Disruption Tour --- Run To Survive

When Being Too Good Becomes Bad

Brandautopsy.com

 Let’s pretend … you live in a small town, population 1,200. You operate a BBQ joint open only on Saturdays in this small town. The townsfolk describe your brisket as “transcendent meat.” By the early afternoon you’ve sold all 300 pounds of the meats you smoked. Your day is done and your customers are happy. Business is manageable, profitable, and more important, enjoyable. Then all of a sudden your unknown BBQ joint gets praised as BEST BBQ IN THE STATE. People now drive hours from all over the state to taste your BBQ and by 10am, all the meat you smoked has been sold. Then you start smoking 1,000 pounds of meat instead of your regular 300 pounds, but still sell out by mid-morning.

This isn’t pretend, this is real. Snow’s BBQ in Lexington, TX was anointed by Texas Monthly as the best BBQ joint in Texas. Since being lauded, Snow’s BBQ has been swamped with out-of-towners. The first Saturday after being featured in Texas Monthly magazine, I made the trip out to Lexington, TX to taste the ”transcendent meat” at Snow’s. No go. All gone. I was too late, even though I arrived at 10:45am. As Snow BBQ’s pit master, Tootsie Tomanetz, says, all this attention has “blowed our business out of proportion.” When faced with a similar situation where demand outstrips supply, most businesses would welcome the opportunity to blow their business out of proportion and simply expand to better meet demand. Expansion is the easy answer. The more difficult answer is to not expand. Snow’s BBQ doesn’t want to expand because its owner, Kerry Bexley, worries that his and Tootsie’s passion for their Saturday BBQ gig will dry up under all the demands that come with being a bigger business. These are perplexing times for Bexley and Snow’s BBQ. Sure, business is booming and the attention is good for the ego. However, is being too good actually bad for business? More out-of-town customers mean fewer folks in Lexington can enjoy the meats at their hometown BBQ spot. Tootsie is having to dramatically ramp up her early morning meat smoking duties, which adds intense pressure for everyone involved. It’s not uncommon for Snow’s BBQ to sell out of their meats by 9am which means loads of customers arriving after 9am leave disappointed. Again, is being too good actually bad for business? Kerry Bexley told the Austin American-Statesman he’ll consider shutting down the business if it becomes just that … a business. “My concern,” says Bexley “is we don’t get so big that she [Tootsie] doesn’t enjoy it. But when it does, well, we’ll quit.” Wow, that’s a refreshing take ... a business that puts passion and enjoyment before profit and growth.

Relaxed Begets Relaxed

In twenty years, I would feel comfortable writing this note to you. But according to my Sensei (teacher) it may be beneficial for you to hear any epiphanies that I have had in my Aikido lessons so far.

And we're not talking about the manifestation of a divine being kind of epiphany. (That would be one heck of an Aikido class.) This is the epiphany that is a sudden rise of understanding during an ordinary experience.

The epiphany?

Relaxed begets relaxed (even when you're being attacked).

The root of this thought is that like attracts like, the essence of the law of attraction. (Which has exceptions I might add. Like when the most awesomest girls go for those total losers or when the positive side of a magnet repels a matching positive magnet.)

A-N-Y-W-A-Y.......

I heard about the martial art of Aikido years ago. A friend, Joseph, had me lunge at him and before I knew what was going on, I was looking at the ceiling. This was a first hand education of using the energy of an oncoming force to your advantage.

The three basics of Aikido are to blend with your attacker's force, disrupt his balance and maintain your center of gravity the whole time. This is easy enough to understand but much more difficult to convert into one's own human instinctual experience.

Our fear based instinct kicks in when you find yourself being attacked by a person or in the crosshairs of an unfortunate situation. We adults have learned to push back against the oncoming force, which pushes us off balance and challenges our control.

The epiphany came when Lynn Sensei had us, her students, relax when an attacker would lunge. At first it was difficult.

I would tense up and be focused on the fist coming at my head. With some slow practice at first and a marginal increase in speed, instinct to tense converted into relaxation at speed. By learning to relax it became obvious that the attacker would also relax.

Think of the author of "The Man Who Listens to Horses," Monty Roberts who said it this way, "When it comes to horses, if you act like you've got fifteen minutes, it's going to take all day. If you act like you've got all day, it'll take you fifteen minutes."

As children we learn fear from our environment and caregivers. As we "mature," fear becomes our greatest stumbling block. In my Aikido class the one guy I fear the most is a 72 year-old black belt, Dr. Pascoe.

