Scott Monty

Ring Out the Old, Ring in the New

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<br />
The last day of the year seems the perfect time to share this classic poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Written in 1850, "Ring Out, Wild Bells" is part of <i>In Memoriam</i>.<br />
<br />
It looks backward and forward, and represents the kind of reflection that we naturally gravitate toward at the close of the calendar year.<br />
<br />
No matter what 2018 has brought you, it's a chance to wipe the slate clean and begin anew in the year ahead.<br />
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<h2>
In Memoriam [Ring Out, Wild Bells]</h2>
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,<br />
   The flying cloud, the frosty light:<br />
   The year is dying in the night;<br />
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.<br />
<br />
Ring out the old, ring in the new,<br />
   Ring, happy bells, across the snow:<br />
   The year is going, let him go;<br />
Ring out the false, ring in the true.<br />
<br />
Ring out the grief that saps the mind<br />
   For those that here we see no more;<br />
   Ring out the feud of rich and poor,<br />
Ring in redress to all mankind.<br />
<br />
Ring out a slowly dying cause,<br />
   And ancient forms of party strife;<br />
   Ring in the nobler modes of life,<br />
With sweeter manners, purer laws.<br />
<br />
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,<br />
   The faithless coldness of the times;<br />
   Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes<br />
But ring the fuller minstrel in.<br />
<br />
Ring out false pride in place and blood,<br />
   The civic slander and the spite;<br />
   Ring in the love of truth and right,<br />
Ring in the common love of good.<br />
<br />
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;<br />
   Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;<br />
   Ring out the thousand wars of old,<br />
Ring in the thousand years of peace.<br />
<br />
Ring in the valiant man and free,<br />
   The larger heart, the kindlier hand;<br />
   Ring out the darkness of the land,<br />
Ring in the Christ that is to be.<br />
<br />
<br />
Wishing you all the best for a happy and prosperous 2019.<br />
<br />
<i><b>Image credit</b>: <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/421658" target="_blank">Waltham Abbey, Essex</a> by Peter De Wint, c.1840 (The Met, public domain)</i><br />
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Ring Out the Old, Ring in the New

The last day of the year seems the perfect time to share this classic poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Written in 1850, "Ring Out, Wild...

Remember All the Senses

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-47ghFcQMJKQ/XjiFcy09-tI/AAAAAAABLa4/sRyDuFa_oK4gm1isl-yN-Lk_lz3BaPXcQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Rembrandt%2B-%2BSenses.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="495" data-original-width="820" height="386" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-47ghFcQMJKQ/XjiFcy09-tI/AAAAAAABLa4/sRyDuFa_oK4gm1isl-yN-Lk_lz3BaPXcQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Rembrandt%2B-%2BSenses.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Senses_(Rembrandt)#/media/File:The_Senses.jpg" target="_blank">The Senses</a> by Rembrandt, 1624 (Wikipedia - public domain)</span></i></td></tr>
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<br />
Vincent Price's name is synonymous with Gothic horror. He famously said, "It's as much fun to scare as it is to be scared."<br />
<br />
But Price's interests went beyond the sense of fear. He was an art collector and consultant who earned a degree in art history and opened his own gallery. He had roles that spanned the stage, radio, television, film and animation. He we even a gourmet cook with a cookbook to his name.<br />
<br />
But it was one of his cult classic films that really brought his sense of horror to life.<br />
<br />
In 1959, Vincent Price teamed up with the director William Castle to makes one of the most camp, carnivalesque horror masterpieces of that decade, <i>The House on Haunted Hill</i>. But the lesser-known follow-up <i><a href="http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/161103%7C0/The-Tingler.html" target="_blank">The Tingler</a> </i>went even farther with a classic “mad scientist” role.<br />
<br />
The film follows Price’s pathologist Dr. Chapin and his research into how the spine “tingles” when experiencing fear. He discovers this is caused by a parasite that attaches itself to the spine which, if scared badly enough, will grow and eventually kill its host.<br />
<br />
The only antidote is screaming — the louder the better — to neutralize the terrifying effects of “the tingler.”<br />
<br />
The film begins with an onscreen appearance by the director, who warns his audience that the physical sensation of tingling so central to the movie may also be experienced by some people in the theater.<br />
<br />
In reality, this was caused by one of Castle’s most famous gimmicks — electrified buzzing gadgets that had been placed underneath random audience members’ seats. The Tingler's shadow was shown across the screen, as if it was loose in the projection booth. The audience was warned, and then…<b><i>ZAP</i></b>!<br />
<br />
Trashy, outrageous, and proudly silly, Castle was a true master of understanding the centrality of sensory affect to the horror experience. He knew that horror was as much — if not more — a physical experience as an intellectual or emotional one.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2MZBn4wsLPQ" width="560"></iframe></center>
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<h2>
<b>The Sound of Travel</b></h2>
If you ever took an Amtrak train through a major station on the East coast, you may have heard the soft flipping of the split-flap schedule board that used to inhabit train stations in Boston, New York, Newark, and Baltimore, and is <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/annemariekelly/2012/01/17/scented-ads-not-just-for-perfume-anymore/?mod=djemCMOToday#7da351d845a6" target="_blank">preparing to be retired in Philadelphia</a>.<br />
<br />
It's visceral. And it was an important part of the rail travel experience. The same way a used bookstore provides a sensory experience that a Kindle cannot.<br />
<br />
Humans are sensory creatures, and we experience books by smell as well as by sight and touch; similarly, travel includes sounds as well as sights. The board updating was a reminder — in those days before the dings and buzzes of smartphone reminders — to look up and the board and check the status of your train.<br />
<br />
But more than an analog travel assistant, that soft flipping was a visceral component of the commuter's experience, just as the clickety-clack of the rails was.<br />
<br />
It made up part of the romanticized image of rail travel that brings us back to a more genteel, sophisticated time of travel (or at least that's what our imagination tells us). Grand temples of transportation. Well-dressed individuals. Gate attendants and stewards who weren't quite as surly. When travel was less of a rush and more of a joy.<br />
<br />
Whether or not that image is true, it occupies a place in our mind. And the removal of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-flap_display" target="_blank">Solari board</a> at Philadelphia's 30th Street Station takes us one step further away from it.<br />
<br />
Now we have to be satisfied with travel alerts that ding and buzz in our pockets on our smartphones.<br />
<br />
Perhaps one day, our children will romanticize that experience in turn.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“But there can be no grave for Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson...Shall they not always live in Baker Street? Are they not there this moment, as one writes? Outside, the hansoms rattle through the rain, and Moriarty plans his latest devilry. Within, the sea-coal flames upon the hearth and Holmes and Watson take their well-won case...So they still live for all that love them well; in a romantic chamber of the heart, in a nostalgic country of the mind, where it is always 1895.”</blockquote>
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— Vincent Starrett, <i>The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes</i></div>
<br />
<br />
<h2>
<b>I'm Sensing Something</b></h2>
The good news is there are a few brands who understand the power of many senses and are working to incorporate more into their marketing and promotions.<br />
<br />
<b>McCain Foods</b>, the frozen food manufacturer, is <a href="https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/mccain-cooks-potato-scented-bus-stop-campaign/1115738?mod=djemCMOToday" target="_blank">installing the smell of baked potatoes</a> to 10 bus stops around the U.K. as part of its £1.4 million push for Ready Made Jackets.<br />
<br />
At several <b>movie theaters</b> across the U.S., the ads really smell — like cinnamon rolls. <b>Pillsbury </b>is <a href="https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/pillsbury-pump-cinnamon-roll-smells-movie-theaters/315892/?mod=djemCMOToday" target="_blank">pumping the delicious scent into 25 theaters</a> as part of a campaign that attempts to spark sales for its refrigerated dough by linking cinnamon roll smells to holiday memories.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6DyZtox_jlA/XBH2pMMzyII/AAAAAAABB_8/12I28ymYqzk9ewm_GqgR7KBbOQwjG42XgCLcBGAs/s1600/Smellevision.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="953" height="271" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6DyZtox_jlA/XBH2pMMzyII/AAAAAAABB_8/12I28ymYqzk9ewm_GqgR7KBbOQwjG42XgCLcBGAs/s400/Smellevision.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hey, who would have thought that <span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_qvjwLmrHo" style="text-align: start;" target="_blank">Elmer Fudd would have predicted the advent of Smellevision</a><span style="text-align: start;"> in 1940?</span></span></td></tr>
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<br />
Remember <b>scratch and sniff</b> books when you were a kid? Well, they're back, but this time in magazine ads for <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/annemariekelly/2012/01/17/scented-ads-not-just-for-perfume-anymore/?mod=djemCMOToday#6b6cb00445a6" target="_blank">household items, cleaners, medicines and more</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
If we can use more than one sense at a time, we stand a good chance to win not only hearts and minds, but memories. And a memories are linked to experiences, we'll be calling up on powerful emotions that can better engage our customers.<br />
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Remember All the Senses

