on man.
What are some of the effects that the songs we learn have on our lives? I wrote a little about this in (the soon to be published book) Uncommon Sense, on how my “hero complex” was formed by a combination of the songs I learned as a child. Remember, engineers become engineers because they learn engineering. Just because what people have "become" is not a college course title like, “Gangsta 101,” or “Advanced Family Dysfunction,” doesn’t mean there isn’t a curriculum that we’re learning. We become what we learn, whether we like it or not.
The great news for every human is that we can still become the kind of people we wish to become, regardless of what we have learned to this point. Yes it's true, but this miracle only works for humans so if you are an animal, there is no use in reading any further.
Since we become what we learn, we must exercise our free will and choose what we will learn. Perhaps more importantly - based on the former examples - we must also keep ourselves from learning the “lyrics” that we do not want to become. This is true if you are a dishwasher and you want to be a chef, or if you are in dire financial straits and wish to become stable and wealthy. The dishwasher cannot become a chef if his hours away from work are spent listening to, doing, and learning everything else but that which creates a “chef” life. Similarly, the person in dire financial conditions cannot possibly become secure and wealthy if all she is listening to and learning from are the news outlets that insidiously and repeatedly teach her that she is on shaky ground, that she could lose her house, and that the wealthy are wealthy because they were born that way. We must try and understand the Evening News effect on man. The effect is not the same on the wealthy largely because they make the news. Instead, the debilitating effect is on the regular person who doesn’t have a fleet of financial experts disseminating the news for him or her.
"The greatest ignorance is rejecting that which you know absolutely nothing about." - Jessica Branch
If you don’t want to become something, then just don’t learn it. It’s a simple as that! Many people cannot escape guilt, fear, and the curse of repeating history, since, like that tragic biker in my homeless class, they are already on a “Highway to Hell” and don’t know how to turn those damaging songs off. I’m convinced that the songs that we let play inside us - whether the condemning words from an unfit parent or the inspiring words from great teachers or poets - are in large part responsible for our future successes and failures. The songs themselves are not causal, but hugely influential. It would do some of us a lot of good to change the station.
What is your song? What words are carried around through your head by a familiar or haunting melody and performed by The Artist Formally Known as Stepdad? Take a look at the things in life that have been difficult for you to overcome or attain, and then take a look at the lyrics that are being played the most in your life. If they are not the lyrics you want to live, then maybe it’s time to learn some new songs.
-TT
by Tiger Todd
Did we know what the words were before they were on the screen?
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." - Arthur Schopenhauer
As a native Nevadan, I’m also a product of its public school system. In reality, I’m more a product of Nevada’s public school system and my dad’s entrepreneurism, a six-month stint in a body cast after being run over by a drunk driver at age 4 (that explains a lot, huh?), multiple skull fractures from multiple collisions between my big, hard head and even bigger, harder objects (that explains even more), no cavities (thanks Colgate), an ex-wife or two (the fault of my hard head once again), and all of the movies I’ve watched more than twice. Still, my public education was very important in defining who I came to be. While most of my vocabulary did come from my life experiences, it was the school district that actually taught me how to read.
Mr. Morrow’s 6th grade English class at Robert Taylor Elementary School in Henderson, Nevada was where my reading speed really took off. The year was 1975 and Mr. Morrow used a kind of overhead projector that flipped sentences on the screen at a pretty good clip. We were challenged to read each line of text before the next line appeared. I hadn’t realized it until now, but this was like a prehistoric form of karaoke.
In the 1990s, my education from lyrics evolved with the advent of actual karaoke. I’ll not forget the first time I attended a large-screen karaoke party. Initially, I was fascinated by both the quantity and caliber of the "closet" singers in attendance, but I soon found myself mesmerized by the words to the songs that danced melodically across the screen. This was not Mr. Morrow’s machine, and neither were the intriguing sentences, particularly in this case from the Beatles’ song, Come Together:
He bag production he got walrus gumboot
He got Ono sideboard he one spinal cracker
He got feet down below his knee
Hold you in his armchair you can feel his disease
Come together right now over me
Walrus gumboot? Spinal Cracker? Could these really be the words? We are certainly not in Kansas anymore, Toto. Wait...didn't the group Toto record "Hold the Line"? We aren't even in MTV's Real World anymore. Maybe the lyrics were some 1960s code for “We’re invading America and will replace Perry Como.” There is probably some music aficionado out there who understood exactly what these words meant - and the words to every other Beatle’s song - but not me.
Just think for a moment of what these words must have sounded like to a kid hearing or reading them for the very first time? Probably like the other words we made up as kids. Today as an adult, however, what weirds me out the most about Come Together is the thought that there may actually be someone out there whose “feet” are NOT below his knees...
