It's Not About Winning

A sad lesson, from Michael Jordan. Upon his induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame, the man considered by many to be the greatest NBA player of all time just seemed petty. He used the speech as a chance to put down his rivals, from his high school coach to opposing players and coaches throughout his career.

It is so sad to see when people are driven, not to excel - but to beat others. To prove (to themselves) that they are better than others. It must come from a deep insecurity.

"Jordan revealed himself to be strangely bitter. You won, Michael. You won it all. Yet he keeps chasing something that he’ll never catch, and sometimes, well, it all seems so hollow for him."

Brought to you by the same people...

...who brought you Social Security and Medicare.

According to President Obama, that is the reason to not fear that his health care proposal will be "socialism" or a "government takeover" of health care.

Hardly reassuring to me, when I consider that Social Security/Medicare/Medicaid currently account for one third of the US government Federal budget, are leading to larger and larger budget deficits, and no one has a proposal on how to prevent them from going bankrupt as the population ages in the next 30 years.

As I understand it, the main point of the health care proposal is for tax payers to pay for medical insurance of the 30% of people who cannot afford it. So then they can go to the doctor more often, because it is already paid for by insurance. And the process is managed by the government. And somehow this will lower the cost of health care for everyone...

President Obama says we will pay for the cost of this increased coverage by eliminating all the current waste and inefficiency in the health care that is already managed by the government. Then with this expanded coverage, government will get more efficient and less wasteful.

From the opinion piece on President Obama's speech in the LA Times:

"The challenge for those who want a comprehensive bill is more in the politics -- in particular, the allegation that "Obama-care" is a government takeover of the healthcare system, burdening taxpayers with a ruinously expensive new obligation. The president offered a persuasive response to part of that critique, making the case that the flaws in the current system threaten all Americans. He soft-pedaled the controversial"public option" plan, and portrayed his plan as a melding of Republican and Democratic ideas with the same moral underpinning as Social Security and Medicare. Those initiatives were also branded "socialism" or a "government takeover," Obama noted, subtly warning opponents that they risk being on the wrong side of history."

(One of) My Dream Vacations...

Now this article describes the way I want to see New Zealand - in a VW Vanagon!

"Imagine the most beautiful places you've ever seen -- Grand Teton, Big Sur, Alaska's Inside Passage -- cram them all into a skinny strip of land, and that's New Zealand. We'd wanted to visit the Pacific island nation even before director Peter Jackson made the landscape a star as the setting of the "Lord of the Rings" movies. One friend told us that of all the dream destinations of his childhood, it was the one that proved every bit as glorious as he'd imagined."

Leadership for Gen F

Gary Hamel wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal about how "Generation F" - the Facebook generation - will change expectations in the workplace.

Here's his list of 12 characteristics of online life he believes will be applied to the work environment:

All ideas compete on an equal footing.
Contribution counts for more than credentials.
Hierarchies are natural, not prescribed.
Leaders serve rather than preside.
Tasks are chosen, not assigned.
Groups are self-defining and -organizing.
Resources get attracted, not allocated.
Power comes from sharing information, not hoarding it.
Opinions compound and decisions are peer-reviewed.
Users can veto most policy decisions.
Intrinsic rewards matter most.
Hackers are heroes.

Are these global characteristics??? Are you seeing them affect your context? How will they shape Asian cultures, like Singapore's? How will they shape the Church around the world? How will they affect the people you lead, and your leadership style?

No Scalejacking

I resonate with this way of thinking from Seth Godin, and want to live it out in my life and work.

Will you join me in resisting scalejacking? Let's reject the quest for size and do all we can for the ones who need and want our service! Sounds like Jerry Maguire's manifesto.

Scalejacking - Dave Balter coined this great term. It describes the quest of marketers for size at all costs. Because marketers were raised on the scale of mass—TV, radio, newspapers—they have a churn and burn mentality. The internet turns this upside down. The internet is about who, not how many. The internet lets you take really good care of 100 people instead of harassing 2,000.

Yet, panicked marketers still look for scale (How many followers can we get? What can we do with a Facebook fan page?) and then hijack that attention, hoping to filter out the masses and get a few sales.

Scalejacking inevitably tarnishes most communities, because individuals (people) hate being treated like numbers just standing by to be filtered.

Stephen Stills wrote, "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with." I think he was wrong. On the Internet, the mantra that works is, "Be with the ones you love (and the ones that love you.)" Ignore everyone else. It doesn't have good internal pentameter, but it's true.

Changing US Demographics

What will the US look like in 20 years? The ethnic makeup of the country is rapidly changing.

Young Americans who are minorities outnumber young whites in almost one of every six U.S. counties. It's a demographic wave that is transforming more parts of the nation and raising questions about who is a minority.

The multiplying effect of diversity is rapid. In 2008, 34% of U.S. residents were minorities, but 48% of babies born in the USA were minorities. The number of white youths has dropped 5.3% since 2000 while the young minority population grew 15.5%. "It will be hard to define who is a minority in the future...."