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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FPj5Tj3iEfI/XjiNPrw3CWI/AAAAAAABLbQ/7ZUZyUD5Z5wME9v0KEcQXeGdTUnb1OoBQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/William%2BHogarth%2B-%2BScene%2Bfrom%2BShakespeare%2527s%2BThe%2BTempest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1106" height="520" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FPj5Tj3iEfI/XjiNPrw3CWI/AAAAAAABLbQ/7ZUZyUD5Z5wME9v0KEcQXeGdTUnb1OoBQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/William%2BHogarth%2B-%2BScene%2Bfrom%2BShakespeare%2527s%2BThe%2BTempest.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scene_from_Shakespeare%27s_The_Tempest#/media/File:William_Hogarth_017.jpg" target="_blank">Scene from Shakespeare's The Tempest</a> by William Hogarth, 1735 (Wikipedia - public domain)</span></i></td></tr>
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<br />
His father was a dress cutter who did not get much work after the Great Depression began. As a result, his family had to live in a one-bedroom apartment in New York, where they barely scraped by.<br />
<br />
As a boy, he read voraciously in that small apartment. His parents, Jack and Celia were Romanian-born immigrants, and were happy to indulge this passion and even bought him a bookstand that he could keep on the table so that he could read during dinner. He particularly enjoyed Sherlock Holmes stories.<br />
<br />
When he was able to go to the movies, he enjoyed the dashing and heroic Errol Flynn.<br />
<br />
The young boy knew what a sacrifice all of that was for his parents, and inspired by those books and the movies he watched, he vowed to grow up to write the Great American Novel.<br />
<br />
At 16, his Uncle Robbie helped him land his first job as an office assistant at a publishing house. There he'd fetch lunch, proofread, and refill artist's ink jars… Not exactly a glamorous path toward becoming a writer, but it was a start, and it was close to the action.<br />
<br />
But when he finally was given a job as a writer at that office, he did something strange: he refused to use his real name.<br />
<br />
You see, he aspired to something greater. And he felt that he would sully his real name if he used it in connection with a job that was not as serious as he'd like.<br />
<br />
But the boy — now a young man — was a natural storyteller. And his stories took off. At which point, he abandoned his dream of being a novelist and legally changed his name to his pen name: Stan Lee. And you probably know his catch phrase: "Excelsior!" It's the official motto of his home state of New York and it means "ever upward."<br />
<br />
Stan took the detecting skills of Sherlock Holmes and the swashbuckling acrobatics of Errol Flynn and merged them into his characters. By the tender age of 19, he was granted editorship of Timely Comics, which would evolve into Marvel Comics.<br />
<br />
Lee died in November 2018 at the age of 95, but when he died, not many people were aware that he suffered from a debilitating malady.<br />
<br />
He had created the super-strong Incredible Hulk. He invented the wisecracking, web-swinging Spider-Man. And the mystical, magical Doctor Strange. By the end of Lee's life, Marvel had a library of some 8,000 characters.<br />
<br />
And these characters were more human than its rivals in the D.C. Comics universe. They had teenage angst. They couldn't hold relationships. As many as 180 of them — including Daredevil —  were blind.<br />
<br />
Stan believed that making them more empathetic would bring readers closer to them. Stan Lee himself was closer to them than you might know.<br />
<br />
For you see, this master storyteller — the man who breathed life into these characters, who wove their stories with wonderful color, who made cameo appearances alongside each of them on the big screen — this man, Stan Lee, in the last few years of his life, couldn't see any of that.<br />
<br />
By the time he reached his early 90s, Stan suffered from macular degeneration. He was legally blind.<br />
<br />
But he kept taking interviews, going to screenings, and speaking at Comic Cons.<br />
<br />
Excelsior, indeed.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>"Success comes to the lowly and to the poorly talented, but the special characteristic of a great person is to triumph over the disasters and panics of human life."</i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;">– Seneca </span>[<a href="https://ctt.ac/me9wY" target="_blank">tweet this</a>]</div>
<br />
It seems like the ultimate irony that a visual storyteller should be robbed of his sight. It's along the same lines of Beethoven gradually <a href="http://smonty.co/fullmonty29" target="_blank">losing the ability to hear</a>, yet producing some of the most glorious music the world has ever known.<br />
<br />
How many of us would survive, let alone thrive under such circumstances?<br />
<br />
It takes a certain kind of internal fortitude to handle that. Self-confidence. Even <a href="http://www.scottmonty.com/2018/11/on-gratitude.html" target="_blank">gratitude</a> for that which we still retain.<br />
<br />
When Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote his poem "Excelsior," he noted that it was inspired by the Latin phrase <i>Scopus meus excelsior est</i> ("my goal is higher").<br />
<br />
<h2>
<b>Excelsior</b></h2>
The shades of night were falling fast,<br />
As through an Alpine village passed<br />
A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,<br />
A banner with the strange device,<br />
      Excelsior!<br />
<br />
His brow was sad; his eye beneath,<br />
Flashed like a falchion from its sheath,<br />
And like a silver clarion rung<br />
The accents of that unknown tongue,<br />
      Excelsior!<br />
<br />
In happy homes he saw the light<br />
Of household fires gleam warm and bright;<br />
Above, the spectral glaciers shone,<br />
And from his lips escaped a groan,<br />
      Excelsior!<br />
<br />
"Try not the Pass!" the old man said;<br />
"Dark lowers the tempest overhead,<br />
The roaring torrent is deep and wide!"<br />
And loud that clarion voice replied,<br />
      Excelsior!<br />
<br />
"Oh stay," the maiden said, "and rest<br />
Thy weary head upon this breast! "<br />
A tear stood in his bright blue eye,<br />
But still he answered, with a sigh,<br />
      Excelsior!<br />
<br />
"Beware the pine-tree's withered branch!<br />
Beware the awful avalanche!"<br />
This was the peasant's last Good-night,<br />
A voice replied, far up the height,<br />
      Excelsior!<br />
<br />
At break of day, as heavenward<br />
The pious monks of Saint Bernard<br />
Uttered the oft-repeated prayer,<br />
A voice cried through the startled air,<br />
      Excelsior!<br />
<br />
A traveller, by the faithful hound,<br />
Half-buried in the snow was found,<br />
Still grasping in his hand of ice<br />
That banner with the strange device,<br />
      Excelsior!<br />
<br />
There in the twilight cold and gray,<br />
Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay,<br />
And from the sky, serene and far,<br />
A voice fell like a falling star,<br />
      Excelsior!<br />
<br />
<br />
Pushing forward while others are quitting may seem like folly to some. But for those with a vision — a higher goal — seeking to make a difference in the world, there's something pushing us onward.<br />
<br />
If you cultivate a team to share that vision and to share the burden together, the journey becomes a joy, and completing it is within your grasp.<br />
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Going it alone — well, you may end up like Longfellow's fateful traveler.<br />
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Your Path to Success Requires This Characteristic

Scene from Shakespeare's The Tempest by William Hogarth, 1735 (Wikipedia - public domain) His father was a dress cutter who di...

