Posts tagged respect
shakespeare and self esteem
Jul 27th
“Be true to thineself.”
Shakespeare
I used this quote in maybe one of my first 5 posts but since my friend Jen referenced it with regard to self esteem I thought I would bring it back and refresh it slightly with the whole self esteem discussion in mind (as well as my recent rant on advertising agency differentiation).
Let’s talk business first.
I use this quote in every branding exercise I have ever done. I believe branding, personal or companywise, doesn’t start with the ‘customer’ but in understanding yourself. And in understanding yourself … have the kahones to be true to thineself regardless of the repercussions.
Branding experts spend so much time focusing on the customer and doing whatever you have to do to be liked by consumers that they lose sight of what a brand really is at its core – thineself.
I would imagine at its core this thought is about a company’s self esteem.
I guess if all you want to do is make money and be a prostitute, or a chameleon, and be whatever the consumer wants and do whatever the consumer wants in search of the almighty dollar then you should go ahead. But while I would probably lose the consulting gig I would then suggest ‘be comfortable being a legal prostitute.’ And, oh, (no offense to any prostitutes) expect that no matter how big your wallet gets you will have the same self esteem as a prostitute. By the way. I am not the first to suggest this (at least in the advertising industry). The original founder of The Martin Agency in Richmond said something very similar (I have the exact quite in a box somewhere). But. Those ad guys are mad men anyway.
When I do any strategy gigs and I use this quote I typically suggest it’s like building a great circle of friends. Your circle of friends is stronger if there is some mutual respect and you truly enjoy each other’s company (flaws and all). Now. That doesn’t mean everyone will be your friend. Some people may like you but not be a friend. And some people will just have no interest in being your friend. But in the end your company, your product/service, your brand is better off if it is ‘true to thineself.’
Okay.
Personal (and this whole self esteem thing).
Heck, I believe it may be one of the most important lessons a person can learn in their personal life (and one of the most difficult lessons to actually implement I may add). I don’t have a lot to add from what I say to business owners (above).
Similar to businesses getting caught in the barrage of consumer influence on company image an individual is faced with a similar situation (without money involved).
As Jen told me:
“realize sometimes people just get bogged down, and the external factors are definitely loud/pervasive, but still annoying to see/listen to people play “victim” or blame their upbringing/society/partner/etc on their unhappiness or their unwillingness to climb out of the pit.”
I cannot disagree.
Shakespseare was a smart dude. I don’t think he lacked for self esteem (although I would imagine he had the typical creative artist insecurities lying below a healthy façade of strong self esteem). But self esteem is a tricky thing.
It is made even trickier by the fact we are always growing as a person. We are always gathering external information and assessing ourselves. Part of self esteem is understanding what is good and should be respected about yourself and another part of self esteem is partially understanding how to change and evolve and improve.
And that is self esteem’s trickiest challenge.
Be stagnant and you aren’t improving. External factors will remind you of that. Constantly.
So change and those wily external factors have a habit of understanding that your foundation is shifting and starts seeking cracks in the foundation to weasel its way into.
My first post on “be true to thineself’ may have been too flippant.
Truth in itself is very difficult; add ‘thineself’ and difficulty increase exponentially. Negative self esteem issues are a “pit.” That is true. And I am with Jen on this one … no one should be willing to accept living in this pit if you have a choice. And everyone has a choice when it comes to self esteem.
Ah.
But nothing good in life is easy.
That is an unndebatable truth.
difficult gets done immediately
Jul 22nd
“The difficult we do immediately. The impossible take a little longer.”
US Army
While this quote is attributable to the Army my sense is this is the attitude of all of the services.
Walt Disney said “it’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”
I guess what I like about all of them is the inherent belief that nothing is impossible.
Or maybe better said is “before you accept the impossible treat everything like it is possible”.
Too many times I have heard “impossible” thrown out so flippantly as a stop sign for people who don’t want to go the extra mile.
I guess I have also found that rarely are things 100 percent impossible.
Something can always be done.
I admit.
When I hear “that’s impossible” I typically perk up a little and go “really, impossible you say” and my brain starts going into overdrive thinking of the possibilities of what is … well … possible.
I don’t think I am that different than a lot of people.
Virgil got it right:
“They are able because they think they are able.”
I do believe that as soon as you start thinking you are able to do something it becomes a little irrelevant if someone else has put the infamous ‘impossible’ label on it.
Thinking you are able to enables you to do.
Sure.