Change is happening so quickly that the youngest Americans are much more likely to be minorities than those who are a few years older, says Johnson, who did the research with Daniel Lichter, demographer at Cornell University.

Among youths ages 15 to 19, 60% are non-Hispanic whites. Among those 4 or younger, 53% are white.

A London Guide

London sounds like a great vacation!

The London I've finally discovered is as rumpled and comfy as old corduroy (which I like) and as stylish and smug as the sassiest fashionistas (which I don't).

But what a buzz fest. London is a city on the verge of a nervous breakdown yet so sated on its own glories that nothing seems to bloody bother it. At this European crossroads, I found the mad pace and the musty masterpieces a perfect contrast. Just when you can't take another minute of London's twitchy streets, you can slip into some spectacular ancient hall and, like Sherlock Holmes himself, spend an afternoon seeking Anne Boleyn's bones.

Or, more festively, you can take a day and just sample the pubs, which are everywhere, a drinker's dream.

What's Really Happening in Iran

Read about social, political, and religious realities in Iran from this fascinating article in Mission Frontiers from Sep-Oct 2008:

"By the late 1980s, the number of Persian Muslim-background believers had grown into many thousands. Then in the 1990s, two things converged to turn this momentum into one of the greatest watershed events in the history of Persian Christianity. The first was a wave of government-organized crackdowns and assassinations of Christian leaders....

In the year 2000, Christian satellite broadcasting began beaming the gospel to almost every home in Iran. This was made possible by the fact that millions of satellite dishes had been illegally smuggled into Iran by corrupt members of the same government that had outlawed them. The Christian satellite programs became a lifeline for the church in Iran. Much more, when the Iranian people learned that the government was trying to scramble the broadcasts, they became an overnight sensation. Recent nationwide surveys reveal that over 70% of the population is watching Christian satellite programs. These same surveys indicate that at least one million have already become believers, and many millions more are on the verge. This growth has happened so fast, the underground church can hardly keep apace....

Starting churches in Iran is easy! Everywhere you go to evangelize, people are ready to receive the gospel, or they have already become believers through satellite broadcasts. ”Training leaders is also easy, remarks another leader. The government has left young people with nothing to do. So believers spend time with one another every day. They are constantly gathering for prayer, Bible study and evangelism. When a group reaches 25 people, they divide in half and begin again. Within two years, a new believer is expected to become a leader of a new house-fellowship and a discipler of new leaders...

Cars, cars, cars

The growth of the car market in China will cause huge headaches, where roads are built for bicycle traffic and there are few parking lots for all the multistory apartment buildings. It will also keep pressure on oil prices for years to come.

China is on track to sell 11 million vehicles this year, according to the China Passenger Car Association. That would be up 17% from 2008, and a stunning 20 times the number of vehicles sold in China just a decade ago. Zhang says this year China likely will overtake the USA, where expected sales are around 10 million units, and become the world's biggest car market for the first time.

China's 1.3 billion people "are simply wild about cars," says Michael Dunne, a Shanghai-based managing director of J.D. Power and Associates, an auto industry group. He says the surprising strength of China's auto market has been driven not just by economics, but also by a kind of psychological shift that has come with prosperity.

"There is the thrill of individual mobility, going from point A to point B in their own time, and on their own terms. But it's also an opportunity to declare and project their own success," Dunne says....

U.S.-style suburbs, where cars are a virtual necessity, are sprouting everywhere....

China has one-seventh as many autos on the road as the USA, Dunne estimates, but nearly twice as many traffic deaths — 73,484 last year, according to the Chinese government.

USC sports statistic

No, not how many championships they have won, but how much they pay for their championships.

How much the school values football is reflected in Carroll's $4.4 million compensation package, the richest of any private university employee in the United States, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Surprising statistic

...on American political opinions. I would have guessed Americans favor liberalism over conservatism.

White House advisers add that Obama will be pushed only so far to the left, and with good reason. Only 19 percent of Americans, after all, identify themselves as liberal, compared with 36 percent who say they are moderate and 41 percent who say they are conservative, according to the latest poll by Democracy Corps, a Democratic think tank.

Miss California Not PC

Wow, she got lambasted!

...asked about her views on same-sex marriage during the nationally televised Miss USA pageant. Although she said she believed people were entitled to do as they liked, she said marriage should only be recognized as an institution between a man and a woman.

Prejean lost the pageant (she was runner-up to Miss North Carolina, Kristen Dalton). But her statement quickly became fodder for the ongoing culture war over same-sex marriage. Gay-rights activists criticized her, while her backers said she was being unfairly attacked.

She gave the WRONG ANSWER! That is not acceptable, even though most people agree with it. One can say that in private, but not in public!

"You have to understand we never want to take away a girl's beliefs or her voice," Lewis said. "But when you wear the title that says 'I represent everyone,' you can't then polarize the people you represent."

Who are the "people she represents" anyway? Apparently only people who favor same-sex marriage, the only ones deserving an opinion. If she had answered that she favored same-sex marriage, apparently that would not have been polarizing, but would have been considered appropriate for the people she represents.