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The Power of Gratitude

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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C2nJxmGsz_Q/XjiRogAXWiI/AAAAAAABLbc/eUecEbAXf_Q-nZub1DvKtNNGGIVrrl_RQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Jennie%2BAugusta%2BBrownscombe%2B-%2BThe%2BFirst%2BThanksgiving%2Bat%2BPlymouth%252C%2B1914.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="702" data-original-width="1123" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C2nJxmGsz_Q/XjiRogAXWiI/AAAAAAABLbc/eUecEbAXf_Q-nZub1DvKtNNGGIVrrl_RQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Jennie%2BAugusta%2BBrownscombe%2B-%2BThe%2BFirst%2BThanksgiving%2Bat%2BPlymouth%252C%2B1914.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennie_Augusta_Brownscombe#/media/File:Thanksgiving-Brownscombe.jpg" target="_blank">The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth</a> by Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, 1914 (Wikipedia, public domain)</span></i></td></tr>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: right;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
"Waste no more time in arguing what a good man should be. Be one."</div>
– Marcus Aurelius</blockquote>
<br />
She was a large woman with a large purse that had everything in it but hammer and nails. It had a long strap, and she carried it slung across her shoulder. It was about eleven o’clock at night, and she was walking alone, when a boy ran up behind her and tried to snatch her purse. The strap broke and the boy fell on his back on the sidewalk. The large woman simply turned around and kicked him right square in the pants. Then she reached down, picked the boy up by his shirt front, and shook him until his teeth rattled.<br />
<br />
She continued to hold him until he picked up her purse and then she said, “Now ain’t<br />
you ashamed of yourself?”<br />
<br />
Firmly gripped by his shirt front, the boy said, “Yes’m.”<br />
<br />
  “If I turn you loose, will you run?” asked the woman.<br />
<br />
  “Yes’m,” said the boy.<br />
<br />
  “Then I won’t turn you loose,” said the woman. She did not release him.<br />
<br />
  “I’m very sorry, lady, I’m sorry,” whispered the boy.<br />
<br />
  “Um-hum! And your face is dirty. I got a great mind to wash your face for you. Ain’t you got<br />
nobody home to tell you to wash your face?”<br />
<br />
   “No’m,” said the boy.<br />
<br />
  “Then it will get washed this evening. When I get through with you, sir, you are going to remember Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones.”<br />
<br />
So she took him to her sparsely-furnished studio apartment in a half-nelson, got his name (Roger) and instructed him to wash his face.<br />
<br />
She found out that he, like her, hadn't had his supper yet (remember - it was 11 o'clock). But that he did want a pair of blue suede shoes.<br />
<br />
   “Well, you didn’t have to snatch my pocketbook to get some suede shoes,” said Mrs. Luella Bates<br />
Washington Jones. “You could've asked me.”<br />
<br />
She heated some lima beans and ham she had in the icebox, made the cocoa, and set the table. The woman did not ask the boy anything about where he lived, or his folks, or anything else that would embarrass him. Instead, as they ate, she told him about her job in a hotel beauty-shop.<br />
<br />
When they were finished eating she got up and said, “Now, here, take this ten dollars and buy yourself some blue suede shoes. And next time, do not make the mistake of latching onto my pocketbook nor nobody else’s. "<br />
<br />
She led him down the hall to the front door and opened it. “Good-night! Behave yourself, boy!”<br />
<br />
The boy wanted to say something else other than “Thank you, ma’am” to Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones, but he couldn’t as he turned at the barren stoop and looked back at the large woman in the door. He barely managed to say “Thank you” before she shut the door. <br />
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And he never saw her again.<br />
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<h2>
The Meaning of Gratitude</h2>
The above was an abridged version of a short story by Langston Hughes called "<a href="http://staff.esuhsd.org/danielle/english%20department%20lvillage/rt/Short%20Stories/Thank%20You,%20Ma'am.pdf" target="_blank">Thank You, Ma'am</a>." Young Roger received a gift from Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones that was far more valuable than the ten dollars. Roger was given the gift of dignity, respect, and the ability to make his own decisions.<br />
<br />
We're taught from a young age to show respect and gratitude by saying "please" and "thank you." And to show how special those words are and the effect they can have, what did our parents call them? "Magic words."<br />
<br />
"Can I have a glass of water?" you might ask. And the reply would inevitably be: "What's the magic word?"<br />
<br />
In recent years, when someone says "thank you," I regularly hear other people respond with:<br />
  "Sure."<br />
  "You bet."<br />
  "No problem."<br />
<br />
Or when the host of an audio program thanks a guest for being on, they say "Thank you for having me."<br />
<br />
Whatever happened to "you're welcome"?<br />
<br />
The words we choose matter. Whether we're saying them to customers, employees, colleagues, friends or family members. The way we treat others is what comes back to us.<br />
<br />
Our world of texting, messaging, and general electronic shorthand may have devalued the principles of respect, consideration and honesty. Regardless of the mode of communication, these are timeless and universal.<br />
<br />
To strengthen relationships, we should make those principles clear in every interaction.<br />
<br />
Yes, even to Alexa.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>"Gratitude is not only the greatest of all virtues, but the parent of all others."</i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;">– Cicero</span></div>
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For it's through those repeated interactions, those repetitions of timeless and universal principles that our customers and peers will see us as that which we wish to be.<br />
<br />
Thank you for your thoughtful and patient attention, this week and always. I'm grateful that you're here.<br />
<br />
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The Power of Gratitude

The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth by Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, 1914 (Wikipedia, public domain) "Waste no more time in arg...

The Creative Class and Servant Leadership

The Creative Class and Servant Leadership

The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David, 1787 (Wikipedia, public domain) Those of us who create with words, sounds and images as ...