The Value of Our Words
"You must unlearn what you have learned." - Yoda
The older I get, the more I find that the words to many of the songs I grew up with are not the words I thought they were. In a Junior High assembly in the 1970s, fellow eighth grader Michelle Small and I sang, “You Don’t Have To Be A Star,” by Marilynn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. While we were a big hit with the hundreds of students who filled the gymnasium that day, I recently learned that the words to the song were not the ones I sang. In fact, I was way off. The actual line from the song, “You're rejected and hurt…to me you're worth, girl, what you have within” was beautiful, moving, and unfortunately, not anything at all like what I sang. My rendition replaced this insightful passage with, “Your rejection of Merv, to leave the earth, where you haven’t been” was, in retrospect, just plain scary. Come on, gimme a break! I was only 13, and my 13-year-old self knew less about just about everything than most 13-year-olds know today. Boy, was I naïve. Maybe at the time I was simply too young to understand the complexities of relationships. Perhaps my mental vacuousness was a result of being stuck at Piaget’s Concrete Operational Stage of development so I didn’t yet have the ability to think abstractly or draw conclusions from the lyrics. In any case, my substitution was flawless, so no one- including me- was the wiser. It probably didn't hurt that the sound system in the gym was standard government-issue so the hundreds of kids in attendance couldn't really discern the lyrics anyway. Or maybe they thought the words that I sang were the right words, too.
Where are you learning your Life Vocabulary?
My limited vocabulary as a teen illustrates just how influential our social networks and non-scholastic sources are to our competence and understanding of the real world. Incidentally, the real world I am referring to is not the contrived environment by the same name on MTV, but rather, the world of interpersonal communication, business relationships, and respect for colleagues. As teachers and parents will attest, today’s teens’ on-board dictionaries have few if any of these terms since they are not typically comprised of words learned in a classroom or from a Merriam-Webster dictionary. In many cases, their vocabulary and definitions come from their music, experiences, surroundings, and the people they hang with during their formative years.
"I looked up my family tree- and found three dogs using it." - Rodney Dangerfield
Talk about no respect, as a sheltered child in the 1970s, most of the people I was allowed to hang out with were adults. This left me handicapped when communicating with children my own age - but with a distinct advantage with adults. Instead of talking about sex, sports, video games, and sex, like most teen boys (and grown-up boys) do today, I was communicating with old people, listening to old-person songs, and learning old-person jokes. Of course, hanging out with adults - instead of kids - did help me become a pretty good student since I related more easily to my teachers - the ones grading me - than I did to my classmates. My old person communication skills were also embellished by my babysitter- a black-and-white Sony TV- and by my language teacher- an AM/FM clock radio. Dialogue from TV Shows like Lost in Space, Gilligan’s Island, and Star Trek, and the lyrics from songs by the Carpenters, Peter Paul and Mary, and the Bee Gees, also helped to shape my vocabulary, my sense of humor, and my character(s). Judging by the experiences I’ve had and the quotes I still use in conversations today, I have become what I’ve learned.
Hell's Angels meet the Powerpuff Girls
Sometimes it is difficult to get every attendee of our Hero School® programs to understand the gravity of the phrase, “We become what we learn.” I encountered one tough customer about 5 years ago during my Saturday morning class for homeless men at Catholic Charities. He was already hard to forget, this gaunt, graying, 6’4” Hell’s Angel-type sitting in the front row. But it was the series of tattoos on his forehead that made the task of forgetting him utterly impossible. My mind was vacillating between trying to decipher the 3 indistinct blotches on his forehead, and the wonderment over what would possess anyone to be tattooed "there." A tattoo on my butt? Maybe. On my forehead- are you crazy? So I began tactlessly, “Nice tattoos...are they the three Powerpuff Girls, you know, Bubbles, Blossom, and Buttercup?” A sneer and a grunt followed. Of course I thought I was being very clever. Then came the most disturbing response; one that I certainly did not expect. “6-6-6,” he began. “Got ‘em when I was 16.” I was stunned, to say the least, but in this class, my showing any reaction could give these men the upper hand. “Cool!” I responded. “So, your parents were Christians, huh?” He didn’t want to talk about it so my mind wandered back to thinking about the tattoos. Apparently, forehead tattoos don’t hold their shape very well once you get into your mid-50s, but what part of our anatomy does?
