Amazing, exciting, busy week. Not a blog to be seen. Enjoy January ….
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GV SNOWSHOES, JAM AND TOO MUCH CONSUMER CHOICE
The internet is an amazing place. Access to information changes everything, our ability to research topics, the speed at which information (and misinformation) travel and our buying habits. In the past, a purchase of any item was based on the opinions of the salespeople we meet, opinions of friends and limited research (i.e. The library or magazines like Consumer Reports). But not anymore, information is everywhere.
This Christmas I was reminded of Malcolm Gladwell’s comments on choice in Blink:
Conventional economic wisdom, of course, says that the more choices consumers have, the more likely they are to buy, because it is easier for consumers to find the jam that perfectly fits their needs. But Iyengar found the opposite to be true
He is referring to Sheena Iyengar’s study ‘When Choice is Demotivating:Can One Desire Too Much of a Good Thing?’. The crux of the study is that less choice lead to higher sales and greater customer satisfaction:
These three experiments which were conducted in field and laboratory settings show that people are more likely to purchase exotic jams or gourmet chocolates, and undertake optional class essay assignments, when offered a limited array of 6 choices rather than an extensive array of 24 or 30 choices. Moreover, participants actually reported greater subsequent satisfaction with their selections and wrote better essays when their original set of options had been restricted rather than expanded. Implications for future research are discussed.
In fact:
6-choice booth: 30% of visitors bought
24-choice booth: 3% of visitors bought
This was my life prior to Christmas. We had decided on snowshoes as the family gift and conducted a broad search to determine the right choice. That search induced paralysis as we found more and more information on the topic and choices, and began to become overwhelmed with information and the bigger challenge – what is the right information?
- Salespeople said different things
- Friends gave different advice
- Websites sold based on different elements, and commenters on those web sites had different opinions
It took a lot longer than expected. But our desire to purchase and a deadline (Christmas) pushed us through the challenge. But it was very complex and the Internet has not solved that issue – the crushing advance of too much choice.
In the article ‘Craigslist: In praise of primitive’, blogger Andrew McAfee talks about how simplicity works for Craigslist.
Every time I use it I’m reminded of wiki inventor Ward Cunningham’s fantastic question: "What’s the simplest thing that could possibly work?"
CL CEO Jim Buckmaster understands that this is the right question to guide his company "I hear this all the time," he says. "You guys are so primitive, you are like cavemen. Don’t you have any sense of aesthetic? But the people I hear it from are invariably working for firms that want the job of redoing the site. In all the complaints and requests we get from users, this is never one of them. Time spent on the site, the number of people who post — we’re the leader. It could be we’re doing one or two things right."
Keep it simple.
And for us, what did we end up with? Well we ended up going smaller than the salespeople recommended by a little bit, larger than our friends recommended (because they only go on packed trails) and with GV Snowshoes, a Canadian brand that has a few key features – including the 180 degree articulation (the ‘energy soft system’) on the toe which makes them very easy to walk in and the super easy buckles.
Painful? Yes. In fact, we had to get them from 2 different companies, but successful. Just too complex, and had it not been for the deadline, we may have delayed the purchase … or had it been 24 jams, I probably would have walked (smile).
ON TIGER AND RULES
I have to admit that I was surprised by the Vanity Fair article on Tiger Woods, ‘Tiger in the Rough’. The details paint a very interesting picture of his dual life and how his image was so perfectly managed by his handlers (the specific content of the article must mean that they are confident in accuracy, or they would not risk the lawsuit). The summary captures it all:
In the end it was the age-old clash of image versus reality, the compartmentalization of two different lives that inevitably merge at some certain point, whoever you are. He exhibited the same superhuman confidence off the golf course that he exhibited on it, apparently convinced he would never be caught despite the stupid sloppiness at the end—text messages, voice-mail messages. He deluded himself into thinking he could be something that he wasn’t: untouchable. The greatest feat of his career is that he managed to get away with it for so long in public, the bionic man instead of the human one who hit a fire hydrant.
The Cheap Seats surprised me again with an old quote of what his dad thought he was:
But what makes it such a spectacular fall from grace — and probably a bit unfair — is just how perfect the aura of Tiger has been for more than a decade.
"Please forgive me…but sometimes I get very emotional…when I talk about my son…. My heart…fills with so…much…joy…when I realize…that this young man…is going to be able…to help so many people…. He will transcend this game…and bring to the world…a humanitarianism…which has never been known before. The world will be a better place to live in…by virtue of his existence…and his presence…. I acknowledge only a small part in that…in that I know that I was personally selected by God himself…to nurture this young man…and bring him to the point where he can make his contribution to humanity…. This is my treasure…. Please accept it…and use it wisely…. Thank you."
When your dad talks about you like this, as Earl Woods did to Sports Illustrated back in 1996, you’re either going to fail to meet these oh-so-modest expectations OR have a religion founded in your name.
In the end, it all comes down to that old rule of ‘whiter than white’. If you say you are one thing firmly – to everyone, are not willing to take feedback – acting above it all and then act in another way, eventually it will catch up with you.
This tumble from grace is just as big as others. The difference is, so many people believed it. One could argue, that the game of golf for the last 15 years has been built on it.
OUR FIRST CANADIAN HOLIDAY in a while …
It has been a while since we spent a Christmas holiday with family and it was great. I will admit, spending Christmas in Paris and Brugge was also spectacular, but there is something about being home that is different and great.
It also meant that we are facing our first winter in many moons and while it isn’t as crazy as I hear it was last year (feet of snow versus inches of snow), it is still a bit of a shock to the system. The biggest issue with winter is activity. It is natural to want to hibernate from the cold, but that isn’t good for the heart, mind or soul.
So we spent the holiday skiing, snow shoeing, tobogganing and playing more board games than we have played in years. I forgot how fun the Game of Life can be (there are many ways that statement can be interpreted). Rummikub, Sequence, Apples to Apples (at a friends house) were high on the list as was COD6.
What we didn’t do was attend a New Years party. Instead, we celebrated as a family. It was fantastic and as we went to bed, the snow started to hit. It was beautiful ..
[2].jpg "2009 New Years Eve (2)")
And it hasn’t stopped snowing since.
[2].jpg "2009 Christmas Snow (4)")
2010 awaits .. it is going to be fun.
‘Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful’
Albert Schweitzer
THE UPSIDE DOWN NEW YEARS LIST – VIA JIM COLLINS
New Years. That day of reflection for many and a time when fitness equipment and gym memberships soar. Jim Collins, of ‘Good to Great’ fame, has a very interesting approach to New Year’s resolutions, he calls it his ‘stop doing’ list:
The start of the New Year is a perfect time to start a stop doing list and to make this the cornerstone of your New Year resolutions, be it for your company, your family or yourself. It also is a perfect time to clarify your three circles, mirroring at a personal level the three questions asked by Smith:
1) What are you deeply passionate about?
2) What are you are genetically encoded for — what activities do you feel just "made to do"?
3) What makes economic sense — what can you make a living at?
Those fortunate enough to find or create a practical intersection of the three circles have the basis for a great work life.
Think of the three circles as a personal guidance mechanism. As you navigate the twists and turns of a chaotic world, it acts like a compass. Am I on target? Do I need to adjust left, up, down, right? If you make an inventory of your activities today, what percentage of your time falls outside the three circles?
If it is more than 50%, then the stop doing list might be your most important tool. The question is: Will you accept good as good enough, or do you have the courage to sell the mills?
You can read the entire article here. It is an interesting point of view. Personally, I do not start the year with a resolution list. I simply reflect on my goals and make adjustments – which is an ongoing process, not marked by any point in the calendar.
That being said, I like the stop doing list idea as part of that non-stop review and reflection process.
2010 is going to be great. Have a Happy New Year.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
To everyone, a Merry Christmas. For us, it is our first in Canada in 3 years, a white Christmas too! Time to reflect on an amazing year gone by. Amazing year.
The egg nog calls …. Enjoy.
