Reading Between The Lines

I’ll be honest. Despite my Journalism degree, most days I skim the headlines. And most days, it’s just one bad news story after another. I can only take so much. I don’t usually connect any of the dots or analyze any of it too deeply. Maybe it’s my age. Maybe it’s my circumstance. Maybe it’s the economy. I can’t tell you what it is, but more and more, I’ve begun to read beyond those headlines and think about some of the implications for me, for my family, for the world.

Here’s one you probably saw today, “Spies Hacked Into US Electricity Grid.” Excellent. That’s great news. Really? And how many grids has the US hacked into? Am I supposed to believe we haven’t? Is this the real future of warfare? Can I stop worrying about North Korea launching a nuclear missile into my living room and start worrying about when the intermittent blackouts are going to start? 

It made me think. Are there really people in this world who have decided to spend their lives dreaming up ways to annihilate civilization – one way or another? What must it be like to wake up in the morning and begin the work of destroying your fellow Earthlings – whether it be through mass destruction or simply by undermining the technological underpinnings of society and creating entropic chaos. Why? What is the point? What is the reward if you succeed? 

Then I read another headline “Sims and Spore Creator Leaves EA.” I don’t know if you ever played Sim City. I did. If you haven’t, you should. It makes you feel like part city planner, part god. But that’s not what I saw in the headline. This obviously talented mind, Will Wright, isn’t leaving his job to simply disappear into retirement. He is leaving to start up a new kind of think tank. A think tank that will develop new intellectual properties that will drive new games, television shows, toys and online fodder.

The think tank’s name? Stupid Fun Club.

So, as much as I struggled to understand a world where people rise each day fixated on bringing all of us to the brink of disaster, I was encouraged to see that even in that world, people strive to create. To create something new. To create ideas that will spawn even greater ideas. A world where people follow their dreams. And even do it with a hint of self-deprecating humor. Stupid Fun Club.

For me, for my family, for the world, I hope those dedicated to creation, not destruction, win the battle we all face each morning when we wake. Because whether we realize it or not, we all make that choice every day. Maybe neither you nor I do anything as dramatic as building bombs or hacking into electrical grids. And maybe neither of us will ever start a think tank of our own. But each of us makes the choice – perhaps countless times a day at work or at home – to tear someone down or build someone up. We make and break entire worlds each day.

Each of us.

Not just those who make the headlines.

Five in the Vibe.

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary to forcibly contort five people (and their luggage) into the significantly constrained space of a Pontiac Vibe, one must ask himself whether or not writing of such an event is truly appropriate.

 

It’s one thing to associate yourself with a Pontiac Vibe. But to share (in a somewhat public forum) that 4 of your colleagues willingly climbed aboard for the ride to LAX actually borders on slander and libel. In hopes of avoiding any legal action, I will not reveal any names in this post.

 

Actually, the ride wasn’t all that bad.

 

Sure, I had to endure countless witty, yet biting remarks about my lack of taste in rental cars and my inability to confront Avis for doing this to me week after week.  And sure it was embarrassing to be passed by every rattletrap on the road, including a husky man on a Vespa. (Yes, I really was.) Obviously, those are scars I’ll carry with me for many, many months to come. But in the end, they will all fade. The mind, after all, has a way of smoothing over – or completely burying – life’s most traumatic events, doesn’t it?

 

Please say it does.

 

No, in the end, I think what will stick with me more than anything else I experienced that evening will be the fact that the bartender at the Gordon Biersch in LAX greeted me as if I had just walked into my friendly, neighborhood watering hole. The bartender’s name is Moe. And Moe knew exactly what I wanted before I ordered. He gave our group the type of priority service reserved for regulars. Moe did everything he could to make me feel right at home.

 

But you know what? No one ever wants to feel that much at home in an airport. Even if it is LAX. And even if it is a bar.

 

It was at that point in the evening that I realized that the travel and long hours had taken their toll. I might be going a little bit crazy. Or maybe a lot crazy. Regardless of which it truly was, it was the kind of crazy that manages to impair your judgment. To the point where you may just be willing to try the impossible.

 

Something never before imagined.

 

Something like squeezing five seemingly professional people into a Pontiac Vibe and cruising down the Pacific Coast Highway. If that doesn’t scream CRAZY, I’m really not sure exactly what does.

 

The only comfort in all of this is that I was not alone. There were at least four others who were at least as crazy as I was.

 

Let’s hope my sanity loss is only temporary.

 

And to the rest of you (and you know who you are), best of luck with your own mental state.

A Good Vibe.

When you travel a lot, you get to rent a lot of cars. It’s like a week-long test drive with absolutely no obligation to buy and no pushy salesman breathing down your neck. It sounds great.

I’m a “Preferred” customer with Avis. That sounds great, too. But trust me, there’s nothing great about any of it.

Every week, when the Avis shuttle pulls onto the lot and makes that fateful first stop, the driver calls my name along with some cryptic letter-number combination – B24 or C18 or any one of a thousand permutations. The first week, it was like hearing the Bingo caller say exactly the combination you needed to fill out your card.