“We become what we learn.” –Tiger Todd
The next 45-minutes of the class period elapsed without incident while I continued to rattle-off numerous examples of how people "become what they learn," whether becoming engineers by learning engineering, or becoming plumbers by learning plumbing. I then explained how I had been cursed in relationships by the songs I learned, particularly the songs of Barry Manilow. DON’T JUDGE ME! Of course, the men in the class laughed - as you probably did just now. So I asked the audience what the songs were that they had learned, and suddenly there was a loud “clunk” behind me on the front row. I spun around to find the man with his tattooed forehead pressed against the table. I asked him if he was O.K. and after a bit, he looked up at me with tears in his weary eyes and almost sobbed, “My songs…mysongs…” “What about your songs?” I inquired. “I became my songs- the songs I learned." "What were your songs," I ventured. "Highway To Hell and Born To Be Wild!” It has been 30-years since AC/DC released Highway To Hell, but it had been more than 40 years since a young man of just 15 had been free to live his own life. For 40 years, the lyrics to songs like these played in his head, reinforcing what might have been only a short season of rebellion, until they had eventually taken root and he was made into their image and likeness.
“We can try to understand the New York Times effect on man.” – The Bee Gees
The lyrics to Highway To Hell and Born To Be Wild are not the words that change men anymore. Still, today’s prominent gangs, while very different in appearance from the Hell’s Angels of the 1960s and 70s, have indeed become what they have learned through the same curriculum. “Hell” has been replaced with “crib,” and “babes” have been replaced with “bitches” since the “brotherhood” became a pack of “dogs.” And while it is tempting to get sidetracked here and start thinking exclusively about gangs, the most important and significant component of both groups is the educational delivery system that created them. Furthermore, being judgmental of Angels and Gangstas will probably only incriminate us, since we too have become what we have learned. If our life today is in turmoil, perhaps it is because we have been learning turmoil. It is highly likely that our curriculum for daily living - the newspaper, the Evening News, and the Times - have generated this kind of life - one that corresponds to their agenda and curricula. It may actually take the words to a song like Stayin’ Alive on a Karaoke screen for most of us to truly understand the New York Times affect on man.
What are some of the effects that the songs we learn have on our lives? I wrote a little about this in (the soon to be published book) Uncommon Sense, on how my “hero complex” was formed by a combination of the songs I learned as a child. Remember, engineers become engineers because they learn engineering. Just because what people have "become" is not a college course title like, “Gangsta 101,” or “Advanced Family Dysfunction,” doesn’t mean there isn’t a curriculum that we’re learning. We become what we learn, whether we like it or not.
The great news for every human is that we can still become the kind of people we wish to become, regardless of what we have learned to this point. Yes it's true, but this miracle only works for humans so if you are an animal, there is no use in reading any further.
Since we become what we learn, we must exercise our free will and choose what we will learn. Perhaps more importantly - based on the former examples - we must also keep ourselves from learning the “lyrics” that we do not want to become. This is true if you are a dishwasher and you want to be a chef, or if you are in dire financial straits and wish to become stable and wealthy. The dishwasher cannot become a chef if his hours away from work are spent listening to, doing, and learning everything else but that which creates a “chef” life. Similarly, the person in dire financial conditions cannot possibly become secure and wealthy if all she is listening to and learning from are the news outlets that insidiously and repeatedly teach her that she is on shaky ground, that she could lose her house, and that the wealthy are wealthy because they were born that way. We must try and understand the Evening News effect on man. The effect is not the same on the wealthy largely because they make the news. Instead, the debilitating effect is on the regular person who doesn’t have a fleet of financial experts disseminating the news for him or her.
"The greatest ignorance is rejecting that which you know absolutely nothing about." - Jessica Branch
If you don’t want to become something, then just don’t learn it. It’s a simple as that! Many people cannot escape guilt, fear, and the curse of repeating history, since, like that tragic biker in my homeless class, they are already on a “Highway to Hell” and don’t know how to turn those damaging songs off. I’m convinced that the songs that we let play inside us - whether the condemning words from an unfit parent or the inspiring words from great teachers or poets - are in large part responsible for our future successes and failures. The songs themselves are not causal, but hugely influential. It would do some of us a lot of good to change the station.
What is your song? What words are carried around through your head by a familiar or haunting melody and performed by The Artist Formally Known as Stepdad? Take a look at the things in life that have been difficult for you to overcome or attain, and then take a look at the lyrics that are being played the most in your life. If they are not the lyrics you want to live, then maybe it’s time to learn some new songs.
-TT
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Do You Know What You Did Last Summer?
by Tiger Todd
"Don't be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of." ~ Charles Richards
Refreshing Jackson Lake - Teton National Park, Wyoming.