How to Be More Charming

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jacques-Louis_David_-_Mars_desarme_par_Venus.JPG">Mars Disarmed by Venus</a> by Jacques-Louis David, 1824 (Wikimedia Commons - public domain)</span></i></td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/fullmontyshow/episode-55-how-do-you-define" target="_blank">Listen to this article</a></span></i></div>
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What is charm? <br />
<br />
In a certain sense, it has to do with grace and good humor, with comportment and instilling a feeling of warmth in others. Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his essay on <i>Manners</i>, wrote:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"I have seen an individual whose manners, though wholly within the conventions of elegant society, were never learned there, but were original and commanding and held out protection and prosperity; one who did not need the aid of a court-suit, but carried the holiday in his eye; who exhilarated the fancy by flinging wide the doors of new modes of existence; who shook off the captivity of etiquette, with happy, spirited bearing, good-natured and free as Robin Hood; yet with the port of an emperor, if need be,—calm, serious, and fit to stand the gaze of millions."</blockquote>
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If you asked young Archie that question—What is charm?—he would have had a hard time answering. <br />
<br />
You see, Archie came from a working-class background, his father a worker in a clothes factory and his mother a seamstress. Archie just wasn't exposed to the refinement and sophistication that we associate with charm. <br />
<br />
It didn't help that his parents never showed him the kind of love and attention that an only child might usually expect. It may have had something to do with his older brother dying before Archie was born. The result was that his mother did not know how to give affection and did not know how to receive it either. <br />
<br />
When he was nine, his father sent Archie's mother away to a mental institution and told Archie that she went on a long holiday, and later that she had died; when he was 10, his father remarried and started a new family that did not include little Archie. <br />
<br />
Due to this alienation from his parents, Archie had a nervous disposition, finding it difficult to socialize and develop any meaningful relationships with his peers. <br />
<br />
He managed to get himself expelled from school and joined a troupe of performers as a stilt walker and an acrobatic dancer. While he enjoyed performing, he preferred to keep a distance from the audience. <br />
<br />
But over time, something changed in Archie. He went from that socially awkward adolescent to a garrulous, sophisticated adult. He transformed his stagecraft from stilts and juggling to mastery of comedy and drama alike. <br />
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His father's jobs in the textile industry must have been deeply ingrained in Archie, as he became universally recognized as a man of style. His appeal was broad, as he showed the coarse how to have class and the over-refined how to have the common touch. <br />
<br />
<i>That</i> is one way to <a href="https://www.weeklystandard.com/joseph-epstein/charm-is-a-disappearing-luxury-like-chivalry-and-good-manners" target="_blank">define charm</a>. <br />
<br />
And it's certainly a way to define Archie Leach, otherwise known as Cary Grant. <br />
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<br />
<h2>
<b>Charm: A Powerful Skill for the Emotionally Intelligent Leader</b></h2>
Cary Grant's evasiveness and self-awareness was legendary. In one apocryphal story, in his later years he was sent a telegram from an inquisitive magazine reporter: "How old Cary Grant?" He supposedly replied, "Old Cary Grant fine — how you?" <br />
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You've probably come across a small handful of people in your life who you just have to admire. They light up a room when they walk in. They have an ease of conversation with people. They make you want to spend more time in their presence. You can't help but want to be like them. <br />
<br />
You might call this charisma. But charisma is slightly different. Charisma has to do with presence and power. Charm? Charm requires a certain presence, but power is not typically seen as charming. <br />
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Charm operates almost on the plane of magic. It can be learned, but not taught. It's hard to define, but we know it when we see it. And it certainly involves having a sense of self-awareness and of reading an audience. The types of things you'd see from an emotionally intelligent leader.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>"Charm is a way of getting the answer yes without having asked any clear question."</i></b> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">— Albert Camus</span></div>
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<br />
When you exude charm, like Cary Grant, you don't need to ask anything of the people around you. The famous movie critic Pauline Kael wrote this about Grant: "We smile when we see him; we laugh before he does anything; it makes us happy just to look at him." <br />
<br />
That's quite a talent. <br />
<br />
Can you make your customers and employees do things without even asking? If you can get your brand—personal or otherwise—to have that kind of effect on your intended audience, you're charming. <br />
<br />
Warm and social, cheerful and energetic, good-natured and irresistible, charm is in short supply these days. We could do with repeat viewings of old Hollywood classics with William Powell and Myrna Loy, Laurel and Hardy, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, and others who had a distinct sense of charm. <br />
<br />
Perhaps we can pick up on some aspects that made them charming, and assemble a version of charm that works for us, as elusive as that may be. <br />
<br />
After all, Cary Grant himself said, "Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even <i><b>I</b></i> want to be Cary Grant." <br />
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How to Be More Charming

Mars Disarmed by Venus by Jacques-Louis David, 1824 (Wikimedia Commons - public domain) Listen to this article What is cha...

Human Emotions Win Every Time

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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-822Z-LW8utY/W-pjAJIjyJI/AAAAAAABBHw/PZOU9WkcUpQRfxk62qtXAFdRPI5iOlMSACLcBGAs/s1600/Ford%2Bpin%2Bletter.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="684" data-original-width="1030" height="424" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-822Z-LW8utY/W-pjAJIjyJI/AAAAAAABBHw/PZOU9WkcUpQRfxk62qtXAFdRPI5iOlMSACLcBGAs/s640/Ford%2Bpin%2Bletter.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
The world could do with a little less technology.<br />
<br />
I'm not trying to be a curmudgeon like <a href="http://www.scottmonty.com/2018/10/the-future-has-already-been-here.html" target="_blank">Dr. Conrad Gessner</a>. It's just that every now and then (hopefully more <i>now</i> than then), it's helpful to put down the device and talk to a real human being.<br />
<br />
And yes, I recognize the irony of me saying this to you over the Internet.<br />
<br />
We've gotten to such a point when people are pleasantly surprised when they're referred to by name or when they receive a handwritten letter. It's counter-intuitive, since we live and breathe text messages, PMs, DMs, emails, and more.<br />
<br />
But to me, the spirit of personalization and the power of analog are alive and well. It's why I keep a collection of fountain pens and stationery on my desk. And I make a habit out of sending real physical notes to people every week.<br />
<br />
That level of effort and personal touch speaks volumes to those who receive it. It's not only out of the ordinary, but it tells them that they matter to you.<br />
<br />
The photo above is one of my favorites. It's from nine years ago, and it represents a gesture that I didn't think much of, but that meant a great deal to the recipient.<br />
<br />
I met <a href="https://brainsonfire.com/robbin-phillips/" target="_blank">Robbin Phillips</a> at an event in Minneapolis, and she noticed my Ford lapel pin. During our conversation, she said she'd like one too, so I took her card, slipped it into my pocket, and continued the conversation.<br />
<br />
When I arrived back in Detroit, I wrote Robbin a short note, including a pin in the envelope, and sent it to her. That's pretty much where I thought the story would end.<br />
<br />
Well, it turns out that the interaction and simple gesture <a href="https://brainsonfire.com/2009/11/30/keeping-promises/" target="_blank">meant a great deal to Robbin</a> — so much so that she took a photo and wrote up her impressions on her site:<div><br /></div><div><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"></p><blockquote><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;">Okay. It’s official. I am a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100105122326/http://twitter.com/scottmonty" style="color: #eb7e1f; line-height: 22px; text-decoration-line: none;">Scott Monty</a> groupie. Have been from our very first conversation. Yeah. Yeah. It was twitter talk.</p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;">Now stop. Before you roll your eyes again, this is a really good story.</p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;">Back in August, I had the chance to meet Scott in person. There he was in his white bucks with a blue Ford logo neatly pinned to his lapel and well, I said what any good groupie would say:</p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"><strong style="line-height: 22px;">” I want a Ford pin.”</strong></p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;">He asked for my card, slipped it into his pocket and we talked briefly.</p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;">Scott asked me what I drove. I told him (not a Ford). There was laughter. (I am a frustrated wanna be race car driver.) Then he asked the big question, “Would you ever consider buying a Ford?”</p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;">And you know what – here’s is the truth. I would.</p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;">Something about “knowing” someone at Ford has made me a sincere fan. I’ve even found myself defending them on occasion, in one on one conversations and even to large groups. I have just grown – well — <em style="color: #666666; line-height: 22px;">fond</em> of them.</p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;">And I can’t for the life of me figure out what changed other than the fact that there is this very real, very approachable “social butterfly” type of guy named Scott in the mix. Would my feelings for Ford change if he went away?</p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;">Dangerously, the answer might be yes.</p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;">I applaud Ford for putting a person front and center. So many brands are just jumping on the social media bandwagon without a strategy. But Ford has one and in my humble opinion they are being pretty true to it: Ford simply wants to “humanize the brand”. Second time I have repeated that here because, I love the simplicity of that. And because I know this; people trust people. People who make and keep promises.</p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;">So a pin (and a sweet story) today, a car tomorrow?<br style="line-height: 22px;" /><em style="color: #666666; line-height: 22px;"><br style="color: #333333; line-height: 22px;" />Who knows?</em></p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;">In the meantime, I will wear my pin proudly and create a little Ford “visual buzz” along the way…</p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;">Thanks. Scott. Oh. And you too, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100105122326/http://www.ford.com/" style="color: #eb7e1f; line-height: 22px; text-decoration-line: none;">Ford</a>.</p></blockquote><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px;"></p></div><div><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>"Love is not to be purchased, and affection has no price." </i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">— St. Jerome </span>(<a href="https://ctt.ac/Fa4xg" target="_blank">click to tweet</a>)</div>
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While it's possible to give customers deep discounts, or to put contracts in place with expensive influencers, these tactical marketing efforts are tenuous and temporary. Why? Because you've purchased a behavior.<br />
<br />
But what is affection?<br />
<br />
Typically, it's the way a parent feels toward a child, or perhaps the way an owner feels toward a pet. It signifies security, protection, and comfort for the receiver of the affection. It also allows the recipient to learn and grow.<br />
<br />
What's behind the absence of affection, then? Since affection is unilateral—that is, there's no expectation that the affection is returned—the absence of it can be viewed as selfish. When brands are simply seeking a transaction, it can feel as if they're withholding affection as a condition of a customer's action.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>"Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives."</i></b> </span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-size: large;">— C.S. Lewis, </span><i><span style="font-size: large;">The Four Loves</span></i><span style="font-size: large; font-style: italic;"> </span>(<a href="https://ctt.ac/3dPYO" target="_blank">click to tweet</a>)</div>
<div>
<br />
When customers, employees, friends and colleagues <i>don't</i> expect to hear from you is when a simple gesture matters. While databases, algorithms, and other systems can help you remember when someone's birthday or anniversary is, or when they've achieved a life events, it's still up to you, the human, to place a call or write a note.<br />
<br />
We can teach machines how to learn, how to respond to questions, how to perform mail merges, and how to anticipate our needs, but we can't teach them to do what it takes to be truly human: that is, to feel and express emotions.<br />
<br />
That's entirely on <b><u>you</u></b>.<br />
<br />
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Human Emotions Win Every Time