Some things really are impossible.
A 4 second 100 yard dash. Looking good in a lime green polyester suit. Seeing if you have no sight.
But.
That doesn’t mean you can’t finish faster than you may have.
Or find a situation where someone won’t laugh as much when you wear the suit.
Or seeing things from a different perspective.
Maybe what i am suggesting is rarely is impossible absolute.
It has degrees of possible within the impossible.
And what I know for a fact is that our military understands this 100%.
Every organization could learn a lesson from them.
Given the impossible task they ignore “impossible” and focus on addressing the possible no matter how difficult it is and when that is done someone is already prepared to say:
“well, we have gone this far, what the heck, those impossible things we looked at before, damn, they look a little more possible now that we are here.”
And that is the only reason the impossible takes a little longer.
Think about it the next time someone says something is impossible.
They are gonna look awful silly when you make the impossible possible at some point.
underneath greatness
Jul 19th
An admirable trait of the truly great is their ability to recognize the limitations of their actual talent. Simply because they may have risen above the talents of the ordinary has not stopped them from believing they are not that extraordinary. In fact, maybe what I admire most is how they dwell on their ordinariness.
Or maybe it’s that they recognize the potential fleetingness of their talent and what people perceive as greatness.
“I know just how it feels to think of the right thing to say too late.”
- Robert Frost
C’mon. Can you believe this?
This is the guy who probably wrote some of the most amazing poetry of all time.
This is the guy who in 1961 JFK asked, for his inaugural ceremony, to give a poetry reading.
This is the crazy talented wordsmith sonofabitch who, blinded by the sun’s glare on the snow covered Capitol grounds, found himself unable to read the poem he had prepared. Instead, he recited “The Gift Outright” from memory. It opens with:
The land was ours before we were the land’s.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours …
Observers noted people frickin’ cried over his words.
Read it yourself. Imagine being there. You would be moved to tears yourself.
And this guy suggests he couldn’t think of the right thing to say? Well. Makes me feel a little better about the time I not only stumbled over words but was a blithering idiot.
Oh. How about this?
“I have no particular talent, I am merely extremely inquisitive.”
- Albert Einstein
I think like this quote so much because I cannot envision how one of the greatest minds of all time would suggest he has no particular talent.
Now. I am sure he had an ego (who wouldn’t if you thought of things people had never thought of before … consistently). But. I have no talent.
C’mon.
When is the last time you heard one of your management people say this.
When is the last time someone said this in an interview?
Could you imagine good ole Al sitting there in his rumpled suit and the interviewer asks official question number 4 “please tell me what you think you are good at?”
And Al reaches up and tries to smooth down that crazy hair of his, hesitates, and says “well, I have no particular talent, I am merely extremely inquisitive.”
(cut to interviewer making note to self “cut interview short. Not ambitious enough. Cannot identify any talent. Waste of time interviewing.”)
Look.
Robert Frost was said to be an irascible bastard to be around. Albert was seen as kind of loony (and apparently didn’t know any barbers) but nice guy. But given these two quotes I am sharing they both recognized that they weren’t always the bee’s knees (I have been looking for an opportunity to use that in a post one day).
I personally believe we could use a good dose of this attitude in today’s workplace a little more than the current dosage may be.
I guess I also think our country’s leadership could maybe take a sip of this humility too.
Regardless.
It is a good reminder that, no matter how talented you may be, even the greatest of the great minds took it all that ‘talent’ in stride. We could all use a touch of sincere humility on occasion.
Maybe these guys, for all their quirks and eccentricities, had character. And for that, above any talent they had, they should earn our respect. As any talented person who handled themselves this way would.
everybody is a genius
Jul 18th
“Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
- Albert Einstein
I have another post from Al discussing great people who don’t really see themselves as great.
And I am not sure Albert really said this quote above but if he really did he really was a genius.
A frickin’ genius in looking at people around you.
So often we look for standards and test scores and performance reviews trying to assess how smart people are by constantly seeking to benchmark against norms and similar traits in groupings and all that crap.
Look. I like tests. And I do believe tests can play a role.
But standards and norms are killing us. Ok. That is extreme. But I do believe that in schools and in the business place we are becoming so dependent on standards to judge each other that effective ‘non-normal’ individuals doesn’t get recognized.
Okay. Maybe a better thing to say is I am concerned all of this standardizing is killing creativity of individuality … and even worse … possibly the creative problem solver. And it makes it more difficult to judge ‘genius.’