During my recent road trip to Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, I had an enlightening conversation with the night manager at my hotel in Jackson. It was 5 in the morning and as I prepared a green tea from the service cart in the lobby, I asked if the manager wanted me to fix her a coffee. She said "no," and then proceded to tell me about the 2 cups of coffee and the Red Bull she had already consumed after finishing her swing-shift job at the airport at 11pm, and then driving to work the graveyard shift at the hotel where I was staying! I think she was also a mom.
Everybody is going through something.
"The more things you do, the more you can do." - Lucille Ball
I would have thought this "multiple job" scenario unique but just about everyone I met during my week-long trip was working 2-or-more jobs. A waiter at one restaurant said that he leads mountain bike and raft tours on teh weekends, and the woman at the Albertson's Deli moonlights in a sporting goods store. This got me thinking about the multiple lives of my heroes and heroines...
"Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it." - Russel Baker
Have you checked yourself lately? You probably have more than one job, too - paid or otherwise. You may be an accountant and the church treasurer and a mom. Maybe you're a realtor and a part-time professor and a Rotarian. Or perhaps you're an entrepreneur and a social-networker and a (starving) artist.
Welcome to 2010. Welcome to the age of Giganomics.
Giganomics is better than Nothinomics
I'm pretty sure that musicians were the first to coin the term "gig" whenever they were hired to perform for a fee. Playing gigs was heaven for musicians for whom music was their life, even if it was not economally capable of sustaining life. Most of the musicians I used to perform with by night were also working "gigs" by day as waiters, teachers, or construction workers. And so was I. These kinds of gigs must have been the inspiration for former Vanity Fair, Tatler, and New Yorker editor Tina Brown to coin the term Giganomics to describe the ever-increasing portion of the population living by "gigs" to make ends meet. In her edgy Daily Beast blog, she writes,
"No one I know has a job anymore. They've got gigs: a bunch of free-floating projects, consultancies and bits and pieces they try to stitch together."
Earn and Learn
"The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year." - John Foster Dulles
It is important to note one important distinction between working multiple jobs - or "gigs" - and the growing numbers of professionals and entrepreneurs who are also reinventing themselves while gigging it. Reinvention takes time, but assures us that once the dust from the world's changing conditions finally settles, we will emerge as the kind of people who have a place in it.
The secret to reinvention, what I dub Earn and Learn, is learning your next position in life while earning in the current one. Remember, every job we do is important. In fact, everything we do now changes the future for someone else.
Teddy Roosevelt's investment of 15 buffalo into OK grew to over 600 by 1988
"The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people." - Theodore Roosevelt
But there is another important factor in the reinvention equation. Awareness. We must be aware that contained within every "gig" is not just an opportunity - like to form a valuable connection with a future team member, client, or community leader - but also something to learn.
Summer is for reconnecting with loved ones who have suffered through the rest of the year without you, while you were working two and three "gigs" to keep your life together. But Summer is also a great time to increase your educations as well as your client and community member network so you have income to carry you through the Fall and Winter. Insert a scene from Disney's A Bug's Life here.
You may have turned-pro at FaceBooking with your friends and family - or playing Mafia Wars with La Famiglia - but we must ask how much help our family members can be at keeping us employed, or keeping our real estate leased, or at sending paying clients to us? If they are your rainmakers, great. But if not, you and I should consider investing more than a little time hanging out with our client connectors and Rotarian rainmakers. Look, if you find yourself investing the majority of your precious 168-hour week "friending" and "familying" when what your business needs is "networking" and "rainmaking," it is probably time to ask yourself what you could be doing instead, and with "whom."
Don't Let Summer Pass Us By
“The best way to get the most from our 168-hour week is to do the most important things first." - Tiger Todd
My hand. Newport Beach, California. Don't be Hatin'.
Look at this number again: 168. Each week we are blessed with seven unique 24-hour days. That's 168 hours with which to live our current life, clean up the past, and create a legacy for the future. Even after 40 to 60 hours "gigging" to pay for it, we still have 108-128 hours left! It's the new math. So why not do the most important things first?
"For we are all connected in the Great Circle of Life."
- King Mufasa, from Disney's Lion King
Whether everything is operating on all cylinders, or you have decided to turn pro at Giganomics, the fact of the matter is that now more than ever, we need one another. We need best practices from one another and moral support from one another. We need to network (the verb) with one another and we need to do business (the action verb) with one another. And we need to befriend one another while we work to transform our community into one that has a place for us, our families, and the families of our friends, our clients, and our supporters. -TT
Would you like to attend a Hero School Communication and Leadership Workshop in your area? Call us at 702-795-7000 or CLICK HERE for more information!
by Tiger Todd
"Don't be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of." ~ Charles Richards
Refreshing Jackson Lake - Teton National Park, Wyoming.
