Thank Goodness It's Monday #308

INTERESTED IN $150,000 PER YEAR

AND A RED FERRARI?

Now that I have your attention: Allow me to share the source of this offer.

Since it’s June graduation time, I’m reminded of –

The classic story: At the end of a job interview, a human resources representative asks a recent ivy-league MBA graduate, “What starting salary are you looking for?”

Despite the prevailing market conditions the grad confidently replies, “In the neighborhood of $150,000 a year, depending on the benefits package.”

The interviewer says, “Well, what would you say to a package of six weeks’ vacation, 20 paid holidays, full medical and dental, a retirement fund with the company matching 50% of salary, stock options, plus a new company car leased every 2 years — 

-- say, a red Ferrari?"

The MBA grad sits straight up and exclaims, “Wow! Are you kidding?”

And the interviewer replies, “Yeah -- but you started it.”

Sure, it’s a joke. But don’t you know someone who won’t quite get it?

Graduating from high school, college, grad school or med school doesn’t entitle anyone to $150,000 a year, a new Ferrari and a paid vacation or any of that; just as simply being in the workforce for any length of time doesn’t.

TGIM Takeaway: If you want to earn more you must provide more.

And lest you think this is just a cautionary tale for workforce newbies with an overblown sense of entitlement, let’s ask this mind-focusing question:

Q: What are you worth -- per hour -- in the marketplace?

If you stopped, divided your annualized compensation figure plus value of the benefits by the hours “on the job” in order to calculate the “hourly” dollar value, you probably had one of three reactions:

Ouch!

Cool…

or

I Quit!

So now you’ve got that number. The next challenge is to ponder --

• Are your daily actions and behaviors of less value than that hourly rate?
• Or are they of greater value?

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Provide more value and be valued more.

• The marketplace doesn’t know the word entitlement. It doesn’t exist.
• The marketplace doesn’t care what you need. It’s the marketplaces perception of value that counts.     

What the marketplace pays is the marketplace’s perception of the value of the product and/or service you (or I) provide.

So now, despite having forced you into this “hourly” rate calculation, I want to ask you to –

Forget about it. At least most of the time.

Yes, your time has value and knowing its value in some small-enough-to-manage chunk (an hourly rate, for example) helps you allocate your time most effectively.

Quickie case in point: If you’re a commissioned sales person with the potential to earn $250,000 annually — but you’re doing activities that a person getting paid $7.00 an hour could do for you — you need to re-evaluate your activities. At your hourly rate you don’t get to put “potential” in your pocket.

Get it? Good. So the corollary to that, if you’re operating in the six-figure-plus compensation world, would be to adapt this –

TGIM Compensation Mindset: Value the value you create. Consider what you do each day or hour as being compensated for results; those “results” being the value or revenue you create or generate by your unique participation in the process.

That mindset should focus your concentration. It should serve to remind you to align all your work-a-day “money time” activities with providing value and driving revenue through marketing, sales and service.

What value do you provide? Well, being only a segment of the market, I can’t tell you, can I? But I can challenge you to think creatively about how you can increase your value to your employer, your customers and to the marketplace.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Raise your own bar by consistently bringing high value to the marketplace and you’ll surely increase your hourly rate …your net worth … and your self-worth.

Looking forward to “Cool” paydays (and red Ferraris if you want them) – for everyone.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373

tgimguy@gmail.com   

James McNeill Whistler
Nocturne in Black and Gold

P.S.  About recognizing value: “I have seen, and heard, much of Cockney impudence before now; but never expected to hear a coxcomb ask two hundred guineas for flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face.” In 1877 the English art critic John Ruskin said that about American painter James McNeill Whistler’s Nocturne in Black and Gold.

Whistler took great offensive and sued Ruskin. At trial Ruskin’s counsel challenged: “The labour of two days … is that for which you ask two hundred guineas?”

Whistler replied: “No. I ask it for the knowledge of a lifetime.”

Whistler won his suit, although it left him nearly penniless.