Whenever he is my partner in class he adds a little extra technique stopping just short of breaking my nose or dislocating my elbow. Like all good Aikido practitioners. He knows how to neutralize a situation.

One time he did a move on me and I said, "Dr. Pascoe, when you're 92 I'm going to kick you're a**."

In the next twenty years I hope to learn the instinct of relaxing in all situations.

Until next week it’s full speed ahead,

Vince Poscente
New York Times Bestselling Author
Speaker Hall of Fame and Olympian
July 9, 2008

Forget Gen Y, What Will We See with Gen Z?

Profy.com

This week has seen a great deal of nattering on about Generation Y: how the interact with the web, how they are going to solve all the world's problems with no coherent business model, and what they expect out of social networks.

To be honest, I'm old. Very old. I'm Generation X. And when someone suggested that Generation X was defined by the Web 1.0 bubble when it comes to tech, I see much of the same "can't happen to us" mentality in Gen Y that we had in the late 90s. Much like we did, Gen Y will have to learn their lessons the hard way, and they, too, will see another generation of users even more tech-savvy than they are come up behind. It's with both pride and terror that I realize I'm raising members of that generation.

Gen Y has been fond of saying that they grew up with computers. While I wheedled my way into as much time cranking out line after line of BASIC on my school's single TRS-80, Gen Y doesn't remember a time without PCs everywhere they turned. But Gen Z takes it a step further: they have instant access to everything everywhere they turn.

My children are growing up in an era of hyper-connectivity. At my son's kindergarten open house today, I saw at least one parent on a Blackberry while taking the tour of the room and the work that the children have done. If I need a phone number or directions, they immediately grab my phone for me. They don't understand why we get phone books delivered once a year, because they've never seen one being used. All photos are digital and sent at the click of a button. When my son surprised us today by reading books aloud to us at school, he thought nothing of my quick video on my phone sent to his grandparents, who are out of town this week. My eight-year-old is already better at social networking than I am; she belongs to more social networks than I do, can move around a new web site much faster than I can, and when I asked her to get her dad for me at work one day, she went right to IM. She wants to know when she can have her own Twitter account (I have no idea WHY she wants one, since I'm sure her friends have no idea what it is), and already understands the allure of the closed beta, lording it over her friends if Mommy gets access to something cool with an invite.

Obviously, living in my household, the kids are probably being exposed to a little more than your average family (my oldest had her own blog when she was three), but even among her friends whose parents share a single email inbox (the thought of having only one inbox myself makes me want to hide under the covers until the nightmare passes), the kids are all hanging out on Webkinz and Disney Fairies and pestering their parents about how old they have to be to get a Facebook account. While I was horrified at the demo for Disney eXtreme Digital, I'm willing to bet that she already wins hands down in a multitasking contest with Louis Gray and his "Continuous Parallel Attention." While most of us are still learning how to manage the firehose, these kids are growing up with it, lapping it up like a baby's bottle. Something tells me they won't be taking the same time we do for the navel-gazing. They'll just want to get on with it. And for all our use of Web 2.0, and analysis of it, to them it will be as outdated as a typewriter.

Image used with permission. All rights reserved.

How to Be More Positive

ProBlogger.com

@SmallFishMedia asks about ‘”How To Be More Positive On A Daily Basis”

What a great question and one I never expected to write about here at ProBlogger - it’s a little off topic but as I was asked it - here goes.

Firstly, I’m no expert on being positive. I’m a bit of an optimist (my wife complains that I can turn any situation into a positive one) though and like to be around other positive people.

For me it comes down to a few things. The first is being intentional about finding the positive things in your life. My parents taught me to be thankful and when I don’t feel thankful to find things to be thankful for anyway and to ‘practice being thankful’. Just like you don’t become good at anything without practice, sometimes being positive is something you need to learn to do and practice. Start with the small things - tell others about the, pray about them (if that’s your thing) but look for them and celebrate them in some way.

The second thing I’d say is to learn to turn problems into opportunities. My Marketing lecturer used to challenge us when we did projects to identify our weaknesses in business and turn them into strengths and to turn our threats into opportunities. This is somewhat counter intuitive but it’s a powerful thing when you do it right.

What do you think? Positivity can be an great thing to have as a blogger - how do you keep yourself thinking positively?

