April 29th, 2010
On of the things a business speaker likes to talk about is the moment when someone changes his or her mind. We all have opinions. Some are better informed than others. Some are just other people’s opinions that we regurgitate. But if we are lucky, we come across a time in our lives when we look at an opinion and realize that it is “off”. If we stand strong, we change our mind.
I am not so interested in the little changes, like when you might decide you really do like guacamole after having avoided it for years. I am more interested in the big changes, like when you decided that the invasion of Iraq really was a stupid thing, or when you decided that acquiring more parks and open space really are good things to do for the next generations.
It sounds like Governor Crist of Florida has had one of those moments. After taking an airplane tour over the massive oil spill that is uncontrollably taking over the Gulf of Mexico and after thinking about the people who died in the explosion, he said that he had changed his mind about off shore drilling. Crist is now convinced Florida does not need it or want it. After seeing how much damage can come from an accident, he has set aside one of his party’s biggest mantras: “Drill, baby, drill!”
Now Crist might be heard saying, “No drilling near Florida!”
As a business speaker, I would find a way to use this turnaround in a speech about leadership. Sometimes you have to take the right stance, even if it is opposite of the mantra of the day.
Tags: crist, drilling, florida, gulf of mexico, oil spill
Posted in Management, Travel, alternative energy, business speaker, history, people, personal growth, politics | Comments Off
April 13th, 2010
I was looking at CNN for a little while last night while the commentators Roland Martin and Anderson Cooper were discussing the recent tendency by politicians in the South to honor the Confederate States of America. I certainly understand honoring your ancestors.
Some of my ancestors were the Vikings who traded and raided all across Northern and Western Europe and the Scottish/British/Irish Isles. I feel some pride in the amazing sailing skills and the courage and tenacity of my people. I can’t say I am proud of the raping and pillage that the Vikings apparently practiced at every opportunity. I am sure there are Irish, English and Scottish people who are still bitter about the havoc my ancestors spread. History and people are just not so simple.
Some of my other ancestors fought for the German Army in World War One. Although I am awed at their fortitude, their courage and their ability to survive, I can’t say there is a damn thing admirable about The Great War.
The War Between the States was one of those wars that had no good guys. The idea that the Confederates fought for their freedom is quite ironic, as one of the major ways they expressed their freedom was to enslave others. The Unionists began the war with no noble goal. The only goal was to preserve the Union.
I am sure there were individual acts of perseverance, persistence and heroism. I am sure there were Confederate soldiers who snuck food to the starving prisoners at Andersonville. I am sure some of Sherman’s troops snuck food to the women and children who were left homeless and destitute by the March to the Sea. I am sure there must have been a slave owner who helped his slaves evacuate to a safe and remote area like the Gullah Coast where they could live in relative seclusion and safety while the war raged in other areas. I am sure there must have been a Pennsylvania farmer who hid, nursed and fed a wounded Confederate boy-soldier until it was safe for him to sneak back home to Virginia.
I live in Missouri, which was a particularly nasty place before, during and right after the War Between the States. There was so much brutality on all sides, that it is just impossible to declare any side the good guy. The bitterness still survives at some level. If you have ever seen the Clint Eastwood movie, “The Outlaw Josie Wales”, then you know a little bit of the Missouri story. Even today, the Kansas KU sports team is called the “Jay Hawks”, which was the name the Kansas border raiding militias went by. Talking about not being PC. This is certainly as offensive to people with Confederate ancestors as it must be for Native Americans of the Northern Plains to see a team named the “Custers”.
It was just a few years ago that Kansas and Missouri decided to change the name of their college sports rivalry from “The border war” to “The border showdown”.
Even so, Kansas and Missouri seem to have mostly forgiven each other. Outside of the sports rivalries and away from the battle field memorials, there is not a lot of talk of the bad old days.
It might be a good idea for all the ancestors of The War of Secession to just admit it was an ugly time and forgive each other.
Forgiving old enemies is not easy. I lost some of my family to the German death camps in World War Two. But in my days as a dog trainer, I had dog training buddies in Germany who had been SS officers in the war. I traveled to Germany frequently to train dogs and to buy dogs in the 1980s. It was pretty weird training dogs, drinking beer and sharing a few laughs with the guys who might have shoved my great grand mother into a crowded, foul smelling railroad stock car and locked the door behind her. My dog training buddies and I never talked about the bad old days, except to acknowledge that they played a role and that my family paid a price. We shrugged and agreed it was a long time ago. We agreed to focus on the present and focus on trying to move on. The fires of hate and ignorance had long burned out.
I lived in New York during a very racist and dangerous time in the 1970s and 1980s. My family was on both sides. The white side of my family tried to deal with it as best they could. The black side of my family tried to not get killed. It was an ugly time. So we all try to forgive the people who stoked the fires of hate and ignorance, while we try to move on.
But the fires of hate and ignorance still seem to benefit the scammers and the charlatans who find wealth and power in the fear and anger they fuel. Forgiving is not enough. How to we help people feel the futility of hate and vengeance? How do we help them see how they are being used as patsies in political scams to help charlatans rise to wealth and power?
I am tired of having to forgive people for their unspeakable acts of cruelty and foolishness. Let’s move on to something else, please. How about something a little more constructive and forward looking?
Tags: anderson cooper, cnn, confederate, jay hawks, roland martin, seccession, the great war, vikings
Posted in history, people, personal growth, politics, war and peace | Comments Off
January 15th, 2010
Take a Hawaiian approach.
