The Pause that Refreshes

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. (Mahatma Gandhi)

"Two weeks ago while on family vacation in Colorado, a well-known philanthropic business executive named Tom Murphy (age 45) was tragically killed when a boulder fell from a mountain and struck his car. Two days after hearing the news, I found his obituary in the paper," wrote Brian Sullivan in his PRECISE Selling Weekly Motivation.

"As I read it, I was moved by the words used to describe Tom's life. In fact, he did so much good for so many people they needed to use Kansas City's biggest arena, the Sprint Center, to host his funeral. Tom left an enormous footprint.

"As I set down the paper I wondered what my own obituary would say. And though it might seem a bit morbid, I thought it would be a good 'life' exercise to write out my own. At points throughout I wondered if what I was writing was what I HOPED people would say or what they would actually say.

"This 15-minute exercise helped me to quickly think about what is most important. And I realized if there was any doubt about what would be written, NOW is the time to do the things necessary to take that doubt away. Because I have control over the content written after I graduate to the next life."

Brian continues, "So this week, as uncomfortable as it may seem, think about what your obituary would say. Then get to your computer and write it out. This moving exercise will create urgency in you to love more, experience more and to share more of yourself with everyone you meet... a formula Tom Murphy figured out long ago."

(Brian is author of the book, 20 Days to the Top-How the PRECISE Selling Formula Will Make You Your Company's Top Sales Performer in 20 Days or Less. To learn more, go to www.preciseselling.com.)

The Quality of Life Just Improved Drastically

Being from Massachusetts, I am eminently qualified to dislike intensely the "Liberal Liar."

You can't pick up a turd by the clean end.

I can imagine his first greeter was Mary Jo, waiting to claw his eyes out for eternity.

Then come the millions of aborted fetuses cheated out of mortality.

Yeah, great life to memorialize. What a "great leader."

Cheers
Lee

Cash for Clunkers: The New Lee-O

Urgently contact me if you need a new CEO or GM operating under New Economics lessons learned from Obama (NEO): I can now label "successful" an ill-conceived program (such as the Cash for Clunkers for Idiots Program) to exhaust my company's budget by (1) giving away money (as long as they take some kind of junk WITH my money), and (2) becoming bankrupt 70% faster than scheduled.

Wow! We could skip right over the compelling feature-driven advertising and just offer raw cash to our customers!! Why didn't we think of this before?

Man, all the silly traditions I can now ignore on my way to "success"!

Cheers
NEO-Lee-O

Be Kind

Listen, I certainly don't know nuttin' from nuttin' but I was sort of struck by some bad news this week.

Of one of the larger accounting software companies, Sage, had a huge division called MIS in Dallas and other places. Lots of people, lots of families, lots riding on their work-- twice Sage's #1 dealer. Anyway, the news of their demise somehow floated to my attention. What was odd was that "MIS" kept appearing here and there in the news. So I started reading tweets, news stories, articles, posts, and other things.

What struck me was how fast the vultures descended. Boom! Competitors, consultants, renegade companies-- all just tried to herd customers or clients to them. Lo here! Lo there! Yoooo hoooo! Send us your business! Bad Sage this or Good us that.

But one company, AboutTime Technologies, simply took the time to put out a simple press release that read, Gee, we're so sorry. Anything we can do? We're praying for you. Good luck. (http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200907/1247287543.html) About Time could have started caterwauling, too, trying to get some mileage out of Sage's hardship, but instead they chose the high road.

That's pretty impressive. Bravo, people. (http://abouttimetech.com/)

And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father's house,that I said, This is thy kindness which thou shalt shew unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother.

(Genesis 20:13)

Cheers
Lee

Just Plain Mad

New Orleans, Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix, and many other places report horrible budget bloodshed.

The day of accountability has arrived-- and there's far more budget bloodshed to come. California's troubles sound like millions of similar troubles around the nation. The people are furious. For myself, I'm angry at virtually every Democrat (and for that matter, any who support this socialist insanity). I don't mean ticked, torqued, or miffed. I mean red-hot furious at how they're flying our beautiful Gulfstream jet of a nation straight into the ground. Others similarly call those radio stations to attest the magnitude of their ire-- and how the irrationality of spending money you don't have makes absolutely no sense.

By what reason, logic, or rationale can Socialists continue to plunge a knife into the heart of my country?

I returned to the USA as land of opportunity. I could start a business, own a home, invest in land, and had the opportunity to do virtually everything I wished. Times got hard and times were good-- but I had control more so than in other countries.