The world could do with a little less technology. I'm not trying to be a curmudgeon like Dr. Conrad Gessner . It's just that ev...

The Reluctant Leader in All of Us

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Moxky6UN1fI/XjiVBoT74-I/AAAAAAABLbw/9ilblgsvkzQeCgJdjldPiW51BDfRcgORQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Juan%2BAntonio%2BRibera%2B-%2BCincinnatus%2BLeaves%2Bthe%2BPlough%2Bto%2BDictate%2BLaws%2Bto%2BRome%2B1806.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="889" data-original-width="1200" height="474" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Moxky6UN1fI/XjiVBoT74-I/AAAAAAABLbw/9ilblgsvkzQeCgJdjldPiW51BDfRcgORQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Juan%2BAntonio%2BRibera%2B-%2BCincinnatus%2BLeaves%2Bthe%2BPlough%2Bto%2BDictate%2BLaws%2Bto%2BRome%2B1806.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Quinctius_Cincinnatus#/media/File:Cincinato_abandona_el_arado_para_dictar_leyes_a_Roma,_c.1806_de_Juan_Antonio_Ribera.jpg" style="text-align: start;" target="_blank"><i>Cincinnatus Leaves the Plough to Dictate Laws to Rome</i></a><span style="text-align: start;"> by Juan Antonio Ribera, 1806</span></span></td></tr>
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<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation</i>. </blockquote>
<br />
You of course recognize that as the first sentence in the Declaration of Independence, one of the founding documents of the United States. <br />
<br />
In the early days of forming republics, honor and integrity are necessary to set us on the right path. Society looks for persons of character who aren't interested in power themselves, calling upon them to serve the greater good. <br />
<br />
Consider the legendary leader who retired from public life to work on his farm. He was then granted the leadership of his country twice, but held onto that power not a day longer than absolutely necessary. He consistently demonstrated great honor and integrity. <br />
<br />
You might think I'm referring to George Washington, the father of our country, who left his army service after defeating the British to retire to his farm Mt. Vernon, and later had that retirement interrupted by two terms as the first president of the United States, choosing to withdraw from public life. You might think that. <br />
<br />
But you'd be wrong. <br />
<br />
You see, in this case, there was a startling precedent some 2,200 years before. In 458 B.C. following a military defeat, the Roman Senate authorized the nomination of a dictator. A group of senators informed Cincinnatus of his appointment, finding him while he was plowing his farm. He went on to serve as dictator twice — only long enough to see Rome through its crises. <br />
<br />
The parallels between Cincinnatus and George Washington are obvious. But beyond their rise from private to public life and their place in our minds as legendary heroes of their respective countries, there's one thing that gets overlooked: their reluctance to even serve in the first place. <br />
<br />
Neither of them wanted the job. <br />
<br />
<br />
<h2>
<b>Washington's Flaw</b></h2>
While history has heaped praise on George Washington (rightly so), this selfless leader was eternally self-conscious. He didn't have the benefit of the classical education that many of his patrician peers had, so he cobbled together his own curriculum, which left him feeling as if he had a second-rate education. <br />
<br />
When he was unanimously selected as president by the Senate, Washington expressed his "inability to perform" and hoped that they wouldn't regret their choice. This was part modesty, but it was also part of an innate fear of failure that Washington had. <br />
<br />
Having been through so many battles — some of which ended in defeat — Washington was no stranger to failure. But he shared something beneath that fear of failure that afflicts so many of us. <br />
<br />
He was afraid to be judged. <br />
<br />
In his <i><b><a href="https://amzn.to/2uK2FaG">Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior</a></b></i>, Washington suggested that those who try but fail should not be judged: <br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><i>"When a man does all he can though it succeeds not well blame not him that did it." </i></span></b></div>
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Think about that for a moment. When you fail, what is your fear? Sure, no one likes to lose or to miss an objective. But many people fear judgement more than failure itself. <br />
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We were all fearless once, but along the way we learned timidity. Perhaps you've been part of a company that says they embrace failure, that it's part of the culture. But then when you do fail at something, you suddenly discover that you're penalized. When this happens over time, our natural response is to simply stop trying. To stop taking risks that might lead to failure. <br />
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In his book <i><a href="http://jayacunzo.com/book" target="_blank">Break the Wheel</a></i>, Jay Acunzo refers to the <a href="http://jayacunzo.com/blog/adobe-99u-guest-post-the-3-psychological-reasons-we-cling-to-conventional-wisdom-and-how-to-break-free" target="_blank">Pike Syndrome</a>: a feeling of powerlessness caused by repeated negative events. Like the pike who was separated from the minnows by a pane of glass, no longer tries to attack the minnows once the glass is removed. <br />
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So what's the answer? Ralph Waldo Emerson explored this in his essay "<a href="https://emersoncentral.com/texts/essays-first-series/self-reliance/" target="_blank">Self-Reliance</a>," in which he championed doing what you think is right despite what others may think: <br />
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<b style="font-size: x-large;"><i>"The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion." </i></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">— Ralph Waldo Emerson </span></div>
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Over time, if you build up self-reliance and self-confidence, you can move away from the fear of being judged.  Meanwhile, simply accept that the fear is real and focus on what is within your control.</div>
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Then you'll be confident in showing who you are, as Emerson requested.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>"Do your work, and I shall know you. Do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself."</i></b></span> </div>
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Other people's judgments don't affect your abilities. </div>
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The Reluctant Leader in All of Us

Cincinnatus Leaves the Plough to Dictate Laws to Rome by Juan Antonio Ribera, 1806 When in the Course of human events it becomes ...

