How do Music and Strategy relate?

Music moves me.  I have always loved a wide array of different music genres as well as different musical instruments.  I like to sing and I like to learn.  We have guitars, wind instruments, brass instruments, pianos and accordions, along with a lot of percussion.  I have tried to learn many of these instruments, mastered none, but learned a few.  Check out what we have to offer in musical instruments and music support.

How does music relate to business?  Well, consider this.  There is a strong need in business to appreciate diversity.  We can't always understand and relate to other people, but we can appreciate them and respect their differences.

Music is the same way.  You may not particularly enjoy all types of music, but you can appreciate it for what it is.  Did you know stores play Mozart, Beethoven and others because the music can make you feel more sophisticated and you will spend more?  We react to music both consciously and unconsciously.  Business is the same way.  We feel certain reactions to the quality of people in an organization, the way they carry themselves and the way they communicate.  If you cannot agree with everything they say, but you understand it completely, you are more likely to give a little in negotiations.  If you can listen to and appreciate all different kinds of music, you have the chance to learn to be flexible.  This will help you in strategic planning, to consider alternatives, it will help you in marketing and sales, to appreciate diversity, and in life, as you seek to talk with those different that you.

I am placing interesting combinations of music on www.thebyrdstore.com for you to try.  Keep checking back there for options for you to enjoy.  The CD collections are used, and not in their cases, but I have enjoyed them and am now moving on to the next level of downloads.  I have mixed up some crazy combinations of music for you to try.

Why Wisdom Selling Solutions?

When you start a business to support the ideas of helping small businesses and non-profits, you naturally draw on the learnings of your past experiences.  I have loved many different people and things in my life, but my family, my faith, my sports and my music have dominated.  Behind this is my love of learning, particularly around business efforts.  I have studied different strategic planning processes, different selling methods, and how marketing impacts the ability of a company to succeed.  Marketing creates the environment for a transaction to take place, while Sales finds the people to make transaction with and causes it to happen.  I have seen the growth of web marketing strategies, and this has changed entire business plans from a focus on face-to-face to a focus on the best way to connect, whether phone, email, web or even texting.  One thing that has not changed, though, is the need to connect.  The how can be figured out, but the what and the why of connecting often remain a mystery.  What am I selling, and why would you want it?  Business strategy is around building into the entire organization the ability to answer these two questions and then for internal analysis- at what cost.  Because these questions are always fun for me, I have started Wisdom Selling Solutions.  It is not enough to know stuff, we need to be able to do wise things as a result.  Read our blogs, look at the books we recommend and give us a chance to serve your organization.  You can see our books and other items at www.thebyrdstore.com .

Why the store?  Well, these books and other items helped me build my knowledge base, and now they help me fund activities with non-profits.  So buy one and enjoy it.  Or two or three.

Are you a hero or not?

I have been thinking about this as I have been starting an on-line store with my collectible baseball books from years gone by.  I have been reliving some of the stories I read when I bought the books and first read them.  I have books about Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Jackie Robinson among others, and as I read these books again, it is obvious to me that the writer allows them to be heroes, in spite of flaws that exist in each of them.  Why do these players remain heroes even today as we learn more and more about them and their private lives?  How is this so different than the sagas we have watched so recently with Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire?  (I sure wish  it were different - I have the Topps cards of Home Run 73.  Could have been worth a fortune!)

I am also reading a book about young James Bond, which reminds of Sean Connery and Roger Moore and all that they stood for, while at the same time showing a lack of morality in a few key areas.  Why are we so intrigued by these guys when they are bedding every woman in the movie?

Here is my thought for the day.  And it goes back to what I tell my kids quite often.  "You are not a bad person, you just have some bad behavior."  See, deep inside, I know their character, and I know what a special person they are.  How do I know?  Because of what I have seen them be and do that I value.

There is a story about Babe Ruth that says he went to see a small kid in the hospital and promised to hit three home runs that day if the kid would get better.  I truly want to believe that when the Babe went to the ball park that day, his hitting was focused on that kid, not his contract or his personal glory.  Hey, I don't know for sure, but I am willing to believe it.  I want to believe that Jackie Robinson put up with the junk he endured not for his own glory, but for the future of integrated baseball.  That is why they are heroes to me.  Do you think Hank Aaron endured the death threats in order to please himself, or was his cause a bit greater?  I choose to believe in his purpose!