AVATAR
A lot of press has written about the hugely expensive Avatar movie that came out on the 18th. Estimates range from $300-500M to make and market the movie.
We saw it as a family a few nights ago. The experience was like my first viewing of Jurassic Park, you just sit there and are amazed by every single scene. After watching that movie, I cannot imagine any experience or story that cannot be made to look life like and real.
On the 3D side, I would have been just as impressed without the 3D gimmick. While it was cool, it wasn’t required.
Amazing move.
MARATICK
I have been playing with the Blackberry Application World lately and the different apps that are available. One of the coolest is Maratick, a list making product.
This weekend, instead of heading out to do Christmas shopping this weekend with a piece of paper – I did it with my Blackberry, and it was super easy ticking things off. Cool app.
STUFF HAPPENS
A few weeks ago we went to see Stuff Happens downtown. The play centers on the Bush administration and the build up to the Iraqi war. Not surprisingly, George Bush is portrayed as an arrogant leader (not unlike his portrayal in W), Rumsfeld as a warmonger and Cheney as the quiet, back room manipulator and profiteer.
The ‘good guy’ of the play is Colin Powell, caught between loyalty to his country (dictated by the will to go to war of the current administration) and the plays depiction of his efforts to find a peaceful resolution. One particularly interesting point is where he makes it very clear that Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld have an insatiable desire for war because they do not respect it or the cost, due to their questionable or non-existent active military service.
In the end, one is left wondering, what were they thinking (or how can they live with themselves)? More than 100,000 Iraqi dead, a whopping $1.3 trillion in expense (Which is well documented to have made Cheney, Halliburton and the US Military industrial complex happy) and … Osama is still free. Madness with no justification.
Footnote: On the topic of Osama, the playwright makes a scathing accusation during the play when Blair calls Bush, basically asking Bush why British troops were asked to pull back early in the Afghan conflict when they could have captured Osama (suggesting that the US ordered it). A quick internet search turns up little on the topic other a few articles:
The ultimate fault for the failure to capture bin Laden lies not in the U.S. effort, but in the U.S. strategy. Franks and Rumsfeld decided to attempt to deliver a swift and economical knockout blow to the Taliban through airpower and the limited application of troops on the ground. Instead of employing the Powell Doctrine of overwhelming force, the Afghan model for Operation Enduring Freedom depended on airpower and on highly mobile paramilitary teams, working in concert with opposition warlords and tribal leaders. Franks capped the number of boots on the ground at 10,000.
For this reason — the relative scarcity of U.S. soldiers — Franks and Rumsfeld refused to send more troops to Tora Bora to block, capture, or kill bin Laden. But soldiers and scholars alike have since argued that there were sufficient troops available in Afghanistan and nearby Uzbekistan to mount a genuine assault on bin Laden’s position at Tora Bora. And they could have been augmented within about a week by reinforcements from the Persian Gulf and the United States.
The report prepared by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee state that the British had managed to corner Osama Bin Laden in the Tora Boar mountains in the December of 2001. The escape was possible for the leader as the British officials had chosen to bank on “air strikes” and “untrained Afghan militaries” to track down a group of highly trained militants. Though the military had requested repeatedly to the government to send in reinforcements, their plea had gone unnoticed.
The military team that went to war against the Al-Qaeda were quite certain that they would be able to capture or kill Laden. Even as the militants endured hours of air strikes, the British asked to be allowed to block the mountain paths, but the vast array of the military power was not allowed to be used. While the leaders today admit that capturing Bin Laden would not have eliminated the terrorist threats that has captured the world, it would have put an end to the figure that continues to threaten the world and inspire fanatics.
One has to wonder how many would have been saved had Osama been caught 8 years ago? Another sad chapter in a saga that is far from over. Just glad Canada didn’t join in.
THIS WEEKS MOST HUMOROUS STORY: TIGER ON FAMILY VALUES
Read Tiger Wood’s on family values here. My favourite quote:
Asked in the interview "family first and golf second…always been like that?", Woods replied: "Always. Always."
He goes on to say that having a family – he has two young children with wife Elin Nordegren – "has been great, actually, the best thing that ever happened."
The only funnier thing is the speed at which Accenture removed all his ads from their websites.
THE MYSTERY OF POWERPOINT
There are lots of posts on PowerPoint. How not to use it. How it is abused. How it is the root of all evil in the business world. That being said, it is amazing to see it integrated into the schools, where the kids are expected (In grade 5 and up) to do PowerPoint for their class projects. It is not going away.
It is a much different world than what I remember as a kid. PowerPoint, access to the internet and colour laser printers at home lead to dramatically different presentations. For me, it was a pair of scissors, the National Geographic and Time magazine pile, the library and our much cherished, very expensive set of Encyclopaedia Britannica.
In our house, PowerPoint has morphed from a business tool to a source of entertainment. The boys have always enjoyed doing Lego movies, and now they enjoy doing PowerPoint. It is fascinating to watch. They create a slide, then copy it and alter, copy and alter, slowly creating a stop motion video. I watch and think, I use to do that with a bunch of paper … and then would flip it to watch the items move. How 1930s …
Why do I mention PowerPoint and randomly post? Because of this video, which hit my inbox the other day. Corporate presenters beware …
ONLY IN CANADA: THE RIM ROLLER
Being an avid gardener, one of my first tasks when we moved back was to put in a Lee Valley Tools order – a Canadian gem of a company, that is for sure. Putting an order in, I was back on the mailing list and the Christmas catalogue is in.
I had to laugh as I thumbed through the catalogue and came to the Rim Roller. For my European friends, there is a phenomenon in Canada around coffee and donuts, it is called Tim Horton’s. A chain started by a famous hockey player and insanely successful, part of the culture. They are everywhere, on every corner and it seems that every single one is busy. Personally, I think a big part of their success is the fact that they have diversified so effectively. I do not like the coffee, but they have fantastic fresh sandwiches.
On a regular basis, they run their ‘Roll up the Rim to Win’ program where you roll the rim of your cup and can win prizes. But these rims can be a bit tricky … well, no more thanks to the Rim Roller:
Definitely only in Canada.
THE FIRST SNOW
While the West has enjoyed a super cold start to the winter (which is good, as the Olympics are coming to the West), it only hit this week. It is fascinating how the first snow fall results in gridlock as people turn on their ‘driving in the snow’ brain. It would appear that this also applies to trucks.
This was the scene on Wednesday on Highway 400. I don’t think anyone was hurt.
With the introduction of the new cell phone ban in cars and the hands free mandate, I wonder if my clicking that picture was illegal?
THE PHYSICAL
I had a physical the other day and I was left wondering, why? Now don’t get me wrong, there is a piece of mind element and as you cross that magic 40 year old barrier, things start to break and you need to watch a bit more carefully. But after the whole event, I was left wondering if it really did anything.
I have heard the stories of someone who caught something early due to a test, urban myth or not. But one has to wonder, does it really help? When I told my little brother, he went on a tirade about it, complaining that the medical system is burdened by these tests which come out inconclusive, and then lead to a bunch more tests with costs piling up and statistics demonstrating that most of the pre-event testing is a waste of money.
HBR seems to agree. From the article Executive Physicals: Whats the ROI?:
Very few screening tests have been proven to identify diseases before they begin to cause noticeable problems. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), an independent panel of experts in primary care and prevention that does tough-minded assessments of health care interventions, recommends that only a handful of them be performed regularly (if not annually). These include checking for unhealthful behaviors such as smoking, alcohol abuse, poor diet, and lack of exercise; monitoring stats such as weight and blood pressure; and testing for cholesterol. Once the doctor finds a problem, he or she may prescribe preventive treatments endorsed by the task force – for instance, low doses of aspirin for adults at increased risk of heart disease or estrogen receptor modulators for women at increased risk of breast cancer. The task force also suggests doing a modest number of imaging tests, such as ultrasounds for abdominal aortic aneurysms in high-risk men (65- to 75-year-olds who have ever smoked), mammograms and bone density tests for women over 65, and colonoscopies for people over 50. It does not call for other imaging tests that are often part of executive physical programs; full-body and coronary artery CT scans are especially not recommended. Indeed, many leading scientific and medical organizations caution against using these scans to screen for disease.