At this point, though, it reminds me more of that sinking feeling I had playing battleship as a kid. I don’t think I ever won a game of battleship against my brother. And I know I’ve never won against the Avis Shuttle Driver.

This week, in fact, the team at Avis sunk my battleship.

A Pontiac Vibe.

Can you picture me in a Pontiac Vibe? Of course not. No one has ever actually seen a Pontiac Vibe on the road. Nobody has a friend who drives a Pontiac Vibe. And I’m pretty sure there are not many movies or television shows featuring a hero (or villain or village idiot) who drives (or even crashes into) a Pontiac Vibe.

I’m sure there is something redeeming about this car, but I haven’t exactly found what that might be.

Maybe the upside of the Vibe is the office humor it has inspired. The string of laughable vehicles I’ve received over the weeks has generated a lot of good-natured heckling from my co-workers. It’s sort of a running joke. And the Vibe is simply the purest embodiment of a running joke on the road today.

Tomorrow, my week-long, no-obligation test drive comes to an end. I’ll pull up at Avis, clean out all of my personal belongings and walk away completely unencumbered. And just thinking of that moment gives me a really good vibe.

Flying High

 Although this won’t be posted until I am nestled in the so-called comfort of the Westlake Hyatt, I am writing as I fly at some unknown altitude across a country I would much rather experience at a much more leisurely pace.   

Despite taking an earlier flight back on Thursday last week, the weekend went fast. I watched a lot of basketball. As a Carolina Alum, I was ecstatic to watch the Tarheels steal a game from Virginia Tech with a last-second jumper and, thankfully, fend off an extremely determined Clemson team to win a second straight ACC Tournament Championship for my alma mater. It may have been luck. It may have been the “never-say-die” determination they’ve had in so many come-from-behind wins this year. It may have been both. Regardless, they pulled out the wins when they needed them. Congrats to the Tarheels. 

Amid the many requisite hours of basketball watching, I did manage a trip to the book store.  

I just finished the most recent Seth Godin book, “Meatball Sundae.” If you are a marketer and haven’t read it, do yourself a favor and pick it up. You won’t regret the time you spend reading it, nor the $20 you’ll spend to acquire a copy of your own. Godin’s writing style and never-ending supply of real-word examples bring the principles of “new marketing” to life.

In the end, the book is inspiring. It forces you to think. The clarity with which Godin presents his thoughts makes me jealous beyond belief. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve danced around the same basic thoughts he discusses. I’ve talked about the same themes with co-workers, bosses, friends. They’ve agreed. They’ve added insightful points of their own to my half-baked ideas. But we’ve all failed to put such a fine point on it. The idea of simply adding the next “tasty treat” to your marketing until you have nothing but a disgusting mess – the meatball sundae with whipped cream and sprinkles on top. Brilliant. 

The book is rich with trends for businesses and marketers to exploit in today’s new consumer-driven marketplace. One of the final chapters very effectively summarizes Godin’s principles and trends by focusing on how they apply to Disney today. And if you know anything about me, you know that that chapter made me think the book had been written specifically with me and my Disney-maniacal ways in mind. 

Don’t miss a chance to read it for yourself. I’d offer to give you my copy, but I have a feeling I’ll be reading and re-reading it for reminders and inspiration quite a bit over the next few months. Sorry, you’ll have to get your own. 

So, the next week of working in California begins as I make my way through the air. I know that in two hours or so, I will be landing in Los Angeles, but I can’t tell you exactly where the journey will end this week. It should be a busy week. It should be fun. Quite a few meetings planned. Quite a few deliverables to produce. Quite a few answers to uncover, document and interpret. Wish me luck. Or maybe just determination. Or maybe both. Let’s see what I managed to learn from the Tarheels. And Mr. Godin. 

The Red Eye

The work week began with a bang.

Before I knew it, I found myself in front of my team telling them I had been selected for another assignment. One that would have me on a plane in just a few short hours crossing the country into the unknown – personally and professionally.

You see, I’m an East Coast guy. I like movies, but I don’t care for Hollywood. I like Seafood, but I prefer it cooked. I like the ocean, but I don’t surf.

My world quaked with change and opportunity, excitement and anxiety, clarity and confusion. I headed out on my new adventure with all kinds of questions and very few answers. But isn’t that the definition of adventure?

At this point, Monday night and Tuesday morning seem so long ago. I’ve crossed the country twice in less than 4 days. I’ve seen the ugliness of LA freeway traffic – freeways that make you feel anything BUT free – contrasted with the indescribable feeling of winding down a picturesque mountain road that places you so impossibly at the water’s edge. I entered an office building of faceless, nameless corporate drones and left a place filled with talented colleagues, supportive business partners and burgeoning friendships.

It’s a lot to take in. There’s a lot yet to happen. But as I flew on the red eye back to Charlotte, squeezed into the center seat next to a rather robust gentleman who had annexed my portion of the armrest and the surrounding area, I decided that this trip may have been stingy on sleep, but it gave me all I could ask for in the way of motivation, opportunity and a new perspective on things.

All that said, I hope next week is a bit more predictable.