We try and judge kids and have them line up in a row from tallest to shortest in terms of smarts and scores and tell them to climb the next test tree.
And sometimes the fish fails the test.
Yet the fish, in its eccentricity and individuality, when asked to breathe underwater?
Kicks ass.
Maybe because Al Einstein was a genius in his own right it was easier for him to be comfortable allowing everyone around him to be a genius too. I don’t know. I would like to hope it isn’t this way.
And while I began this talking about kids this entire issue bleeds into adulthood. The judging doesn’t stop simply because you have left the world of tests and standards and crap like that. Now the genius bar is degrees and titles and status. 
But. I would like to think somehow … some way … that rather than believe everyone has to be a president or a Rhodes scholar to be a genius that maybe the crew chief on Dale Jr’s car is a frickin’ genius. Not just about car stuff but people management and logistics.
Maybe you don’t have to be some vice president of somethingorother to be a genius and that maybe the mother who is bringing up a kid full time and working real estate on the side is a frickin’ genius in teaching respect and honor and responsibility and just plain getting shit done.
Unfortunately society doesn’t tell us to think this way.
Unfortunately life has established some pecking order that suggests you only qualify as a genius if you have done x, y and z.
But fortunately for us Albert (who apparently did x, y and z pretty frickin’ well) says it doesn’t have to be that way.
Fortunately for us we, the people, can elect to seek out genius if someone has just done their a, b and c’s in a way, and in an environment, that qualifies them for genius status.
Once again, good ole Al Einstein was a pretty smart guy.
Maybe we should pay attention.
Maybe we should find the fish around us and recognize their genius for swimming in a world where everyone else is seeking to climb some tree.
sports this weekend
Jul 17th
This post is nothing really important it’s just that every once in awhile you see something that is worth mentioning that is about sports but goes beyond sports. So. The three things playing on ESPN.
Jon Gruden and Derek Jeter and putting.
Jon Gruden.
Ok. This is about Jon Gruden as a high school coach. (which he is right now)
I have always thought the true test of your abilities is if you can translate it to teen and tweens. A brutal test. But one if you pass is rewarding and selfishly proof you got game.
Oh. Gruden got game.
His rah rah style and kind of bluntness can be grating at the pro level but when you see him working his magic with high school kids you get a true sense of his passion for the game and teaching. He also has that incredible ability (which we all aspire to have) to communicate he doesn’t think you have done the best you can do … without telling you that you sucked.
He didn’t do much for me as a pro coach. But then he did the quarterback breakdowns during the draft (awesome display of game knowledge and ability to communicate succinctly) I started looking at him differently.
And now his comfortable professionalism style translating NFL knowledge to kids whose football careers end at graduation is jaw dropping.
Class act who knows his shit.
The high school kids he is teaching are really lucky. And I think we are lucky to watch a pro do his stuff with kids.
Derek Jeter.
ah. Derek Jeter. Last night was the tribute to George Steinbrenner and Bob Sheppard, the 55+ year Yankees announcer guy, in the Bronx.
It may be me. It may be I need to pay attention more often but I think I can count on one hand the amount of times I have seen the Yankee captain publicly speak.
Post game interviews? Sure.
Public group speaking? You know. Up until yesterday I couldn’t name one if you paid me.
So Derek Jeter. Truly one of the class acts in all of professional sports steps up to the microphone at Yankee stadium in front of 47,700 people and emcees the tribute to Bob Sheppard and Steinbrenner.
Now. I know he practiced.
But his delivery. His cadence. His choice of words. His clarity. His understanding of the moment. And his heartfelt speech.
All were perfect.
It’s the kind of thing you should show in public speaking class.
A soft spoken man who doesn’t shirk the limelight but certainly doesn’t seek the limelight didn’t step out of character solely because of the moment.
Instead he spoke with character and it became another classic Yankees moment.
Look. Love ‘em or hate ‘em (the Yankees). Derek Jeter made professional baseball as a whole, not just the Yankees, look awful frickin good last night.
I honestly didn’t know he had it in him to do it. Watch the tape. It is worth the 3 minutes or so of your time.
I do know. Regardless of whether I know an announcers name or not. It will be difficult to ever beat Bob Sheppard’s “and now. Coming to the plate. Number 3. Derek Jeter. Number 3″. Kind of thing that sends a little chill down your spine. Good stuff.
Putting.
No. Not miniature golf (although I could do an entire series on the frustrations of windmills and bank shots and whatever that would make the pros tear their hair out).