And to support the point of view about leading to additional tests:
Many times the scans are “falsely positive”: They detect suspicious-looking spots that turn out to be benign, raising needless worry and frequently prompting invasive tests. They also can be “falsely negative”: They may find nothing wrong when in fact a disease is present, creating a sense of security that leads the patient to ignore early warning signs. Even if a recent CT scan of an executive’s coronary arteries indicates a low risk of heart disease, she should tell her doctor about the squeezing sensation in her chest and the mild nausea she has started to feel after about 10 minutes on the treadmill. Not doing so could prove fatal.
I am not sure. I left glad to know that I have a ‘good’ physical fitness (but not great) for my age .. it took me 9 minutes and 36 seconds to get my heart rate to 90% of maximum (161). At my age, ‘excellent’ health is 10 minutes or over. Oh yah, and my cholesterol is a tad high …. Such a cliché for my age.
$400
The very first snow of the year. I have been dreading it.
The good thing? $400. That is the price to have my driveway and steps snow ploughed for the entire year. How does he make money? I have no idea (except through volume). I could not get my check book out fast enough.
The price of my dual stage, electric start, self propelled monster snow blower that I just took out of storage? $1600 new.
The value of not having to ever touch this snow blower when it hits –30 degrees C and have the opportunity to let my father-in-law borrow it for the winter? Priceless!
I would gladly walk away from the investment in updating the boys ski equipment for a mild winter. The one thing I just did not miss … Winter.
MY TOP 5 SALES BOOKS
I read a great quote the other day, “Experience is not the best teacher. Other people’s experience is the best teacher”. It was a lesson that was reinforced by many mentors, take the time to read and it will help you be successful.
The other day I was asked for my top 5 sales books. For the record, in no particular order, I would consider these the books my ‘Must read – minimum’ list:
1. SPIN Selling: The art of asking questions. As so many wise people have said, we have two ears and one mouth. They should be used in proportion.
2. Major Account Selling: Based on the analysis of thousands of sales people (and written by the author of SPIN Selling), it walks through the buying cycle – not the sales cycle. It gives great insight into the major account selling and how to win customers. It is mandatory reading for anyone selling into medium or enterprise business.
3. Swim with the Sharks: I am a big fan of Harvey and the MacKay 66 is core to Sales 101.
4. Mr. Shmooze: The art of relationship selling. Whether you are in sales, customer service or for your personal life – there are lessons in there. In the end, life is all about relationships and people who build great, trusting, quality relationships have a better life. Simple.
5. How to Sell Anything to Anybody: Is this really applicable? Have the teachings of Joe Girard, the ‘World’s Greatest Salesman’ gotten outdated? Does he still sell 6,000 cars a year? I don’t know. But it is worth a read. This is one of my first every sales books and will remain fond. I remember one little tidbit which I find interesting, Joe is all about relationships. Sense a theme?
A few others that are not selling centric, which I would recommend to someone if they were willing to invest in themselves and go beyond 5 books:
1. Getting Things Done: I can honestly say that this has changed my business life and allowed me to reduce stress. I empty my mental RAM into a system that I trust and have less things ‘popping into my head’. Without this system, email and tasks would overwhelm me.
2. Think and Grow Rich: Even all these years later, the wisdom of Napoleon Hill remain relevant. In the end, success is about visualization, seeing the end goal.
3. How to Win Friends and Influence People: Relationships in business are everything. In the last 20 years, I have gotten two jobs from recruiters – and both did not end well. Every other job was through my network. Enough said, and remember ‘Little people have big friends’. Treat everyone with respect, from the janitor to the President, you cannot lose.
There are many other great books, but if someone were to request a starting point, this would be it. I personally look at these as a competitive advantage, because most professionals don’t invest in themselves …..
ROBIN HOOD: THE PANTO
Our family was introduced to the art of the Christmas Panto two years ago in England. The best way to describe a Panto is crazy musical, appealing to kids while being full of hidden adult jokes and the occasional water gun. In other words, something that every family should attend each holiday season:
Traditionally performed at Christmas, with family audiences consisting mainly of children and parents, British pantomime is now a popular form of theatre, incorporating song, dance, buffoonery, slapstick, cross-dressing, in-jokes, audience participation, and mild sexual innuendo. There are a number of traditional story-lines, and there is also a fairly well-defined set of performance conventions. Lists of these items follow, along with a special discussion of the ‘guest celebrity’ tradition, which emerged in the late 19th century.
We hit the Robin Hood Pantomime at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto last weekend and it was two hours of fantastic entertainment and laughs. And surprisingly, Tiger Woods was the butt of some very funny jokes (how fast the high and mighty fall). The best being when the villain first came on to the stage (it is tradition that the entire audience must begin booing him the second he shows up in any scene) and he stood there, smirking and said ‘What? Not like I am Tiger Woods’.
The only thing that it was missing? Water guns …. (smile). Guess that is distinctly British. Well worth seeing.
IF YOU DON’T HAVE SOMETHING NICE TO SAY ….
I just read a great article by Harvey Mackay, with a story about Socrates:
One day in ancient Greece an acquaintance met the great philosopher Socrates and said,
"Socrates, do you know what I just heard about your friend?"
"Hold on a minute," Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything I’d like you to pass a little test. It’s called the Triple Filter Test."
"Triple Filter?"
"That’s right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you’re going to say. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"
"No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and…"
"All right," said Socrates. "So you don’t really know if it’s true or not. Now let’s try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?"
"No, on the contrary…"
"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, but you’re not certain it’s true. You may still pass the test though, because there’s one filter left: the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?"
"No, not really."
"Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?"
You can read the full article here.
It reminds me of a piece of advice that someone told me or I read in the past, it was quite simple. When someone comes to you and complains about another person or talks about that person, your answer should always be simple and to the point:
‘Wow. What did he (the person being discussed) say when you told him/her?’
In other words, if you have something to say, say it to the person who can benefit the most – the person you are talking about.
BLOG NOTE
Too the Apple fans who keep pinging me every time they see a reference to an Apple product on the blog.
1. I do not use the iPhone. I think it is an amazing phone (My boys have requested one), but I need a keyboard. I also love the iPod that clips … just wish it worked with Media Player.
2. I don’t have an Apple PC. It isn’t out of scope, but I have Windows 7 running on all the machines and am impressed. We will see, maybe if one is ready for Evergreening.
PS: That being said, I am using my first non-Windows mobile device – the Blackberry 9700 and RIM has done one heck of a good job. Still a few nuances that I am not use to, but it has come a long way and is well integrated into Outlook, and the industrial engineering on the device itself is really impressive.
HOW TO HAVE THE BEST KICK BUTT KIDS BIRTHDAY PARTY
This applies to male 11 year olds.
1. Acquire several XBOX 360s (Video store – $40 for a week each) and hook them up to monitors, TVs or projectors.
2. Acquire copies of Modern Warfare 2 and Halo 3 ($5 each to rent).
3. Link them through your router and system link.
Let rip. Works every time, although 12 – 11 year old boys can be surprisingly loud. And it is sad to admit, but they can finally beat me …. I knew the day would come.
CONSIDERING A HOME THEATRE
I have always thought about putting in a home projector system, bigger is better has always been my TV motto and with 3 boys playing on the XBOX split screen – a projector definitely fits the bill. The problem has been the house, you must have the right place for it. In England and in our last Canadian house, we never had the space. Now we have that place.
What is unbelievable is the price. I remember a few friends doing it 6 years ago and paying $6-8K for a high definition projector. Now, for $2K or less you are getting remarkable quality. Case in point, the new Panasonic PT-AE4000U. It has everything including 1080P output. A review:
The AE4000 announcement is dramatic. Though its spec sheet does not look revolutionary compared to last year’s AE3000, the AE4000 is in fact a superior projector in almost every way. Certainly it surpasses the AE3000 in image quality. And it is even more fully-featured than its predecessor. But what is most stunning is the price. Last October, a mere twelve months ago, the AE3000 was released with street prices close to $3,000. This month the AE4000 comes to market at $1,999. This aggressive move will force other manufacturers competing in the home theater projector market to reassess their pricing levels.
