Phoenix Rising

In an Instant

Life changes - in an instant.

I was riding the Headwall lift at Squaw Valley last week. It was a gray snowy day, but all us locals were out playing in the storm. I noticed a gang of the local hotshots up on the Light Towers, a series of gnarly chutes off of the Slot - a famous Headwall run. The kids here ski those chutes as baby-training and I'm always amazed at their ease and grace. They were one-footing it down these narrow rocky chutes like it was child's play, laughing so loudly I could hear them way over on the lift. What fun to be young again!

I headed over to the face of Headwall after I left the lift. Skied down a ways, then stopped to enjoy the snow falling on my face. As I started to ski the rest of the way down that run, two patrollers went flying past me pulling a sled. That's a sure sign someone has fallen and broken something. Darn it! But Squaw snow is heavy and folks who are used to the light stuff of Utah or the ice of the east coast sometimes rip an ACL or meniscus here in Tahoe - it's not an unusual sight to see.

I skied on down to the bottom, headed into the Member's locker room since I'd had my fun for the day. Put my stuff away and headed out the door. I noticed very busy medical staff outside of their First Aid office - one on a radio.  About that time I heard the sounds of the chopper.  That's a SURE sign that someone is hurt on the hill, and pretty badly. Damn. Nothing makes a skier take notice like the sound of a chopper coming in to take a fallen warrior off to the hospital. Everybody slows down - for a while.

If I'd only known the truth. 

I went home and started working and networking, then noticed a Tweet about CR Johnson - one of the local guys here in Tahoe. He was WHAT? DEAD. You gotta be kidding me. I just saw him this morning on the Headwall lift.

That's when I learned the truth. CR was one of those locals on the Light Towers. He'd hit a rock, spun, hit his head and was dead before his friends could get to him. With a helmet on.

CR was a Champion in so many ways.

He was an X Games champion. He created a lot of the moves the kids use today. He was the first at so many tricks, including the first to do a 1440 (that's 4 complete 360s folks) -at the ripe old age of fifteen. 

Five years ago he had a major accident that resulted in a brain trauma after another skier fell on him while they were shooting video in UT. He was put into a medically-induced coma for ten days and was in the hospital for 34. When he woke up,  he was an infant. He had to relearn everything about life. Walking, talking, holding a fork - and yes, skiing. But he did just that. He was back on skis within a year of that accident.  This winter, he finished third in the prestigious Red Bull Linecatcher event in the French Alps. CR was BACK.

But CR was more than just a great skier. 

I didn't know him personally, only on sight.  But my friends at Squaw knew him well. I chatted with them on the lifts for the days after his sad, sad, accident. Every one of them said the same thing about this 26 year old born for greatness. 

"CR was one of the good guys." "CR was the real deal." "CR and I just chatted a month ago. The kid sat down and talked to me for 20 minutes about life and how grateful he was to be back."

"CR was one of a kind."

Kids in Tahoe have CR posters on their walls. He was one of the guys you wanted your kids to see as a role model. A committed athlete, an all around great guy, one of the good souls on this planet earth who was all about making a difference as he enjoyed life to the fullest.

He was also someone who wouldn't stay down. How many of us could lose all of our basic skills - and fight to make it back to the top of the skiing world, or the top of any world for that matter?

Here's CR talking about his recovery....

The world didn't just lose a champion skier and industry innovator last week.  We lost a son, a friend, and an inspiration for us all - in an instant.

New Tricks

Let's say your business is making some pretty major changes. Do you assume you can train our favorite employees - about new markets, new skills, new roles?  Even as you are operating a changing business? 

Think about that.

Sometimes we can retrain skills – especially when our change in course is minor.  Employees can learn on the job without risking too much forward momentum in that case.

But what about when we take a major change in course? Let's say we're shifting from a focus on small business to corporate accounts. Do we assume that expert in SMB can be trained to define an enterprise product?  Different markets, different skills - based on different career experiences. Not based on something we can train in a few days or weeks.  So assuming that engineer can become a marketer is probably not gonna happen.

