Endeavorance
The point of our blog isn’t to show you how up to date we are with buzzwords and jargon. It isn’t to instruct you with how-to guides, tips, tricks, and hacks. It isn’t to encourage, endorse, or engage in conformity. The point of our blog is to provoke, to counter popular notions, to question the status quo, to prompt your imagination, and to challenge you to think and achieve more than you might otherwise. Whatever happens, it’s worth the endeavor.
Endeavorance
The point of our blog isn’t to show you how up to date we are with buzzwords and jargon. It isn’t to instruct you with how-to guides, tips, tricks, and hacks. It isn’t to encourage, endorse, or engage in conformity. The point of our blog is to provoke, to counter popular notions, to question the status quo, to prompt your imagination, and to challenge you to think and achieve more than you might otherwise. Whatever happens, it’s worth the endeavor.
Proudly Naïve
I have a theory. It goes like this: If I remain naïve enough, I'll never get old. If that's so, then I just found the Fountain of Youth. The German writer, Thomas Mann, once said: "It is impossible for ideas to compete in the marketplace if no forum for their...
The Father of Invention
Necessity is the mother of invention. (variously attributed) Historians are inching closer to consensus on the notion that if necessity is the mother invention, recreation must be the father of invention. While all of history has manifested evidence of males'...
The Cost of Free
In an otherwise thinly veiled infomercial, a LinkedIn Influencer, recently wrote this, in part:* A new 10,000-developer survey by Developer Economics says that 50 percent of iOS developers and 47 percent of Android developers are "below the app poverty line" and...
Don’t Blink
Sammy's big on eye contact. When he speaks to you, he likes to look you square in the peepers. And if he thinks your attention is wandering in any way, he'll get in your face. If push comes to shove, he'll flop on his side or roll over on his back or something to make...
Would You Like Fries With That Wake?
With all of the emails I receive about funeral insurance quotes, I shouldn't have been surprised by this. But I was. Call me naïve. After all, if we're too lazy to get out of our cars for coffee or fast food or banking — things we want, presumably, and about which we...
Settled Science: Breakfast Edition
To understand how absurd a notion is settled science, we needn't tread the politically inflammatory territory of weather, climate change, and global warming. Nor do we need go so far as to read — let alone comprehend — the one tract that utterly debunks the...
Prophets and Loss
What's the most valuable attribute of successful people? We can find lots of answers to the question from lots of sources: Courage. Vision. Imagination. Persistence. Willingness to fail. Iconoclasm. Lunacy. Every one of those attributes is a factor in the equation...
Assume the Position
Matilda ardently believes it's critically important to assume the proper position for every task. Here, she deftly demonstrates her technique for straddling the back of a chair. While she's typically reluctant to reveal her trade secrets, she does find this position...
Quote Me on That
Prevailing wisdom contends that the most important aspect of direct-email marketing is the subject line. I hadn't given the notion all that much thought until I started receiving a blizzard of such emails, all with this attention-grabbing subject line: Burial...
Strategy vs. Tactics
A statement finding its way more frequently and annoyingly into the vernacular of business and politics is this: Hope is not a strategy. Yeah. The statement is true. But enough already. Its corollary statement is this: A tactic is not a strategy. Yeah. That's true, as...
Up in Smoke (Signals)
Some people go to great lengths to make sure they're not taken seriously. That's sad because it's really quite simple. If you want to ensure whatever you have to say is dismissed immediately and out of hand, all you have to say this: "We [select your favorite verb...
A Crush on You
We decided to supersize the newest addition to the OCG pet family. The young fella sprawled across JoAnna's lap is Crush, a 12-week-old Great Dane. Pledges to the OCG Pet Food Fund can be made by calling 1-800-GET-CHOW. Yikes!
A Stereotypically Clichéd Preconception
Salem is perennially curious about the origins of shopworn shibboleths. Just the other day he was asking us if we knew how and why people so many people so readily assume cats love to play with balls of thread, twine, or yarn. He actually seemed a tad offended at the...
New Life for Old Media
Hang on. It turns out rumors of print's demise have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, this post, in the media research blog of the International News Media Association (INMA), says the following, in part: While any advertising campaign should feature a healthy mix...
Chill Is as Chill Does
Of all our pets, Tar seems to take Pet Day Friday most seriously. Actually, he seems to take every Friday most seriously. He usually starts practicing on Wednesday night. He has a couple of pops, a couple of Snausages, and he goes to bed early. All day Thursday he's...
Cover Your Tailgate
On September 3, the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) released a new report showing tailgate thefts increased 31 percent — 831 in 2012 to 1,090 in 2013 — based on claims data submitted by insurance companies between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2013. The...
The Literate Pooch
Matilda was playing Bookworm the other day and was incredulous to discover there's a hyphenation in Milk-Bones. Bookworm doesn't recognize hyphenated words. Do your pets have trouble spelling particular words? Please share their stories in the Comments box below.
Salem’s Big Debut
We hate to mix our mammalian metaphors, but Salem is something of a ham. When he saw this photo of himself experiencing his first, rare, Texas snowfall, he tried to persuade us that — if we told his agent it was dandruff — he could get a starring gig in a new series...
Opportunism is Not a Dirty Word
People sometimes seem to be all but sneering when they use derivations of opportunism. They're likely to say things, down their noses, of course, like: "That's just shameless opportunism." Or, with a dismissive shake of their heads as they turn to walk away, "Oh, my...
Go After the Ball
A few weeks ago, I attended a local basketball camp to watch the son of a friend play. During the game, it occurred to me that young basketball players are like elderly drivers: They have no idea anyone else is around. They're always surprised to discover they're not...
Are You Talkin’ to Me?
Contributing editor, John Brandon, recently published a piece in Inc. called, "8 Expressions Really Good Communicators Always Use". If nothing else, it proves the old adage that one man's compliment is another man's insult. You can read the rationale John presents for...
Marketing Automation ≠ Sales Automation
The promise of marketing automation is seductive, indeed. It promises prioritized leads from multiple campaigns and more data than you can shake a stick at. The pitch typically goes something like this: By evaluating and reacting to each of your website's visitors,...
Tell the Truth
“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.” (Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast) When I first began presenting my book, Martin the Marlin, to large groups of children, I'd find myself getting anxious. Oddly enough, I...
Alive on Arrival
I found an article recently that brought some of my own experiences back to me. It was called, somewhat gruesomely, "What Not To Do In a Morgue". And it led me to recall that my first two years out of high school I was responsible for a morgue. Specifically, I was a...