Friends of Dave #120: Landslide
It's not can, but HOW do you handle the seasons of your life?
So I am driving back from the airport one night this week and the song "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac comes on the radio. Many people of a certain age might be more familiar with the Smashing Pumpkins version of it, but I have always been partial to the original.
The song is acoustic, simple and sensitive, and its entire meaning can be interpreted in a number of ways. But one thing seems certain: it talks about dealing with the changes in one's life.
As the lyrics go, time does make you bolder, children grow older, and as my wife and I prepare to send another of our children out of the nest this Fall, I find myself thinking about this a lot more. Yes, I'm getting older too.
These days, when I recount my life and career to this point, I kind of mentally package things like they are a series of acts in a play. I know, for me, it's hard to look at life as just a single one-act play or a series of one-act plays. When I think about my life, I usually think about the entire "story" I am trying to write. Maybe you do something like this as well.
The first act was my childhood and life before I graduated college. The second act started with my first job, getting married, having and raising kids and the course I plotted with the various career stops I made along the way.
In my mind, this act just recently ended. I'm not entirely certain if I look at it this way because we sent one of our kids off to college or because we moved to a new city two years ago. I also sometimes wonder if maybe it's because I had that colonoscopy a few years back (Sooo easy, by the way. The prep is the biggest hassle. Honestly, don't wait to get one if you have family history)...To keep things moving, let's just agree to say all three played a part...
So far there have been the ups and downs, highs and lows like any multi-act play. One could say that I climbed a mountain and I turned around. With my third act getting ready to be written, I hear the lyrics of the song in my head:
"Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changin' ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?"
Of course I can, I tell myself. We ALL can. But isn't the real question that we need to ask ourselves "HOW will I/we?" How will the child in our hearts rise above? How will we sail through the changin' ocean tides? How will we handle the seasons of our lives? Do we keep doing things the same way because it is safe or comfortable? Or do we have the courage to make some course corrections? Do we let things that troubled us from our past go? Or do we choose to continue to hold on to them tightly? Can we make gratitude a bigger part of our lives? How do we take what we learned in the previous acts of our lives and write an even better following act?
I suppose the beauty of life is that it is not a one act play. No matter where your acts begin or end or the twists and turns they take, you can always write a great next scene. Given how the first two have gone, I feel like my third act is going to be an interesting one. How about you?
And with that, we go into the second act of the newsletter -- the links. As usual, some really great stuff this week. Please check them out (I know podcasts are not big with this group, but the sales and marketing folks will enjoy the fun interview with Friend of Dave Ed McDonnell). And you music fans will definitely like what is served up in the Last Word.
Have a good one!
XOXO
Dave
First, Some Thoughts on Competition...
REPORT: The New Logic of Competition
We see five new imperatives of competition that will come to the forefront for many businesses: increasing the rate of organizational learning, leveraging multicompany ecosystems, spanning both the physical and the digital world, imagining and harnessing new ideas, and achieving resilience in the face of uncertainty
Business leaders accustomed to a world of clear boundaries, familiar competitive arenas, and traditional strategic planning must master new dimensions of competition to succeed in the coming decade. This is a long, comprehensive read but REALLY GOOD. If you have some time, dig into this one.
A Few For Your Day Job...
How to Effectively Speak Up in a Meeting, and When to Hold Back
A lot of common sense stuff here, but I find the HBR articles always good to keep things in perspective. Quick one too.
Appointing A.I. to corporate boards of directors: a defense.
On a hybrid board with both humans and A.I., the A.I. could provide shareholders, as well as other directors, with a more objective analysis when it comes to, say, questions like how a potential merger could affect directors’ own net worth.
Look, I am growing a little weary (like most of you) with the "AI" thread, but this is actually kind of interesting to think about.
LISTEN: Data-Driven Sales & Marketing Alignment
SALES AND MARKETING FRIENDS: Highly recommend checking out this awesome, entertaining podcast with a very good Friend of Dave Ed McDonnell, SVP of Sales for Salesforce Marketing Cloud where he talks about how sales and marketing organizations can use data to get on the same page. If you don't have the time to listen, there are some valuable transcribed insights there to read.
Are “Creepy” Marketing Methods Really Worth the Risk?
When evaluating your marketing ROI, you should decide whether location tracking and other creepy marketing methods are really worth the risk. If you are in marketing or at all interested in how companies are using your personal data for business purposes, you will like these great insights from my former colleague Christian Ward.
And Your Weekly Dose of Randomness...
Competitive Slapping: The World’s Greatest Sport
You do NOT want to get into a slap fight with a Russian man known as "Dumpling"...
At Volkswagen, Sausages Sell Faster Than Cars
I guess it is kinda like the Unicorn Frappucino at Starbucks or IKEA and the meatball thing...
7-Eleven Experiments With Health Food & Organic Slurpees
Oh boy, I can not wait to get my Killer Kale Kommotion Slurpee...
Kurt Cobain's sunglasses taught a whole generation of kids how to be cool
And in related news....looks Barney taught a whole generation of kids how to be dependent on their parents until they were at least 35...
And The Last Word....
How the FBI and James Comey Hunted the Wu-Tang Clan — www.thedailybeast.com
“You know what’s crazy? Ghostface put up a picture with Comey, and during that period of the Feds’ investigation, wasn’t he the leader of it?” said RZA. “Now an FBI director is out here taking pictures with the Wu-Tang Clan, man.”
Members of the legendary hip-hop group look back on one of the more curious chapters in their storied legacy. Enjoy!