Thank Goodness It's Monday #307

KNOW THE PAST, FIND THE FUTURE:

READ BETWEEN THE LIONS

The world-renowned pair of marble lions that stand proudly before the Majestic Beaux-Arts building of the New York Public Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in Manhattan have captured the imagination and affection of New Yorkers – and the world – since the library was dedicated on May 23, 1911.

And, as we begin celebrating this Centennial Anniversary of the Library, I wonder if the lions still have meaning for us in this age of online info and digital downloads.

First, some background: Sculpted by Edward Clark Potter from pink Tennessee marble, they are trademarked by the library and featured on major occasions.

• The lions have witnessed countless parades and pageants.
• They've been photographed by countless tourists, caricatured in cartoons, and one even served as the hiding place for the Cowardly Lion in the motion picture The Wiz.
• And, quite logically, they’ve been made into bookends.

And, although decorating these kings of the asphalt jungle has stopped because it was too damaging –

• Traditionally, for the winter holidays, each lion had been adorned with a holly wreath that weighed 60 pounds.
• During one Yankee/Mets Subway Series the north side lion wore an extra-extra-large Yankee baseball cap; the south side counterpart wore a Mets cap.  

To celebrate the 100^th Anniversary they were rendered half-size in Legos (60,000 of them, all “standard gray.”)

The “names” of the original NYPL Library Lions have changed over the decades.

First the Library Lions were called Leo Astor and Leo Lenox after The New York Public Library founders John Jacob Astor (the USA’s first multi-millionaire) and James Lenox.

Later they were known as Lord Astor and Lady Lenox, also Leo and Leonora, (although both sport manly manes).

During the economic depression of the 1930's, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia gave them names that represented the qualities he felt folks would need in those tumultuous times.

Those names stuck and those are the names the Library Lions are known by today:

Patience and Fortitude

Patience guards the south side of the library steps, to the left as you face them.

Fortitude sits unwaveringly to the north.

“Sweet story,” you may be thinking. “But isn’t a bricks-and-mortar building filled with ink-on-paper physical documents an anachronism in the digital age?”

“Isn’t Google scanning the contents of great libraries like this? Won’t a digitized, open-source equivalent soon take its place?”

Yes, but … No doubt the business of books is in turmoil. Book publishing is rapidly evolving. Books have many new forms. Book sellers are a new and different breed. Library hours and services are threatened in municipalities across the country. And the great New York Public Library system the lions represent is not exempt.

But during the Great Depression, many ordinary people, out of work, used this library -- and community libraries philanthropists like Astor, Lenox and Andrew Carnegie encouraged across the nation -- to improve their lot in life.

As they still do. We read and watch various news reports about increased use of libraries during this current economic downturn. It doesn’t come as a surprise to some at The New York Public Library that attendance and circulation are up. Users are seeking information in that special space to help them through tough times and are also using the Library’s collections and programs as ways to escape from it all.

Look at it this way: While the library the lions protect is packed with millions of volumes, many unique and costly, it’s not necessarily the books themselves that have the greatest value.

A sense of place still has its place. I’d like to suggest that access – in a public space, with likeminded seekers -- to the ideas recorded for posterity and residing there, is what makes libraries most valuable.

TGIM Takeaway:  For many, these days are as “tumultuous” as the LaGuardia era. While I hope the extreme hardships of the so-called Great Depression are not the case with any TGIM readers, Patience and Fortitude will continue to Support and Inspire individuals, families, businesses, institutions, political parties, and even nations through the eventful days ahead.

This library – all public libraries – are –

The People’s Palace. A place to Know The Past, Find The Future which, not so coincidentally, is the title of a special publication produced to celebrate the NYPL centennial.

The book (details HERE) harnesses the thoughts of an eclectic assortment of contemporary icons as they ponder an even more eclectic assortment of objects.

From among the Library’s vast collections, these writers, artists, philosophers, scientists, musicians, athletes, architects, choreographers, and journalists—not to mention some of the curators who have preserved these riches—selected an item and describe what it means to them. The result, in words and photographs, is a glimpse of what a great library can be.

Know The Past, Find The Future is available -- at no charge -- at all 90 NYPL locations — WHILE SUPPLIES LAST.

The book is also available -- at no charge -- in an eReader version for download.