This is about the putting at the British Open.
Anyway. I have played a lot of golf in my life. And I guess I was good enough that an individual shot could decide whether it ended up being a good day versus an entire hole deciding the day. With that said I believe there is nothing more frustrating than playing a hole to perfection and missing “the finish” – missing the putt.
When a great day comes down to a shot or two, those putts are maddening. And make you want to wrap your club around a tree (once in high school) or just scream in frustration (probably but I cannot remember).
I cannot remember a professional golf tournament where more short putts have been missed than the current British open.
And I mean some great rounds, really great rounds, are becoming middle of the road ‘good’ rounds because of the missed ‘pro makeable’ short putts (note: I say ‘pro makeable’ because it is insane what a routine putt is to a pro. We watch on TV as they routinely run anything within 15 feet or so in the cup. 15 feet for an amateur is a frickin’ mile.) these are being missed hole by hole.
I guess my point here is we haven’t seen one thrown club. One scream.
In fact. Many of these guys have shown an ongoing ability to completely shut out that maddening moment and play another hole impeccably and get into that makeable putt situation again.
Yeah. Sure. They are pros.
Yeah. Sure. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pay attention for a good lesson here.
Part of being a pro isn’t just having the talent. Its knowing how to maximize your talent.
Everyone “hits a bad shot or two” in life.
No sense throwing the bag into the pond because of this hole.
Pick it up and move on. Just as in golf, everyone gets another hole to play.
the power of friends
Jul 16th
“Researchers studied 34 students at the University of Virginia, taking them to the base of a steep hill and fitting them with a weighted backpack. They were then asked to estimate the steepness of the hill. Some participants stood next to friends during the exercise, while others were alone. The students who stood with friends gave lower 
estimates of the steepness of the hill. And the longer the friends had known each other, the less steep the hill appeared. Well – What Are Friends for? A Longer Life.”
- NYTimes.com
Friendship is a complex (not complicated) thing.
Have you ever noticed that the best pictures of friends they are always side by side?
Equal. In balance. Supporting. Whatever words you want to put to it.
But those pictures are just snapshots into the true power of friendships.
For the best friendships are like any great relationship.
Sometimes one is leading. Sometimes one is following. Sometimes side by side.
Friends can get ahead to show you the way. Or to maybe pull you through some moment. And sometimes they follow to see where you will take them.
And it is a balance. And a powerful balance.
And even better. When they are at your side life’s hills just don’t seem as steep. Or as daunting. I often think if you truly have great friends you become more powerful in life. You take more chances. You do more things.
Why? Because you feel safer in a way. You always have a kind of safety net. Friends can make us a little more fearless in life. Or maybe they allow us to face our fears a little better.
And you can face your personal fears and never have to tell your friends your fears.
Do they care? Sure.
Do they care? Well no. that too.
Because sometimes the power of friends is that they don’t need to know. They don’t need to know all your fears. They may not even need to know your desires or ambitions.
All they need to know is where you are. And where you go. So at some point they can show up.
And like in all those great pictures.
Great friends just seem to be there standing beside you at just the right moments. The moment when the camera takes the picture. The moments when life take your picture.
We are smaller people without friends.
“Without friends, you’re like a book that nobody bothers to pick up.”
- psychology of women quarterly
It is true. We are like a great book gathering dust if we don’t have these friends of ours. I have written before that everyone has a story to tell. Great friends don’t really want to hear the story. They want to be part of the story.
That is why part of your story is those snapshots with friends by your side.
“You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what’s a life, anyway? We’re born, we live a little while, we die. A spider’s life can’t help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone’s life can stand a little of that.”
- Charlotte’s Web
I guess in the end the power of friends is the honest partnership. The inevitable truth that comes with those who sometimes lead, sometimes follow, sometimes walk by your side … and never questioning the balance. Just understanding the power.
Life is messy. Friendships don’t make it any less messy. They just seem to make it easier to put up with the mess.
It is maybe you cry I cry. You laugh I laugh. You fight I fight. You think I think. You worry I worry.
And I jump off a bridge. And you get a boat and save my ass.
That is the power of friends.
the wall
Jul 11th
So. This is a Contemporary Security job (that security job I had in college) lesson.
To tell you the conclusion the lesson is practice makes perfect (and try that lesson out on a short attention span 19 year old college boy). Yeah. This is actually a lesson from when I was a kid in bright yellow shirt with unfathomable power in a clipboard with names on it and the ability to beat the crap out of someone if I really felt like they deserved it. Oh. And I got to hear a lot of great music and see some great bands at the same time.