Leading with Enthusiasm not Fear

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Marcus_Aurelius_Distributing_Bread_to_the_People_1765_Joseph-Marie_Vien.jpg">Marcus Aurelius Distributing Bread to the People</a> by Joseph-Marie Vien, 1785 - Wikimedia Commons (public domain)</span></i></td></tr>
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Can you remember the managers you worked for who inspired you the most? What stands out about them?<br />
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We all seek different things with our teams, so your mileage will vary. But I'll bet you thought about someone who supported you, who took the time to understand your challenges, who gave you responsibility, and the room to fail and to learn from those failures.<br />
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Now what about the other kind of manager—the kind you might not have enjoyed?<br />
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Perhaps it was the micromanager, or someone who pressured you with unrealistic deadlines, or who took credit for your good work, or barked orders without rolling up his sleeves.<br />
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The juxtaposition of those two types of managers is the difference between a boss and a leader.<br />
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<h2>
<b>Bossy = Fearful</b></h2>
A boss thinks in terms of "<b>me</b>," while a leader thinks of "<b>we</b>."<br />
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A boss will <b>take credit</b> or blame others, while a leader will <b>give credit</b> and shoulder the blame.<br />
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A boss issues <b>commands</b>, while a leader <b>asks and listens</b>.<br />
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A boss depends on the <b>authority </b>of the job title, while a leader leans on the entire team and builds <b>mutual accountability and trust</b>.<br />
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A boss instills <b>fear </b>while a leader <b>inspires </b>with <b>enthusiasm</b>.<br />
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The connection between fear and anger is deeply woven into the human psyche. The animalistic "fight-or-flight" response is literally comprised of anger (fight) and fear (flight).<br />
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Jedi Master Yoda (hey, if these missives are about timeless wisdom, he was from "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away") cautioned: "<i>Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering</i>."<br />
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And that's the point — your anger at work may eventually wear away, but in its absence you'll find bitterness. The kind of thing that will eat away at you.<br />
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In fact, in his essay "<b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Ira" target="_blank">On Anger</a></b>," <b>Seneca </b>wrote:<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">"There is no more stupefying thing than anger, nothing more bent on its own strength. If successful, none more arrogant, if foiled, none more insane—since it's not driven back by weariness even in defeat, when fortune removes its adversary it turns its teeth on itself."</span></i></b></blockquote>
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And what have been been driven by over the last few years online, but fear and anger? It's the basis of much of what we're seeing in the news today.<br />
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<h2>
<b>Emotional Intelligence = Enthusiasm</b></h2>
By contrast, <b>leaders </b>manage to keep their heads above the din and provide a positive direction. They serve as something of a moral compass and cheerleader.<br />
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Most leaders that you admire are emotionally intelligent. That is, they are able to recognize their own feelings and other people's emotions, and to use that emotional information to guide thinking and behavior.<br />
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And what is leadership but getting along with other people?<br />
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The business world functions because people — colleagues, employees, customers, suppliers — work together. Negotiation, haggling, sales, setting vision, strategy and goals, and other key business functions require us to collaborate and interact with others in a constructive way.<br />
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The image above shows the Roman emperor <b>Marcus Aurelius</b> distributing bread to citizens. He was widely respected as a philosopher (a thinker!) and a philanthropist, as opposed to the very typical tyrannical emperors of the era.<br />
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He took joy in his life, because he took the time to reflect on his thoughts and deeds every day, documenting it along the way. He was very much an emotionally intelligent leader.<br />
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For my own part, I had the great fortune of working with Alan Mulally, the CEO of Ford Motor Company from 2006-2014 (I was there from 2008-2014). Alan was perpetually enthusiastic—about the company, about meeting people, about life—and it was infectious.<br />
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Alan lifted people up. He smiled. He asked questions. He made it so you couldn't help but want to get his approval.<br />
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Every day, every minute, he demonstrated <a href="https://www.bethesunnotthesalt.com/heliotropic-effect/" target="_blank">the Heliotropic Effect</a>. That is, he was light rather than darkness, and most living things seek out the light. We thrive on the positive.<br />
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Like Marcus Aurelius, Alan Mulally, and the leaders you no doubt have admired, <a href="https://medium.com/@dunn/leading-from-joy-vs-leading-from-fear-e29a4247acc4?__s=vnsn5pxy6duqudx9k7tb" target="_blank">inspiring people comes from joy and enthusiasm</a>, not through fear and intimidation.<br />
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Make a difference to others. <a href="https://amzn.to/2WuTKGH" target="_blank">Be the sun, not the salt</a>.<br />
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Leading with Enthusiasm not Fear

Marcus Aurelius Distributing Bread to the People by Joseph-Marie Vien, 1785 - Wikimedia Commons (public domain) Can you remember th...

