I was interviewed for a national magazine this week, and the writer asked me “what was the one significant life lesson learned in my vast years of experience’. This is a clue that she was obviously younger and more attractive than myself – “vast years of experience” translates consistently into “Ole’ Geesey.”

The question actually took me quite by surprise. Certainly, I have had the rare fortune to climb to the mountain and learn from the most iconic figures of our lifetime – having spent time with Redford, Coppolla, Bono, Gore and B. Clinton, P. Cruz (boy, did I screwed that one up!), Welch, and about 50 others. What a ride!

But the lesson that immediately comes to mind was learned from Cary Justice. Cary was a friend since elementary school. She was somewhat shy and kept mostly to herself all the way until high school, and then she turned High School hot! She was thin, tall, blond, and ripening just a bit ahead of her peers. And in 12th grade, she hadn’t spoken to me for about 6 years.

In my junior year, I ran for Student Body Vice President…as a joke. I was a geek, a pseudo star of the tennis team. If there was an “in crowd”, I was so far from it that I couldn’t even identify it. I ran against the perennial jock - captain of the football team, baseball team and basketball team. He was a GREAT athlete.

But evidently, I was a better marketer….

I won. I started to get noticed.

Then, I tried out for the football team (I hadn’t played since 4th grade). I made the team! (well, there were no cuts…). To everyone’s astonishment, I actually did quite well, and was asked to be the starting defensive end for the 3rd game of the season. The guy whose starting position I took was quite happy to point out that the coaches plan was actually to take me out after the first two 2 plays. I was enraged at the thought that my big opportunity was just a veiled pat on the back for working hard, not a true recognition that I was worthy- a can of green spray paint and I could have passed for the Incredible Hulk. I went out on the field breathing fire. I made the first two tackles, two big quarterback sacks later on, 6 more tackles and one fumble recovery!

And suddenly, I was popular!, albeit for a very brief moment.

Being named Student Body VP and earning a starting spot on the varsity football team took me from anonymously geeky to ubiquitously cool in just a few short months. The kids talked about me. The local newspaper wrote about me. And all those girls who had ignored me for years started to show up around my locker. ALL OF THEM!!!

Sure, I was thrilled! The highlight of my love resume up to that moment had been climbing the rope in 7th grade. Now, I was talking to real girls!

With the confidence of Iron Man walking out of a cave, I walked right up and asked Cary Justice out. She said yes. I almost wet myself.

Later that week, I arrived at her house to pick her up. True story…Her dad let me in, and I quickly noticed a shotgun laid out in pieces on the dinning room table – he was cleaning it – he was a police officer. I laughed. He looked up. He did not laugh. I threw up just a bit in my mouth…

Cary finally came down, and she looked beautiful. We drove to a party, where she quickly found her real, popular friends. Its funny now, but I don’t even remember speaking at all to her. I went home alone, without ever saying goodbye. (yet successfully dodging the inevitable gunplay from her father!!)

One Story. Three Lessons.

ONE. Popularity is sweet, and fleeting in life. It is here one day and gone the next in High School. And the longer you live, you realize you have never truly graduated from High School.

TWO. The things you want the most, once realized, are often less precious than you would have guessed. And in many cases are less than what you already have.

THREE. The success that No One, maybe not even yourself, expects you to achieve, might just be possible. And just maybe, it’s right around the corner.

I recently went on spring break with the family. I just completed a big project with the UN and Hollywood (which went extremely well – trying to figure out how to communicate this - Demi says hi), and have been engrossed in starting a new company.

So, I made the annual workaholic promise not to open my email while on break with my family. No sneaking to the bathroom. No waking up early with coffee for an email binge. No “kids are in the water” sneak peak. In fact, I waited a full 6 days without checking my email. 6 DAYS!

And guess what…. No one emailed me. Couple spams. Couple facebook requests. Other than that? Hardly any emails.

The question has always been, can you break from email for a full week. Do you have the willpower. But what if you stayed away from email, and NO ONE CARED!!