ON THE GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS

from mashable.com

thegies writes hmmm...175 Billion spend on advertising in the US in 2007 and $165 Billion being thrown in the trash or into landfills due to ineffectiveness.  I wonder what a difference reallocating this money would make to many social issues? Check out http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=323832500

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

The Economist has a timely cover story on the current global food price inflation and resulting unrest.  Here's how they describe the harsh human reality:

"...by almost any measure, the human suffering is likely to be vast. In El Salvador the poor are eating only half as much food as they were a year ago. Afghans are now spending half their income on food, up from a tenth in 2006.

On a conservative estimate, food-price rises may reduce the spending power of the urban poor and country people who buy their own food by 20% (in some regions, prices are rising by far more). Just over 1 billion people live on $1 a day, the benchmark of absolute poverty; 1.5 billion live on $1 to $2 a day.

Bob Zoellick, the president of the World Bank, reckons that food inflation could push at least 100m people into poverty, wiping out all the gains the poorest billion have made during almost a decade of economic growth."

In particular the article does a good job on outlining the myriad market forces than have brought us to this point, and an cogent examination of how market forces may get us out.  As the article points out:

"In the short run, humanitarian aid, social-protection programmes and trade policies will determine how well the world copes with these problems. But in the medium term the question is different: where does the world get more food from?

If the extra supplies come mainly from large farmers in America, Europe and other big producers, then the new equilibrium may end up looking much like the old one, with world food depending on a small number of suppliers and—possibly—trade distortions and food dumping."

But the longer-term answers are not that clear, given the complexity of the many disparate global trends that are coming together at an inopportune time. We need to understand the issues and the problems before we can start to figure out the opportunities and solutions.

Definitely worth a weekend read.

Who's Watching You at Work?

When they put in long hours, workers sometimes begin to see their
workplaces as something of a second home. They decorate the walls of
their cubicles or offices with pictures of loved ones, plants and an
assortment of personal memorabilia. When someone's spending 40, 50, 60
hours a week on the job, that feeling of home-away-from-home can extend
to use of electronic devices.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/62528.html

For those of you who observe Passover...

  For those of you who don't have the patience to sit thru' a full Seder:
   The Two-Minute Haggadah - A Passover Service for the Impatient.


    Opening prayers :
   Thanks, God, for creating wine. (Drink wine.)
   Thanks for creating produce. (Eat parsley.)

   Overview:
   Once we were slaves in Egypt. Now we're free. That's why we're doing this.

   Four questions:
   1.  What's up with the matzoh?
   2.  What's the deal with horseradish?
   3.  What's with the dipping of the herbs?
   4.  What's this whole slouching at the table business?

   Answers:
   1.  When we left Egypt, we were in a hurry. There was no time for making
decent bread.
   2.  Life was bitter, like horseradish.
   3.  It's called symbolism.
   4.  Free people get to slouch.

   A funny story:
   Once, these five rabbis talked all night, then it was morning. (Heat soup
now.)

   The four kinds of children and how to deal with them:
   Wise child - explain Passover.
   Simple child - explain Passover slowly.
   Silent child - explain Passover loudly.
   Wicked child - brow beat in front of the relatives.

   Speaking of children:
   We hid some matzoh. Whoever finds it gets five bucks

   The story of Passover:
   It's a long time ago. We're slaves in Egypt. Pharaoh is a nightmare. We
cry out for help. God brings plagues upon the Egyptians. We escape, bake
some matzoh. God parts the Red Sea. We make it through. The Egyptians
aren't so lucky. We wander 40 years in the desert, eat manna, get the
Torah, wind up in Israel, get a new temple, enjoy several years without
being persecuted again. (Let brisket cool now.)

   The 10 Plagues:
   Blood, Frogs, Lice-you name it.

   The singing of "Dayenu":
   If God had gotten us out of Egypt and not punished our enemies, it
would've been enough. If He'd punished our enemies and not parted the Red
Sea, it would've been enough. If He'd parted the Red Sea (remove gefilte
fish from refrigerator now.) etc.

   Eat matzoh. Drink more wine. Slouch.

   Thanks again, God, for everything.

   SERVE MEAL

   Say Grace. Drink more wine. Sing some more songs. Try to stay awake. Who
knows one? Who knows two through thirteen? Dad bought a goat for two
zuzim. Everyone beats up every one until God steps in.

   Go to sleep.

   Do it again another night.