I always felt with the old James Bond movies they did a good job of not complicating things.  James was loyal to God and Country, and was willing to die to serve.   Yes he had issues, but his actions were selfless.  The newer ones make James Bond such a deep thinker and struggler with personal issues.  That is why Sean Connery will always be James Bond the hero!

Look at the stories that make the news in sports now.  Infidelities, contracts, steroids, holdouts!  We have a generation that is growing up distrusting those who could be heroes!  There appears through the media and through the actions we see and the words we hear to be such a selfishness - such an "I'm going to get mine!"  Our politicians show it even more clearly as they choose reelection over being a hero.

Think about your life and those around you.  Are you a hero to them?  Can they see past your flaws to the selfless person you are, or do they look at your behavior and think, "that totally makes sense based on what I believe their character to be?"

It is never too late, and the rewards of being a hero will always outweigh the benefits of money, fame or title!  Life is over before we know it.  A woman from my church died in her 80's this past week.  And yes, she was a hero.  How do I know?  Because she was personally a hero to me!  Who thinks you are a hero?  Is serving them more important than serving yourself?

Just remember though, from the movie THE INCREDIBLES - No Capes!

Interesting Thought - Is technology robbing us of truly interesting people?

My daughter and I were driving to school this morning, and she told me about the ring she was wearing.  She told me it was from her Grandmother.  Well, not really. It was from her mom, but she wanted it to be from her Grandmother “Nanny”, so she was pretending it was.  My daughter is 15, so if she is pretending, it must be pretty important.

I told her she needed to come up with a story about the ring that would give it a special meaning.  She thought for a moment then told a story of some small value, but brief and to the point. I explained to her that was unacceptable, as a story about something as valuable as a ring needed a special story.

So, she challenged me with “go”.  Here is my story, right off the cuff:

Nanny’s husband was a wonderful man when they met, but after the marriage the weight of the world began to wear him down.  In order to cope with this life of disappointment and lack of direction, he began to drink.  In fact, he drank so much he became an alcoholic.  He began to be more aggressive at home; in fact, he was somewhat verbally abusive.  He would stay out late, and Nanny became despondent over the lack of any relationship with her husband.  She longed for a conversation that didn’t focus on something she did wrong or neglected to do at all.

Her husband fell further and further down, until there was no relationship at all.  Her Christian values provided her comfort and helped her commit to stay, but her reasons were so unselfish – to hopefully one day help him recover his character and follow his dreams.

One day, he was sitting in a bar, as he usually did, and a ring salesman sat down next to him.  He asked what he was doing there, and her husband explained how this was the only place he felt at home anymore.  The salesman asked if he was married.  Yes, he replied.  The salesman said he was too, and was very sad to be away from his wife for even the little while it took him to run his route each week.  He asked Nanny’s husband to tell him about Nanny.  Well, no one likes to tell about his wife as a failure, so he began to describe her as he once thought her to be.  The more he talked, the more interesting the description became, and he felt something he hadn’t felt in a while.  He missed her, and actually wanted to be with her more than being at the bar.

After a few more moments, a tear formed in his eye.  The salesman asked if something was wrong.  The husband replied that everything was wrong and he was the cause.  He realized that he wanted her more than he wanted the beer.  He then proceeded to confess to the salesman about his life of drinking and abuse.  The salesman told him he didn’t think it was too late.  Nanny’s husband stood up with the intention to leave and go straight home to her.

The ring salesman then told him not to go home empty handed, and opened his case to reveal a simple silver ring.  He gave it to Nanny’s husband and told him to present it to her as a symbol of his commitment to a new life.

Turns out it was.  From then on, life was different.  And Nanny did not take this ring off till she was ready to leave to see him in heaven, at which point she presented it to my daughter, with a request that she remember it is never too late.

Thus the importance of the ring to my daughter.

It was fun to tell the story, but her response was sobering and saddening.  She said that if I was growing up today I would just be normal, rather than having this streak of creativity.  She said that the television, internet and cell phone had robbed her peers of the ability to tell stories and create from scratch.

If this has happened to you, or to someone you know, it is not too late!  Tell a story tonight.  Or two or three.  Teach your friends and families to tell stories about the objects around them.  Be creative before creativity disappears.