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Strive to emulate the qualities for which the Library Lions are named. In the long run, Patience and Fortitude yield Success.

Reading (and writing) “between the lions.”

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373

tgimguy@gmail.com   

P.S.  On opening day in 1911, the first book requested from the main stacks was Delia Bacon's Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare Unfolded. The book, much to the staff's chagrin, was not in the catalog and a staff member donated the book two days later. Fifty years later it was discovered that the interchange had been a setup; the staff member had hoped to generate publicity for the book.

The first book to actually be delivered from the main stacks -- which, even then, contained more than one million books -- a speedy seven minutes after the call slip was deposited, was Nravstvennye idealy nashego vremeni (Moral ideas of our time: Friedrich Nietzsche and Leo Tolstoy) by Nikolai I. Grot.

Thank Goodness It's Monday #306

MEMORIAL DAY LESSONS

So how’s your long weekend been so far?

• Celebrating the “official” start of summer?
• On the road to the beach, mountains, lakeside, park getaway and taking note of higher gas prices?
• Doing your part to stimulate the economy shopping the spectacular (they say) sales?
• Firing up the backyard grill and still trying to get the pool water clear and pH balanced?
• Thinking about catching some summer blockbuster at the multiplex?
• Just veggin’ out ‘til Tuesday?

Well why are you at your computer reading this? (Just kidding -- sort of.) 

I hope you really make the most of this Memorial Day.  

But while you do: I also hope you’ll take some time – alone or with friends and family – to contemplate: 

The meaning of Memorial Day. The profusion of local parades and municipal celebrations that some of us can recall seems greatly diminished these days. Although hundreds of thousands of men and women, in the service of the nation, are actively engaged and in danger in many corners of the world, it seems the original basis for commemorating Memorial Day slips further from our minds and activities. 

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Take a moment today to get back to the core of Memorial Day. To get the dialogue started, here’s some background and two Takeaways to consider: 

Here’s the background: Waterloo, New York claims it started the first formal Memorial Day practice of decorating soldiers’ graves in 1866. A pharmacist there, Henry C. Welles, suggested to a veterans’ organization that the graves of Civil War dead be decorated. 

Boalsburg, Pennsylvania claims it was doing something similar earlier.  

Either way, in the following years, other cities, states and organizations initiated similar events on a variety of dates. Often, in the states that made up the Confederacy, significant Southern victories or personalities were memorialized. 

After WWI the American Legion took on the task of trying to unify these “decoration day” commemorations on one day. It gave the patriotic observances the “official” name Memorial Day and expanded the concept to honor all American service people from all wars and conflicts.

Miss Matt Moreton,
Mrs J.T. Fontaine,
Mrs. Green T. Hill and
Mrs. Augusta Murdock Sykes
are credited with beginning
Decoration Day
in Columbus, Mississippi.

For our purposes this Memorial Day, let’s go back to the origins for a moment to find lessons worth learning.

Some historians think that both Waterloo, NY and Boalsburg, PA got the idea from a newspaper article in Horace Greeley's New York Tribune featuring women from Columbus, Mississippi who spread flowers on the graves of BOTH Confederate AND Union soldiers as an act of friendship and understanding between North and South at the end of the Civil War.

The story of the unprejudiced acts of these women led to widespread interest in impartial commemorations in memory of the dead. It is seen as a "healing touch for the nation."

We like this version of the day’s origin for two reasons:

#1: It recognizes that, no matter who is victorious or whose cause is “right,” the ultimate sacrifice made in pursuit of sincerely held beliefs is no less painful for the living of either side.

TGIM Takeaway: One of the most effective ways to begin to reach reconciliation and consensus is to find the places conflicting groups hold in common. This principle works at all levels of life, from negotiations with your kids to resolving global conflicts.

#2: One small idea, quietly initiated by a handful of presumably modest individuals, gave rise to a National Holiday.  

TGIM Takeaway: Think of it as another example of The Law of Slight Edge in action –  

Small changes, over time, make a big difference. 

I hope this Memorial Day provides you with a moment to reflect on the ideas of contribution and sacrifice as well as effective ways we all can contribute to making a Best Year Ever for ourselves and our world.