Take a hard look - if you need to hire a new skill, do it.

Execs need new tricks too.

Businesses need experienced executive leadership. If executives don’t have deep experience in our new markets or products – think hard.  We can't just  throw them off the deep end and expect them to swim.  That's our business we're drowning!

If we want to keep that exec, hire experts to support him as he gathers on-the-job experience while executing the plan - with an experienced mentor. We can't expect an exec to find their own way and reach a new level of expertise  while simultaneously leading our business forward. That’s asking too much.

Teaching new tricks is a valiant and honorable goal.

It also limits our opportunity to grow if we hang on too long.

Matching employee expertise to a new plan is one of the hardest parts of any strategy change. No one wants to leave their employees behind as we shift course to find better winds. The hard fact is, sometimes we have to send some employees on a different route.

These are tough, painful business decisions. Not making them is worse, especially for employees who have the skills we need. They pick up slack, make up for their under-skilled associates  - and that creates even more problems in the ranks.

As Spock said, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."  It was true in interstellar exploration - and it's true in business, too.

Convenient Commitments

Remember when our word was our bond, and a handshake sealed a deal?

We made a commitment, kept it and expected others to do the same. Even when it was inconvenient, we kept our commitments, in business and in our personal lives.  So much has changed.

I have a knack for committing to verbal agreements with people who later only remember what was in their best interest. It happened to me again this last week with my ski lease. At the beginning of the season, I couldn't get the owner to write a full contract - she told me she was too busy and she trusted me. I bit on that hook and went for the ski lease with no written agreement - assuming, as she'd told me, we'd follow our verbal agreement.

Now, she's forgotten most of what we said.  Her demands are all about what makes the deal convenient - and even more profitable for her - with no consideration of our previous discussion. She's even accused me of making up the conversations I documented via email. So much for that verbal agreement.

I'm disappointed. When push came to shove - she's changing the discussion to what's convenient for her, regardless of a previous commitment which I have honored.

What's up with our world?  

One week I'm seeing the tide of Go Givers rise with the release of Go Givers Sell More - and the next week I'm wondering if Go Givers are in a vast minority.

Has commitment come to mean when its convenient?  If that's the case, we're in deeper trouble. If everything has to be in writing, approved by the legal beagles, all the I's dotted and T's crossed - just to protect ourselves - we're in big trouble.

We can never create a written agreement as powerful as our commitment to keep our word.  If we must put everything in writing - the energy and expense (not to mention the legal hassles) overwhelm the opportunity to partner. Who wants to work with another company, buy a service or even rent a room if the legal fees out weigh the upside opportunity.

Do you experience convenient commitments?

I'd really appreciate your thoughts.  Are people keeping their agreements less often - or am I just running into the folks with the issues?

Assumptions Anyone?

There's an old saying about assumptions.  Remember?

Have you ever found yourself disagreeing with someone - wondering how in the heck they could see the situation in their way? Only to find that their perspectives were based on dramatically different assumptions than your own? Now think about the impact of those assumptions on the task at hand.

Social media gives power to our assumptions.

Social media enables all of us to make our assumptions known. We can state them in blog posts, Tweets, FB posts and YouTube videos.   If we're viewed as leaders in our fields - our assumptions are often taken as facts by our audiences. Audiences make the assumption that experts check their facts and only state the truth. 

Wow, a never-ending circle of assumptions.

How about this for an example?

"I'd say Google is seriously worried about Bing. Of course, for them $3M is a rounding error"

Said Tweet appeared in my stream during the Super Bowl - commenting on Google's ad. My first thought was, "You gotta be kidding me."  But then some prominent Tweeps RT'd in agreement.

WOW. That made no sense to me. Why would anyone assume that just because Google bought a Super Bowl ad they were afraid of Bing?  Let's see:

1. SuperBowl ads are expensive, so to buy one, Google must be desperate?
2. Google must be desperate about Bing - because it's from Microsoft? 
3. Google's ad was really nice  - so they must be worried to do something that great?

