Nine Lives

Retirement

I have noticed there are a lot of ways to retire. It seems that big company retirees are more likely to take a full retirement.  Of course my findings are based on my experience in Vero Beach, Florida, where retirees self select by moving here.  And I have noticed that young people dream about an early retirement, something I find hard to understand. People like me are not interested in a full retirement.  We have too much left to do and enjoy what we are doing.   I have been taking little pieces of retirement along the way.

I remember interviewing John Gardner for a film project and he became animated telling me about his new venture and latest book.  He was well into his 80's at the time.  Russ Ackoff is near 90 and continues speaking, writing and consulting. W. Edwards Demming and Peter Druker were active into their 90's. I met Mrs. Druker last year at a conference in Sydney honoring Peters work. She made a keynote address, served on panels and attended every session. She was 96. Francis Hesslebein was at that conference also and had a full speaking schedule.  She doesn't talk about her age but conventional wisdom places her at 93.  And then there is my daughters father in law.  He accepted a two year appointment to conduct for the Japanese Symphony when he was 82.  He recently renewed that appointment.

So while some of my neighbors in Vero wonder about my sanity when I they discover I have just launched a new business and have a full speaking and writing schedule I simply respond, "Hey, I'm only 66."  I will stay productive as long as my health allows me to do so. Retirement is for young people.

Pack Animals

Dogs are pack animals.  My dog Bo, Golden, wants to meet every dog he sees. We sometimes take him to doggy day care where he is put in a large yard with 30 dogs of all breeds. After a little sniffing and barking they get along just fine.  Bo likes to hang out with little dogs.  To see a 90 pound Golden hanging with a three pound, whatever it is called, is a real stitch.

When I walk Bo in the morning we go out early.  Not a lot of dogs to meet at 6AM in the dark.  But when we do encounter another dog on a leash, we are usually invited to sniff.  Invariable the other dog owner introduces his or her dog and I respond by saying, "This is Bo."  We never introduce ourselves and we never sniff each other. Bo is a pack animal.  What am I?

Blog on Blog

Last night I told Janell that I was drying up as a blogger.  I didn't feel I had anything to say that was of value.  The critic in my head was running overtime.

Today is a new day.  As Bo sniffed the base of a stop sign in the dark this morning the ideas appeared in succession.  Write about getting older.  It is something we all hope we do.  Write about FISH! stories and customer service.  Use the Jungle Club (the gym I belong to in Vero Beach) as an example.  Write about condo life and the fact that in 45 units there are 45 stories.  Write about arrogance.  And I thought to myself, Where did that come from?

Was this my critic telling me that blogging is an act of arrogance.  After all, what do I have to say that is of value?  Or was this simply a call to think about blogging.  My thoughts drifted to blogging.

Why am I blogging? I write for fun and profit anyway.  Why spend time blogging?
What do I want to blog about?
For whom am I blogging?  Is this about me or about you?
Do I want to promote my blog?  Does it matter if no one reads my blog?

Why am I blogging?   At first I considered elegant answers  including creative expression and  contributions to  the  knowledge base.  But after some consideration I decided that I blog because it feels good to write in a different format and when I stop getting satisfaction from the act and art of blogging I will stop.  I do believe I have something to say about the subjects I consider, but that is secondary.

What do I want to blog about? I think the categories listed cover the topics for which I have energy.

For whom am I blogging?  I am blogging for myself, for my readers, for those who are interested in my topics and for those who hear me speak and want more contact.

Do I want to promote my blog? Probably not.  I will promote our web site and the blog is found there.  But I will not promote the blog itself other than to those with whom I have a connection.  That way the energy is natural and I know for whom I am writing.

So for now I will continue to blog.

Travels with Bethy

I am going to take what happened in the previous blog as a sign.  In all honesty I was not aware of the depth of feeling that still lived inside of me.  I was about to say that I had decided to move to a more dispassionate place and write about my travels and the lessons learned about change and natural energy in the way an academic might approach the subject.  Having been an academic, that is an approach I understand.  It seems my soul and spirit are not in favor of that style.  So the great revelation from my morning walk is in fact only a provocation for a deeper revelation that took place as I wrote the previous entry.

