What do you expect?

Great Expectations

I feel bad for Tim Tebow.

It’s hard to feel bad for someone who gets paid millions of dollars to play a game but I really do.  After another miserable passing performance, Tim had to deal with a Monday morning firestorm of people talking about how he “sucks” and doesn’t deserve to be a Quarterback in the NFL.  It’s more than just your run-of-the-mill criticism – people are actually happy to see him fail and circle around him like vultures.  Someone so inexperienced is usually treated with kid gloves but unfortunately Tim Tebow is just the latest victim of a very dangerous and familiar epidemic.

You should be scared of this Lineup

The Lineup: October ‘11

What I can’t live without: Fear.  Nothing like the month of October for the cable networks to break out their horror movie marathons.  Although I didn’t go see Paranormal Activity 3 in the theaters like the rest of the world, I did enjoy bouncing around the tube catching old favorites like Saw, Texas Chainsaw…, The Shining, and Pet Cemetery.  Its still makes me laugh that once each year people will pay money and spend hours doing things that literally scare the hell out of them. 

(Related: The Walking Dead a.k.a. the most exciting show on television right now)

War Torn.

Casualties

32 people were shot in a hail of gunfire over a three-day span.  The 20 separate incidents left 7 people dead.

These kinds of headlines are all too familiar when your country has been at war with two countries for nearly 10 years. We’ve become so numb to it that these reports are just temporary hiccups between the gossip and sports columns.  Because shootings and killings go hand in hand with war, the shock and emotional attachment has all but worn off.  However the shootings that I described above did not happen during a combat mission, those 32 people we’re wearing army fatigues and not one of those 7 bodies were found on a street in Afghanistan.

Fall Back and get some of this Lineup

The Lineup: September ‘11

What I can’t live without: Beyond Scared Straight.  Or as I like to call it, crack for your eyeballs.  It’s a more intense version of the Scared Straight show that we used to watch when we were younger and thank goodness for that because Bad Ass Kids + Jail = Comedy.  There is nothing funnier than watching some wannabe gangster get reduced to tears at the hands of a criminal who threatens to sell him off for a pack of cigarettes.  The best part however, is watching these kids realize they are throwing their lives away with these bad decisions and making a change.

(Related: Breaking Bad – The start of this season could be misconstrued as being “slow” but those first episodes were only the fuses tied to the mountain of dynamite that’s about to explode.)

Henna tattoos are for sissies.

Inked.

My tattoos represent the essence of hard work – temporary pain and discomfort for a lifetime of pleasure and satisfaction.

My tattoos are not fashionable and are not a response to any trend. 

9/11/01

Nine Eleven. Ten.

Ten years ago terrorists waged war on our country.  Images of planes, fires and collapsing buildings forever burned in our minds.  Now, a decade later, our country mourns and remembers.  Newspapers dedicated weeklong spreads, exclusive interviews with President Bush and Mayor Giuliani and Facebook was filled with people’s feelings and opinions.  Even the hit show Rescue Me, which was in part dedicated to the lives of the 343 firefighters that died, had its series finale. While many felt sadness or anger, one particular emotion ran through me deeper than all others… Disappointment.

The best business advice ever... or the simplest

People Power

Business advice seems to take the same form nowadays – stripped down and covered in a shroud of lists and mystery.  There’s no real way to tell if the keys to managing your company can be narrowed to “5 keys” or a “secret formula” but there is genius in simplicity.  Removing the complexity of an issue allows us to focus on what’s really important and helps prioritize.  So in order to provide the best business advice possible with this post, I’ll attempt to explain how you can build and sustain a successful company with only one word.