So. While you have probably heard the practice makes perfect thought a zillion times before … try out this story as maybe a different way of learning it.
In my professional life I have always been a rehearse type of guy in business.
I cannot remember the last meeting/presentation I hadn’t written down what I wanted to say or plan out some things to say. And said those thoughts out loud rehearsing portions and how things sound. I have probably worn out paths in my carpets walking around talking out loud practicing.
I think a lot of people believe I think fairly well on my feet but the reality is I have thought and thought and … well … thought and rehearsed things in my head a variety of ways and times prior.
So. Where did this get instilled in me? (because I haven’t found one person who actually likes it)
I give credit to The Wall. That would be Pink Floyd’s The Wall.
In my college security job there were just some things you sucked up and did. I was backstage supervisor (I got to supervise the gate for everyone to get in and out of backstage standing with a clipboard with the power to say “you cannot enter.” Heady stuff for a kid).
But.
To do that job meant I had to attend rehearsals for shows, in this case, all three rehearsals for The Wall show (which proceeded the 7 straight nights of shows at the LA Sports Arena). Okay. Let me be clear. That means I saw and heard The Wall show 10 times (I see inflatable pigs in nightmares sometimes).
But here is the deal.
While the band practiced parts of songs on occasion there were full rehearsals. From the first note to the last. Screw ups and all. And this was the trickiest choreography of all. That stupid wall and the movies were set to the music (so Pink Floyd guys may do some different things on stage but they had to have the timing of the playing pretty much the same).
The show culminates in a moment midway where David Gilmour is playing Comfortably Numb at the top of The Wall just as the last blocks are being placed.
(it was very cool by the way and David Gilmour has a wonderful playing style … oh, a side note … I didn’t write this but this summarizes why Comfortably Numb remains an awesome song to listen to “There’s something that Gilmour can do with his guitar that so many of the others can’t – speak to me. The solo in “Comfortably Numb” isn’t just notes being played, it isn’t just fingers moving up and down the board. It’s Gilmour’s version of poetry, of resonance and of emotion. It’s singing without the words. What some artists can do with their voices, Gilmour can do with his guitar and that is never more evident than on the last minutes of “Comfortably Numb”, when Gilmour wraps up all the angst and sadness, the loneliness and emptiness of the song and emotes with his guitar. Each note is like a little pinprick in your heart.” I couldn’t have said this better).
Anyway. All three rehearsals banged their way thru the stage set up note by note getting it right. And if the concert ended up being maybe 2 ½ hours long the rehearsals could be 4 ½ hours long. Maybe more.
Here is the deal.
Opening night. The show and the music were perfectly in sync. And while the rehearsals were fun to watch it took on a completely different level when all of a sudden the arena went from 25 random spectators and the band doodling around in dolfin shorts (ok. Maybe that was Wham!) to thousands of people enthralled with this musical logistical extravaganza.
It kinda sent a shiver down my spine.
I can’t even imagine the thrill the band had that night as it all unfolded as planned (and rehearsed).
Bands make it look so easy I think we sometimes forget all the work they do beforehand to get it right (on a side note. probably the coolest rehearsal I ever worked was Journey’s before an LA Coliseum arena concert where Steve Perry sat on the sound table beside me singing in a wireless mike watching the band work thru Lovin Touchin Squeezin and the light guys worked out the light switches on stage).
Anyway. Pink Floyd. They had 7 shows (plus the three rehearsals).
You know. They could have worked their way into a groove. Nope. 3 full rehearsals and rocked it from note one on show one. By maybe by night three I could tell you without seeing the stage where they were in building that stupid Wall by what was playing.
And, yes, by night seven I wasn’t comfortably numb.
Just numb.
And tempted to shoot myself I was so tired of it. But also by the last show I could tell you exactly what was going to happen not by the music but by what time it was. The band wasn’t looking at a clock but in their heads they knew exactly how much time they had. This was rehearsed and amazing.
And, oh by the way, it didn’t look “practiced or stiff” (which is the typical argument young people have for not wanting to rehearse). Instead, because they knew it so well they could relax and figure out where they could ad lib a little.
Despite the numbness at the end of it I saw the value of rehearsing. And I never lost that lesson I collected at that time. I figured if Pink Floyd was doing it sure as hell wasn’t too good for me.