I'll never know for sure why these folks saw Google in fear.  I have a suspicion though. The media has been hyping the battle between Microsoft and Google for all its worth. Audiences listen to that hype, and over time they come to believe that Google is quaking in its boots thanks to Bing. That assumption - fueled by the media, social and public - leads to a conclusion that Google spent $3M to buy Super Bowl ads all because of Bing. 

Others didn't share these assumptions.  Since Google holds a significant leadership position in the search space, their assumption about the Super Bowl ad was they demonstrated leadership. And had a great advertising team, since Google had the best ad of the Super Bowl. It does seem that $3M is, indeed, a rounding error in Google's marketing budget.

Such is the power of two different assumptions to drive two different pictures of the same exact situation. Now think about how different the resulting two business courses would be - if they were based on those two diverse assumptions.

So what's my point?

Assumptions waste a lot of energy and cost a lot of time and money.  We need more facts, more truths and more opinions based on those facts and truth. Let's leave hype and buzz out of the equation as well.

Think what we could do if we focused all that energy, time and money on an insatiable pursuit of the truth?

Its beats being a donkey's cousin, now doesn't it?

The Way We've Always Done It

We don't usually respond well to change.

Especially in tough economic times – when our company or home life is already tense and constricted.

When things get tense, people tend to hang on to what they know.  The status quo is known and safe, even if it does mean a downhill slide.  Why is hanging onto a boat anchor safer than striking out for dry land? That one eludes me. Especially when we're spiraling downward. Why don't we try something truly different?

The way we've always done it' is usually the reason we're in a mess.

That's one of the reasons I question everything, asking about the logic, the 'why' behind thoughts and processes involved in our business decisions.Sooner or later, I hear the same little answer.

"Because we’ve always done it that way."

Those seven little words cause so much trouble.  They lock us into our status quo, limiting our ability to evolve and grow.  Even as we're seeking a solution for our slump with the best intentions and focus- the way we've always done it drags us down and keeps us there.

The key to growth is to adapt and evolve. From Madonna to Apple - successful enterprises know they must reinvent themselves to thrive. We can’t reinvent ourselves while hanging onto the knowns of our past. If we want to thrive in today's dynamic world - in business or in our professional lives - we have to release our past and evolve.

It's really not that difficult to adapt. Start by questioning ‘why’ you do things the way you do. From the biggest strategic decisions to the smallest daily actions. Every time you hear that answer, “Because that's the way we’ve always done it,” – take another look.  Chances are you’ll find an opportunity for innovation and improvement, for a new way of thinking. 

Isn’t that why we’re all here in the first place?

It's the Relationship!

It’s not about you; it’s about them. ~ Go Givers Sell More.

Truer words have never been spoken.  Whether in business or our personal lives, relationships are all 
about adding value to other peoples' lives.  

That universal  law is quite simple. We just have a hard time remembering it, much less following it. We can thank our social training for that. We've forgotten the simple universal laws that will help us to create success in all our worlds.

Go Givers Sell More helps us remember our truth.

Sure, some of what we're taught in sales (and marketing) is useful. But the core premise is flawed.  We're all taught to focus on our product and our goal of selling it.  We're taught tactics that take us out of the focus on relationship building for the joy of relationships -  and into the 'me, me, me'  zone. 

If we think our customers and prospects - or our friends and family - don't know the difference in our intentions - we're kidding ourselves.

Human relationships weave the fabric of all business.

Relationships also weave the fabric of life. When we put our relationships and others first, focus on creating value for them  and give freely of ourselves - that's when we return to our truth. The pure goal of sales, and life, is to create VALUE for others.  That's what Go Givers Sell More teaches us to do.

Go-Giver principles are not just for sales. They apply to every relationship in our lives today - and every new relationship coming into our lives in the future.

This little book shares life-returning concepts.