During my recent road trip to Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, I had an enlightening conversation with the night manager at my hotel in Jackson. It was 5 in the morning and as I prepared a green tea from the service cart in the lobby, I asked if the manager wanted me to fix her a coffee. She said "no," and then proceded to tell me about the 2 cups of coffee and the Red Bull she had already consumed after finishing her swing-shift job at the airport at 11pm, and then driving to work the graveyard shift at the hotel where I was staying! I think she was also a mom.
Everybody is going through something.
"The more things you do, the more you can do." - Lucille Ball
I would have thought this "multiple job" scenario unique but just about everyone I met during my week-long trip was working 2-or-more jobs. A waiter at one restaurant said that he leads mountain bike and raft tours on teh weekends, and the woman at the Albertson's Deli moonlights in a sporting goods store. This got me thinking about the multiple lives of my heroes and heroines...
"Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it." - Russel Baker
Have you checked yourself lately? You probably have more than one job, too - paid or otherwise. You may be an accountant and the church treasurer and a mom. Maybe you're a realtor and a part-time professor and a Rotarian. Or perhaps you're an entrepreneur and a social-networker and a (starving) artist.
Welcome to 2010. Welcome to the age of Giganomics.
Giganomics is better than Nothinomics
I'm pretty sure that musicians were the first to coin the term "gig" whenever they were hired to perform for a fee. Playing gigs was heaven for musicians for whom music was their life, even if it was not economally capable of sustaining life. Most of the musicians I used to perform with by night were also working "gigs" by day as waiters, teachers, or construction workers. And so was I. These kinds of gigs must have been the inspiration for former Vanity Fair, Tatler, and New Yorker editor Tina Brown to coin the term Giganomics to describe the ever-increasing portion of the population living by "gigs" to make ends meet. In her edgy Daily Beast blog, she writes,
"No one I know has a job anymore. They've got gigs: a bunch of free-floating projects, consultancies and bits and pieces they try to stitch together."
Earn and Learn
"The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year." - John Foster Dulles
It is important to note one important distinction between working multiple jobs - or "gigs" - and the growing numbers of professionals and entrepreneurs who are also reinventing themselves while gigging it. Reinvention takes time, but assures us that once the dust from the world's changing conditions finally settles, we will emerge as the kind of people who have a place in it.
The secret to reinvention, what I dub Earn and Learn, is learning your next position in life while earning in the current one. Remember, every job we do is important. In fact, everything we do now changes the future for someone else.
Teddy Roosevelt's investment of 15 buffalo into OK grew to over 600 by 1988
"The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people." - Theodore Roosevelt
But there is another important factor in the reinvention equation. Awareness. We must be aware that contained within every "gig" is not just an opportunity - like to form a valuable connection with a future team member, client, or community leader - but also something to learn.
Summer is for reconnecting with loved ones who have suffered through the rest of the year without you, while you were working two and three "gigs" to keep your life together. But Summer is also a great time to increase your educations as well as your client and community member network so you have income to carry you through the Fall and Winter. Insert a scene from Disney's A Bug's Life here.
You may have turned-pro at FaceBooking with your friends and family - or playing Mafia Wars with La Famiglia - but we must ask how much help our family members can be at keeping us employed, or keeping our real estate leased, or at sending paying clients to us? If they are your rainmakers, great. But if not, you and I should consider investing more than a little time hanging out with our client connectors and Rotarian rainmakers. Look, if you find yourself investing the majority of your precious 168-hour week "friending" and "familying" when what your business needs is "networking" and "rainmaking," it is probably time to ask yourself what you could be doing instead, and with "whom."
Don't Let Summer Pass Us By
“The best way to get the most from our 168-hour week is to do the most important things first." - Tiger Todd
My hand. Newport Beach, California. Don't be Hatin'.
Look at this number again: 168. Each week we are blessed with seven unique 24-hour days. That's 168 hours with which to live our current life, clean up the past, and create a legacy for the future. Even after 40 to 60 hours "gigging" to pay for it, we still have 108-128 hours left! It's the new math. So why not do the most important things first?
"For we are all connected in the Great Circle of Life."
- King Mufasa, from Disney's Lion King
Whether everything is operating on all cylinders, or you have decided to turn pro at Giganomics, the fact of the matter is that now more than ever, we need one another. We need best practices from one another and moral support from one another. We need to network (the verb) with one another and we need to do business (the action verb) with one another. And we need to befriend one another while we work to transform our community into one that has a place for us, our families, and the families of our friends, our clients, and our supporters. -TT
Would you like to attend a Hero School Communication and Leadership Workshop in your area? Call us at 702-795-7000 or CLICK HERE for more information!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
How to Handle Rejection
How to Handle Rejection: Advice from Expert Paul Kerres.