It is interesting. All those bands do it. You may not realize it but it is driven by pride in their work. They want you to recognize the important stuff – their music – and rehearsing insures nothing stupid gets in the way of that.
It is interesting. All those great speakers in business do it. You may not realize it but it is driven by pride in their work. They want you to recognize the important stuff – the ideas – and rehearsing insures nothing stupid gets in the way of that.
I love music. I love what goes into creating music. And by watching closely I learned to love taking care of the background details and preparation necessary to be sure people got to enjoy the music. That is why I rehearse even to this day. I love words. And I love ideas. And I love taking care of them. And rehearsing is one way to take care of something I love. Sounds simple. But for some reason we fight it.
Next concert you see? Watch. Nothing hasn’t been rehearsed. And you enjoy it more because they did.
america
Jul 6th
So. For the 4th (well. it would have been the fourth except my site still wasn’t fixed in the 48 hour ‘guesstimate’ so now I am doing the 4th post on not the 4th) I wanted to talk about America.
Ok. Maybe rather just the attitude of what makes America America.
Kinda the thing that keeps us going and doing and pisses a lot of other countries off because it is perceived as arrogance (and I would imagine that is part of the attitude … some bad comes with the good).
Anyway. There is a whole new thing in the branding world called “nation branding.” In fact when I first started my site I did a post on the “rebranding of Nigeria.” I think Switzerland, Slovenia and several other countries have done ‘nation branding’ campaigns. It is interesting because when I was at J. Walter Thompson and we discussed branding we had an amazing presentation we would give ending with what we suggested was the greatest brand story – America (or the United States of America). Combination of culture and constitution and leaders guiding the ‘brand’ through critical transition moments to insure the ‘brand’ crossed generations and maintained its relevance.
But. I am not going to suggest in this post we do some ‘branding campaign.’ However I do believe we, as in “we the people,” would do well to remember our brand. Oh. And by “we the people” I also include our leaders.
So. for the 4th I want to take a minute to talk about this brand, this country I am proud to be a part of, a country I believe is struggling a bit and a country which as a whole is stronger than its parts (if we would remind ourselves of this on occasion).
America is a doing country. It is our culture. It is our ethos.
In fact, in a somewhat arrogant, or adolescent way, we believe we ARE the original doing country.
We don’t want people telling us what to do and holding us to their standards.
We want to discover things and learn how to do things our own way.
And, you know what? That is awesome. And we should be remembering it and focusing on it and being ‘as one’ as a country.
Ok. So what do I mean by “doing?”
Well. If you want to see something done, just tell Americans it can`t be done.
Just say it`s impossible to fly to the moon, or no one can hit more than 61 home runs in a season, or run a mile in less than 4 minutes or create a handheld computer or even stuff 20 people into a phone booth. Dangle the undoable in front of Americans and you may as well consider it done.
When did this ‘doing’ culture begin?
When our forefathers came to America and viewed this huge undeveloped land.
Their first thought wasn’t “let’s take a nap.” It was “let’s get to work.”
We are doers.
We are workers.
And above this culture of doing we have a culture of how we act while doing built around an amazing democracy with a somewhat unique ability to maintain freedom of choice and expression in our doing and how we act.
Which means above all we are like ambitious teens.
We are the adolescent in a world of staid and unoriginal adults.
We rebelled against our parents in our youth (the British king) and, honestly, our rebellious spirit has never ended.
Our culture has adolescence traits:
- intense focus on the “now”
- dramatic mood swings
- a constant need for exploration and challenge to authority
- a fascination with extremes
- openness to change and reinvention
- a strong belief that mistakes warrant second chances.
Our culture contains the trappings of adolescence (Coke – the drink, Nike shoes, fast food, blue jeans, and loud, violent movies).
Even the people we love (celebrities and such) fascinate us in their resistance to growing up. They are forever young at heart, crazy, up one day and down the next, one day invincible, one day totally rejected – and they always come back. They are the “eternal adolescents” many Americans would love to be. Our celebrities are victorious through nonconformity.
We are America. A country 230+ years young. Our culture isn’t nearly as old as the French, Italian and German cultures (all of which existed long before the current nations of France, Italy, and Germany). We are adolescents in a world of adults.
But we are ambitious adolescents. And it has evolved as it did because the original settlers, and later the waves of immigrants who came to our shores, brought with them the necessary attitude of nonconformity necessary to not only “pick up and move” in the first place but also to survive the conditions of this vast country.