Many of us are stuck in society's training. We are like gerbils on a wheel - racing as fast as we can to get ahead by working hard, refining our business skills, doing what everyone else has taught us to do along the way. Focus on Our Goal, Our Lives, creating Our Value.

What if everyone else is wrong? What if success, in life and business, is as easy as giving to others, creating value for them, helping them succeed. Trusting in the knowing that the more you give, the more you have.  That's what Go-Givers Sell More shares with us. A better way to live, be and create relationships. When we do that - the rest just happens.

But there's more to Go Giving - it's called receiving.

I've been blessed to live most of the Go Giver philosophy since my earliest years. Not because I understood the specific principles or the Five Laws.  Mine was due to pure training.  You see, my beloved southern mother didn’t want me to be a spoiled-rotten only child. So my early training was all about taking care of others, giving my all, sharing my blessing and focusing on giving everything to those who needed my help. Why? Because, according to Mom, God gave me more than my fair share and I was supposed to give, give and give again to even out the balance.

And so I did.  All my life I've taken care of 'broken winged birds' -  of the animal, human and business variety. I've given my time, talents, energy, heart and soul to anyone who needed help along the way.  By the age of 47 - I burned out my entire endocrine system thanks to the stress of taking care of the world. What's wrong with this picture?

I didn't know what was out of whack for a long time.  But thanks to the Go Givers Five Laws, I now understand that I did not know how to receive. I couldn't accept anything from anyone. Compliments - I'd shake my head and change the subject. An extended hand after a nasty fall on the ski slope?  No thanks, I'm fine. I’d decline any offer of support or help.  Not because I didn't appreciate the offer - but because I didn't think I deserved the gift.  I had too much - I had to give away. I certainly didn't deserve to receive from anyone.

Go Givers is teaching me to open myself to receive.

How's that for a dichotomy?  Sounds like it's out of whack when compared to our ingrained cause and effect logic.  But it's true. I gave and gave and gave - but I couldn't receive. And so I didn't.

Since I read the Go-Givers and Go-Givers Sell More - that part of my life has changed dramatically.  I'm surrounded by offers to receive - support for my professional transformation, for my book launch, for beginning my speaking career. Every bit of help and expertise I need is being offered to me - and this time I'm accepting it with gratitude and a Go-Giving heart.

No matter who you are, what you're background or your career - Go Givers Sell More will guide your return to your truth. We can all create abundance in our lives with a single, simple focus.

I Create Value.

And in my case - I can Receive Value, too.

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* To order your copy of GO-GIVERS SELL MORE (and get a bonus package of various Burg and Mann materials), go here: http://www.gogiverssellmore.com/launch-special/

3 Steps to Customer Intuition

Wanna be a market leader?  Apply your intuition.

You know what I mean, that feeling that tells us a product idea has legs, a story is going to sell, a customer segment is going to love our new idea.  You just know when you're on the right track. If you think like your customers.

Custom intuition makes or breaks our business. When we're in sync with our customers - we soar. Just look at Apple. When we lose our gut feel for our audience, we spiral downward.

Customer intuition used to be an easy thing. Not anymore. Customer intuition is a tricky thing in today's warp speed world. Our intuition can go from 'right on' to outdated' in a matter of months. We have to stay in touch with our customers to keep our gut feel tuned to their thoughts and needs.

We get lots of chances to tune our customer intuition.

We’re involved with our customers on a daily basis. We interact with our markets and competitors and partners all the time.  What better way to tune our instincts than grounding our intuition in pure market reality.  How?

1.    Talk with customers and partners often. This is a no-brainer but too often we forget.  We get stuck in the office for week after week. Before we know it we get stuck in a rut, assuming what our audiences want based on history.  That's a sure way to let intuition go stale. What was true six months ago could be on its way to ancient history today.

2.    Speaking of history - study it. Just don’t wallow in it. Great strategies leverage lessons from yesterday's successes, and failures.  Note, I said ‘leverage’ not 'repeat'. What  happened in the past won’t work today. Apply that experience, tune it to match today's customer reality.