Go Forward! 

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631

201-569-5373

tgimguy@gmail.com    

P.S. The post-Civil War-era poem The Blue And The Gray by Francis Miles Finch (1827-1907) is said to be inspired by reports of the actions by the ladies from Columbus. Here’s the last stanza:

No more shall the war cry sever,
Or the winding rivers be red;
They banish our anger forever
When they laurel the graves of our dead!
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day,
Love and tears for the Blue,
Tears and love for the Gray.

Stayin' forever young

MAY YOUR SONGS ALWAYS BE SUNG

Happy 70^th birthday to Bob Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman (Hebrew name, Shabtai Zisel ben Avraham) aka Elston Gunnn (sic).

Rolling Stone -- who has a lot to thank Bob for -- has a tribute HERE.

A nice collection of Bob quotes from lyrics and elsewhere are HERE.

Among the missing quotes:

"Never trust anyone over 30."

Just for the record: Bob didn't originate this idea, although it's often attributed to him. Neither did Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman or any of The Beatles. Currently, in it's 60's anti-establishment context, it's linked to Jack Weinberg when he was a 24-year old Free Speech advocate. 

A real Bob quote particularly appropriate for the day IMO:

"He who's not busy being born is busy dying."

A good way to celebrate? Maybe --

"... dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free ..."

BOB'S BIRTHDAY ACTION IDEA: Dig out the old vinyl, fire up the turntable and Rock & Roll & Rage & Reminisce.

Thank Goodness It's Monday #305

COMMENCEMENT ADDRESSES

YOU WISH YOU HEARD

According to an unscientific poll conducted by Good.com for a recent article, most people don't remember who spoke at their graduation.

I certainly don’t.

I’m guessing that most other TGIM readers don’t either. (If you do, and your commencement speaker shared something memorable, please share it with the rest of us.)

Chances are – no matter who spoke – they rambled on about "good job" … "good luck" … and something about "the future."

While those expressions are nice, most of us can agree they’re overused and not memorable.

While it may be too late for you to have an engaging and unforgettable commencement speaker, Good.com also put together a list of the –

Top 10 Commencement Speakers

You Wish You'd Heard.

TGIM ACTION IDEA #1: Click through HERE and you can see and hear over an hour of “highlights” from the presentations of about half of the ten notables.  

TGIM ACTION IDEA #2: Or continue here for a distinctive quote from each one (compiled by Kristin Piombino of Ragan.com) to send you off today inspired to “commence” your week. 

1. Steve Jobs, Stanford University, 2005 

"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."  

2. Theodore Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss), Lake Forest College, 1977, from a 92-word poem – “My Uncle Terwilliger on the Art of Eating Popovers” -- he unveiled on the occasion.  

"And

as you partake of the world's bill of fare,

that's darned good advice to follow.

Do a lot of spitting out the hot air.

And be careful what you swallow."  

3. J.K. Rowling, Harvard University, 2008 

"…failure means a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged."  

4. Bono, University of Pennsylvania, 2004 

"So my question I suppose is: What's the big idea? What's your big idea? What are you willing to spend your moral capital, your intellectual capital, your cash, your sweat equity in pursuing outside of the walls of the University of Pennsylvania?"  

5. Wynton Marsalis, Northwestern University, 2009  

"Blues is survival music. Congratulations y'all. You have survived. And in this moment, perfect in both its accomplishment and its potential, we stand on the threshold of your liberation—and I suspect your parents' as well."  

6. Anderson Cooper, Tulane University, 2010  

"…I realized that I don't need to give you advice, I don't need to try and teach you a lesson. The truth is, your class has taught me a lesson. You're the class that came after Katrina … A lot of folks probably said you were nuts to commit to New Orleans … But you came anyway. You took a chance. You made a tough choice, but look at you now, look at what you've accomplished not just for yourselves, but for New Orleans."  

7. Will Ferrell, Harvard University, 2003  

"Graduates, if you will indulge me for a moment, let me paint a picture of what it's like out there … You're about to enter a world filled with hypocrisy and doublespeak, a world in which your limo to the airport is often a half-hour late. In addition to not even being a limo at all; often times it's a Lincoln Towncar."  