Don't Stop Innovating Because You're Big

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Samuel Moore was born on a farm in the plains. Throughout his youth, his family moved often, as farming didn't provide enough for them. They picked up and moved from Oklahoma to various towns in Missouri, and as he got older, Samuel eventually got a paper route and event milked the cow to help his family out. <br />
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He knew he wanted to go beyond small town farm life, so he enrolled in college and took small jobs to support himself, just scraping by. He even had to wait tables in exchange for his meals. <br />
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But eventually, Samuel graduated, moved to Iowa and got a job as a trainee with J.C. Penney. He learned enough that he bought a single store in the Butler Brothers chain. He was a flourishing entrepreneur whose store became so successful that his landlord took notice, refused to renew Samuel's lease, and raised the rent to five percent of sales. <br />
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Young Samuel, still in his 20s, learned his lesson: he would never again be at a disadvantage against a larger, more powerful entity. From then on, he knew what he had to do to fight back as a small businessman. He determined that he would own rather than rent property, and that his stores needed to be consistently stocked with a full range of goods. <br />
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Samuel would go on to not only show those powerful franchises and lease-holders that he had the stamina and cleverness to fight them, but to beat them at their own game. He went from a humble and dime store in downtown Bentonville, Arkansas to build the world's largest corporation. <br />
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For Samuel Moore — Sam, to his friends — Walton was the founder of Walmart. <br />
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<b>Big Is Bad</b></h2>
What do the Roman Empire, GM, and the Titanic have in common? They were all thought to be too big to fail. <br />
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Rome of course overcame Carthage, another empire that consisted of Southern Spain and North Africa – the entire west and south areas of the Mediterranean. GM was humbled into bankruptcy in the carpocalypse and financial meltdown of 2009. And though its makers claimed "even God himself could not sink the Titanic," the largest ship ever made at the time, we all know what happened. <br />
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We've even developed shorthand lingo that automatically lumps companies or industries into the same category: Big. As in <b>Big Oil</b>. <b>Big Pharma</b>. <b>Big Auto</b>. And lately <b>Big Tech</b>. And that "Big" is assigned as a pejorative—an insult—as if they’re evil simply for being so big. <br />
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There's a natural tendency to hold such entities in disdain, as they become more and more successful, perhaps taking advantage of their size and influence to have an unfair advantage. It's human nature to experience envy when someone or something else reaps profound benefits while we remain seemingly rooted in place. <br />
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We even cheer for them to fail, expressing <i>Schadenfreude</i>, or the experience of pleasure in the pain of others, when they do. <br />
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<h2>
<b>Rooting for the Underdog</b></h2>
When the little guys come along, we're likely to want to see them succeed because they channel some part of us. They face insurmountable odds, but they have the courage to take on the Goliaths. <br />
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Think Dollar Shave Club, who took on Gillette to supply lower-cost razors with a subscription model. They attracted the attention of P&G, parent company of the Gillette brand, who eventually purchased Dollar Shave Club for $1 billion. <br />
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Similarly, when Keurig announced that its new system would only allow Keurig-approved K-cups — the coffee pods whose price Keurig simultaneously raised — <a href="https://www.rogersfamilyco.com/index.php/revolution-begun-starts-now-fight-keurig/" target="_blank">Rogers Family Company stood up to them</a>. They created what they called a Freedom Clip that covered the K-cup reader in Keurig machines, allowing customers to use whichever coffee pods they wanted. They were deluged with orders for the Freedom Clip. <br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">"A great man is always willing to be little." </span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">– Ralph Waldo Emerson</span> [<a href="https://ctt.ac/aFaJ8" target="_blank">Tweet this quote</a>]</div>
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It's funny, isn't it? <b><i>As companies grow, they often forget the strategies and practices that made them successful and well liked when they were small</i></b>. [<a href="https://ctt.ac/20E39" target="_blank">Tweet this!</a>] They become complacent. They develop a sense of corporate rigor mortis, stiffening their resolve against change. <br />
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But we find ourselves liking big companies that still embody that sense of their roots. Consider Amazon, which has been around for just over 20 years. Its CEO Jeff Bezos is now the richest man in the world, but we still admire Amazon for its agility and willingness to try new things, even as it outstrips entire markets. <br />
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There's humanity within every company, large and small. And Big doesn't necessarily mean bad. Set aside the envy-triggered feelings and look for examples of little, wherever they may be. <br />
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You might be pleasantly surprised. </div>
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<a href="https://soundcloud.com/fullmontyshow/episode-53-too-big-to-fail" target="_blank">Listen to this post</a>:</div>
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<i>Image credit: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_Mallord_William_Turner_-_The_Decline_of_the_Carthaginian_Empire_-_WGA23169.jpg#/media/File:Joseph_Mallord_William_Turner_-_The_Decline_of_the_Carthaginian_Empire_-_WGA23169.jpg">The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire</a> by J.M.W. Turner, 1817 (Wikimedia Commons - public domain)</i></div>
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Don't Stop Innovating Because You're Big

Samuel Moore was born on a farm in the plains. Throughout his youth, his family moved often, as farming didn't provide enough for the...

Perchance to Dream

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There's something about underdogs, isn't there? We love to root for the little guy when he's up against a big bad enemy.<br />
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Why is that?<br />
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Well part of the reason is that when a team or entity isn't <i>supposed</i> to succeed, a win seems even more amazing and gratifying.<br />
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Another reason is that we want them to win because they're trying harder (or at least seem to be trying harder).<br />
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We know what it's like to give something our very best effort, sincerely wanting to pull off a victory. So we project that feeling onto our team, candidate, or hero that is similarly struggling.<br />
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It can be tough watching the big guys win constantly: they have more budget, more resources, better talent.<br />
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The dreamer in us makes it possible for us to summon the courage and fortitude to tackle an obstacle, regardless of the prospect of failure.<br />
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When we know we've worked hard and given it our all, there's no shame in failing.<br />
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And that makes victory even sweeter.<br />
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<b>Image credit:</b> <i><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46859437" target="_blank">David und Goliath</a></i> by Anton Robert Leinweber - Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Perchance to Dream

There's something about underdogs, isn't there? We love to root for the little guy when he's up against a big bad enemy. Wh...

Why We Fall For It Every Time

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One of the great points of pride about young Finn Taylor's life was that by the age of two, he was a landowner. When he was still a baby, his grandfather gave him the deed to a sizable parcel of land called Ivy Island. <br />
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And from his youth, he reminded anyone who would listen that he was a landowner. It was drilled into his head at home, as his parents asked him to remember the family when he came of age and took possession of all of that property. <br />
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But he didn't let it change him —  he still gladly played with the neighborhood children, even though in his head he knew he would be a wealthy landowner one day. It didn't change him — until he turned 10, that is. <br />
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For the summer of his 10th birthday, Finn's father finally gave in to Finn's pleading to see Ivy Island and took him there to see it with his own eyes. And Finn's eyes and mind would never be the same after that. <br />
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You see, Ivy Island was nothing more than five acres of swamp with a clump of trees strangled with ivy. Finn's grandfather played a practical joke on him —  one of the most prolonged pranks of his life —  and Finn had been the butt of the joke among the family during that entire time. <br />
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That humiliating joke taught Finn a valuable lesson about himself and about humans: he truly disliked being fooled, and people will fall for anything. Right then and there he vowed to never be deceived again. <br />
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But Finn would go on to pull the wool over the eyes of millions of people worldwide. For Finn -- Phineas, to his family -- knew that there was a sucker born every minute, and he used that to his advantage to fool millions of people around the world as one of the greatest showmen on earth. You of course know him as Phineas Taylor… <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._T._Barnum" target="_blank">P.T. Barnum</a>. <br />
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<b>Living on a Chance</b></h2>
Recently I wrote about <a href="http://www.scottmonty.com/2018/10/smoke-and-mirrors.html" target="_blank">smoke and mirrors</a>, or the intentional—sometimes manipulative—deceptions that companies put before us. <br />
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It got me to thinking about Maria Konnikova's book <i><a href="http://ihose.co/ihose91" target="_blank">The Confidence Game</a></i>, which explored the long history of con men and the hapless victims of cons, who many times happen to be quite intelligent. She thought that it comes down to the very human nature of hope: how we'll gladly suspend belief if we think something might be true. <br />
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Or, as William James, the father of modern psychology wrote, <br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">"No fact in human nature is more characteristic than its willingness to live on a chance."</span></i></b> </div>
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[<b><a href="https://ctt.ac/58n9K" target="_blank">Tweet this quote</a></b>]</div>
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With advances in technology, we're seeing more chances to do things — things that give us hope. <b>Facebook </b>wants to make the world more connected. <b>Amazon </b>wants to make our wildest dreams of product consumption possible. <br />
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And who can forget <b>Elon Musk</b>, who gave us the great hope of self driving cars, not within our lifetime, but within the calendar year? And production volumes that are simply laughable by a company with no manufacturing experience. <br />
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While cheats and swindlers may be a dime a dozen, true con men are elegant, outsized personalities, artists of persuasion and exploiters of trust. And Musk is believed by a wave of acolytes who can't bear to hear a negative word uttered about him. As Konnikova wrote: "One man's confidence artist is another man's spiritual leader." <br />
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The latest news from Tesla is that the Model 3 will not have <a href="https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/10/tesla-quietly-drops-full-self-driving-option-as-it-adds-45000-model-3/">the controversial fully self-driving option</a> and will be $10,000 more expensive than promised. In a conference call with investors two years ago, Musk promised that all Teslas would be equipped with hardware that would make fully autonomous driving possible. <br />
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Thanks to the hype around Tesla, Musk's penchant for <a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=twitterhea" target="_blank">twitterhea</a>, and our desire to believe, <a href="https://jalopnik.com/all-the-talk-about-autonomous-cars-is-confusing-the-hel-1829851764">71 percent of people</a> globally believe that Level 5 fully autonomous vehicles are available today. Tesla, the would-be leader in this space, produces vehicles at Level 2, which require a driver to be alert and behind the wheel, ready to take over at any moment. Yet Musk would have us believe that Level 5 is imminent. <br />
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<h2>
<b>Improving Ourselves</b></h2>
But we go on believing. Why? Because we're convinced that someone smarter than us has the answer. Someone can impact climate change with alternative energy vehicles or help save lives by making cars safer. As Konnikova writes, "Nobody sets out to be conned: we set out to become, in some way, better than we were before." <br />
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As we see more lies exposed and we realize exactly how we've been conned, perhaps we need to turn to the sage words of another ancient philosopher: <br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">"Who's more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?"</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">— Obi Wan Kenobi</span> [<b><a href="https://ctt.ac/aE2ZU" target="_blank">Tweet this quote</a></b>]</div>
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If you think you don't be fooled at some point in your life, you're just fooling yourself.<br />
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Why We Fall For It Every Time