This included traits such as Puritanism, a strong work ethic, the belief that people deserve a second chance, and putting a premium on success all helped us to survive in this new world.
So maybe Nike was so successful because they captured the spirit of America within themselves: “Just do it.”
Think about it.
Our heroes are athletes, entrepreneurs, police officers, firefighters, and soldiers – all people who take action. We may respect thinkers, but we don’t celebrate them nearly as much as we do our action figures.
And as doers we have had to learn everything ourselves – through trial and error. Learning from our mistakes not only allowed us to survive, but also helped us to grow into a powerful and hugely successful country. We have been rewarded for our ability to pick ourselves up off the ground and do things better the second and third times.
Trying, failing, learning from our mistakes, and coming back stronger than ever is an essential part of the American archetype.
And doing is embodied not only in our 24/7bto do lists but in our attitude toward work.
Americans celebrate work and turn successful businesspeople into celebrities. Donald Trump and Bill Gates are pop stars. Stephen T. Covey, Jack Welch, and Lee Iacocca are mega-selling authors. Instead of great literature (I don’t count Patterson or Clancy as great literary options) our best-sellers include The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and Good to Great.
We associate work success as ways to get to know people, excite children, keep family going, or plan your future. Work can make you believe you have ‘made it’ in American culture.
As Clotaire Rapaille would say: the American Culture Code for work is WHO YOU ARE.
We seek so much meaning in our jobs. If our job feels meaningless, then “who we are” is meaningless as well. If we feel inspired by our job, if we believe that we are doing something worthwhile in our work, that belief bolsters our sense of identity (as a person and ultimately as a country).
Our work ethic is so strong because at the unconscious level, we equate work with who we are and we believe that if we work hard and improve our professional standing, we become better people and a better country.
So. When you read this (despite all your misgivings on how high an importance we attach to work) this explains why a high rate of unemployment creates such a struggle to American ethos. It attacks our inner being of who we are as a culture.
By the way, this doesn’t mean we are a culture only concerned with money.
Clearly, money signifies more to Americans than the means to buy things. It shows us how we’re doing, tells us how far we’ve come from impoverished poor roots. Money reminds you that your business is successful, that you’ve worked hard to get something, that you can fulfill your responsibilities, that you are appreciated, and that you are moving up to the next level.
So. Here is what I think.
We are a doing country. And things like unemployment and an ineffective government stop people from doing. And that strikes at the core of who we are and how we feel. It strikes at us emotionally maybe even more so than physically.
The truth is 80% of our life is emotion and only 20% is intellect (I made that truth up).
How we feel is something deeper and stronger and it’s that something inside that drives us as a ‘brand.’
And America doesn’t ‘feel’ right (or let’s say we are ‘unaligned’ on what we are all about).
The government is lost. Well. Maybe, most importantly, they cannot agree on what we should “do.” and their indecision is cutting us at our core.
Our leaders are not aligned.
Unemployment is high (which as noted unsettles us at the core).
Our soul is in doing.
We will find our way back by saying “let’s go to work” on something.
Something big.
Something … well … impossible.
Because in the end we are dreamers. We do because we dream … and dream big. Clotaire Rapaille also suggested this. He said that the American Culture Code for America is DREAM.
I don’t hesitate to say I love being an American. I won’t suggest I am not frustrated. I won’t suggest that I know the exact solution. I will suggest that if our leaders would remind themselves who we are culturally they would better serve us. Serve us in giving us an impossible assignment and let us go do it.
For in the end, for all the culture code speak and thoughts about what makes us happy, America is pretty simple. We make the impossible possible. And that is what makes America, well, America.
Happy 4th.
Note: I drew heavily upon Clotaire Rapaille’s Culture Code learnings but only used portions that I truly believed in and cut out the things that I don’t agree with him on.
being an explorer
Jun 25th
#3. Everything is interesting.
This is one of the most underrated thoughts in the world.
I hear so many people say ‘that doesn’t interest me.’ Or (in the work world) ‘I couldn’t work on that. It doesn’t interest me.’
Well. In my little wacky corner of the world and how I view things everything and everyone has something interesting to be heard. Or explored.
I always told people in my groups at work when we started working on a clients business to find the employee within the organization who has been there the longest, the most loyal, the most whatever of the organization. I didn’t care if it was someone in accounting or the mailroom or in administrative work. Find someone who loves the company they work at. I don’t care if it is an actuarial (which I would slit my own wrists before working as one) or plumber or hardware inventory clerk.