What a mess our society is in...

One of My Heroes

John Wooden is a great coach and a great man, and is never shy about sharing his honest opinion. Yet he has so much integrity and ability, that people do not mind his strong opinions.

WOODEN REMAINS full of life and surprises. He pulls a silver cross from his pocket, the metal rubbed worn, although the alpha and omega symbols remain visible.

"I don't know how many people know this, but I had this in my hand the whole time I was coaching," he says, putting his palm out to show how he wedged the cross between his index and middle fingers. "My minister gave me this when I went into the service in 1942 -- the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end."

Scary Stats

The numbers get even more mind-boggling...

Already, in the first six months of this fiscal year, the federal deficit is running at $956.8 billion, or nearly one seventh of gross domestic product — levels not seen since World War II, according to Wrightson ICAP, a research firm.

Debt held by the public is projected by the Congressional Budget Office to rise from 41 percent of gross domestic product in 2008 to 51 percent in 2009 and to a peak of around 54 percent in 2011 before declining again in the following years. For all of 2009, the administration probably needs to borrow about $2 trillion.

LA is BLUE

DODGER BLUE, that is. What a hot start for the heroes of Chavez Ravine!

The Dodgers have been in business since 1890, and they have never won their first 10 home games - until now.

Capitalizing on Crisis

is what the Obama Administration is about, according to the Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel. I heard his quote on BBC Radio today:

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. You want to use it to get things done that you normally would not be able to do."

What that means for us is that the "Economic Stimulus" package is not particularly aimed at stimulating the economy, but is a cover for expanding government to include everything on the Democratic Party Wishlist.

The "Era of Big Government" never really went away. George Bush expanded government more like a liberal than a conservative, but his moves now look like baby steps in light of the staggering new expansion that is taking place.

Mentors Prompt Insight & Action

...through asking questions, not simply giving advice.

Last week I taught a Mentoring Seminar and had two senior mentors share with the class their secrets of mentoring. Both of them said much the same thing that Seth Godin shares in his blog:

You're nuts if you believe me

I'm the first person to admit that compared to you, I have no idea what I'm talking about. You're there, doing what you do, and doing it with skill.

Let me be really clear: My job is not to tell you what to do. I don't know what to do. You do.

Not just me, of course. Everybody with a blog or a book or an interest in your success. Don't do what they say. Listen to their questions instead.

My job is provoke you into asking hard questions. Ask those questions to your boss and your co-workers and yourself. It's easy to show that self-aware decisions and thoughtful strategies outperform blind stumbling.

I don't have a lot of patience for this list of seven rules or that manual of how it's supposed to be or the step-by-step road map you can purchase today only. I think you'll do a lot better if you get optimistic about the future and cynical about pat answers at the same time instead.

Fire the Know-It-Alls

They hinder the organization by undermining decisions. Follow Seth Godin's advice:

He's the first one to point out a minor technical glitch and the last guy to want to get on board with a new program. He hazes first-timers and avoids the people who are actually productive. Or he's the one who can take any metaphor and make it literal, instantly, poking holes in it as he goes.

And of course, he's the one everyone has to tiptoe around, because they know his technical status can sink their initiative.

I think you should fire this person immediately. Okay, maybe give him exactly one warning.

You'll find someone else who really knows this stuff. No doubt about it. And firing one intransigent bully is a lot less painful than shutting down an entire division next year because he paralyzed your decision-making.

Deep technical competency is overrated compared with the ability to make excellent decisions and to create a culture where forward motion is valued and personal initiative is rewarded.

Strangers in the City

In a finding that seems counter-intuitive, a recent urban study has found that people interact less when they live in more densely populated areas. Huh?

This may seem to go against common sense, yet most of us see it in action every day. There is very little interaction in a crowd. In fact, the very magnitude of human beings around us teaches us to keep to ourselves and not interact, for our own emotional protection as well as physical protection.

I love the buzz of the city, but I think that cities create impersonal environments, and all us city-dwellers have to work harder at finding community than do those who live in suburban settings.

The paper’s maintained hypothesis, that social interaction is stronger in denser areas, arose from the conjecture that high densities facilitate interaction by putting people in close proximity. The results, however, show the opposite effect, and a key question is why.

Looking for Yes

I love this observation by Seth Godin on the difference between looking for no and looking for yes.

It really seems like a spiritual question for me. At the core, isn't God's approach to life "Yes"?

Of course there are boundaries and consequences, but God is in the business of turning things around, redeeming the world, and making things possible! He is not the God of "All things are impossible."

In fact, the Bible even calls Jesus "God’s ultimate 'Yes'" in 2 Co 1:19. He was constantly in conflict with those whose basic approach to life was "No!"

So if you are a follower of Jesus, ask God to help you find the yes in your life and in your interactions with people. Let's look for yes instead of settling for no.

If you're out to provide a service, or organized to deliver a product, then look for a yes. At every interaction.