We greatly underestimate how our work structure/stature contributes to our self esteem, and we greatly overestimate how long this glow of significance will stay with us when we leave.

This is the essence of starting a new business. I realized on that week that while I am hopeful I have great momentum, if I never sent another email about my idea to anyone, it would quickly fade to memory.

No one would care.

Starting a new company can be a very lonely place.

Unless you really believe…

Wow.

I can’t believe it has been another week and I haven’t blogged.

So here’s the problem. I am totally mentally engulfed in two separate initiatives.

The first is a venture assisting the Secretary General of the UN and the top 100 most influential people in Hollywood. The immediate goal is to support the outreach of the UN objectives to those in the creative community who can most powerfully get the message across (the top actors, writers, directors, etc.). My involvement stems from our wish to also link in the most influential in the commerce community. Picture that an issue arises, and we can quickly mobilize 4-5 A-list from Hollywood to support, get 2-3 global corporations (and their hundreds of thousands of employees worldwide) to engage, link directly to the NGOs (both UN and other), and connect them all to the feet on the ground among the people in need. It’s a pretty powerful concept, and has never been approached in this way. More details to follow. Big kick off event in early March (a name-dropper would have a heart-attach and die on the spot. The private estate in Beverly hills where the evening event will be held is the most incredible home I have ever seen- by a factor of 4!).

Next, I am now at the moment of conception of my next company (or at least the fun part where you actually believe conception will occur). Very confidential right now, other than I am trying to redefine executive education based on an entirely new model. Initial receptivity has been amazing, far better than with the launch of my first company (world 50).

So I am now tri-polar. Still trying to support the bestselling book The Leap, (out speaking more and more around the country), trying to launch this major social initiative, and trying to start a new company from scratch with no money.

Oh, and I have a 14 year old, a 13 year old, and a 12 year old at home. This is like riding the Disney magic tea cups on crack. You come home exhausted at 6:30, and then drive car pool til 9. (it is also one of the most enjoyable phases with the kids, but exhausting!).

So how do I continue to blog?! I think I have a solution!, which I will detail in my next post.

Til then, yours in the storm…

rick

First, read this:

Roses
By George Bilgere

A late fall day, and unseasonably warm enough,
for whatever dire reasons,
to let me paint the rose trellis

a deep red in the brittle afternoon,
enjoying the gratitude of thirsty old wood
soaking up the blood.

This is satisfying,
for some reason, although I realize

that somewhere an aging surgeon
is stepping out for a showdown
with a famous young tumor
on the dusty street of somebody’s life.

And somewhere else a soldier
Is burning in his Hummer,

and a girl in a border town
is strapping a bomb
to the shy breasts
nobody ever got to kiss
before she heads to the marketplace
to mingle with the pears and radisishes,
the fish staring from their beds of ice.

But I’m just painting a trellis,
thinking already of the praise I’ll get for it,
even through I’m doing my usual half-assed job,
slopping red on the driveway,
Pollocking the flagstones, willing to fall
a little short of perfection,

although I know that spring, when it comes
uttering roses, will settle
for nothing less.

Yesterday I spent an hour watching the horror and despair of Haiti on CNN. Then, I watched The Hurtlocker (one of the year’s best films – watch this!), which portrays the stark reality of war in Iraq. In my hotel bed, I tried to get one last bit of work done before shutting down the day. But I couldn’t. Does it really matter? In the context of the desperate moments occurring right now in the lives of others distant from me, what is the consequence of one more incremental tweak to a powerpoint, of cleaning out one additional email, of posting one final tweet.

I wake up the next morning. It is time again to paint the trellis. If for no other reason than to try. To be active. To make an impact. To leave a contribution.

Our time, whenever it may come, will settle for nothing less.

These two new initiatives have been all consuming through the holidays (had a conference call Christmas Eve evening) and into January, and things are likely to continue this way. All this has caused me to be severely delinquent in my blogging, and despite this flurry of activity, I hope to get back to a more regular pace soon (stress: hope).