In every leadership and business role I've had to live within my means. I've had to do so at home, too. Although I once knew a woman who lavishly spent every penny the family had, and then kept spending far more, that is a personality foible, not complete insanity. In the process of getting "what she deserved" she just murdered a few innocent hearts. To her such was acceptable in exchange for "security." History remembers all the wonderful potential of what she could have been... but instead refused to become.

But think of it-- if I again became CEO or General Manager, imagine the sheer stupidity of walking in and as my first act committing $25 million to new advertising, $152 million to a new factory addition, $22 million to wheelchair ramps, and $781 million to a new parking lot... before peering deeply into the rusty old coffee can to see what was inside-- and before learning what needed to be done... merely because I "deserved it" as CEO; because my "election" to that office made my vision superior to reality.

Rubbish.

That's the difference: I have both experience and a sharpened common sense. Mr. Obama does not. The only experience he and his ilk will gain is what it feels like to be hated by those millions whose bankrupt lives can no longer support his reckless idiocy.

We thought we lived in a civilized society, but when our very existence is threatened, we'll react. New Orleans, Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix... many countries throughout the centuries have chased despots out of office with pitchforks and torches by the castle walls.

In Jamaica the dictators know, "Keep the people's bellies full to avoid rebellion."

We will not let this one go because it threatens our existence-- it's not optional for us.

Cheers
Lee

Moe Anthropomorphism in Japanese Entrepreneurship

In pondering a simplistic article proclaiming how Japan desperately needs startups if it hopes to climb out of the recession, ("Searching For Entrepreneurship in Japan" Forbes.com 29MAY09), I'm reminded how wrong western society interprets oriental society. Americans watch the Japanese or the Chinese and think we know what they're thinking. We don't. Our interpretation of their actions via our western perspective is often wrong.

Perhaps the most easily-comprehended differences come from this Japanese book 擬人化たん白書 (Gijinka tan Hakusho, lit. Anthropomorphism-tan Files, ISBN 4-7572-1262-3. Tokyo, Japan: Aspect, 2006. ) which discusses how faces and bodies are always used by the Japanese to depict common objects.

You'll find this anthropormorphism in many cultures, but it's everywhere in Japan-- even in otherwise sophisticated instruction manuals. We've seen the look of Pokémon or 'anime' and 'manga' and think it's all cute, but virtually everything from televisions to power cords to even such mundane things as tires or pencils have a personality in Japan.

It's not about cuteness, though-- that's our western interpretation. To the Japanese it's yet another method of keeping the raw truths of life from rubbing too close to inescapable reality. And having lived in Japan over three decades, as well as having been top management at a major Japanese company for almost a solid decade, I've been VERY involved in discussions about how to distill Japanese anthropomorphistic "cuteness" to the western world... to depict professional products to professionals who don't think electronic components should be depicted with faces.

If someone thinks entrepreneurism is any different, it's not.

Consider that Forbes article regarding stalled entrepreneurism in Japan. One (American?) gentleman wrote in response, "[Not] only does it take resources which there are fewer of here (and costs more) compared to at the least the US to which I am familiar, but the individual faces great risk in terms of social, financial and career. These risks are starting to dissipate but they are still additional hurdles that mask and hold back great ideas. ...I saw a study some years ago on the view of bankruptcy comparing Americans, Germans and Japanese... I have interviewed perhaps a dozen Japanese entrepreneurs that have gone bankrupt and they are ashamed beyond belief and some have contemplated suicide - not to mention it is hard for them to enter the work force again."

To him I'd write,

With respect, in discussing how a culture reacts towards failure (e.g., bankruptcy) is like discussing the ketchup on the fried egg-- we're not not talking about the eggshell which is the core of the issue.

Japanese society keeps a fence around entrepreneurs-- even the ones who are a-societal or attempt to break out and "do their thing." By return, "rebels" implicitly do their breakout thing within the bounds of acceptable cultural boundaries... and so by mutual, implicit agreement, they're granted extended, push-back boundaries. Cultural pressure (the eggshell) is somewhat flexible as long as society, as a whole, is not threatened.

That's why these failed entrepreneurs you've interviewed are allowed back into society at even reduced levels... the eggshell resists and chides and reminds, but is not totally heartless. Instead, it is the failed entrepreneur child who feels far worse to have lost his position in the family of man and failed mother society that causes the act of contrition and apology-- not a statement of absolute purpose (as suicide represents in the west).

Skipping over most of my extended analysis of what is wrong and how it got there, here's how to get around it. Any Japanese wanting to succeed will have all power in this one suggestion IF they realize it does not come from a foreigner who would never understand; they will put this FACE on their idea:

Find some one (or some company or some nation) who has already done something, and then indicate you're IMPROVING, not PIONEERING (a bad word in Japan). You go from 'opposition' or ' leader' to 'coach'... which latter position is acceptable.