How can you not find something interesting within someone who has that kind of passion for what they do?
Anyway. #3 is my favorite but whoever created this list did a fine job showing what it takes to be an explorer (everything on this list).
Bottom line. Being an explorer means understanding everyone and everything has a story to tell.
Being an explorer means paying attention for that story.
Being an explorer means being modest enough to recognize you don’t know it all. In fact you recognize you know maybe 1% of everything there is to know.
Well. I guess to truly enjoy life to its fullest you should be an explorer.
And now you have an awesome “how to” guide.
duffy the photographer
Jun 19th
So. This is a nod to a great professional who passed away recently, an opportunity to make a point on being an amateur versus being a professional and an excuse to show some neat images.
Duffy. Here is a name most people won’t recognize.
Throughout my career I have been fortunate to see some examples of photography brilliance and the work that goes into getting “that picture” as well as the innate ability to capture “something” that just cannot be explained until it has actually been done.
Photography is one of those things because we all do and we all have that one spectacular picture, that one that captures “something,” in our photo album. This is the photo where someone inevitably says “is that a professional picture?” and doing what these professional people do becomes tantalizingly attainable. We think “well, it cannot be that hard.”
Well. It can be. And the best are the best for a reason. I would imagine ‘best’ is often in the nuance. Sure. I am not talking about the guy who does all the wedding photography who knows how to frame something and gets the right angles (although that is something that begins the difference between pro and amateur) but I am talking about the professional who has the ability to capture the spectacular – in a regular basis.
So who is Brian Duffy? His photographs helped define the mood of the Swinging Sixties.
Together with David Bailey and Terence Donovan they formed what was called “The Black Trinity”, a trio of photographers who helped shape the image of London in the 1960s with their striking portraits of actors, models and musicians. Duffy created some of the most iconic images of all time including the cover for David Bowie’s 1973 album “Aladdin Sane”.
Probably the main reason I decided to write about Duffy was he also had some character.
“Cantankerous was a word made for Duffy, it was just his character. You always knew it was never going to be dull with him, because he was always going to pick an argument somewhere down the line. He had that Irish madness about him, he was very quick-witted, and the banter held us three together. Even though he could be grumpy, I remember laughing all the time with him.”
Cantankerous … or maybe an eclectic approach to life seems to go with the great. Possibly a little eccentric (I do have a post on eccentricity coming up).
Oh. And. Controversial.
A Brian Duffy quote: ‘Photography was dead by 1972′
And in 1979 he burned nearly all of his negatives in a fit of anger after an argument with his staff. Although he apparently had a bad temper for everything in this case it was advertising clients who brought out the ‘bad’ when they started insisting he do what they wanted him to do.
Awesome.
Any creative person reading this will be reading and going “boy, I have been there and I wish I had done the same.”
So. Duffy came to photography through art school and was pretty amazing at the theoretical (seeing what could be) and a provocateur (taking chances and trying different things).
But I guess mostly he was an experimenter trying out techniques, poses, situations, everything. In what he called the “insecure-making” world of photography, he says, you have to prove yourself anew with every picture, because anybody can use a camera.
So Duffy experimented, until he felt the scope for experimentation had ran out. By the 1970s, he was doing most of his work in advertising – with people he didn’t like, on briefs that bored him. “The more I got into it, the more I realized I was hanging out with things I was diametrically opposed to. And they wanted me to keep a civil tongue up their rectum.”
(note: this is when burned everything).
How good was he?
He was one of just a handful of photographers to shoot two Pirelli calendars, and was credited for his inventive approach to fashion photography. His work also spanned reportage and advertising, including two award-winning campaigns for Benson & Hedges and Smirnoff in the 1970s. He shot three David Bowie album covers, including Aladdin Sane. The story of his career was the subject of the BBC documentary The Man Who Shot the 60s.
But more than anything he is an example of professional photography and photographers. I would also suggest here that he is an example for pretty much ANY profession.
As he pointed out he took nothing for granted – he understood he would be measured by each photo he took and just because he HAD done something didn’t mean he was owed something. He also shows us that everyone can take one great picture and put it in their photo album to show but taking the ordinary day in and day out and making it something more than ordinary is the sign of a professional.
His photography had a style. And often it was in the nuance that made the ordinary extraordinary.
If you can do it become a professional photographer. But most of us should be content with the one or two we take in our lifetime and understand we cannot do what people like Duffy could do.