Since the AE4000’s picture quality not only surpasses the competitors in its price range, but rivals and in some cases exceeds that of "high-end" models selling for five times the price or more, it warrants a solid 5 stars for performance. Since it has more features than any other home theater projector ever built, 5 stars is not even enough to illustrate its distinction in this category. Similarly, its ease of use is unrivaled-perfect color calibration out of the box in Cinema 1 mode, smart menus that are easy to navigate, lens memory to accommodate 2.40 super widescreen without an anamophic lens-no other projector has all of these things, and most have none of them.
All of this adds up to a remarkable value proposition: at a street of $1,999, we’ve simply never seen this much performance at this price. Panasonic has been extremely tight-lipped about this product launch. Until now many thought the company was dropping out of the home theater projector market. Today’s announcement makes it clear that they are here to stay. The Panasonic PT-AE4000U will be one of the hottest selling home theater projectors of the fall season, and we enthusiastically give it our highest recommendation.
Not quite ready to get it done, as this requires more planning (screens, seating …), but this definitely makes the decision easier! In the meantime, I rented some equipment for last weekend as we held a birthday – 11 boys on 3 XBOXs. So cool. Much better than the pong I grew up with.
ON PROCRASTINATING IN FRONT OF A FIRE
You know how you are wandering past a book store on a street or in an airport and all of a sudden you feel compelled to buy a book? And it is that odd book that you wouldn’t usually buy. Then you put the book in your bag and instead of reading it, right then and there, you forget about that book. And a few years later, you are unpacking all of your books after moving back from Europe and you find that book and wonder ‘What compelled me to buy that book?’.
I am sure that has happened to all of us.
Created in Darkness by Troubled Americans is that book for me. I found it the other evening while the boys were doing homework, the fireplace was on and I was in a mood to procrastinate (which means, I didn’t feel like ticking off one of the never ending action items that adorn the board with the title ‘Michael’s list’).
Which lead me to a couple articles which I ended up reading to the boys, my favourite being On the Implausibility of The Death Star’s Trash Compactor. The following quote sums it up (note, you have to have a certain type of humour – which means you are one of those people who loves Monty Python):
3. Why does the trash compactor compact trash so slowly, and with such difficulty, once the resistance of a thin metal rod is introduced? Surely metal Death Star pieces are one of the main items of trash in need of compacting. It thus stands to reason that the trash compactor should have been better designed to handle the problem of a skinny piece of metal. (And while I hate to be the sort of person who says I told you so, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that a one-movable-wall system would have improved performance.)
It also lead me to root around the McSweeneys site and too many LOL articles to comment on, so I point to two:
Teddy Wayne’s Unpopular Proverbs:
Unity.
A house divided against itself cannot stand. Wait, I forgot about duplexes. Duplexes are the exact literal definition of bifurcated housing. I can be such an idiot sometimes.
Imitation.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Also, believe me when I say you’re very attractive and brilliant.
Perseverance.
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again, and by the fourth failed attempt, it’s probably time to give up and admit that you’ll never be a decent recreational juggler. (Which is reminiscent of this poster).
And of course, a few funny jokes:
A man walks into a bar. He has a few drinks and chats with the bartender.
Later that night, he goes home alone and reflects on the poor decisions he’s made in life.
A little worthwhile downtime.
I HAVE A JOB BUT I AM TEMPTED
So many opportunities to get rich lately:
I am Sung Johnson I have a business proposal for you, If interested contact via email :sung_johnson12@yahoo.com
MY HUSBAND DEPOSITED 7.5 MILLION POUND WITH A BANK, I AM DYING, STAND-IN AS MY BENEFICIARY AND COLLECT THE FUND TO FINANCE CHARITY ORGANIZATION, REPLY TO: shg56@btinternet.com
With this one, I wonder what God is going to do when this person(s) ….
Geetings from Jenny Lee,
after going through your information over the internet i decided to contact you for friendship and assistance for distribution of my inheritance towards charity. My name is Jenny Lee; I am a dying woman who has decided to donate what I have for the good work of charity. I am 60 years old and I was diagnosed for breast cancer for about 2 years now. I have been touched by God to donate from what I have inherited from my late husband to you for the good work of God, rather than allow my husband evil relatives to use my husband hard earned funds ungodly. They don’t care about man kind, all they care is how to rob some money from me and spend them ungodly. Please pray that the good Lord forgives me my sins. I have asked God to forgive me and I believe he has because He is a merciful God. I will be going in for a surgery soon and I want to make sure that I make this donation before undergoing my surgery.
I decided to donate the sum of $2,500,000 (two million five hundred thousand dollars) to you for the good work of the lord, and also to help the motherless and less privilege and also for the assistance of the widows and unfortunate mothers. At the moment I cannot take any telephone calls right now due to the fact that my husband’s relatives are always around me and trying to see if they can overhear my conversations and my health status as well.
I wish you all the best and may the good Lord bless you abundantly, and please use the funds well and always extend the good work to others. I have informed my consultant about the ($2,500,000.00). it is true that I don’t know you and you don’t know, but I have been directed by God to contact you for this. Thanks and God bless. I will direct you further after hearing from you.
NB: I will appreciate your utmost confidentiality in this matter until the task is accomplished as I don’t want anything that will jeopardize my wish. Also I will be contacting with you only by email as I don’t want my husband relations or anybody to know because they are always around me.
Reply me through this my most private email: (madamlee55@yahoo.com.hk)
Regards,
Mrs. Jenny Lee.This one is good, because the email is from Amir (with an African email address, but note the signature. Bill sounds so much more trustworthy than Amir I guess …
Dear Friend,
With due respect to your person, I am Mr Bill Joyce E. I kindly wish to ask for your attention and consideration just for a while. I know this is certainly not the appropriate channel to contact you but situation necessitated This medium. However, I am sincerely sorry for any inconveniences this may cause you. I am a senior staff of a bank here in LONDON, and I have a business opportunity to propose to you which would be of mutual benefit to both parties if carefully executed. I am the account officer and personal
friend to Colin Morley who died in the July 2005 London bomb blast. Colin Morley was a good client of my bank, before he
was killed in the 2005 London bomb blast; he however has a deposit of Nine million two hundred thousand British Pounds(9.2Million GBP)with the bank and his family members are not aware of this particular account due to the perennial crisis in his marital life. As his close confidant and an account officer, he warned me on the implication of disclosing his account status to any member of his family, For more details and confirmation please try and visit this site below for clarification: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4741333.stm
Based on the afore-mentioned, I want you to join me in facilitating the claim of this money for our own personal use. All I need do is to present you as the partner and next of kin to the deceased. The bank would transfer the funds to you as the beneficiary .Please note the urgency in this transaction and a timely response is required so that we can beat their deadline.
Please have no fear for I assure you that all relevant documents needed to make this deal successful shall be forwarded to you as soon as I receive a positive response from you. Note that we need joint effort to make this deal successful. I believe strongly that if this deal is carefully executed, it would be of great benefit to both of us. Waiting earnestly for your response.
Reply me on: mr.billjdesk@hawamail.com
Best regard,
Mr. Bill JoyceCongratulations your email have been selected by the Microsoft® Award Organization, for the sum payout of (£1,000.000.00) British Pounds For this year 2009 Microsoft® Award .Contact your payment officer. ith your Batch #:409978E and Reference No: FL/668530092 end email to (barr.arthurjamesesq44@adnise.net) for claim.
So many choices.
TWO COOL GADGETS
I watch TV my laptop regularly. The shoX speaker is a fantastic device for getting sound out of a laptop – much deeper than the built in speakers.
If you are travelling on Air Canada these dates you will see the PowerMat ads. I just acquired one and will be playing with. I love the fact that there are no cords, not unlike the Palm Pre’s wireless charger (you just drop it onto the base and it charges). This technology has been around for a while, nice to see that it is finally becoming commercially viable. I definitely need less cords ….