Written by J.F. Fritch
Many of us fear rejection. It isn’t easy or fun to be rejected in anything we attempt, whether love, employment, friendships, or life. In fact, rejection has become increasingly common amongst the majority of Americans since the downturn in the economy. Many people have lost their jobs, their homes, their families… their livelihood.
How do you face rejection? Is rejection some type of uncontrollable force on the wheel of life, or is it something you can control? Would you like to have the knowledge to overcome rejection and take charge of your life?
The secret to overcoming rejection was summed up for me lately up by longtime corporate training guru Paul Kerres of Nevada Leadership Institution. Mr. Kerres believes rejection is not something to fear, but something to triumph over. A Harvard Business graduate, business owner, motivational speaker and student of Dale Carnegie, Mr. Kerres shared his secrets for facing what many of us fear most - rejection.
"First," he said, "you must expand your prospects." In sales, this means we must realize that there are more potential clients out in the world than the few we are selling to. Enhancing your "prospect opportunity" from 3 individuals, to 300, takes the pressure of you to make those 3 fit your needs, and consequently keeps you for telegraphing that pressure onto them.
Mr. Kerres states that he gets more rejections than acceptances when making sales calls. How he overcomes having a negative emotional response to rejection is to remind himself that there are many other people who will respond. He continues to expand his calling list which in turn, expands his opportunities. If you only have three prospects and they all say "no," what would you do?
Success comes from learning how to turn bad news into good news.
Next, be a predator. O.K., not in sense that you must prey on helpless little baby gazelles in the Serengeti, or on helpless residents of Forks in Twilight. Rather, be a predator in the sense of taking investing the time to learn about those clients who need your services, like predators in the wild do by watching and learning about their prey. They follow their prospect closely, their eyes well-focused on the prize. This helps predators know and then determine what the best prospect is. As you are well aware, even the clients that need your help the most might initially be evasive.
Mr. Karres adds this example. “A lion in Africa will focus on its prey, a Zebra. But do you know why Zebra’s have black and white stripes in a land of greens, yellows, and browns?" He explained that when a lion charges and the Zebras scatter, their stripes create a zigzagging effect, making it harder for the lion to keep focus on any single target." The pattern and activity of the zebras confuses the lion and increases the likelihood that the lion will lose focus on its prospect.
Just like the lion, we must focus on our singular target and only if we are assured we have lost a prospect should we move on to another. It simply a function of nature that we don’t always get the prize, but knowing when to increase our efforts or quit and move on is the key. This is the subject of Seth Godin's outstanding book, The Dip.
Another factor in the rejection equation is to eliminate the negative people and bad influences in our lives. Every Hero School workshop we teach reiterates that to be successful, independent humans, how we must overcome our natural tendency to "hang out with" and learn from people just like us. There has never been nor ever will be a successful human life that didn't begin with leaving high school buddies and family members long enough to learn from teachers, coaches, and experts.
But Mr. Karres makes the additional point that having negative or just non-supportive people in our lives will contribute directly to our failure. There is no room for negativity when you are reaching for bigger goals. You must overcome the temptation to return to the types of family members, friends, and, as Donald Trump states in How to be Rich, losers who hold you back.
“All the mistakes I make arise from forsaking my own station and trying to see the object from another person's point of view.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Don’t retreat back to what is comfortable, like horses whose instinct is to return to the safety of the barn - even if it is on fire. Ranch hands must tie them down in order to save them from themselves. And in similar cases, people are often like horses. The horse knows the barn is on fire. However, when the horse is scared, it will still go to the only place it knows for safety, the barn. The barn has all its water, all its food, and is the shelter. In its mind, the horse values comfort and safety over the flames in the barn.
Remember, success comes from dealing with rejection with a positive attitude and moving forward. Regressing to old habits and old situations that haven’t worked in the past, will not work any better in the future. Learn from your previous rejections and move forward with intent, the intent to keep doing what you're doing until you achieve success.
JFF
More on Paul Karres at www.vegas-sales-training.com/
If you would like to learn more, Mr. Kerres suggests reading:
“The Greatest Salesman in the World” by O.G. Mandino
“Jonathan Livingston Seagull” by Richard Bach
Written by J.F. Fritch
Many of us fear rejection. It isn’t easy or fun to be rejected in anything we attempt, whether love, employment, friendships, or life. In fact, rejection has become increasingly common amongst the majority of Americans since the downturn in the economy. Many people have lost their jobs, their homes, their families… their livelihood.