Living With Less: 8 Reasons to Embrace the Simple Life

 

Being able to acquire bigger and better things in life is not making us any happier. In fact, you may be surprised to hear that our happiness levels peaked in 1957. According to David Wann, co-author of Affluenza: The All Consuming Epidemic, the most affluent countries around the world are the same ones experiencing the most stress. Despite the fact we live in larger homes and have more gadgets than our parents ever dreamed of, depression and stress are very common problems.

Our addiction to consumption and getting the biggest, newest or trendiest thing is taking us further away from what really brings deep satisfaction to our lives. We have reached a place in our evolution where time is becoming a precious and valued commodity. Our souls are craving a simplicity with the underlying want of feeling less pressure and less stress in our lives.

If you are not yet convinced of the value in living a simple life, the following are 8 reasons why you should consider embracing a simpler life:

1. A satisfying lifestyle becomes your priority

Your family and lifestyle becomes the priority as opposed to being focused on earning more, buying more and looking after more stuff. You start thinking about what’s important to you and not what others or the media say is important to you. You create a thoughtful and meaningful lifestyle that offers satisfaction to the core of your being.

2. You now value the gift of time

Time is now considered a precious gift that is preferred to be spent in a more relaxed and meaningful way to the individual. You prefer a smaller home, saving you the time and energy demands that comes with a larger home such as maintenance, cleaning and repairing. You now only work the hours to suit your new thoughtful lifestyle and eliminate time wasters such as TV to get a deeper sense of value from your time.

3. Your stuff no longer demands your attention

All things filling your home demand your attention, constantly. You need time and energy to buy them in the first place. Once in your home they require to be used, not used, cleaned, stored, taken out, put away, re-arranged, thought about again, repaired, re-organized into better storage and insured. You then need to make a choice at some stage in the future if you still want to keep them, give them away or throw them out. This all adds up to a whole lot of thinking, worrying, time and energy being directed towards your stuff which, of course, takes you away from your new simpler lifestyle.

4. Achieve more with less

When living a simpler life you have less things to worry about, less distractions and less energy pulls and drains. Your pace of life is gentler and your thinking clearer. You now have the time to gain a deeper sense of self and therefore a greater connection to your true goals in life. You are able to focus more of your energies more intently towards a few key goals, which actually produces greater results.

5. The law of diminishing returns

The more you have of something or the more you experience a pleasure, the less you notice and enjoy it over time. The initial rush of enjoyment when buying something new gradually declines with frequent exposure. This is certainly true with children who are overwhelmed with excitement at first, only to find the novelty quickly wears off. Buying more stuff to make you feel better or as quick pick me up does not offer any lasting satisfaction.

6. Reduces money stress

Living in a smaller home just big enough for your needs saves you plenty of money which, in turn, reduces your money stress. You are now no longer worried about the fluctuation in mortgage interest rates. It is cheaper to heat and cool, you need less cleaning products and you can’t over spend on furniture, decorations and stuff as you only buy accordingly to your limited storage space. A smaller yet comfortable home also brings the family closer together physically and emotionally.

7. Your self worth is no longer connected to the stuff you have accumulated

You begin to realize that your true self-worth and what inspires you to jump out of bed in the morning has nothing to do with how much stuff you own. An addiction to consumption doesn’t satisfy the soul. You start to question your motives behind what has driven you to accumulate so much in the past.

8. Conscious Consumption

You release your attachment from addictive consumption and switch to conscious consumption. The simpler you live the more conscious you become about your spending choices. You value each purchase. You have a greater awareness as to the consumable items environmental impact and effect on sustainable living. You buy wisely with the bigger picture in mind.

Carole Fogarty is a writer, passionate blogger and facilitator of Womens Rejuvenation Retreats in Bali. Her blog The Health Living Lounge is all about holistic and inspirational living. Similar articles include: The Emotional Cost of Clutter, The Seven Deadly Sins of Work Life Balance and Clutter Busting Game: Act As If You Are About to Move Overseas.

Curious Clues

The big decisions are the toughest. Should you get married? Should you get divorced? Should you make the investment of time or money? Should you jump off the bridge because your friend told you to? (That was for you Mom...)

Four years ago I had a big decision as far as author's go.

Let me set the stage. It was the very day I had announced to my family that The Ant and the Elephant had gone to press.

The romance of holding your own book for the first time is significant but signing off on the final draft is profound. It's a big decision. Many authors will admit that they never really know when a book is done. It's the author that's done. It's a sensation of feeling like you can't possibly edit anymore and hoping for the best.