Countless times (and for tens of millions of dollars in contracts), I myself-- personally-- have overcome the I-don't-want-to be-the-first-and-chance-other-people-will-laugh-if-we-fail mentality by simply tricking the system. I've demonstrated that Company A is already doing something like this... and we at Company B can trump them. My company not only accepts the task, but funds it and works with a will. This is possible ONLY because I'm reassuring the top leaders at Company B that there's an escape pod-- a safety valve-- that in the case of failure, the finger of failure will always point AWAY from them and toward Company A.

I've pre-stretched the eggshell. I've animated the inanimate. I've made it acceptable.

Culture (and people) in Japan is not now (and will never be) agreeable to the lonesome cowboy; the rags-to-riches waif, nor the do-it-alone iconoclast. Japan is not set up that way. It must function as a physical collective. It needs an imaginary layer-- even an anthropomorphic one-- acting as safety valve to keep reality from getting too close. With its population density of eight (8) people per square meter, and its history of cooperation its people MUST do so-- so anyone causing a rift in the happyplasma will continue to be ostracized. It's a matter of survival for EVERYone that no ONE be allowed to monkey with the machine.

In both our worlds, the common word for that rift is 'entrepreneur.'

That's why the imaginary or cartoon cowboy is infinitely more acceptable than the real cowboy... which, interpreted, is the entrepreneur.

The bottom line is that the youthful Japanese entrepreneur has not learned to play the game of his own country. They're emulating the western breakout hero, bucking Japanese society, instead of learning from their own culture, history, and operations... which learning is precisely what I had to do to survive in Japan.

Cheers
Lee

Jurisprudence vs Righteous Judgments

In adjudicating court cases as Utah Traffic Court Justice (1979-1980; U.C. Sec. 41-6-18), I quickly learned to separate jurisprudence (the theory and philosophy of law) from real-life circumstances. I encouraged the accused proffer detail and encouraged an explanation of mens rea (intent) be laid before the court. When the finding of 'guilty' was the unavoidable outcome, I often mitigated the penalty to encompass the situation.

In business, however, I sometimes find people's (and by extension, a company's) actions very disheartening. Personal honor is all but a fossil. Good judgment, fairness, and an open mind are frequently missing elements-- but even more painfully absent is any kind of rule of law. We treat each other with random actions and arbitrary resolutions. When a person or company offers good will, honest intent, and even backs up their efforts with research, documentation, and proof, the question should turn in favor of the preponderance of evidence. It's a sad commentary that proof and empirical data is often discarded, ignored, or negated.

I think back to the many cases brought before my bench, and imagine how many faces would have contorted in disbelief if I had arbitrarily discounted all documentation and proof the accused brought to my attention. If they'd brought a notarized affidavit from a doctor's office to prove they were 100 miles away from the infraction and I simply said, "I don't care about that..." what a howl would have come from my courtroom.

Such was never my way, but is the phrase I most often hear these days in every venture.

Stand tall and be honorable: That's the reality we also expect from others in every arena.

Cheers
Lee

Unforseen Green Wolverine Overseen

I really dislike raining on other's parades. I do. But I just had to reply to some nutjob's postulate, "Recession is Ripe with Opportunities for Lean & Green Thinkers." The concept of forcing the look to the green side makes me seethe. As follows,

"Sorry, but I dispute your postulate. My slant is based on experiences from a variety of international businesses operating under firm governmental control and/or socially-mandated "advantages." This includes operations in East Germany, Japan, the Koreas, Indonesia, India, Singapore, Canada, and many other 'beneficently-socialist' locales.

"Any mandate-- geared by public perception, government or other external force-- will fail. Human nature guarantees it. The only viable and sustainable concept will be (and forever ONLY will be) because something makes financial sense (cents) to the principal-- the business owner or the consumer. Social mandates of any sort are doomed to fail.

"The Lean Enterprise or the Green Enterprise, by definition, must become what we can do cheaper, faster, and better... with 'greenness' a side benefit. It operates under the same principle as assigning the laziest to do a task-- knowing they'll find the easiest way to accomplish something. We all fit that description when it comes to taking out extra bundles of hard-won cash from our wallet to buy that snazzy new lightbulb or zippy electric car... the majority will seek an easier, cheaper, faster, simpler way to get the same thing. Social responsibility is a secondary impulse, and the harder the economy, the 'lesser' the social responsibility matters.

