Category Archives: Reality checks

Posts of the Year – 4

Here is today’s recap of the year’s most-read posts on the blog and it’s another one featuring a Bill Murray moment.  Unlike yesterday’s, which happened in real life, this one occurred in reel life – “Stripes,” to be specific, and was called “Your Big Toe.”  Enjoy.

I was thinking about this quote this morning:

An army without leaders is like a foot without a big toe. And Sergeant Hulka isn’t always gonna be here to be that big toe for us. I think that we owe a big round of applause to our newest, bestest buddy, and big toe… Sergeant Hulka.

OK, it’s really the tail end of a speech and you’ve all probably seen Stripes enough times to recite it yourself, but for some reason it popped into my head and I wanted to pop it into yours.big toe love

We’d all fall over without them, and I don’t mean the ones on our feet.  I mean the folks who provide the stability in our lives.  The subordinates who make us look good, the friends who pick us up when we’re down, the loved ones who hug us until we feel better.  Heck, as long as we’re appreciating appendages, let’s send some love to the bosses that recognize we have lives beyond work, dreams that work make possible, and treat us like humans, not employees.

So today’s brief note is nothing profound, just a thank you to all the big toes in my life and some encouragement to you to do the same to yours.

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Top Posts of the Year

Since this is a slow week for most of us, I’m going to use it to review the most-read posts of 2011.  I’m going to start with a post that actually was written in 2010 but through the long-tail seems to have been read a lot over the past year as well.  The inspiration was a piece on Milli Vanilli, the infamous muscial duo, and it deals with being authentic.  In reading the piece again, I’m struck by how little things have changed since I’ve written it.  But you tell me.

Alternative cover

“It’s not about being authentic anymore, it’s about entertaining,” says the man whose Grammy for best new artist was revoked 20 years ago — the only take-back in Recording Academy history.  That’s a quote from an article this morning in USA Today which I thought was about more than music.  In fact, if you read between the lines, there are some great business lessons in there which have nothing to do with making music! Continue reading

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How To Set A Goal

This is a time of the year when there is a lot of focus on what we don’t have.  How else does one make a wish list without thinking about what we’d like but don’t own?  Wishful thinking is a good thing as long as it’s grounded in reality.  I mean, your kid may want you to buy them a functioning light saber along with a robot opponent with which to joust, but light sabers don’t exist, at least not of the sort that the kid might see in the Star Wars movie.  May the force be with you as you explain that.

It’s a point we business folks need to keep in mind as well – both with respect to our wants as well as to our fears. Continue reading

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