One of the great points of pride about young Finn Taylor's life was that by the age of two, he was a landowner. When he was still a b...

Tall Tales

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One of the reasons we enjoy stories is because they're relatable. They represent humanity and are emotionally driven.<br />
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The ancient Greeks and Romans knew this, as they spun yarns about the gods and heroic figures to explain aspects of nature or of the founding of their societies. The characters in their myths and legends had flaws just like we do, making it possible for their people to understand how it related to their own lives. Achilles' anger, Zeus' infidelity, Narcissus' self-infatuation. We could identify with them.<br />
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In the tradition of American tall tales, there's a similar tradition. Sometimes, the facts around a historical figure are embellished a bit, while other times characters are invented to explain a phenomenon. Johnny Appleseed was actually John Chapman, who planted nurseries of apple trees, while Paul Bunyan was a gigantic lumberjack who made the Grand Canyon while dragging his ax behind him.<br />
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And in more modern folklore, we have characters like SNL's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Brasky" target="_blank">Bill Brasky</a>, the indefatigable <a href="https://chuck-norris-jokes.com/" target="_blank">Chuck Norris</a>, and <a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-most-interesting-man-in-the-world" target="_blank">the Most Interesting Man in the World</a>. Each one of these begins with a nugget of truth and builds on it in an entertaining way.<br />
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Which leads to this question: <b>in marketing, do you have to lie to get ahead?</b><br />
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Perhaps "lie" is too harsh a word (although Seth Godin wrote All Marketers Are Liars). All marketers are storytellers, certainly. And just like the examples above, the stories need to be pertinent and believable. When we feel like we're part of the embellishment — that is, when it's known to us — we'll go along with it.<br />
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When it doesn't work is when it's an outright lie and we discover we're being deliberately deceived. If our trust is breached, it feels like a violation.<br />
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There's a fine line between embellishment and lie. The difference is in how you inform your audience.<br />
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<b>Image credit</b>: <i><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scene_from_the_Labors_of_Hercules_on_cassone_by_workshop_of_Apollonio_di_Giovanni_and_Marco_del_Buono_Giamberti.JPG#/media/File:Scene_from_the_Labors_of_Hercules_on_cassone_by_workshop_of_Apollonio_di_Giovanni_and_Marco_del_Buono_Giamberti.JPG" target="_blank">Scene from the Labors of Hercules on Cassone</a></i> by Apollonio di Giovanni and Marco del Buono Giamberti, c. 1460 (public domain, Wikimedia Commons)<br />
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Tall Tales

One of the reasons we enjoy stories is because they're relatable. They represent humanity and are emotionally driven. The ancient G...

The Stories We Tell Ourselves

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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,<br />
And sorry I could not travel both<br />
And be one traveler, long I stood<br />
And looked down one as far as I could<br />
To where it bent in the undergrowth;<br />
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Then took the other, as just as fair,<br />
And having perhaps the better claim,<br />
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;<br />
Though as for that the passing there<br />
Had worn them really about the same,<br />
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And both that morning equally lay<br />
In leaves no step had trodden black.<br />
Oh, I kept the first for another day!<br />
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,<br />
I doubted if I should ever come back.<br />
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I shall be telling this with a sigh<br />
Somewhere ages and ages hence:<br />
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—<br />
I took the one less traveled by,<br />
And that has made all the difference.</blockquote>
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<i>The Road Not Taken</i> is by far Robert Frost's best known poem. So much so that it has inspired many other creative outputs from others: books, commercials, episode titles for a dozen TV shows… In fact, it may be the best known American poem of all time. <br />
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But most people get it wrong. The initial instinct is to view this poem as a celebration of individualism — of making a conscious choice and being reassured in our decision. <br />
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But if you read it or listen to it again, one road isn't really less traveled. He says he "<i>took the other, as just as fair</i>," and "<i>the passing there / Had worn them really about the same</i>." <br />
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So the narrator knew that both paths were comparable. And he just chose one of them, as it looked just as good as the other. <br />
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The key though, is when he says: "<i>I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence</i>," meaning that one day in the future, he'll be recounting this moment in time. And what will he do then? He'll tell everyone: <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—<br />
I took the one less traveled by,<br />
And that has made all the difference." </blockquote>
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<b>Not Life Choices, But Story Choices</b></h2>
So this isn't really about making a difficult life choice; it's about how we concoct stories to make a narrative. How we perhaps look back at a situation and romanticize it a bit. Or infuse it with details that we didn't notice when it happened. Or embellish with larger figures or more expansive descriptions. </div>
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Humans are natural storytellers. We have been since our earliest days, before our ancestors could speak or write. They told stories by painting on cave walls. And then around a fire, handed down from generation to generation. And finally in writing. <br />
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Don’t you think it's reasonable to believe there were embellishments and improvements along the way? Of course there were. I mean, who's going to want to read or listen to a poem about a guy who comes to two grassy paths and just picks one at random? <br />
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So in that respect, yes, it's about choices. But it's about the choice to tell a story in a certain way. And each of us faces that every day as we choose to create our own narrative or a message for a brand or company. <br />
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<b>"We must take the current when it serves / Or lose our ventures"</b></h2>
We need to choose which details are essential to include, and which are superfluous to the story and should be omitted. In doing so, we capture the imagination and attention of the people we're trying to reach, whether they're in a room with us or in front of a screen somewhere.<br />
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The conditions in which we do this are ever-changing: platforms, moods, other priorities. And so elements of our narrative change accordingly. But always leading on to something better.<br />
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The alternative is unthinkable. <br />
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We, at the height, are ready to decline.<br />
There is a tide in the affairs of men<br />
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;<br />
Omitted, all the voyage of their life<br />
Is bound in shadows and in miseries.<br />
On such a full sea are we now afloat;<br />
And we must take the current when it serves<br />
Or lose our ventures. </blockquote>
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— William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar (Act IV) </div>
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The Stories We Tell Ourselves

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far a...

Scott Monty - Strategic Communications & Leadership Advisor