My next book will have the following working title:

Travels with Beth: How the author of FISH found life and business lessons in the most unusual places.

The Morning Walk

Quality of life for me includes a morning walk.  This is convenient in Vero Beach, our permanent residence, as there are many quiet streets that my dog Bo and I can wander.  We like the hour just before sunrise, beginning in pitch black and finishing about the time the sun comes up over the ocean.

Bo doesn't talk much and there are only a few other human beings out at that time so I often drift into my creative state.  You know, that place where you are thinking about nothing and that is just the opening for which the brain waits so it can deliver an idea.  Something pops every morning.

This morning the first thing that popped was the idea to write about my morning walk in this blog.  I have a category titled writing and the morning walk is a key part of the creative process that feeds my writing.  Once my brain presented that idea and my conscious mind accepted it as useful, I returned to the silence that is so nurturing to the soul.

Then it happened.  A quick thought and a decision that will alter the course of the year.  I decided it is time to write the book that has been accumulating over the last six years.  In my mind I thought of it two ways.  One, "Lessons from travels with FISH!", and two, "Lessons from travels with Bethy."

Travels with FISH would be accurate, interesting and honest since most of my travel over the last six years has been connected to the book I wrote and co-authored called, FISH! A Bold Approach to Sales and Service.  But such a title would be problematic as Charthouse International owns the marks.  When I wrote the book I didn't know what a mark was and was operating on trust.  A bit naive on my part and I have paid a big price because of the naive belief that others would live up to their promise.  Success has a way of altering the meaning of giving your word.  But enough of that.  It is what it is whether I like it or not.  So travels with FISH is out of the question.

Well how about "Travels with Bethy"?  My daughter Beth was taken from me when a drunk driver smashed into her car in 2000.  Much of my work has been dedicated to Beth.  She died while I was writing FISH Sticks and the book incorporated and was dedicated to her.  She has touched audiences around the world with her plea that each of us realized that "Life is too precious to just be passing through". (pause)

I was just about to write that I had decided that "Travels with Bethy" probably didn't work either when I noted that I should put the year she was killed in the first sentence of the previous paragraph. I couldn't remember if it was 2000 or 2001.  I started sobbing more deeply than I have for two or three years.  I couldn't remember the year she died!

I am going to take a time out and will finish this later.  That is what is so cool about a blog.  It is patient.

Mind Mapping: Preparing the brain to remember

I have recently posted this article on brainready.com due to a high level of requests.  I am presenting it hear for interested readers of this blog.
Readers of BrainReady.com are well aware of the benefits of a brain healthy lifestyle.  And many of you, like me, are particularly interested in making sure your memory is functioning as well as it can. In the next few paragraphs adopt a different perspective on your memory.  Rather than focusing on getting things out of your memory banks I want you to consider how you put things into your memory banks.

The way we learn affects how much and how long we remember what we have learned. Lets take a minute to review what we know about the brain as it relates to learning and memory.
➢    The brain remembers things because of the associations formed with other things.
➢    The more associations that are formed the more likely you will be able to recall a something later. (Even if some of the associations are weakened as a part of the aging process.)
➢    The associations can be with words, colors, images, smells, tastes, sounds, textures and emotions.  This is called synesthesia and synesthesia was covered in an earlier blog.
➢    The brain operates in a radiant rather than a linear manner.
➢    Much of learning is delivered in a linear and somewhat boring format that contains few of the elements necessary for optimal recall.

But there is a technique that operates in a manner consistent with the way the brain functions.  It is called Mind Mapping and it is the creation of Tony Buzan, a British writer and psychologist who has published dozens of books on the subject.  Tony is also a friend of mine who wrote the forward to my most recent book, CATS: The Nine Lives of Innovation. (Published by Management Press in Australia in 2007 and scheduled to be published by McGraw Hill in the rest of the world in January of 2009. Check my blog at www.topperformer.com for updates.)

Mind Mapping in brief is a radiant display of words, colors and images that has a central image and lines radiating from the central image.  The lines represent the associations and as the lines radiate out from the center, key words, color and images build a structure that conveys the meaning with 3% of the words it would take if you were using standard linear text.  A Mind Map is designed to be remembered because it presents information in a brain friendly manner.  A Mind Map is designed to be remembered; it can put all the information necessary for a full understanding of a subject on one page and in an interesting format.

