Honest Gratitude

My son wrote a thank you note the other day. It's the first time I ever recall him doing so for any reason to anyone. My wife teared with gratitude. I was deeply touched.

It's funny and seems natural on the face of it-- but a key tenet that we ignore to our peril.

Each of us encounters crossroads where we either embrace or ignore the little light inside. Ignore it and the next time it'll dim. Ignore it over a lifetime and one goes completely dark inside. I've met those people with black hearts. You have, too.

On the other hand, embrace the little spark, and one improves. My son probably felt good about his little note. My wife felt wonderful. I glowed with pride, and I'm sure his little siblings picked up on it, too. Maybe some unborn generations will yet read his note and be moved, too.

The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living. (Cicero)

Nice work, EJ. I knew it was in ya all the time.

Dad

New Beginnings and Great Endings

"Every boy is born many men, but dies only one man."

I think like a scientist. I create like an artist. I am a musician. I write like an author: The first third (1/3) of our lives is spent learning the things we like to do, and the last two thirds (2/3rds) we spend in vain trying to find time to do them. ("The Life of Myself" ca 1983)

Thankfully I've grown to love the winnowing process. Pick the best and remove the rest. Keeping about a tenth (1/10th) of the projects or work that come across my desk, I now feel little remorse jettisoning otherwise worthwhile activities. As I remarked to my very good friend Ryan as to why I couldn't do more than 85%, "I'm only five people."

As long-ago friend Kevin Trudeau repeatedly said, "Do the right thing, long enough, consistently..." and you'll achieve your goals no matter how difficult. On an Infotrack news program last night, they presented the results of a study on hugely famous performers... only to find they concentrated on practice sessions which repeatedly worked on bettering by just a little bit. This they did over years and years-- they focused, Pinky, they focused.

This powerful singularity which-- coupled with whatever remaining time the good Lord sees fit to grant-- will allow me to spotlight that one man, whomever he reaLee, truLee is. And with that singularity comes the power to crush the weaker person I once was.

Cheers
Lee

Medal versus Mettle

"Let's be honest-- 'standards' are cubbyholes for the fearsome."

I wrote that when approached recently about how I felt concerning ISO standards proposed for market research (e.g., ISO 20252).

What nonsense. In our frenzied run towards government-controlled lives, we are really becoming sheeple.

In market research there is always a trade-off between doing good quality research versus the speed of doing research at all. These things drive marketing efforts, which are always based on creativity... theoretically, unbounded and unbridled. ISO standards will not help deliver better "quality" research. We're always out to deliver a product to the buyer seeking their objective, NOT to comply with a bureaucrat whose purpose is to rubber-stamp an application.

That is how market research firms work. We should not shift focus just to navigate some false gamut of check boxes so we can gather ISO approvals like a collection of scout badges.

It's a sad western proclivity to look to the medal before the mettle. We turn off our brains to value by looking to the chintz. In the same way that schools eliminate all kinds of benefit for the students by insisting an instructor have a teaching certificate, we limit-- not increase-- veracity and value with false "standards."

In so doing we thereby ensure mediocrity propagates when we exclude the wild-eyed creative someone who didn't know the plodding rote of "the system."

Cheers
Lee

Dead Man Walking

Must be my stress these days: Every haircut reveals more of the white.

Must be my work ethic these days: Every accomplishment reveals more tenacious perseverance.

Must be my job these days: Every comment is about hiring someone younger.

Must be my wisdom these days: Everything my mother tried to teach me makes sense.

Must be my intolerance these days: Every lie makes me cringe.

It's not because it is difficult we don't dare,
But because we don't dare it is difficult.
(Seneca)

Cheers
Lee

Wanna See My Marketing Wound?