3.    Talk to Objective Experts.  No matter how hard we focus, we can still be stuck in the status quo. That’s where experts come to the rescue.  Find an expert who eats, breathes and lives the intricate details of your market and customers. Use them as your eyes and ears. 

Numbers and facts will tell you the same thing that everyone else, including your competition, knows. 

Your customer intuition is what sets you apart. Find it, and use it!

Turn the Tables!

 We all know when the big bad chain moves into town - small businesses lose.

How many of us would panic if some big, larger than life competitor moved in next door to our business? Would we focus on promoting ourselves with more extensive advertising, discounting our own product to meet their prices or pick up and move to a new location?  Perhaps we'd become deer in the headlights and do nothing, waiting for the inevitable?

This owner used the competition's perceived superior value against that big bad chain. He turned the tables and spit in the face of the expected outcome!

I love this commercial!   Hope you enjoy it too!

Extreme Measures

Fifteen Laughable Product Warning Labels

The above article was in Forbes this week.  I got a kick out of all of the warning labels - some were truly extreme, for example the one below.  Imagine - Office Depot warning people to wear Safety Goggles to use a letter opener. Pretty bad, huh?

But then I started thinking about why the  companies delivering these products felt compelled to cover their proverbial derrieres in such obviously over-the-top ways.

It's not because they've lost their minds. Nor have their corporate lawyers run amok - well, at least no more so than normal. It's not even because they're trying to do the best job possible of protecting their customers.

These companies are going to extreme measures to CYA because NOT doing so means they open themselves up to frivolous litigation. Not going to these extreme measures means they could lose their business to someone who makes a silly move and blames them - and in the end, the company pays, and pays big.

My righteous indignation is screaming!

I get ticked every time I hear of yet another lawsuit filed by some person who wasn't paying attention, using common sense or who was doing something just plain stupid and was injured.  Remember the person who poured hot coffee on themselves and was burned - and sued the restaurant?  That was only the beginning.

I have to ask. What happened to personal responsibility and just plain good judgment?  Is anyone else out there  thinking our legal system has gone loco?   Are we so inept that we can't be trusted to make good  decisions and protect ourselves from dangerous letter openers?  Must we place the responsibility for protecting our safely (and common sense) on the manufacturers of products?  I hope not.

Here's my BIG concern. 

If this trend continues - businesses will have a hard time releasing products to their markets. Legal teams will determine the risk/reward scenarios of bringing  a new product to market. Great innovations will die a sad death. We'll fall behind the rest of the world thanks to our onerous litigation. 

There has to be a way to halt this madness and return to a balanced and equitable distribution of responsibility. Starting with our legal system - or maybe with a return to personal responsibility.

Let me know what YOU think.  Rebel Rant over and out....for now.

Life is in the Stream

I watched the Super Bowl at home last night. I'm sick with a flu bug so I stayed away from the party rather than playing the role of Typhoid Rebel.  Wow!  What an eye opening experience that was.  Not because of staying home alone. And not because of the game - which was great.

The WOW was  because of what I learned.

It all started out simply enough. I was Tweeting with a couple of gal friends as the coin was tossed, then the game began - and then the ads started.That's when the fun began.

It wasn't the game that everybody was commenting on.  It was the ads!  And what comments they were. OMG! My Twitter stream went from this powerful, positive information-filled environment to a running stream of  sarcastic comments whose seeming purpose was to diss every advertising firm involved.  When did we become so hard to please? It's a football game!

But then I noticed some other comments - from people who loved the first round of ads, and the next and the next.  Positive, upbeat, heart-filled and supportive.  These people also commented on the game itself, interacting with a light-hearted, upbeat spirit - like they were at a real football game.  They were reveling in the celebration. It was such fun to share the game and the whole experience with them!

That's when it hit me.

Twitter is a real time audience feedback mechanism!

I created two new TD columns for these sets of Tweeps - added the folks who were online and active. I also added a third column - for all the folks who were on Twitter but who hadn't said a single word about the game so far.