A GREAT QUOTE
A great thought for anyone getting ‘too big for their britches’:
‘The graveyard is full of indispensible men’
David Peterson, former Premier of Ontario while on the CBC.
TO CUT A DASH IN KOWLOON
Read a great article in GQ about buying high quality suits in Hong Kong – at a very reasonable price. The place is called ‘Sam’s’ in Kowloon – a quick ferry ride away and custom suits for HK $2000 ($400).
Only thing, never been to Hong Kong …. Although looking through the ‘Who has shopped here list’, it is quite the place.
GREAT SALES MGMT ADVICE
I was skimming through a book that I have read a few times, Major Account Sales Strategy: Rackham, this weekend looking for a particular data point when I came across this great advice:
We usually find ourselves giving two pieces of advice. The first, simply, is to reduce paperwork. In some organizations salespeople spend up to 10 hours a week completing paperwork in the name of the selling strategy. Much of this time is unproductive; much of the information is faked to a point where it’s an unreliable guide for management action. A measure of the health of a sales organization is the amount of time it spends relating to customers compared with the time it takes relating to the internal needs of the company. By this measure many organizations are sick, and we’ve seen some that border on terminally ill. So our first piece of advice is usually to cut paperwork.
Our second piece of advice is to build a selling strategy that focuses on the steps the customer takes in making a decision, not on the steps the salesperson take in making a sale. The two are not the same. As we’ll see in future chapters, strategies based on the selling process are usually far less effective than strategies based on the buying process. Our problem, as salespeople, is that it is far easier to understand the steps of selling than those of buying. And it’s far more dangerous, because we tend to base strategy on what we understand, rather than what’s effective.
Having worked in organizations that valued the process over the content or progress of the sales organization, I cannot agree more. As for the second piece of advice, that is one I need to rethink. You always gain something when you re-read the best books, kind of like finding another joke inside a Monty Python movie that you have seen 100 times.
Addition: from HBR, article ‘Wisdom on Improving Sales and Marketing’:
In your career, what’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned about sales process improvement?
To be patient and to work for progress in small steps … the more successful they (sales reps) are, the more resistant to change they become. Show them the big picture, reinforce process changes with tools and good management, and make it simple.
It is all about making it simple and selling how the change helps everyone. Having been at the receiving end, I know that when I understood the ‘why’, I would buy in. Bully me, or make it too complex … and forget it. Good thoughts.
A SUNRISE IN NEWFOUNDLAND
From my Blackberry 9700 (Yes, I finally upgraded from my trusty PALM Pro). One of the most spectacular sunrises I have seen in the last couple months. I wish I had brought a real camera.
But the water looks REALLY cold.
The above was shot from Signal Hill, the spot where the inventor Marconi sent the first transatlantic wireless message. (Correction: I presumed he was Canadian immigrant, he was actually an Italian Fascist).
It is also the spot where the British finished off the French in 1762.
And the spot where many European bound ships left to help fight the Nazis.
Great place. New time I will being my 200mm, maybe I will see a whale.
OUTLIERS AND FIVE NOs TO MAKE A YES
I have often blogged about one of my favourite sales lessons: ‘It takes 5 no’s to make a yes’. Reading today’s HBR blog, the article ‘How Not Achieving Something is Key to Achieving it’ serves as a proof point. In it, Peter Bregman makes a key point about his learning experience as he tried to win consulting business:
So I set up a meeting with Lily. Who cancelled. As I prepared to reschedule I noticed something unexpected: I started to enjoy the process of trying to get in, the challenge of making the sale. It became a game to me and my goal was to keep playing until, at some point, I’d say the right thing to the right person and get my foot in the door. I was, surprisingly, having fun.
And I was starting to be good at it. Scheduling. Rescheduling. Finding a way to keep the conversation going. You’d think it wouldn’t be something hard or useful to become good at but you’d be wrong on both counts.
Most of our jobs hinge on repetition. That’s how we become good at anything. The problem is we give up too soon because anything we do repetitively becomes boring.
That is, unless we have a peculiar taste for the task; if it captures our interest. For some reason, maybe we don’t even understand — and we don’t have to — we enjoy it.
That’s how I learned how to do a handstand. It always seemed completely out of reach for me. But then someone told me they learned as an adult. So I figured I could learn too. It took six months but now I can, somewhat reliably, stand on my hands.
Which has led me to believe that anyone can do anything. As long as three conditions exist:
1. You want to achieve it
2. You believe you can achieve it
3. You enjoy trying to achieve it
We often think we only need the first two but it’s the third condition that’s most important. The trying is the day-to-day reality. And trying to achieve something is very different than achieving it. It’s the opposite actually. It’s not achieving it.
The entire article is a good read. Peter then goes on to talk about the Outliers and the rule of 10,000 hours, which simply states that it is not innate talent that gets someone to the top in a field (be it sports, music or other field) but practice.
In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell discusses research done at the Berlin Academy of Music. Researchers divided violin students into three categories: the stars, the good performers, and the ones who would become teachers but not performers. It turns out that the number one predictor of which category a violinist fell in was the number of hours of practice.
The future teachers had practiced 4,000 hours in their lifetime. The good performers, 8,000 hours. And those who were categorized as stars? Every single one of them had practiced at least 10,000 hours.
And here’s the compelling part: There wasn’t a single violinist who had practiced 10,000 hours who wasn’t a star. In other words, 10,000 hours of practice guaranteed you’d be a star violinist. According to Gladwell, 10,000 hours of practice is the magic number to become the best at anything.
I read the Outliers finally last month. It made me think; reading, learning, practicing, taking courses, they all add up to success. It also dispels the myth that the truly talented are just ‘born’ to be there. Or as Peter Drucker says in the 111 Thoughts on Selling:
Work hard beats work smart. (mostly).
All about rolling up those sleeves. Management, selling, sports … you name it, no money for the person who chooses to be a coaster.
AN HOUR AHEAD IN ATLANTIC, 1.5 HOURS IN …
If you are Canadian, you live in Toronto (or Ontario or Quebec – somewhere in the Eastern time zone), you know where I am. The jingle keeps popping into my head.
STUMBLING UPON A GREEN GYM
This weekend we were up north and came across this playground. It was all outdoor gym equipment. It looked really odd but was surprisingly functional. Turns out that Green Gym (a Canadian Company) is making headway around the world. With the levels of obesity in our society rising steadily … what a great idea. And how nice is it to do it outside? Neat company.
For the press exercises, you push your own weight (instead of weights).
NOT SO GOOD SALESPERSONSHIP
I will admit, I grade salespeople’s performance all the time. This weekend was no different. I was seeking a new cage for my boys’ rats. I know, rats? They are the most social of rodents, have a convenient 2 year lifecycle and eliminate a lot less than my 93lbs Lab did. So yes, rats. They are actually quite cute.
So I called around to find a Prevue cage (which involved months of painful evaluating). I called Pet Paradise and the conversation went like this:
Me: ‘Hi, I understand that you carry Prevue products. I am looking for the Prevue corner ferret cage. You probably do not have it in stock, so I was wondering if I could order one in?’
Her: ‘Sure. Let me take down your details. What is your name?’ (I would guess her in her 40’s or 50’s).
Me: ‘Michael’
Her: ‘May I call you Mike?’ (Odd question .. I just told her my name).
Me: ‘No. Michael’
Her: ‘Ok then. How can I help you hun?’
I had to laugh.
SCHMOOZE
As many people know, one of my top 5 sales books is Mr. Schmooze. It is relevant to you whether you are in sales, distribution or someone who is internally facing because in the end it is not about ‘the schmooze’, it is about how to be interested in people … how to build relationships by not being focused on yourself.
That being said, I was in a restaurant on the weekend and read this on the wall and had to laugh …. ‘Trust me Mort …’
GREAT SALESMANSHIP: ABC
ABC: Always Be Closing, or something like that …..