Mr. Kilpatrick lived two houses down from my boyhood home. He must have been 20 when they sent him off to World War 1. At 90 he'd fearlessly assault my gang. "Wanna see my war wound?" I think he got it in France. Before the leather-jacketed teens could scamper away en masse he'd hike up his trouser leg and show us a long gash on his white, spindly old leg. It was horrendous... and it was fascinating. No, the wound was cool. Mostly it was horrendous because he was so old. And drunk. And incoherent. Mostly it was fascinating because he was so fascinated with it.

Really, really sad when someone is trapped in their era.

How has marketing and advertising fundamentally changed since the 1980s?

I've somehow survived "everyone" becoming "experts" about "everything." For instance, I have a huge library. It's the legacy of my entire life. I once bought a huge home that actually had library shelves and reading rooms and an unabridged dictionary on a stand... but books? Google it, bra. Or I learned music recording when recording was an art. Today any teen with Audacity on a laptop thinks they know the score. Photography was once a true profession. Physics of light. Reciprocity failure. Monochrome photos from Time and Life can still make us cry. The one-shot Crown Graphic with the single flashbulb that the photographer pre-focused and waited and waited and waited and waited to push the button of the knockout punch or the burning building framed by the two firemen. Today, little digital snapshots flood the world... capturing and portraying nothing of value, and many from our cell phones. Graphic arts? Naw... break open Photoshop. Change this, change that, and it's tweaked. Don't like it, do it again.

I saw the professions of marketing, advertising, copywriting, and design industries change over 30 years, too. Was it for the better? Are we producing ads for those who do not read, or reading ads from those who cannot produce properly?

Or, like Mr. Kilpatrick, do the ghosts of my memories haunt old marketing battlefields where the gains were measured by little inch-dollars? Seventy years of his moments of glory after Cambrai were exchanged for the pocketchange of teen titters and scornful guffaws, mostly caused by our insensitivity, but also because he clung so steadfastly to them.

Wanna see my war wound?

Cheers
Lee

Extreme Pride of Workmanship

The Keeper Wife is a thinker. She doesn't watch television commercials; she analyzes them. So I've given a lot of thought to her comments.

One trend that particularly worries me is rooted in my engineering experience. The problems I see with manufacturing are framed nicely with the immediate reality of American cars. We look at the shiny bits and hear tinkling bells... and buy.

Quality manufacturing (to me) was never about the shiny bits. For instance, the moment someone put a Leica IIIf camera in my hands I could hardly catch my breath. It was 30 years old at the time and still had such nobility I wanted to know how they did every step. (I ultimately traveled to Wetzlar, Germany to find out. The answer? Extreme pride of workmanship.)

These days the public is now being sold sizzle versus steak-- with virtually all products. That is why our valuations of product value (and by extension, manufacturing) are so wanting-- we know the product cycle is so short that "I'll get another one anyway."

This cheapening of our values is also illustrated with things like "100k-mile drivetrain warranties" or product underwriting that is calculated (key word) to encompass the 20% returns. On the surface, people have become such idiots and suckers that they swell, Wowow! 100k-mile drivetrain warranty means it's really improved!!

In reality, we have become conscripted as Beta testers. Manufacturing has been forced away from issues of real quality-- just faux "JD Powers initial quality." Things have become so cheap and disposable that companies no longer care if stuff ultimately works-- just hurry up and get it out the door. Companies evaluate revenue from 80% who will buy and go away quietly with the 20% who might seek a replacement... which replacement they'll either get or more likely be tripped up with the process of rebates, forms, corporate refund cards, recalls, refurbished models, reverse logistics, seconds, or some another program to get them to go away. Who cares if they're dissatisfied? Statistically they're throwaways.

Watch the left hand when the right hand is visible.

We in manufacturing are the behind-the-scenes people who have historical pride of workmanship, but it's a different era. We're dinosaurs. The trend is toward trickery and lax attitudes. Sharper pencils winnow the losses. Quality work is thwarted by economies, marketing, and general public sentiment... illustrated by willingness to buy an American automobile with drum brakes, live axles and spongy steering... replete with 20% recalls... all because it has a sparkly paint job.