Mind Maps can be used to organize the content of a book, a concept, a meeting or of your observations about a subject.  It can also be used in the creative process as a way to prepare to write, consider strategy or organize a speech. In a moment I will direct you to a couple of web sites where you can look at a variety of mind maps but first I will take you through a process I use all the time.

I like to speak without notes or PowerPoint and in order to do that I prepare with a Mind Map.  The subject of my talk takes the form of a central image.  Recently this has been a fish, a top hat or a cat given the nature of my recent books.  Then off of the central image I draw lines that are exactly the same length as the word I place on that line.  These key words close to the central image are the key themes of the talk.  The branching from these key words are other lines, images or quotes that trigger things I want to be sure to cover.  I use different colors for the lines and words of different branches. I study this mind map on one or two occasions before giving the talk.  During my talk the mind map in my pocket for security, I am human, but it will always stays in my pocket.  I find that I can “see” the mind map as I speak. That is because it is memorable.

Another great use of a mind map is to take notes from a fluid meeting.  A mind map provides the flexibility needed if the subject moves around.  No matter how disorganized the discussion, the mind map is always organized. 

If you want to remember, organize your thoughts in Mind Map form.

Now check out Tony in a six-minute presentation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlabrWv25qQ

Tony Buzan’s main web site:
http://www.buzanworld.com/

A mind map of an accounting class:
http://mappio.com/mindmap/info-ideamappingsuccess-com/accounting-501

Confessions of a Writer

I have decided to write about writing from time to time. This is the first blog on that subject.

Writing is what I love to do.  In my graduate school days my writing was mostly in the form of research papers.  A research paper in education or educational psychology is a collection of references held together by a hypothesis and written for the benefit of other people also writing research papers. And none of them contributes one iota to the body of knowledge.  Fortunately research papers of this kind bored me to death.  They felt more like a game than an artistic endeavor. Yet the resumes of tenured professors in these two fields list dozens of such papers as evidence of academic qualifications

I also wrote as a part of my Research Fellowship.  There I had a mentor by the name of Wells Hively. He was a student of B F Skinner and was succinct in his writing.  This was a trait I emulated and still do.  Well refused to publish unless he had something important to say.  I also try to emulate that value.

 

For the last twenty years I have been writing more from the soul and the heart.  What I write reflects my personal point of view honed by experience and salted with the things I read and hear along life's journey.  Occasionally I see the impact of another on my writing and give credit where credit is due.  A reference of this sort is an expression of gratitude and is done out of respect for the artist or thinker from whom the core idea came. 

Now for the confession.  I am sick and tired of the inauthentic business writing.  And it really pisses me off to read something and know from whom the idea came but see no reference, expression of gratitude or respect.  I do have some idea of why this happens.

I have written eight books that have been published and a number of them have done well.  I had another book I wanted to publish but received some feedback I didn't know how to handle. A well respected agent suggested I eliminate the references to another's work saying it would hurt the book. That is why that book never got published.  I am older and crankier now.  I am going to write about that subject again and I am going to reference someone who was important to my understanding of the topic.  It seems like the right thing to do.

Have you noticed how infrequently an author of a best selling business book references the work of another?  Some of the missing references you can attribute to agents, some to ignorance, some to arrogance and some to the blind stupidity that might lead one to say "I did it myself with no help".

Have you noticed how often a writer takes credit for a book written by someone else?  Of course you don't notice.  It is a well kept secret.  But I can tell you that lots of books are written that way and the real writer is almost never given credit. So how do you ever know what's real and what's original?  How do you ever know if the "guru" had anything at all to do with the ideas for which he or she takes credit?  Does it matter?

Some time after writing FISH I looked back over my life and noted the number of shoulders I stood on when I wrote that book.  Kids at a place called Camp Courage, mentors, mom, experiences, a great editor and hundreds of thinkers who are a part of my knowledge base. I can't reference them all by name but I can say thanks.  So I will do that now. Thanks.