Today I experienced something even more special.  I am in NYC working in my hotel room, and scheduled to checkout at noon.  Then I find that my flight is delayed until 4pm because of weather.  The desk person extended my checkout until 2pm.  Her words to me, “I am doing this because . . . because . . . well, because you are Mr. Lane.”  Is that a cool way to break a rule by exception or what?

Margot first made waves back in the late 60′s inventing Warm Fuzzies, the very first sheepskin bedroom slipper with the wool inside.  Yes, all the fuzzy  footwear since then, including fuzzy versions of Crocs, owe their heritage to Margot’s original idea.

She and her sister Leslie then opened the Chapman Sisters Calorie Counter on Michigan avenue in the Wrigley building, the first restaurant to ever price their food by calorie and let you know what you were really eating.  It was 1977.  It was a Monday-Friday lunch-only concept that did over $1 million a year in revenue.  Today, restaurants like Seasons owe their heritage to Margot.

In between Margot helped hundreds of CPG companies come up with innovative new products.

Most recently, Margot and her partner Pam Rose created Swirls near the zoo in Chicago, and literally started the trend toward cup-cake bakeries.

Goodbye Margot.  No matter how desperate things must have seemed to you, the business will remember you through your many innovations.

Well consider what Muzak did years ago when they created the idea of using music in the background in the workplace.  Muzak is known as elevator music.  It even created the term “elevator music.”  Now it’s in office buildings, lobbies, restaurants, schools, etc.   And the category that resulted, Business Music, has competitors.

I assumed this category began in the 1960′s, but research showed me that it is much older than that.  The company Muzak Inc was incorporated in 1934.  This brand gained credence after a British study in 1937 showed that music increased work efficiency.  Then another study in New Jersey showed that music added in a manufacturing plant reduced absenteeism by 88%.   The brand Muzak introduced a form of franchising in 1938.  William Benton of Benton & Bowles advertising was an owner of the brand at one time.

Technology has changed but the fundamental idea is the same.  Even the Ipod owes its success to the same basic idea.  Background music increases work efficiency, whether in the hallway, at the desk, or in the gym.  What an idea to brand!

I was reminded of Dean John Drewry in the University of Georgia’s Journalism School who taught us in the 60′s that “Nothing is work unless you would rather be doing something else.  Find something that you love to do and it will never be work.”  No wonder I have no desire to retire.  It is fun.

Ask yourself.  Do you go to work every morning, or do you go to fun?

“The starting point of great success and achievement has always been the same. It is for you to dream big dreams. There is nothing more important, and nothing that works faster than for you to cast off your own limitations than for you to begin dreaming and fantasizing about the wonderful things that you can become, have, and do.”

I have given this same speech in different words so many times “after” an accomplishment.

Bill Egan, a client when he was International President of Johnson & Johnson once complained to me, “People think vision is ‘let’s go into the hair care business.’  Where is the real vision.”

We think that real vision is the ability to imagine and see in detail a scenario that has not happened yet, but theoretically could.  I believe a part missing in Bill’s comment is “bigness.”  I think in part vision is in the BIGNESS.  If one said, let’s own the hair care business, a minimum of 70%, it would be different.  In other words, is it possible that the size of a goal can actually lead one to Visionary Thinking?

For instance, the goal, “let’s invade and take over Cleveland,” would lead to visionary thinking, wouldn’t it.

I have a heath nuisance that might force me use a cane, and I don’t just want any old cane so I have been on the Internet.  I found the one I want for starters, but I don’t want to buy a personal thing like a cane online, so I finally decided to call the parent company out in Estes Park to see where I might find one of his Sumac Root Walking canes.  Well, it’s a small company, so George answered the phone.  He’s been in business for 25 years having sold his first company to AT&T.  He explained that he had about 2500 retailers across the country.

Georgia went through retailers in GA.  He knew exactly who had what, and finally gave me four numbers within three hours of my house that he knew for certain should have the exact cane I was looking for, the Atlanta Zoo, a hiking shop in Helen, Ga, another in Newnan, Ga, and one over in Rome, Georgia.

If I go to giant retailer, I can rarely find an employee who knows what they have, much less the specific name to ask for in the next aisle.

George, on the other hand told me about each of the four stores, something about the owners, their phone numbers, and what they ordered last time.  What an absolute pleasure.  Finally he offered to send me three or four canes, and let me send back the ones I did not want.  How nice it was to be treated like an adult.

If you want to have a good conversation with a boss, a peer, a vendor, a partner, a subordinate, a client, a customer, etc., the talk will be better if the two of you have a good connection first, and I am not talking about technology.  I am talking about a human connection.

Years ago before businesses were so thinly staffed, I believe that we got to know our co-workers better as people.  We went out to lunch together.  We snuck out of the office to play golf.  We had drinks after work.  We went out with the ad agency at night.  We all understood each other better as people, so when it came time to disagree over a campaign or a recommendation, we could be more direct with each other.  Talk was more productive.  Today, we don’t have such strong connections with those with whom we work, so we have to talk in Politically Correct manners.  It has actually become risky to just say what you think.

Connection is also important for good conversations with spouses, children, friends, etc.

Connection is important to remote communications like advertising copy.  That is what Brand Character is all about.

Connection was first noted as important in 443 BCE when Aristotle wrote the Pinciples of Rhetoric (which in those days meant Persuasion).  He argued that Ethos should be established between the Speaker and the Audience before one moved on to the Pathos and Logos of the argument.

Bottom line.  Your ability to connect with people is probably far more important to your career and to your life than your ability to converse with dazzle.

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, ‘My son, the battle is between two ‘wolves’ inside us all.

One wolf is Evil; It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other wolf is Good; It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence,empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.

The young grandson thought about this for a minute or two and then asked his grandfather….. ‘Which wolf wins?’

The old Cherokee replied simply….. ‘The one you feed!

Food for Thought!

Oscar Wilde said, “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”  Robert Greene in his classic, POWER, has a section on how to use your enemies.  I recommend it to you.

Lesson from here, if you don’t have enemies, you are probably not performing well enough.  Don’t go out and create enemies.  Just perform in an outstanding way and they will appear.

If you do have enemies, learn to use them.  As Greene can demonstrate, enemies can be more useful than friends.

A really good leader is a saint.  You do not have to be perfect.  Remember one simple thought.  A good leader is one others choose to follow.  It really is that simple.  Others either choose of their own free will to follow you, or they don’t.