Cheers
Lee

What Makes a Tom Hopkins Champion?

In 1997 I sacrificed greatly to attend a three-day Boot Camp by Tom Hopkins (http://www.tomhopkins.com/). After returning, my first sale doubled in a fingersnap because of some things I learned there. I still owe a huge debt of gratitude to Tom-- fantastic things he teaches, honed and laser-focused, and all based on honesty and integrity. Wonderful stuff.

However, the greatest lesson came shortly after when a water-purification salesman visited my friend, and per the Kool Aid, asked my friend for referrals. So my friend's telephone call got the salesman into my home.

Although I had NO intention, need, or ability to buy a water purification system upon hearing some buzzwords, I rapidly realized the fellow had fully embraced the Tom Hopkins methodology. As if on cue he'd ask exactly the question I'd just been schooled. He'd memorized every chapter and verse. Fresh out of a roomful of wannabes, my curiosity was piqued. I had to see how it worked in real life, so I dangled my gonads-- rationalizing that I could safely pull them back from the alligator at any time.

"After all," I thought, "I know what he's going to say. I just want to see how it all works. Forewarned is forearmed."

An hour later as my wife looked on, horrified, I handed over a check for $5,000. Rick Kania had wrangled it out of me as painlessly as taking candy from a baby. But I was the most amazed person in the room. How had he done it? I had truly been schooled.

Among other things I learned that (1) Someone who relentlessly learns and incessantly hones their craft is the most formidable opponent. No motion, action, thought, or question was offhanded, casual, or ineffectual. He knew what he was asking, and he knew what to do when I answered this way or that; (2) The only effective "no" is irrationality-- if you wish to appear sane, dignified, coherent, and apparently in control of things, you'll always surrender to the truth that another more effectively wields; (3) Never dangle your gonads.

And as the circle closed, and the gentleman took my check, he asked, "Who is your best friend? May I call-- no, actually, would YOU dial their number now? Just tell them you'd like them to meet someone..." he gently coaxed as he took the ringing receiver from my hands.

Cheers
Lee

Oh, Hang It!

I worked in Japan for twelve years, amongst Japanese, in Japanese.

One coworker explained it to me thus: "In the east we carefully walk all ten steps to get to the point of decision; our unity and cohesiveness is our strength-- It takes us longer to get there, but when we do get to market, out went most bugs along the way.

"In the west you take about three steps forward and impulsively decide, 'Oh hang it-- let's just get it to market! We're losing money!' Out rolls the product or the software. The sales people are surprised and untrained. The repair and returns people are caught without parts or manuals. The product literature and advertising is hasty and shallow. But worst," he concluded, "mostly you spend the rest of your time issuing patches or fixing bugs or taking returns."

In trying to adapt kaizen to America (with a whole other host of other focused disciplines native to Japan), the cultural differences are so pronounced I've often thought, "Oh hang it-- just get the blasted company to market! I'm losing money!"

Oh, to be in the land of Wa again.

Cheers
Lee

Is You Is Or Is You Ain't?

A long-time friend found my blog recently. He wrote specifically to chastise me on my belief in God, Mormonism, Joseph Smith, etc. I thought it was marginally funny, as he'd been a long-time hater of religious stuff. Never wanted to talk about it before.

I'm no glowing example of spirituality, but when he asked me if I'd answer a couple of questions, I said yes. Although his request was dripping with anger and confrontation, I opened the door for a few rounds. Problem was that we didn't agree on the rules of the debate.

We never even got to come out and shake hands. We never even put on the gloves. Opening statements were met, as it were, with him immediately jumping up and down, throwing feces, and screaming, "The Easter Bunny gave me a revelation," etc.

I might have reacted the same way if we'd been discussing global warming or Obamanism.

"What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body?" asked Frank Zappa.

Some say your nose.
Some say your toes.
But I think it's your mind.
I think it's your mind.

Cheers
Lee