I watched those three columns between plays, and I learned so much!

• The cool Tweeps - the ones who were dissing everything in sight - pretty much kept on doing just that. No matter what was happening.  They dissed the ads, the plays, called The Who a bunch of old men who needed to be in nursing homes. Sarcasm must be the new chic???

• The happy Tweeps - the ones who were enjoying the game - commented about everything that was happening, straight from their hearts. They liked some ads, didn't like some ads and discussed why and why not.  They didn't try to be important or cool - they were having fun AND providing real feedback on every $3M spent. And BTW - the guys tended to like pretty much the same ads, across the board. Imagine that.

• The hard-working Tweeps kept focused on their normal, every Sunday afternoon kinda Tweets. Not one of them mentioned the game, ever. And yes, they were in the US.

• A fourth category came along about halfway through the game. The women who were offended by Bridgestone and GoDaddy and other ads they felt were chauvinistic.  This stream grew larger and more vocal by the end of the game.  Another audience segment speaking their truth!

So what's my point?

Huge audiences are alive and speaking on Twitter. Every audience demographic we could imagine is active on Twitter! I filtered 4 profiles last night - but there are infinite possibilities.

 I felt like I was in the Matrix!

We can now access the most powerful, real-time feedback ever available. Even better - it's unfiltered, uninfluenced and the raw truth. Well at least in most cases. We do need to consider the source.

In Twisten Carefully, I wrote about an HBR article that suggested Twitter needed more 'Important' information'.  I disagreed.  Twitter as filled with rich, in depth information, there for our taking.

Today,  I see it's even more powerful. What do YOU think? Tweet me @rebelbrown :)

Twisten Carefully

Harvard Business Review ran an article last week entitled 'Let's Tweet About Something Important!' I was yet again surprised by the premise of the article - that the power of social networking is being hijacked by frivolous, not-important-at-all information. 

We all know there's a lot of noise out there.

That's one of the best things about social media - Twitter especially. People can share whatever they feel like sharing. Everything from what they had for breakfast to personal details I'd rather they kept to themselves.  But there is also great value found on Twitter. From people sharing ideas and information, to folks sharing themselves and their experiences.

That's what social media is all about IMHO.  Any and all information and insights are available for whoever wants to listen to them. And there's my point.

We get to choose what we hear.

We don't have to listen to all the noise - we get to choose who and what we Follow. We naturally UnFollow the people who don't match our tastes.  We search, use #hashtags, download TweetDeck or Seismic, create friend streams or lists. We  filter the stream to meet our own personal needs...not to hear everything that's said.

Saying Twitter has little great info is like saying television has nothing but sports and reality TV. There's so much more out there!  We just have to click through the 5000 satellite channels to find the great learning and entertainment. 

Similarly, we have to search to find the great insights, information and people on Twitter. We need the right tools and we need to be curious.  But just think what we can find in the Twitter stream! Anything and everything we want!

My Twitter Experience

I've met mentors and friends in the Twitter stream, ready to share their wisdom and expertise, as well as their hearts.  I have new friends from Warsaw to Paris - people I communicate with every day, who I've never met face-to-face. And it doesn't really matter. I've found blogs to follow, information to guide my own learning - all from the folks who share on Twitter. But I've found even more.

As may of you know, I'm launching a new platform and book this year. Thanks to Twitter, I met my fabulous speaking coach, Scott McKain. I met my publisher, Clint Greenleaf of Greenleaf Book Group.  I met my strategist, Thom Scott and his fabulous business partner Bob Burg, both of whom I'm honored to call friends and associates. I found my favorite art director (who I haven't spoken to in 10 years) and now he's helping me with some re-branding.

Thanks to the Twitter Vortex, I have the perfect team to help me launch 'Rebel 2.0'.

My information and networks may not be 'important' to other people- but it's darned important to me. I believe that everyone can find value on Twitter. Just look beyond the mundane and just plain silly (or obnoxious) and focus on what we want and need. We'll find relevant information, meet new friends, expand our networks.  