8. Ursula K. Le Guin, Bryn Mawr College, 1986  

"Our schools and colleges, institutions of the patriarchy, generally teach us to listen to people in power … and so they teach us not to listen to … what the powerless say, poor men, women, children: not to hear that as valid discourse. I am trying to unlearn these lessons, along with other lessons I was taught by my society, particularly lessons concerning the minds, work, works, and being of women."  

9. Jon Stewart, College of William and Mary, 2004 

"Let's talk about the real world for a moment … I wanted to bring this up to you earlier about the real world, and this is as good a time as any. I don't really know how to put this, so I'll be blunt. We broke it. Please don't be mad … But here's the good news. You fix this thing, you're the next greatest generation, people."  

10. David Foster Wallace, Kenyon College, 2005 

"The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able to truly care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day." 

What would you share with the Class of 2011?  

TGIM ACTION IDEA: While I imagine it’s unlikely you or I will be invited back to our alma mater(s) to share our hard-acquired, real-world insights, our increasingly connected digital world gives us the opportunity to do just that with our “friends” and the folks we’re linked to. 

Last year at about this time I set out my thoughts on how such a speech ought to go in TGIM #261. (See it reposted below. Or HERE.)  I’d be interested to know your thoughts along the same lines.  

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Writing focuses your thinking. Why don’t you post up – either in your own space, on your Facebook, LinkedIn or similar page – what you’d say. Or respond to by e-mail or in the blog reply space provided. 

TGIM Takeaway: Even if you’re the only person you inspire, that would make a bigger impact than that graduation speaker you don’t remember, wouldn’t it?

“And, in conclusion” (wild applause) “I’d like to say …”

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373

tgimguy@gmail.com 

P.S.  “Education: That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.” Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” Author Ambrose Bierce (1842 – 1914) conjured up that definition in The Devil’s Dictionary.

END-OF-THE-WORLD QUOTES & THOUGHTS

Apparently --  

“Due to the lack of experienced trumpeters, the end of the world has been postponed.”

A funny thing happened
at the May 21, 2011
post-end-of-the-world party 

But that’s no surprise to many.  

Claude Levi-Strauss observed, “The world began without man, and it will end without him.”

Henry Miller suggested, “The world dies over and over again, but the skeleton always gets up and walks.”

“An ill beginning hath an ill ending,” we learn from a proverb collected by John Clarke in 1639.

But on the other side of the optimist/pessimist equation, proverb collector and compiler James Howell recorded, in 1659 …

“A good beginning hath a good ending.”

And also:

“A hard beginning hath a good ending.”

Not to be outdone, John Ray, also an English collector of proverbs, noted, in 1678 –

“Good to begin well, better to end well.”

And then there’s a German saying (my people, paternal side):

“A bad beginning may make a good ending.”

“In my beginning is my end,” said T S Eliot.

And, of course he also said --

“This is the way the world ends.

This is the way the world ends.

This is the way the world ends.

Not with a bang but a whimper.”

Not wanting to end this with a whimper: There’s the always quotable Winston Churchill who said, about the British victory at El Alamein in 1942--

“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” 

… an idea he, perhaps, purloined from Talleyrand who, in 1813 after the Battle of Leipzig, remarked to Napoleon:

“It is the beginning of the end.”

How to end this? I guess I’ll close by quoting the eclectic Frank Zappa:

“It isn’t necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice -- there are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia.”

Thank Goodness It's Monday #261

This post originally appeared about a year ago in a digital space I share with my friend and project partner Eric Taylor. I'm reposting it here, now, because: (a) I was recently asked what I would say at a commencement and, of course, having already given it some thought, formed my answer around this premise. And (b) Having revisited the idea of mediocre messages to new grads, I thought next Monday's TGIM message could follow on and so it would be useful to have this on this page as a reference.

CAN YOU BECOME ANYTHING YOU WANT TO BE?

“A new phase of your life is ahead of you. As a new graduate you can become anything you want if you just try hard enough.”

That’s the message I heard repeatedly at graduation ceremonies for family members this past June.