Via Modern Family, the only funny new sitcom I have seen this year.
SLAVE TO EMAIL PART II
I read this interesting passage in Launching a Leadership Revolution:
A leader begins investing time in important issues, and then gets interrupted by urgent issues. Gradually the urgent issues eat away the time the leader has to spend working on important issues. The more this happens, the more urgent issues erupt, because the important things are not being handled. Eventually, the leader is engulfed by urgent crises and has no time for important, vital issues at all.
At this point the leader is finished.
It all goes back to that old philosophy of ‘busy work’. Too many people feel that being busy and the affiliated sense of accomplishment is relevant. It isn’t.
Leaders must live in the realm of the important, not in the realm of the urgent.
Interesting book. Half way through.
SLAVE TO EMAIL
Now that business is getting into a rhythm for myself and my team, I have started implementing ‘Getting Things Done’ rigour. This includes working offline, ensuring that the ‘new email notification’ pop-up in Outlook is disabled and not allowing the whims of others to dictate where my time is invested.
For those who have not read it, every business person who works in today’s connected world should It is transformational (but difficult to keep implemented). That being said, it has helped me massively over the last 5 years.
‘The winds and the waves are always on the sides of the ablest navigators’ Edward Gibbon
‘Rule your mind, or it will rule you’ Horace.
ENDER’S GAME
I just finished re-reading my favourite book, Ender’s Game on a whim. If you have not heard of the book, it is one of the top selling (and celebrated) sci-fi books of all time. Call it a classic.
Intense is the word for Ender’s Game. Aliens have attacked Earth twice and almost destroyed the human species. To make sure humans win the next encounter, the world government has taken to breeding military geniuses — and then training them in the arts of war… The early training, not surprisingly, takes the form of ‘games’… Ender Wiggin is a genius among geniuses; he wins all the games… He is smart enough to know that time is running out. But is he smart enough to save the planet?
Why read it again? I went through my old boxes of books to pull out a few books that the boys might like, this one ranked high on the list. I opened it .. started reading a few pages … and couldn’t put it down.
A good read, and there are a few interesting leadership lessons in there too.
EASY SHARING
I was on the Harvard Business blog site this morning (I subscribe to their daily email here, great service) and I went to email an article to a colleague and this is what came up for sharing choices:
LOL. I cut and pasted it. So much for the days of a few services, easy sharing or a simple ‘email this’ button. The internet is such a mess, and it isn’t slowing down. Death by Information Overload is a threat that continues to grow.
Easy sharing … not really.
THE ART OF KILLING THE DEAL
I enjoyed the article by Ben Stein on his ‘how to lose a deal’ list. Out of Ben’s top 22, my favourites:
3. You learn from talking far more than you learn from listening. Talk all you want, but don’t bother to pay attention to anything your customer says. He’s just a bore.
5. Don’t sweat the details or the small stuff, like year-to-year increases in rent or other charges. You’re way too important to worry about trivia, and let your customers know it.
18. Never do any research or any footwork about a client. You’re a cool, Ferris Bueller type of guy. You can always wing it. (This one personally drives me crazy. The MacKay 66!)
BROOKS IN THE BBC NEWS
A friend forwarded this article ‘Changing face of Canada ‘Cowboy City’ about my home town, Brooks Alberta recently. Due to the packing plant, the town has undergone a dramatic ethnic shift – as refugees from Africa flock to the town to build a new life.
About 10 years ago, the company started hiring new immigrants and refugees who had recently arrived in Canada.
Alberta’s oil patch with its high salaries had enticed locals away and the plant could not find enough Canadian workers.
Word spread across the country that newcomers could get a job quickly at the meat processing plant in Brooks without speaking English or having any specific skills and that starting pay would generally be $13 an hour (£7).
Immigrants and refugees have come to Brooks because jobs are available
The job attracted many immigrants and refugees from Africa, the Middle East, Asia and South America who had left their country for a better life in Canada.
"People know (it) doesn’t matter what your language, doesn’t matter where you’re from in the world – you show up tomorrow and you can go to work at Lakeside Packers," said Brooks Mayor Martin Shields.
The article is right, it was a cowboy town when I grew up there. There were minorities, but no one every thought about it. My brother’s best friend’s parents were from India, our buddy’s parents were Chinese and owned a local restaurant and one of my best female friends in high school was born in India. But we never thought about it. Race never came into it, as it was an integrated society and everyone was just who they were. In all of my time there, I cannot think of a single race incident.
When I returned there a few years ago for my 20th high school reunion, I was shocked by the undertone that race was sending through conversations. The ‘preppy bar’ that I knew from my youth was now the ‘Somali bar that you can’t go near or you will be knifed’, and I heard more than one racial slur. I was shocked.
The town has a lot of change ahead. As the article quotes:
"They go to that wonderful mural of the four cowboys and they see our western heritage and they picture themselves on a horse being a cowboy," she said.
Jackie pointed out that this was not the first time Brooks has experienced an influx of immigrants.
"The cowboys that came in the early days were either English or Scottish and then we had an influx of Hungarians," she said.
"The new immigrants will be the next phase of our heritage."
It was a great place to grow up, I hope that it finds its balance again.
THE END OF ANNUAL REVIEWS
I was reading the recent NYTimes interview with Yahoo’s CEO and found her humility and insight quite inspiring:
Q. How would you say your leadership style has changed over time?
A. I’m calmer. I think that just comes with confidence. I would hate to describe the C.E.O. I was in ’92. I think I was pretty pathetic, actually.
And her view of annual reviews is worth pondering:
Q. And how do you give feedback?
A. I have the puppy theory. When the puppy pees on the carpet, you say something right then because you don’t say six months later, “Remember that day, January 12th, when you peed on the carpet?” That doesn’t make any sense. “This is what’s on my mind. This is quick feedback.” And then I’m on to the next thing.
If I had my way I wouldn’t do annual reviews, if I felt that everybody would be more honest about positive and negative feedback along the way. I think the annual review process is so antiquated. I almost would rather ask each employee to tell us if they’ve had a meaningful conversation with their manager this quarter. Yes or no. And if they say no, they ought to have one. I don’t even need to know what it is. But if you viewed it as meaningful, then that’s all that counts.
Couldn’t agree more. If a manager is not having those types of reviews monthly, they are not doing their job. For me, I have always gauged my effectiveness in this role based on the length of the annual review. If it is too the point with no surprises for the employee, then I am doing my job because we have communicated regularly. If not … an improvement item for my review.
THE VATICAN PART V: THE SISTINE CHAPEL & OUT
I would love to show a few photos of the Sistine Chapel, it is beyond describing. But no photos are allowed, although people clicked them off here and there (to be yelled at by the guards).
It is as amazing as you would expect it to be.
We finished out the tour with a walk into St. Peter’s, which is spectacular. Had we not been so tired (long walk), we would have headed up to the top.
A Swiss Guard, trained to protect the church and the Pope.
What I didn’t realize, that the Vatican has it’s own postal system ….
As you walk out of St. Peters, you enter Piazza San Pietro (St. Peter’s Square). In the center is an obelisk that was moved to Rome from Egypt AD 87 (dates back to 13th century BC).
And if you stand in one specific spot (marked), all of the columns line up perfectly under Alexander’s gate (they are four deep).
And with that, our trip to Rome came to and end. And we only saw a small fraction of the city …. Off to Florence.
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST or NATURAL SELECTION?
According to Ralph Keeney, a century ago only 5% of deaths were related to personal choice. Now a full 55% of deaths of people aged 15 to 64 can be attributed to decisions made that have alternatives (like smoking, overeating, driving without a seatbelt, etc.) – the other 45% are mainly attributed to disease. No surprise, as 23.1% of Canadian adults are clinically obese (almost double the rate from 1978).
His last line is interesting:
Keeney notes that society already holds people accountable for some actions: Some workplaces disqualify smokers as job candidates; alcoholics are often denied liver transplants. We could deploy more of these penalties: costlier health insurance for the obese, or criminalizing texting while driving the way we do drunk driving. But in the end, punishment is inevitable anyway. "The ultimate penalty is death," Keeney says. "I don’t want to totally thwart survival of the fittest."