And yes, we can also know what that stranger had for lunch - if we so choose.

Twisten Carefully

Harvard Business Review ran an article last week entitled 'Let's Tweet About Something Important!' I was yet again surprised by the premise of the article - that the power of social networking is being hijacked by frivolous, not-important-at-all information. 

We all know there's a lot of noise out there.

That's one of the best things about social media - Twitter especially. People can share whatever they feel like sharing. Everything from what they had for breakfast to personal details I'd rather they kept to themselves.  But there is also great value found on Twitter. From people sharing ideas and information, to folks sharing themselves and their experiences.

That's what social media is all about IMHO.  Any and all information and insights are available for whoever wants to listen to them. And there's my point.

We get to choose what we hear.

We don't have to listen to all the noise - we get to choose who and what we Follow. We naturally UnFollow the people who don't match our tastes.  We search, use #hashtags, download TweetDeck or Seismic, create friend streams or lists. We  filter the stream to meet our own personal needs...not to hear everything that's said.

Saying Twitter has little great info is like saying television has nothing but sports and reality TV. There's so much more out there!  We just have to click through the 5000 satellite channels to find the great learning and entertainment. 

Similarly, we have to search to find the great insights, information and people on Twitter. We need the right tools and we need to be curious.  But just think what we can find in the Twitter stream! Anything and everything we want!

My Twitter Experience

I've met mentors and friends in the Twitter stream, ready to share their wisdom and expertise, as well as their hearts.  I have new friends from Warsaw to Paris - people I communicate with every day, who I've never met face-to-face. And it doesn't really matter. I've found blogs to follow, information to guide my own learning - all from the folks who share on Twitter. But I've found even more.

As may of you know, I'm launching a new platform and book this year. Thanks to Twitter, I met my fabulous speaking coach, Scott McKain. I met my publisher, Clint Greenleaf of Greenleaf Book Group.  I met my strategist, Thom Scott and his fabulous business partner Bob Burg, both of whom I'm honored to call friends and associates. I found my favorite art director (who I haven't spoken to in 10 years) and now he's helping me with some re-branding.

Thanks to the Twitter Vortex, I have the perfect team to help me launch 'Rebel 2.0'.

My information and networks may not be 'important' to other people- but it's darned important to me. I believe that everyone can find value on Twitter. Just look beyond the mundane and just plain silly (or obnoxious) and focus on what we want and need. We'll find relevant information, meet new friends, expand our networks.  

And yes, we can also know what that stranger had for lunch - if we so choose.

Stuck in a Rut?

I sure was!

I was in Tahoe last week as four BIG storms brought over ten feet of snow.  It was slick as a gut, drifted so deep in places that even Thelma (my F-250 turbo diesel truck) had a hard time getting through. After they plowed the roads, it was still a mess with melting, freezing and lotsa black ice.

I skied every day. To get to the hill in the morning - I had to constantly change Thelma between  4-Wheel Drive High and Low.  It took 4WD Low (with my wheel hubs locked) to get moving in my driveway and down my side street. Once I hit the bigger street, I had to get out, unlock the wheel hubs and shift to regular 4WD.   But then it would start to snow and accumulate. I'd hit a thick spot and have to pull over so I could lock the hubs again for 4WD LOW to get by.  Or I'd get into the parking lot and get stuck - and have to change those hubs.

 I'd never had to do this before!  After a few days, I got frustrated. By day five I was gunning it to get over bumps and sliding backwards into my friend's garage at Squaw (no damage, Les) just to avoid having to get out and lock the hubs for 20 feet of forward progress.  I even got stuck going up the hill to Tahoe Donner in 4WD one night, sliding backwards down the road. I told myself I didn't want to get out in minus 5 degree weather to lock the hubs.  Luckily a nice policeman drove up behind me, got out and locked my wheel hubs for me.  I made it home just fine.

I was stuck in all sorts of ruts!