All this commotion, and a brief reprise from blogging has allowed me to reflect on what I have learned from the last year of actively participating in social media. In the coming days, I will share these reflections.

Here is the first: Blogging is about Self-discovery.

People often tell me that they want to write a blog, but they are not sure what to write about. I tell them just post something – whatever comes to mind, twice a week, for three months. Then go back and read it – the answer will be obvious, and it may surprise you.

Blogging is really about glancing at the brief flashes of insight that all too often come and go in our lives, and capturing them. It’s not about writing things for other people (at least not for most of us). It’s about articulating a idea that is floating around in your head. As such, looking at your posts over a period of time is like reading an EKG of your thoughts, your inspiration, your passions.

Blogging is as close to authentic expression as you can get in print. It is a great way to talk to yourself, and to be able to stand back and genuinely listen. It is a fascinating process of capturing thoughts, expressing them, and then understanding what that tells you about yourself.

There are many things that blogging will not likely deliver for you (I will discuss later), but creating a unique mirror with which you can genuinely reflect on and learn about yourself is one of the greatest benefits.

I think the life cycle is all backwards. 
You should die first, get it out of the way. 
Then you go live in an old age home. 
You get kicked out when you’re too young, go collect all your super, then, when you start work, you get a gold watch on your first day. 
You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement. 
You drink alcohol, you party, and you get ready for High School. You go to primary school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, 
you spend your last 9 months floating with luxuries like central heating, spa, room service on tap, 
then you finish off as an orgasm! 
Amen.”

hat tip Mark Boncheck

What appears to be a disaster in progress in the picture above, is actually one of the more creative Christmas decorations I have ever come across.  It is so realistic, in fact, that the police made the homeowner take it down after only 2 days.  “I had more people come screaming up to my house than ever.  A 55 year old lady grabbed the 75 pound laddar and almost killed herself putting it up against the house.  She didn’t realize it was a fake until she got up to the top (and was NOT happy).”

So, are you ending 2009 hanging from your gutter, or is your trauma just an illusion.  Let’s face it, careers are not cookie cutter predictable.  They are more like weather patterns.  There are seasons.  There are cold fronts and warm fronts.  There are periods of draught and relentless rain.  The only thing you can be certain about is that the sun will once again shine. 

I gave an in studio radio interview this week, and at the end, the host asked me, “Tell me about one of your greatest mistakes.”  I briefly mentioned the office Christmas party fiasco of 1995, but then reflected seriously.  I think one of the greatest mistakes was that early on, I thought about mistakes, I thought about failure…incorrectly.  I believed that success represented flawless progress.  I fought against failure, and when it happened, I blamed it as best I could on external factors.  My colleagues were brown nosers.  My boss was a jerk.  Anything I could think of, except that is for the real source of my setback.

I sucked. 

Looking back, these failures were marvelous markers, steering me away from the things that I wasn’t passionate about, nor good at, and towards the things that I was.  Each of the trauma’s I had faced passed mostly harmlessly with time, and left me stronger, more knowledgeable about the best direction for my future. 

We all suck at something.  Discovering it early is a gift.  And the long term repercussions of failure and struggle are rarely as disastrous as the in-the-moment illusions we craft in our minds. 

I just had the most interesting conversation with a friend – a very powerful business person, wise from experience, likely one of the top 100 influential female professionals in the world. Her comment to me?

“Hurry up. The window is closing…”

She was referring to the state of the economy, which she was optimistic about. Her basic point was that for the last year, nearly everyone was whacked upside the head with a two-by-four. No one trusts their instincts right now. They are searching for a savior. They are searching for someone with new ideas, who is positive, motivated, and ready to lead them to a better future.

They are searching for innovators and entrepreneurs. But not for long.

As the economy slowly recovers, even if it moves into a moderate expansion, people will once again discover their egos. They will start buying into their own BS, drinking their homegrown organizational cool-aid. They will start listening to anyone with the loudest megaphone.

