Editor’s Note: I recently saw to my surprise that 71 year old Baez is still performing and very active in rights movements and so I dedicate this, one of her most famous early performances from 1963, as this month’s song.
“That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
Editor’s Note: Steve Rothschild, former executive vice president of General Mills and founder of Twin Cities RISE!, a nonprofit that works to advance anti-poverty programs, offers a useful case study of the challenges and successes RISE! has experienced, with a view to providing a management guide for other nonprofit leaders to follow. I especially liked the book's honest portrayal of the early difficulties that RISE! faced, especially the process the organization went through to achieve focus, and the steps it took to overcome the natural tendency of most philanthropists to try to do too much too fast.
Editor’s Note: It's hard to believe it’s been over ten years since George Harrison, my favorite Beatle, passed away. Hearing his solo stuff, especially this song, always puts me in a good place.
“Do not depend on the hope of results. When you do the sort of work you have taken on, you must face the fact that your work may apparently be worthless. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate on the value, the rightness and the truth of the work itself.”
Editor’s Note: I worked in an Interpublic Group advertising agency from 1979 to 1987. And so I was on Madison Avenue after the period covered by AMC’s hit show, Mad Men. If you hope this book is about the television show or contains salacious content as the show does, you will be disappointed. It is instead an intelligent review of the period the show covers, often referred to as the “golden age of advertising.” Cracknell himself spent 40 years in the business as a writer and creative director so his words mean more than an observer. If you have interest in the business of advertising, this is a nice history of the business with special focus on the “creative revolution” of the 60’s, the period covered by Don Draper and his colleagues in the TV show. I respect the ad business more than most because when it’s done well, as it was in the two agencies I worked for, it is a valiant and constant struggle between creativity and business discipline. The excerpt below, from the book’s epilogue, reflects my feelings about the current state of the art.
Editor’s Note: An oldie for this month since I’ve had some grey clouds the last few months. Then we spent last week celebrating my son Kevin’s love for his new wife, Chiara, reminding me that “it’s all right.”
"You've got to think about big things while you’re doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction." Alvin Toffler
Editor’s Note: Seth’s first popular book, “Permission Marketing” was a guide for me as we ramped WorkPlace Media into a national permission database media. I’ve since enjoyed “Purple Cow” particularly among Godin theses. As with all Godin books, “Poke the Box” is a quick read. Even then, he repeats points hoping we’ll get them. This theme of this one might be his best. That is that everyone, not just entrepreneurs, can improve their and others’ lives simply be starting something – Anything. He believes most of us spend most of our time thinking about doing as our excuse for not doing.
Editor’s Note: I finally went to see the Avett Brothers Saturday night. Thanks again to Craig Niess for turning me on to them years ago. Though just a guitar, a banjo, a stand-up bass, a cello and drums, these guys put on the highest energy stage show I’ve ever seen. And in the midst, they turned down the lights and Seth Avett sang this exceptional ballad whose brilliant lyrics tell a physical story to the struggle of love and hate. It reminds me of the old Buddhist saying when the student asks “A lion and a lamb struggle within me each day, Teacher, which one will win?” To which the teacher says, “Whichever one you feed.”