Full article here.
In business, keeping weight down is very difficult. Hectic schedule makes getting into a regular work out routine hard and the schedule of off the plane, on the plane, in the hotel, dinner with client, business lunch or breakfast means that it is easy to gain weight (some cream with that dinner Mr. Weening?). Clean your plate at a business dinner and you are guaranteed to lose the battle of the waistline (sorry Mom). A friend of mine has a business dinner rule .. he only eats the size of his fist and leaves the rest.
In the end, I choose to allow nature to select me … I really do want to see 100. Imagine what the world will look like in 2068? In the article ‘To change effectively, change just one thing’, Peter Bergman has a few insights on how he lost weight and interesting details on a diet study (and how they are all the same).
I agree with him, just find that one thing. I also wear a seatbelt, don’t drink often and don’t smoke. It all adds up to better odds.
THE VATICAN PART IV
As you would expect, the tapestries are spectacular. The one I found most amazing was this one, of Jesus exiting the tomb. No matter which way you stand, Jesus looks right at you.
From the left ..
From the right … (sorry, blurry) ..
Like everyone, the ultimate goal is the Sistine Chapel. Before you get there you go through the ‘Gallery of Maps’, which displays 40 maps of the Church’s territories by 16th century cartographer Ignazio Danti:
The map of Venice was one of my favorites:
It is then through Raphael’s Rooms (private apartments that were redecorated by Raphael thanks to Pope Julius II’s sponsorship), which contains one of his more famous pieces of work, The School of Athens, which contains the most famous of philosophers (And it is suggested that Raphael painted himself into the work (on the right – head down, painting).
And Salvador Dali’s painting ‘The Trinity’ which is a beautiful piece. I wonder about the inspiration for this painting. When we walked through his exhibit in London, he did not strike me as the ‘spiritual’ sort.
Next, the Sistine Chapel ….
THE VATICAN PART III: YOUR EARTHLY REWARD
Throughout the Vatican you find ornate monuments – paintings and pieces of work dedicated to remembering various popes. This doorway remembering Pope Leo XIII is quite lavish:
As an aside, it was Leo XIII who …
‘….Church positions on relations with temporal authorities, and, in the 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed for the first time social inequality and social justice issues with Papal authority, focusing on the rights and duties of capital and labour. He was greatly influenced by Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler, a German bishop who openly propagated siding with the suffering working classes in his book Die Arbeiterfrage und das Chistentum. Since Leo XIII, Papal teachings expand on the right and obligation of workers and the limitations of private property’.
Pope John Paul II wasn’t very interested in being one of the Vatican’s prominent displays:
The Testament of Pope John Paul II published on 7 April[140] revealed that the pontiff contemplated being buried in his native Poland but left the final decision to The College of Cardinals, which in passing, preferred burial beneath St. Peter’s Basilica, honouring the pontiff’s request to be placed “in bare earth”.
In St. Peter’s is the entombed body of St. Pius X. Via.
Below the altar, is a crystal coffin containing the body of St. Pius X (1904-1914), “pauper et dives, mitis et humilis corde”. The body is dressed in pontifical robes, while the face and hands are covered with silver. The world greatly admired his wisdom and firm government. He helped restore Christian life by issuing wise laws on the religious education of children, youths and adults. His catechism gives clear answers to many religious questions. He allowed young children to take Communion, promoted the practice of daily communion as a source of virtue and holiness, he reformed the liturgy in the Missal and Breviary as well as sacred music and Gregorian chant. He fought against and condemned modernism which is still the cause of many evils. He was, however, unable to convince the reigning monarch and heads of state of his era to avoid the conflict that would shed blood throughout Europe for four long years.
It made me think.
BYE-BYE DUBAI
Fast Company has a very interesting article on the decline of Dubai called ‘Bye-Bye Dubai’ which features a slideshow on the cities ongoing decline and non-stop shutdown of mega projects. The Dubai decline slideshow is fascinating … abandoned cars and all.
When we were in Dubai, I asked the same question ‘Why? How can it last?’. It seems like there is more pain to come. From The Globe and Mail ‘Crunch Time in Dubai’:
The sheikdom and its network of state-controlled companies amassed at least $80 billion (U.S.) in debt on projects like manmade islands and opulent high-rises during a multiyear building boom that saw the city-state craft itself into the Middle East’s financial, trade and tourism hub.
About $50 billion worth of that debt needs to be covered over the next three years, said Farouk Soussa, S&P’s head of Middle East government ratings. A lack of government information has left investors wondering how it all will be repaid or refinanced.
“It’s anyone’s guess how much the government of Dubai has to support that debt,” Soussa said at a conference in Dubai. “It comes back to transparency.”
I guess Dubailand will have to wait.
KING HENRY V & LEADERSHIP
I had the opportunity to listen to Jim Fisher speak about leadership a few months ago and he had a few interesting insights, specifically with regard to leadership and managing.
In the 1980’s, the United States was full of ‘well managed’ companies, Kotter and others identified that. But they lacked vision, and their focus on great management (not leadership) lead to process rigidity and a thorough pounding by the Japanese. Those of us who lived in that day and age remember the threat of the Japanese out engineering North America. He made the point that having a plan is not enough. We must have a vision, leadership, a compelling story and a plan to be successful, with the recognition that things change:
‘if we become slaves to the plan, we continue doing things long after they are useful’
A world full of change needs flexibility. We need to have that ‘vision’ of where we can go, and a plan to attain that vision, but it needs to be made out of sand – not etched in stone – ready to change as times change.
He went on to discuss one of his favourite piece of work, King Henry V by Shakespeare (making the point that Shakespeare is a remarkable man, with his plays still achieving more than 50% market share long after his death). In telling the famous story of the English defeat of the French at the Battle of Agincourt, despite terrible odds and an army on the verge of collapse, Shakespeare did it differently than those before him. He painted a picture of a great leader.
From the article ‘Blockbuster Lessons in Leadership’ (Marilyn Linton, FP, August 2003):
‘The first that the king did was have a battle plan’ Mr. Fisher observes, explaining that he knew the business of war and developed an innovative and complex medieval battle plan. His challenge then was to motivate his troops to execute it.
That leadership plan was developed after King Henry spent the night before the battle sitting around the campfires listening to his soldiers and learning how they felt.
‘Stand up and fight together!’ became the simple idea behind the leadership plan. It became evident that King Henry was going to suffer the same as his troops: ‘In real life you don’t always have the confidence your boss has as much skin in the game as you do’ Mr. Fisher says. Shakespeare had the king follow closely the rules of persuasion as taught by many business schools: Be credible, communicate shared benefits, and use vivid language for impact.
‘On the eve of battle, Henry is aware of what he is feeling. He is saying to himself ‘This is terrible. What have I done? I’m weak’. He listens to how how men feel, and he decides, in his speech not to sugar coat the truth.
‘Today, many bosses try to keep the positive spin on things. The fact is people in the trenches know how bad it is long before you do’ Mr. Fisher says.
‘Effective leadership is the combination of having a good business plan with having enough EQ to understand how to motivate people. Too much of the stuff you read about leadership talks about all the motivational things you should do to be ‘leaderly’, but if you are leaderly with a lousy plan, you aren’t going to accomplish anything’
A vision, great leadership .. and a plan. One last interesting quote on the topic of ‘vision’:
‘happiness isn’t about where we are, it is where we are going to be if we are successful … and words can bring that to life’
THE VATICAN PART II
The Vatican contains every type of art imaginable. On the floors of the ‘Round Room’ are Roman mosaics from bath houses like the one below from the Baths of Otricoli. It is a huge mosaic and you walk around the edges (feels wrong to walk on any part of it).
As you walk, you are bombarded by beauty. Look to the side and you see priceless works of art. Look above you and you see either jaw dropping architecture or a stunning roof.
Down one hall are a host of baby sculptures, a way for parents to remember children who passed on too early in life.