"So stop beating the drum for more green eggheads-- because 97.991242321% of the population will never accept their more expensive, more complicated, more frustrating inventions... irrespective of jackbooted government-sanctioned thugs (with or without machine guns). More money in our pocket gives us the OPTION of going green, but poverty (especially when caused or abetted by a corrupt state that steals our money whilst forcing 'green') guarantees we'll always seek the cheaper (and often more destructive) option.

"Cheers, Lee"

Lest you missed it, I repeat,

Cheers,
Lee

Lay Down and Die

The human aquarium is an amazing laboratory.

Like rats on a wheel, people limit themselves-- wasting the rich "otherness" of other peoples, other languages, other cultures, other foods, and and many other experiences. Thus, English (poorly learned) is their only language; America is their only nation, and their high school job is all they ever want to do. They beat their heads against a locked door and wonder why it doesn't open.

One B-17 bomber pilot from World War II made the point that when he joined the Air Force in 1939, his training (like millions of others) were just a few blunt words from a roughshod pilot. "For the next six years," he said, "our only qualification was the moxy to try everything new. We learned in the field; we made our way."

This is why he and his compatriots are called "The Greatest Generation."

"If you're not a risk taker, you should get the hell out of business."
--Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's Corporation

But we've gotten soft. We could easily be called "The Flatline Generation." We sheepishly look for certifications, weeks of training, or official validations before we try something that has never been done. Our lives are way out of whack when we call 911 when McDonalds doesn't have Chicken McNuggets (as per a recent news story). We're whiny, cowardly weaklings when we look to the federal government to solve our problems.

If you own a business, look to other paths. How did people and businesses survive the 1930s? Look to other countries who have endured far worse-- and do so each day. Learn to survive, just like our B-17 pilot and all the others who conquered evil in WWII.

With unemployment nearly 10%, people are going to become vicious. In the next few years, labor shortages, aging family needs, gender differences, etc. will completely redefine talent and business. People won't come to work, sit at a desk, and pick up a phone. Firstly, you may not be able to afford office space, nor will you have enough for a multi-line phone system. Such will redefine the way workplaces and companies function. Secondly, attracting the best talent will mean embracing people who demand Flex Time, Work-at-Home, or Telecommuting (antiquated terms)-- but which portend yet another completely new trend in business.

More than just a fad, this is an angry revolt.

Companies and individuals with the moxy to push through this New Depression will not look to the teat of the government, awaiting handouts and "stimulus refunds" of cowardly, weakening incentives, but must strive to harness technology to enable their work and their livelihoods to continue... to stave foreclosure at their own hand.

We of this new Greatest Generation (if we ultimately deserve the title) will learn the moxy to virtually work anywhere. We currently have programs like GoToMeeting (http://www.gotomeeting.com) and powerful cell-phone based tools such as mobile time clocks through About Time Technologies (http://abouttimetech.com/). Their software turns your Blackberry, Palm, and Windows Mobile cell phone into a mobile time clock. You can start work anywhere and seamlessly "beam" time and attendance to the office for payroll. We can work via cell phone features like Telepresence, and WebEx on your Smartphone (http://cisco.com/). We can chop up and sell our work week to multiple companies-- five hours here, and ten hours there-- and keep track of it all.

It's all here-- with more features on the way.

So instead of doing like you did in high school, yours being one of 800 resumes sitting on HRs desk, realize that you can today work from home... and still keep the clock ticking towards your paycheck. You can roam to clients' locations... and still clock in. You can work around children's soccer schedules, PTA meetings, and be out in the world... and still clock in, be responsible, and do your job.

The point is you can work... and the clock keeps ticking off monies into your bank account. Whether individual or company president, look into these technologies. They're here now. Your 'Stimulus Check' isn't.

Learn from the laboratory of life-- if not willingly, by force. You'll either find the next few years inflicting a lot of pain and suffering, or you'll learn the moxy to find another ways to do your work. Either way, you'll learn. Lose your job, your income, your home, and lose every bit of comfort and happiness you have? It's your choice as to how much of your blood is letted in the process.

If you own a company, start utilizing About Time mobile time clocks. Get a grip on your labor costs. Accurately price future jobs. Barcode and monitor everything. Measure fuel, and use GPS to find out who is sabotaging your profits. Pay attention to Six Sigma process improvements, Lean operations, and Kaizen Continual Improvement methods. Make a real business plan. Conduct more business through the Internet, and explore a dozen methods of expanding your current methods.

Stop whining, and back away from The Flatline Generation. There's work to do.

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in seeing with new eyes."
--Marcel Proust

Cheers
Lee