How do you face rejection? Is rejection some type of uncontrollable force on the wheel of life, or is it something you can control? Would you like to have the knowledge to overcome rejection and take charge of your life?
The secret to overcoming rejection was summed up for me lately up by longtime corporate training guru Paul Kerres of Nevada Leadership Institution. Mr. Kerres believes rejection is not something to fear, but something to triumph over. A Harvard Business graduate, business owner, motivational speaker and student of Dale Carnegie, Mr. Kerres shared his secrets for facing what many of us fear most - rejection.
"First," he said, "you must expand your prospects." In sales, this means we must realize that there are more potential clients out in the world than the few we are selling to. Enhancing your "prospect opportunity" from 3 individuals, to 300, takes the pressure of you to make those 3 fit your needs, and consequently keeps you for telegraphing that pressure onto them.
Mr. Kerres states that he gets more rejections than acceptances when making sales calls. How he overcomes having a negative emotional response to rejection is to remind himself that there are many other people who will respond. He continues to expand his calling list which in turn, expands his opportunities. If you only have three prospects and they all say "no," what would you do?
Success comes from learning how to turn bad news into good news.
Next, be a predator. O.K., not in sense that you must prey on helpless little baby gazelles in the Serengeti, or on helpless residents of Forks in Twilight. Rather, be a predator in the sense of taking investing the time to learn about those clients who need your services, like predators in the wild do by watching and learning about their prey. They follow their prospect closely, their eyes well-focused on the prize. This helps predators know and then determine what the best prospect is. As you are well aware, even the clients that need your help the most might initially be evasive.
Mr. Karres adds this example. “A lion in Africa will focus on its prey, a Zebra. But do you know why Zebra’s have black and white stripes in a land of greens, yellows, and browns?" He explained that when a lion charges and the Zebras scatter, their stripes create a zigzagging effect, making it harder for the lion to keep focus on any single target." The pattern and activity of the zebras confuses the lion and increases the likelihood that the lion will lose focus on its prospect.
Just like the lion, we must focus on our singular target and only if we are assured we have lost a prospect should we move on to another. It simply a function of nature that we don’t always get the prize, but knowing when to increase our efforts or quit and move on is the key. This is the subject of Seth Godin's outstanding book, The Dip.
Another factor in the rejection equation is to eliminate the negative people and bad influences in our lives. Every Hero School workshop we teach reiterates that to be successful, independent humans, how we must overcome our natural tendency to "hang out with" and learn from people just like us. There has never been nor ever will be a successful human life that didn't begin with leaving high school buddies and family members long enough to learn from teachers, coaches, and experts.
But Mr. Karres makes the additional point that having negative or just non-supportive people in our lives will contribute directly to our failure. There is no room for negativity when you are reaching for bigger goals. You must overcome the temptation to return to the types of family members, friends, and, as Donald Trump states in How to be Rich, losers who hold you back.
“All the mistakes I make arise from forsaking my own station and trying to see the object from another person's point of view.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Don’t retreat back to what is comfortable, like horses whose instinct is to return to the safety of the barn - even if it is on fire. Ranch hands must tie them down in order to save them from themselves. And in similar cases, people are often like horses. The horse knows the barn is on fire. However, when the horse is scared, it will still go to the only place it knows for safety, the barn. The barn has all its water, all its food, and is the shelter. In its mind, the horse values comfort and safety over the flames in the barn.
Remember, success comes from dealing with rejection with a positive attitude and moving forward. Regressing to old habits and old situations that haven’t worked in the past, will not work any better in the future. Learn from your previous rejections and move forward with intent, the intent to keep doing what you're doing until you achieve success.
JFF
More on Paul Karres at www.vegas-sales-training.com/
If you would like to learn more, Mr. Kerres suggests reading:
“The Greatest Salesman in the World” by O.G. Mandino
“Jonathan Livingston Seagull” by Richard Bach
Thursday, July 22, 2010
When the Character Didn't Change
Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener, A Story of Wall Street.
by J.F.
“Bartleby the Scrivener: A story of Wall Street” is maybe not a story you are not familiar with.
Bartleby was written shortly after the failure of Herman Melville’s masterpiece, the more widely known “Moby Dick.” Few outside the literary realm know that Herman Melville, one of America’s leading authors, was not a success in his own lifetime. Even the initial printing of just 3,000 copies of Moby Dick did not sell well. Melville's struggle is perhaps why many of his critics believe his novella “Bartleby the Scrivener” reflected his own life.
The significance of Bartleby to Hero School is that it’s a story of a character who did not change. Oddly, this was not because the main character couldn't change, but because he “preferred not to.”