I returned several months ago from the PhoneSmart Hawaiian un-conference, which was an excellent event. We got wonderful feedback from the attendees and sponsors. I had a chance to act as a business speaker and MC the event. People thought the format and the discussions were very valuable. The location was awesome and soul-feeding. And we had a chance to learn just a little bit about Hawaiian culture. Some people tease me and call me “Mr. History”, because I love learning about the origins and the development of places and people. I won’t bore you with all the fascinating things I learned about the first Hawaii settlers, but I will share a few things that should help you in your business and in your life.
Beauty is not an option. Everywhere you turn in Hawaii there are beautiful flowers and beautiful landscapes and beautiful views. This affects every aspect of daily life. Keep this in mind for your business. Redecorate your office. Plant more flowers in front of your store. Wear colorful shirts. Take time to watch the sunset. If you follow this piece of advice, your customers will want to do business with you, because they appreciate a nod to beauty as well, even if they don’t know they do. You’ll also like coming to work better than you used to …and that will show, too.
Courage comes standard. The first settlers in Hawaii traveled 1,700 miles across the ocean in big double-hulled canoes. Then they settled on an island that was mostly lava rock. Do you have that kind of courage? I am not sure you need that much, but you do need a certain amount of courage to face today’s business environment without doing something short-sighted or stupid. You need courage to ask every one of your prospects to do business with you. And you need courage to continue to do your periodic price increases.
Adapt while remaining true to yourself. The pace and intensity of change that occurred in the Hawaiian islands since the first European ship anchored off the Kona coast during the time of the American Revolution has been relentless. Yet the Hawaiian people have adapted very well, while maintaining many of the core values that make them Hawaiian.
How are you and your business adapting to the changing world around you? Are you remaining true to yourself?
Tags: american revolution, courage, flowers, hawaii, history, Kona, unconference
Posted in Management, Travel, business speaker, history, marketing, people, personal growth | Comments Off
December 24th, 2009
If you are someone who likes to read religious texts as allegory, then you can have some fun with the Christmas Story. I put myself back in time to when the story started. 2,000 years ago in the eastern parts of the Roman Empire there must have been little opportunity for people who were not born into the right circumstances, or for people who did not have the ruthless ambition to fight to the top.
For normal folks, there was no chance of upward mobility. The only chance your family had was to have enough kids who could work hard and help you get a little excess something you could sell to raise a few gold coins. But if you had too many children, or had them too early, you spent your life in poverty, trying to feed the kids at least once a day.
For normal folks, there was also no birth control. It must have been quite common for young women to become pregnant while getting to know the person they were betrothed to. The stigma of a child born too early (before 9 months of marriage) must have been debilitating in and of itself.
So what to do? Why not celebrate the miracle of birth? Why not celebrate the promise that each baby brings; the promise that he or she could be the one who could bring peace and prosperity to a family, a nation, a world?
Why not tell a story that paints the divine nature of birth in such a strong light as to trump the stigmas of the day?
What is the possibility a child can bring to the world? Apparently it is huge. Why else would Kings periodically have all the babies of their subjugated Kingdoms murdered?
What is the reality? All the great people in history who helped give the world a positive push started as babies. Some started in very humble circumstances. So the story of a baby born into poverty and disadvantage who grows to be a great leader has come true many, many times
So whether a child is born to you or to me or to a refugee family in a barn, each child brings enormous promise to our world; a world that needs leaders and thinkers and peace makers.
What can you do today to honor a child? In some places, children will be feeling special today and tomorrow by receiving gifts, playing games and gathering with friends and family members.
May they grow up to be much wiser than you and I are.
Tags: children, christmas story, games, kings, roman empire
Posted in business speaker, history, people, personal growth, stories for children, war and peace | Comments Off
November 9th, 2009
I doesn’t seem that long ago that the Berlin Wall came down. I remember visiting East Germany as a kid. My mother was born and grew up in the town of Gotha in Thuringen, which became the Eastern Zone after World War Two. In 1970 I accompanied her on a trip back to the old home town. I remember how gray and dusty everything was. Coal was the main means of power generation and there was coal dust on everything. The cities and towns were run down and in disrepair. Many of the buildings damaged by the allied bombing 25 or 30 years earlier stood in ruins still, unchanged since the bombing. The Cold War was still on and there were Russian troops and Russian tanks everywhere. It was a weird experience. The people we met were all very kind and very hospitable. They were happy to have outsiders visiting and they were glad to share the little they had.
It was clear to me after seeing the place, staying with the people and hearing some of the conversation, that the communist regime could not last for ever. The people were tired of living under duress…first under the Nazis, then under the Communists. The people knew what was going on in the West. They could get West German TV stations. They could hear West German radio.
We took two or three trips to Germany during those years and I got to know the Western zone pretty well, too.
I went to the Wall several times. I visited viewing spots in several locations and made the crossing from West Berlin into East Berlin at the famous Checkpoint Charlie. Of course on our trips to the East Zone and to Berlin, we had to cross through the Wall and go through the careful passport control process on both sides.
As a public speaker, I am always looking for material and inspiration for my talks and sessions. Courage and conviction are sometimes qualities that are discussed at seminars and consulting jobs. Imagine the courage and conviction of the freedom protesters in Leipzig and other East German towns who walked the streets calling for freedom in spite the fact that the authorities could have them killed or dissapeared in the bat of an eye. Imagine the courage and conviction of the riot Police and the secret Police who decided not to stop the protestors.
One day everyone in East Germany woke up from their sleep, had a boiled egg for breakfast and decided to no longer cooperate with the Communists. And just like that, the whole thing began to unravel.
What walls do we face today that need to come down?
What are the rules we could simply refuse to follow to allow a whole other level of oppression to unravel?
There are places in the world, even in our own country, where walls are coming up instead of coming down.
How should we feel about that?
Tags: Berlin Wall, Germany
Posted in Travel, history, people, politics, war and peace | Comments Off
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