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I got a save the date postcard from nyartbookfair.com. I want to go to this fair just because of the card they sent out. I'm afraid my scan of it doesn't do justice to its color and boldness. (Maybe this is a rule to live by as well.)
So, here's a rule. You shouldn't be able to own a URL that has nothing to do with your business. Since I started writing these Rules to Live By a few days ago, I naturally looked into the URL, "Rulestoliveby.com." Here's what you find at that address:
What the hell is this ISP in Wisconsin doing with this URL? Clearly they're not blogging about Rules to Live By. They're trying to sell their ISP services. Jeesh! And here I've gone and given them a plug. The bastids!
Okay, okay, I know this is a non-issue. It's way too late. It's a done deal. People buy URLs an re-sell them. I know this, I know this. It's just that in that ideal perfect world that doesn't exist, you wouldn't be able to do this. So this rule doesn't apply to the real world. Oh well. We can all dream, right?
Not sure what to call the rule here. This is about men not hearing women, or maybe it's not believing women. This past Monday morning I bicycled the Boston Marathon route back and forth with a group of friends. We rode the 26 miles from Boston to Hopkinton, the starting point for the race. While standing around taking a short break before heading back into Boston, I overheard one of the bicyclists, a woman, telling a couple of guys that "mice don't co-habit with rats." Apparently one of the guys had discovered mice in his house and she was trying to look at the positive side. If you've got mice, you don't have rats. Lesser of two evils and all that. These two guys didn't believe her. I don't know why. I came over and said, "mice don't co-habit with rats" and the guys say, "oh" as in oh, I didn't know that and thanks for telling me. They believed me. They know this woman better than they know me. And she then says, "why don't guys ever believe women? I just told you the same thing and you didn't believe me and then he [me] comes along and says the same thing and you believe him." This woman is a doctor. She's an athlete. She's not crazy. There's no reason for them not to believe her.
Now, this resonated with me because I've heard the same complaint from my wife about me. And it's true. She has made some statements that I think are preposterous and I say, "come on, that can't be true," but then if I see that same thing written the next day in a newspaper, I believe it.
Is this just a couple of random cases of guys not believing women or is this more of a cultural issue? I'm curious. I'm also guilty. So I need to change something here.
So there's this recent revelation that the second woman buried with the famous Oseberg Viking ship was not in fact murdered and sent to the hereafter (Valhalla!) with her queen. This all seems a little sketchy to me. Revisionist history. So how did she die and why was she buried with the older woman--thought to be a queen--who may have died from cancer.
This is bad news for the Viking brand, right? These guys were known for murdering, raping, and pillaging. And this recent discovery seems to be trying to make then out to be sensitive guys. Forget it! They were Vikings!
This one I have stolen from Tom Peters, and he seems to have stolen it from Jim Collins who stole it from John Gardner, who stole it from who knows who? (who knows whom?) The text below comes from a piece written by Jim Collins in Business 2.0 (rest in peace).
Jim Collins’ Golden Rule #11 (from Business 2.0)I learned this golden rule from the great civic leader John Gardner, who changed my life in 30 seconds. Gardner, founder of Common Cause, secretary of health, education, and welfare in the Johnson administration, and author of such classic books as "Self-Renewal," spent the last few years of his life as a professor and mentor-at-large at Stanford University. One day early in my faculty teaching career -- I think it was 1988 or 1989 -- Gardner sat me down. "It occurs to me, Jim, that you spend too much time trying to be interesting," he said. "Why don't you invest more time being interested?"
If you want to have an interesting dinner conversation, be interested. If you want to have interesting things to write, be interested. If you want to meet interesting people, be interested in the people you meet -- their lives, their history, their story. Where are they from? How did they get here? What have they learned? By practicing the art of being interested, the majority of people can become fascinating teachers; nearly everyone has an interesting story to tell.
I can't say that I live this rule perfectly. When tired, I find that I spend more time trying to be interesting than exercising the discipline of asking genuine questions. But whenever I remember Gardner's golden rule -- whenever I come at any situation with an interested and curious mind -- life becomes much more interesting for everyone at the table.
Okay, this one may seem to contradict yesterday's, but here goes: Stop drinking soft drinks. Yesterday I said you should always stop at the neighborhood lemonade stand and buy lemonade, or whatever it is the young kid there is selling. That's something you do for that person. You can sacrifice your body once in a while. (Or if you're really not into lemonade, just don't drink it.) This thing about stopping soft drinks is something you do for yourself. You don't have to believe me, in fact you have no reason to believe me, but you'll probably be more likely to believe Dr. Mehmet Oz. He's all over the place and is probably most well known from his appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show. (Also he doesn't mind talking about poop, which must endear him to many.) I know him from Esquire magazine, where he writes a fairly regular column. In the current issue (May 2008), he co-authors an article called "Retool, Reboot, Rebuild: A Life-Extending Guide to Your Body's Next Seven Days."
On Day 3 he writes:
"Throw Away Soft Drinks: Even diet sodas, which are no better than the usual sugar-filled variety. If studies existed proving that diet sodas help you diet, you probably would have heard by now. In fact, diet soda appears to increase your chances of developing chronic diseases and gaining weight."
You might wonder what I'm doing reading Esquire magazine, and I am embarrassed to admit that in public, but I do like their feature called "What I've Learned." This month's features Vint Cerf, the guy who really did 'invent' the Internet. One of the things he's learned is also one of my Rules, but that's for another day.
I'm just thinking about rules. We all want a set of rules to help us get through the day. And I'm going to begin setting down my rules. Not that I can think of any off-hand. That's why I'm going to start working on this list. I must have rules; I'm just not aware of them.
First rule: always buy lemonade from the kids who set up stands in front of their houses. I was reminded of this on Marathon Monday when I was walking home from watching the runners pass by on Beacon Street here in Brookline. There was a young girl who had set up a card table near the sidewalk. She was selling iced tea, not lemonade, but the rule still applies. It was only 25 cents for a cup.
A lot of people passed by without stopping. I don't understand that. Here's a kid who is doing something, not just sitting around, and I think it's our responsibility to support that kind of initiative. Not that I'm so pro-capitalism. It's not about the money. Well, yes she's doing it for the money. I doubt that she'd say she was doing it for the experience. But it's the experience that matters. And I think it's the duty of us citizens, her neighbors, anyone passing by, to stop and support her. It's only a quarter! Small price to pay for a big dose of encouragement.
Seems there was a computer game based on the lemonade stand idea as well.
N.B. The photo at the top of the post is a generic lemonade stand, not the one down the street from me. (Next time I'll get my own photo.)
Todd Sattersten of 800CEORead is growing out his facial hair until the book he and Jack Covert are working on is turned in to the publishers. He posted a picture of himself in his current condition. Unable to mark directly on the photo at the CEORead blog, I've done the next best thing...I think.
Dan Pink's newest book is titled The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need. And it is the first manga business book published in the U.S. (Not absolutely totally positive about that fact, but pretty sure.) Here's the Johnny Bunko website. And Dan and his publishers are charting new territory in the way they're promoting the book. Check out the video:
Johnny Bunko trailer from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.