Why was I so resistant to those darned hubs? It takes 30 seconds and makes it easy to go anywhere I want to go. There were lots of folks who would have loved the chance to drive safely in all that snow. They were parked in snow drifts or halfway to the top of a hill. They'd get out to switch their hubs I bet! Yet I'd have done anything to stay in that truck and drive - instead of crawling in/out to lock/unlock those hubs. 

I'm thinking it was the lack of control.  Getting stuck in that snow in my 6-ton hauling pick-em-up truck made me feel so powerless. I'd get out and lock those hubs, then get back in and have this sick feeling as I started forward again - waiting to slide backwards because sometimes even  4WD LOW didn't work.

Most of the time with those hubs locked - I was going anywhere I wanted. But it was only most of the time. I had to have four guys push me out of a dip at my fave ski store one night. 4WD Low wouldn't dig me out of the deep snow. I was scared all the way home of getting stuck yet again.

Most of us don't like change because it makes us powerless.   I found myself resisting change - even something as simple as changing my hubs.  Not because of the weather.  It was because of how powerless I felt.  That got me thinking.

If I avoid a change as simple as that - what will we do to avoid big changes?

We Are Responsible

I believe we can all create 'fair' lives.

I'm a big follower of the Law of Attraction (and Quantum Physics). I believe that we create (or select) what we focus upon in our thoughts and intentions.  If I focus on good things - I create them, or select them out of the infinite stream of possibilities. If  I focus on what I don't want, or negative things around me - I create, or select, more of the same negative results.

I know that my life is created by my focus.

Today I realize that all of the really , really tough times were my own personal creation. I had some pretty nasty subconscious beliefs that were driving my life toward constant crises and painful disappointment. I released the beliefs- and my world changed.  Dramatically.

All the 'unfairness' in my life prior to that awakening - well, it was fair, even if it was painful. It was exactly what I was expecting - and creating. Those tough times also helped me to grow  as a person, So maybe 'fair' is about what helps us to expand and grow - not about what keeps us safe and stuck in our comfort zone?

Mine is not the most popular opinion - especially when things go badly. Most of us don't want to believe that our entire lives, and the fairness or unfairness, is our own responsibility. We somehow feel compelled to blame some unfair external power or person for the challenges. 

Take those acts of nature, or God.

Some point to Haiti or 9/11 or other disasters and say life isn't fair. But how do we know that?

What if all the people who weren't' in the towers, even though they should have been - demonstrate that life is more fair than we want to admit?  What if all the people who survived the earthquake for days in Haiti show that life is fair even in a crisis?  What if in the big picture balance - the survivors and those who avoided death make our world more than fair? 

Here's the hardest part.  We'll never really know what all the folks involved in 'disasters' were creating. It's not ours to say. I certainly am NOT saying that terror attacks and earthquakes are fair. Anything but.

But do those horrific natural and human events mean life overall isn't fair?  What if they are part of the balance across all our thinking, or our own subconscious and individual creations joining together? I know, that's a hard one to fathom, but we understand so little about our existence. What if we're responsible?

We make the choice for fairness - or not.

I believe life is meant to be filled with joyful abundance for all of us. I also believe that we get in our own way, focusing on the negative and the lack and the fearful horrors. That focus creates things that are painful.  I spent decades of my life creating unpleasant experiences for myself.  Once I learned that I was responsible for those experiences - I changed my thoughts and everything changed!

When we shift our attitudes toward the positive, we create positive lives.

We can create abundance and prosperity.  We just can't fall prey to the collective consciousness and the dark side of the force.  I've lived on both sides - and I can tell you that simple focus on positive expectations can make life 'fair'. Even the unpleasant things can be fair, growth giving experiences - it's all in how we see them.

As for acts of Nature - well, only our higher power knows about those. But I still do believe there's a reason for all things.  I also believe that each of us has more control than we like to admit  - like whether we're in the right place at the right time, or the wrong place at the wrong time.

I know, that's not a factual answer to the question "Is Life Fair?"  But it's my answer - straight from the heart.