If you've read The Ant and the Elephant you're familiar with the three main characters: Adir the ant, a metaphor for the conscious mind, Elgo the elephantine subconscious mind and Brio the owl with all the answers to life's questions.

As the sun was at the highest in the sky, I walked into the kitchen and interrupted everyone's lunch.

It's done. The book is off to press. Eighteen months, fourteen full edits, sixty-five readers, two editors and I still had a feeling of uncertainty.

Look! said my wife pointing past my shoulder.

Standing on the floor of our nook was an owl. His curious, unblinking eyes looked up at us. He simply flew in the open sliding glass doors and stood there. An auspicious guest to say the least.

Coincidence or a clue?

Well... when was the last time an owl flew in your house the day you just finished a book featuring said nocturnal creature?

What did it mean? Is there supposed to be meaning in events like this? Does finding meaning make any difference?

Maybe.

Fast-forward to today. The Ant and the Elephant is translated into seven languages with over 103,000 books in print.

Regularly I hear stories about the impact the book has. Fed Ex uses it as part of a leadership development program. Cory M. said it practically saved his father's life when things were most dire. Chris L. said his mom recommended the book for a relative going through a divorce. The list goes on and on.

Chances are you have a project that you are either facing or avoiding. The bigger the project, the more daunting the prospect of engaging in it.

Waiting for a sign is not the way. If it is losing weight don't wait for Richard Simmons to sashay into your house for a private aerobics class. If it's starting a business a bucket of money isn't likely to fall down the chimney. If it is restructuring your division, Jack Welch probably isn't about to call.

Making a decision is your next, essential step. Engage in it and embrace it. Then take the clues your handed and use them to your advantage.

Even if the clues don't fly in your door.

Until next week it’s full speed ahead,

Vince Poscente
New York Times Bestselling Author

Endless Happiness is Dangerous and Boring

by Vince Poscente

How's that for an attention grabber? Dr. Eric Wilson in his book Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy concludes happy types that run from sorrow are cheating themselves from a richer, more creative life.

Dr. Wilson states, I really feel strongly that Americans' addiction to happiness is dangerous. In some ways it's leading to a kind of superficiality and vapidity that cuts away a lot of creativity.

Years ago I had the chance to hear Tony Campolo speak in his home city, Philadelphia. As a Caucasian Pastor in a predominantly African American congregation he was a dude that was bound to have a unique perspective. As an aside, he ended up being the expert who counseled Bill Clinton in the aftermath of his Monica scandal. (Wouldn't you have loved to be a fly on the wall for that conversation? Well Tony I really don't know why I did what I did. - Well Bill, I'd say President Johnson doesn't need to be making any more executive decisions for starters.)

Let's get back on track. The thing that caught my attention in Campolo's speech was when he asked everyone, Parents, what do you want your kids to be? In a chorus of agreement, one word was fed back in remarkable unison. Happy!

Happy? he said. No, it's not happy. You can take a pill and be happy. Happy is something of a temporary state. It's fulfilled. We want our kids to be fulfilled.

Dr. Wilson's point is congruent. He feels standing against happiness opens the door to for joy. Joy grows out of melancholy whereas happiness is a cursory state. The polarity of joy and sorrow, to Dr. Wilson, is a more complete, authentic human experience. Just as the natural interplay between opposites of day and night and up and down.

Seeking fulfillment in our fast paced world can be challenging. The Age of Speed has us looking for quick fixes. But let's not be so swift that we vilify instant gratification. If something can improve your experience of life then it can be a good thing.

Consider the BlackBerry for example. The seeming addiction some people have to their PDA can be downright destructive. Hey, we're having lunch here. Do you think you could put the CrackBerry away for 30 minutes? But, if it's used in another scenario to allow more time for the significant things in life, it's a positive tool.

The idea behind pushing against happiness has to do with the broader pursuit of a deeper, richer and more vital life. Being fulfilled truly is the higher order of the human condition.

Zipping past sadness with a pill or the amazingly effective Hagen Daaz coffee ice cream can be a temporary solution. The lure of a beeping email or a frisky intern can be addictive distractions. Dear reader, a full life is not for the timid.

The valuable alternative is to fully engage, embrace and harness those pesky melancholic moments on a path to greater fulfillment and joy.

Until next week it’s full speed ahead,

Vince Poscente
New York Times Bestselling Author
Speaker Hall of Fame and Olympian
March 19, 2008