A scrivener named Bartleby who is hired at a law firm, must produce large quantity of copies day in and day out. After a while, however, the quantity and quality of Bartleby's work declines. When asked about his job performance, he simply replies, “I prefer not to.” Even though the lawyer in the firm tries to help Bartleby improve his performance by giving him days off and doing what he believes will motivate the scrivener, Bartleby’s work - and life - continues to decline. One day, the lawyer discover that Bartleby is homeless, living out of the office. Even more disturbing is that Bartleby is no longer even working as a scrivener, but lounging about the office doing nothing. His behavior devolves further to the point that the lawyer must send out for the police to have him removed. But the story doesn’t end with Bartleby simply losing his job. His behavior continues until he eventually dies from lacking the will even to eat.
This story truly embodies the principle of life that those who succeed must understand. As quoted in the Shawshank Redemption: “You either get busy living or get busy dying.” No one can make us live, let alone make us successful, or even keep us from becoming homeless.
An argument can be made that the failure from Moby Dick contributed to the inspiration for Bartleby the Scrivener. It is difficult to keep trying when our work not only goes unnoticed, but particularly when it is criticized. For some it is equally challenging to suppress one's creative flow through the demands of monotonous, repetitive work? You and I may even lose perspective of why we are even at the company we chose to work for. We can lose our ambition, drive, and will.
Get Busy Living
Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener gives us a rare glimpse of what happens when we stop caring, stop trying, and no longer find meaning in the work we do. With few exceptions like Saw and Final Destination, where foreshadowing shows audience members what happens when we don't do what we know we know we should, most Hollywood movies reinforce deliverance from negative circumstances through character change. Melville must have been aware of this truth, too, but often the effects of monotonous, repetitious work can erode our hope.
Finding ways each and every day to remind ourselves to get busy living, by discovering meaning in our work, learning from those who know something we don't, and doing those things that change our character, we can remain free from the weights that literally - and figuratively - buried poor Bartleby.
by J.F.
“Bartleby the Scrivener: A story of Wall Street” is maybe not a story you are not familiar with.
Bartleby was written shortly after the failure of Herman Melville’s masterpiece, the more widely known “Moby Dick.” Few outside the literary realm know that Herman Melville, one of America’s leading authors, was not a success in his own lifetime. Even the initial printing of just 3,000 copies of Moby Dick did not sell well. Melville's struggle is perhaps why many of his critics believe his novella “Bartleby the Scrivener” reflected his own life.
The significance of Bartleby to Hero School is that it’s a story of a character who did not change. Oddly, this was not because the main character couldn't change, but because he “preferred not to.”
A scrivener named Bartleby who is hired at a law firm, must produce large quantity of copies day in and day out. After a while, however, the quantity and quality of Bartleby's work declines. When asked about his job performance, he simply replies, “I prefer not to.” Even though the lawyer in the firm tries to help Bartleby improve his performance by giving him days off and doing what he believes will motivate the scrivener, Bartleby’s work - and life - continues to decline. One day, the lawyer discover that Bartleby is homeless, living out of the office. Even more disturbing is that Bartleby is no longer even working as a scrivener, but lounging about the office doing nothing. His behavior devolves further to the point that the lawyer must send out for the police to have him removed. But the story doesn’t end with Bartleby simply losing his job. His behavior continues until he eventually dies from lacking the will even to eat.
This story truly embodies the principle of life that those who succeed must understand. As quoted in the Shawshank Redemption: “You either get busy living or get busy dying.” No one can make us live, let alone make us successful, or even keep us from becoming homeless.
An argument can be made that the failure from Moby Dick contributed to the inspiration for Bartleby the Scrivener. It is difficult to keep trying when our work not only goes unnoticed, but particularly when it is criticized. For some it is equally challenging to suppress one's creative flow through the demands of monotonous, repetitive work? You and I may even lose perspective of why we are even at the company we chose to work for. We can lose our ambition, drive, and will.
Get Busy Living
Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener gives us a rare glimpse of what happens when we stop caring, stop trying, and no longer find meaning in the work we do. With few exceptions like Saw and Final Destination, where foreshadowing shows audience members what happens when we don't do what we know we know we should, most Hollywood movies reinforce deliverance from negative circumstances through character change. Melville must have been aware of this truth, too, but often the effects of monotonous, repetitious work can erode our hope.
Finding ways each and every day to remind ourselves to get busy living, by discovering meaning in our work, learning from those who know something we don't, and doing those things that change our character, we can remain free from the weights that literally - and figuratively - buried poor Bartleby.
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