And every time I heard it, I bristled because –

I don’t think that’s true.

And I don’t think it’s useful to tell that to young people about to set off on the next set of challenges in their lives. I’d sooner leave them with a more realistic take on the world they are about to encounter and give them more practical and pragmatic guidance on how to move up as they move on.

What would I tell new graduates?

That’s what I’ll share with you here, today.

Assuming that, as these young people were, they were young adults about to head off to college or on a career path, after the correct observation that “A new life is ahead of you” I’d advise: “At this point in your life –

Focus On What You Do Best

TGIM ACTION IDEA: Identify your strengths and work hardest at developing them. In this talent-driven society, your biggest success awaits you in the place where you fit in most comfortably and can excel at what you do.

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Be guided by what feels natural to you; what agrees with the way you think, and fits in with the way you feel and behave.

By now you should have an inkling of your interests and passion. You surely know you’re talented at some things and have greater difficulty mastering others.

In the days and years ahead, invest your time and energy practicing and developing those things you do best and building your knowledge base there.  Consider carefully where you concentrate your efforts.

Don’t be “Rudy.”

It’s likely you know the inspirational, spirit-lifting story of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger. It became, and remains, an iconic movie tale, based on a real-life story, of “success” by perseverance.

Here’s a capsule version. Then I’ll give my maybe-offbeat take on it:

Rudy was a 23-year old groundskeeper at the University Of Notre Dame, the Indiana football power. At 5’6”, 165 pounds he was an unlikely physical specimen for big-time college football played there under legendary coaches Ara Parseghian and later Dan Devine. Yet that was his desire. He worked doggedly to gain admission to Notre Dame so he could play football there.

He finally was accepted after having been rejected numerous times and, as a walk-on, earned a place on the football practice squad. For two years he took a beating in daily practice but was never in a “real” game. He was finally allowed to suit up for the final game of his senior year. In that game, with Notre Dame well ahead in the score, his teammates agitated to put Rudy in. In the final seconds the coach, Dan Devine, sent Rudy in.

Heart-warming outcome: Rudy sacked the opposing team’s quarterback. Rudy’s an instant hero … cheering fans carry him from the field … he’s later invited to the White House to meet the President, Joe Montana and other world-class leaders.

“So,” you say, “isn’t the Rudy story proof ‘You can become anything you want to be?’”

Well, I say “You can be anything you want to be, if you just try hard enough” is –

A misguided message. While Rudy’s perseverance is noteworthy, in the end, he played a few seconds of football and made a single tackle.

Despite his somewhat deserved current status as a motivator and poster boy for persistence, it only followed on the heels of the success of the movie. Following his 1976 college graduation and brief acclaim, he struggled in life and business.

Yes, someone wins the lottery. But million-to-one odds are not good odds. If buying a $1 ticket and enjoying the process is painless fun, then I’ve no problem with that.

But I don’t see that in the “Rudy” story.

What if Rudy had invested the thousands of hours of he devoted to college football to developing a talent that came more naturally to him?

While we can’t know the outcome, there are many established scientific studies and surveys that confirm that acknowledging weak points and moving in the direction of developing your greatest strengths leads to the biggest and best rewards.

Gallup Polls quantify it this way: People who do have the opportunity to focus on their strengths are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life in general.

TGIM Takeaway: Extraordinary room from growth exists in each and every one of us if we put our energy into developing our natural talents. 

So I say to the Class of 2010 and friends and families assembled: Congratulations on all you’ve accomplished so far. Now --

Even if you cannot be “anything that you want,”

You can “be a lot more of who you already are.”

Go for that. And thanks for your attention.

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing
8 Depot Square
Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com

P.S. Mark Twain is often credited with a story about the history buff who spent his entire life trying to figure out who was the world's greatest general. So when he died and got to Heaven, he asked Saint Peter if would show him the world's greatest general. Saint Peter took the man through heaven and pointed out a man and said, “That is the world's greatest general." The historian said, "You must be mistaken. That was the blacksmith in my village." And St. Peter said, "You are right. He was the blacksmith in your village. But if he had been a general, he would have been the greatest general of all."