Why these parents wanted their son remembered wrestling a goose is beyond me, there must be a story there.
So much to see.
HANNA & MIKE’s TOURS: THE VATICAN – PART I
Our trip to Egypt taught us one thing – private tours are worth the money. When you travel all that way and spend the money, being part of a tour of 50 is not great – it is not interactive and your are bound by the whims of the tour (plus it is a pain to see in a crowd). A friend in the UK recommended Hanna & Mike’s tours to us while in Rome. Unfortunately, Hanna was not available for the first couple days but was able to take us through our big 3rd day in Rome – the Vatican.
If you are going to Rome, we would HIGHLY recommend Hanna, she did an amazing job and made the day spectacular.
As you can imagine, the Vatican is awe inspiring. You have seen it in movies (I just watched Demons & Angels and it was neat to see so many of the places we had just been) and of course, it has been around for a long time. I was very excited about the day and a bit worried about the boys (They are the most amazing of travellers, but at the end of the 2 years, they were getting a little ACO (all churched out))
Upon reflection, I would say that there are a few things that I was left thinking about from our tour of the Vatican:
- The size of the collection: Inside the walls are hundreds of thousands of pieces of human history. I would imagine there are two points of view, some who are happy that the church acquired all of these pieces as they will protect our human history and many who would have the same view that the Egyptians had of the UK displaying the Rosetta Stone … ‘give it back’. Hanna did make a very valid point, had the church not stepped in, many of these pieces would have been lost.
- Inside the church walls are endless pieces of pagan work. Considering the Bible’s stance on idols, one has to wonder how the retention of these idols within church walls is rationalized against biblical ideology.
- I was left with the thought that all of these things that we enjoy today came at a great human cost.
The entrance to the Vatican Museum is exactly what you would expect, spectacular. It is also built into a huge wall, giving the appearance of a fortress.
A great example of ‘saving’ can be found upon entering the Cortile del Belvedere or the Courtyard of the Belvedere, an ancient headstone.
Donato Bramante‘s Cortile del Belvedere, the Courtyard of the Belvedere, designed from 1506 onwards, was a major project of the High Renaissance at Rome, reverberating in its details in courtyards, formalized piazzas and garden plans throughout Western Europe for centuries. Bramante himself never saw it completed, and within the century it had been irretrievably altered by a bisecting wall.
It was also at one point the home of the papal menagerie. It was on the lower portion of the courtyard that Pope Leo X would parade his prized elephant Hanno for adoring crowds to see. Because of the pachyderm’s glorious history he was buried in the Cortile del Belvedere. [1]
Yes, that is right, a Pope had an elephant (insert reference to ‘great human cost’, I am sure he did not pay for it himself). In the courtyard is a very cool piece that I simply cannot find additional detail on, ‘Sphere inside Sphere’ by Arnaldo Pomodoro.
Sitting at the end of the courtyard is the giant pinecone …
Sixtus V spoiled the unity of the Cortile (1585-90) by erecting the wing for the Vatican Library, which occupies the former middle terrace and bisects the space. James Ackerman has suggested that the move was a conscious one, designed to screen the secular, even pagan nature of the Cortile and the collection of sculptures that Pope Adrian VI had referred to as “idols“. Today the lowest terrace is still called the Cortile del Belvedere, but the separated upper terrace is called the Cortile della Pigna because of the colossal Roman bronze pinecone, once a fountain, that occupies the center of the niche.
You exit the courtyard into a long hallway filled with statues. Many of these statues were originally bronze but were recycled to make war implements. There are only a few bronze statues in the entire Vatican.
The detail is unbelievable. They are beautiful sculptures, in this case an Emperor.
Many of the sculptures are the tops of caskets, meant to immortalize the person entombed. In this case, a woman.
Or a favourite pet. I doubt that they named him ‘Fido’. Looks more like a ‘Hercules’.
One room is completely filled with sculptures of animals or of animals being hunted. Spectacular. The sheer number of pieces is astounding, each with a rich history that may or may not be known.
Identified as one of the oldest pieces in the Vatican. (83BC)
And a restored bust of the god Jupiter.
And finally one of the few Bronze statues that still exists, of Hercules.
One thing you will note is the fig leaf (In Angels and Demons, Tom Hanks’ character makes a wise crack about it). The fig leafs were put up to either cover the genitalia or to cover those sculptures that were castrated by various Popes. Via:
In the eruption of Counter Reformation fanaticism following the Renaissance, the edict of the Council of Trent forbade the depiction of genitals, buttocks and breasts in church art. In 1557, the fig leaves were instituted by the bull of Pope Paul IV. Most of the fig leaves that we see were put in place on the personal initiative of Pope Innocent X (1644-1655) who, for reasons of his own, preferred metal leaves to the plaster ones. This Pope, to his credit, spared most of the art in the Vatican. By 1857, Pope Pius IX discovered that these few remaining statues constituted grave threat to the faithful and destroyed most of them; the fig leaves were promptly added by his successor to stop the iconoclasm. All in all, the campaign raged for 450 years.
Fascinating place.
A FATHER IS A MAN WHO FAILS EVERY DAY
The recent Globe and Mail interview with Michael Chabon is fantastic and a striking insight into how much fatherhood has changed in the last few decades.
Early in his new essay collection, Manhood for Amateurs , Michael Chabon offers a telling definition of what it means to be a dad: “A father is a man who fails every day.” Later, the author of the Pulitzer-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay writes that, as a father, it’s his job to be a hypocrite. For Mr. Chabon, 46, a father of four and one of the most celebrated novelists of his generation, this fatherhood thing? It’s not easy. Whether he’s talking to his kids about drugs or struggling to understand his daughters, he always seems aware of his shortcomings as a father. He talked to The Globe and Mail about how aspiring to a higher standard makes men good dads.
As you point out in the book, the historical standard for being a good dad is really low. Why do dads get off so easy?
There’s certain minimum behaviours that have long been accepted as marking whether one is or is not a good father, and basically those consisted of paying to raise your children, paying for their upkeep and sticking around. And that’s it. Anything more than that would just push you into some kind of Super Dad category. It’s not fair.
Do you think it’s encouraged dads to stick to the minimum requirements?
It has been bad for men that the expectations put on fathers are so low. It’s been bad for them as sons and bad for them as fathers as well. It’s incredibly satisfying and fulfilling to care for your children. It’s tedious and irritating and overwhelming and boring and it can be drudgery, but it’s one of those things that having done them gives you a feeling of satisfaction.
There have been critics over the past few years who claim parents are as immature as their kids for playing the same video games and sharing an interest in the same popular culture as their children. But you seem to be really happy to be able to geek out with your kids over, say, a shared love of Dr. Who.
It’s incredibly pleasurable. And it’s bizarre and arbitrary to draw designations between saying it’s okay to sit down to watch Claude Rains movies with your kids but it’s somehow not okay to sit down and play video games with your kids.
How would you say your version of fatherhood differs from your dad’s generation?
The model for him was that you are the breadwinner and that you stick around. He did his best and his best was a lot better than what was necessarily expected of him. But he never took care of me in the sense of cleaned up after me when I was sick or bought me new pairs of shoes or combed my hair or any of that kind of stuff. And then when my parents divorced when I was 12 and he moved away, I didn’t have the physical presence either. I definitely grew up with a sense of a lack. That might be part of what has impelled me to try live up to a somewhat higher standard in terms of presence and in terms of caring for my kids.
…
How do you define being a good father?
To me it’s just a question of presence, but not in the mere physical sense of the term. I think that, in a way, has been the standard for a very long time, that physical presence is adequate or sufficient. To me, it’s about emotional presence. It’s a standard. It’s not something, God knows, that I always meet or even necessarily meet consistently. But it is a standard, just to try to be there for your kids.
As a Dad who loves to play video games with his kids, build Lego and fool around with his boys – couldn’t agree more. It is all about investing time (which, with the new job, I have not done enough of lately – DULY NOTED!). I have the book on order
Michael Weening: a few pictures 