People prosper in good economies. New ideas often don’t. I launched my last company just as we were emerging from the last recession, and I am hoping to launch two even more ambitious initiatives this time around (one for profit, one not – can’t wait to tell you about them).

If you have a great idea, now is the time to grab onto it and run as fast as you can. If you feel the urge to lead change in your organization, take the flag while no one wants it. If you want to launch a new company, make your move while customers are still frustrated and yearning for the new.

But hurry up. That window is closing…

“I am dragged along by a strange new force. Desire and reason are pulling in different directions. I see the right way and approve it, but follow the wrong.”
- Ovid

Why is the irrational often more powerful than the rational? What leads us to do really stupid things?

Locked up in his estate, this is certainly a question Tiger Woods is now asking himself. Why risk it all for a simple trist (or a series of them)? Why is lust so often more powerful than logic?

What’s the difference between a golf ball and an Escalade?
TIGER CAN DRIVE A GOLF BALL 400 YARDS.

I offer no moral explanation, nor moral condemnation for Tiger Wood’s apparent extracurricular activities*. But as we are all once again exposed to what appears to be an incredibly costly tradeoff of seduction and sacrifice, I find it helpful to look to modern psychological for possible explanations.

Police asked Tiger’s wife how many times she hit him…She said

”I DON’T KNOW, 5 OR 6…PUT ME DOWN FOR A 5″

In his wonderful book, The Happiness Hypothesis, John Haidt writes about the conflicting systems of the brain. Specifically, there are two competing systems at work in the brain at all times. The automatic system is derived from the oldest part of the brain, and triggers simple reflex (like sex and passion). The more sophisticated, controlled system manages processes like planning, weighing the pro’s and con’s of different paths.

When presented with certain stimulus, like a beautiful hostess in a romantic place, far away from home, the war between the automatic and controlled systems begins to rage. The controlled system confronts with logic – “Hey, Idiot – Over here! You can’t be serious! Do you have any idea of the consequences?!”

But the automatic system fights back. “Wow….hot!….martini….REALLY HOT!”

WHAT WERE TIGER AND HIS WIFE DOING OUT AT 2:30 IN THE MORNING?
THEY WENT CLUBBING

The automatic system, powered by millions of years of evolution, runs automatically, effortlessly, and endlessly. The logical controlled system is powerful, but it has an endurance problem. Like a tired muscle, it eventually wears down and caves in. As Plato once said, “Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.”

DID YOU HEAR PHIL MICKELSON CALLED TIGER’S WIFE ASKING HOW TO BEAT HIM?

Tiger is in the deep rough, that is for sure. But we cannot fault his logic or his reasoning. It was the oldest part of his brain that fought harder and longer, and eventually sent Tiger’s tee-shot deep into the woods…

and his driver into the bushes.

*Note:  This post was written during the initial revelation of Tiger’s indiscretions.  The intent was to try and explain the forces that lead to people throwing so much away for brief pleasure.  It is now apparent that these were not isolated indiscretions, but a pattern of pre-meditated behavior that certainly can not be condoned from a leadership figure such as Woods.  The entire story has progressed poorly (and sadly)  for everyone involved.  I hope 2010 will bring us a bit more sanity…but I have my doubts.

Fox Business News from Rick Smith on Vimeo.

The general business point here is that when you are confident, you can think in longer time horizons. Price wars are notoriously dangerous for business. A one percent drop in price results in an 8% drop in profit (averge for S&P 500 - mckinsey & co), and it is historically very difficult to raise prices back up.

However, when there is an extremely high level of competition, and a corresponding level of uncertainty, the time horizon on which you evaluate decisions shrinks - it’s not about long term profits, it’s about short term survival. In this environment (the one we are in right now), companies are much more likely to quickly match price drops, and try and figure out profit later (which is exactly what happened last week, and will likely continue into next year).

And some of you may be wondering how in the world I answered these questions, with absolutely no retail industry experience. Actually, the night before I slept in a Holiday Inn Express (…and called 5 of my buddies who are running global retail companies…)