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Ramblings From a Glass Half Full

The Secret to Long-Term Success (It’s Simpler Than You Think)January 6

As you may have seen in my last post, my 2009 mantra is:

“No Fear, Stay Proud“

Why this mantra, in this year?

It’s best to split it into two parts, and today I’d like to address “Stay Proud“.

About 10 days ago I was reading the NY Times and came across a piece entitled “Improve Morale By Knowing Your Employees“, written by Kelly Holland.

I was quite curious because I knew as a leader and manager I needed to step things up more than a few notches in 2009 to keep our heads above water in turbulent economic times.

Plus, I also realized that even in my personal life I needed a little something extra to keep the glass half-full this year.

About half-way into the article, I found what I was looking for - it was a quote by Jon R. Katzenbach.

Most motivational managers, he said, “make a personal connection to the worker, and that personal connection is used to make them feel good about the work they do.”

“That gives them pride in the work,” he added, “and if they feel proud of their work, they do a better job.” (my emphasis added).

To do better, especially in a more challenging environment, we need to stay proud. Of o

My New Year’s Blogging Wish List (2009 Version)January 2

Happy New Year!

Notwithstanding the global economic calamities that have negatively effected just about everybody’s net worth, 2008 was a great year for me, in both of my worlds. My day job’s company is doing well, and I’m loving my work. I’m now practicing Yoga regularly, and as a result my health is better than ever, and I’m a lot more centered to boot.

As for Terry Starbucker, he also did just fine, thank you! I launched a new blog platform at the beginning of the year on WordPress, and it’s been working very well. I put up 97 blog posts, and Tweeted nearly 3,000 times.

I co-hosted SOBCon08 with Liz Strauss and it was a fantastic experience (as this post would attest).

We’ve already launched registrations for SOBCon09 (May 1-3, Chicago Illinois), and Michelle Vandepas interviewed me about it on BlogTalkRadio in December (if you were ever curious to hear what “Half-Fullism” sounds like, check it out).

I also discovered the

Starbucker’s 10 Best Songs of 2008December 29 2008

While 2008 wasn’t one of my most prolific music buying years, I did manage to find some real gems to get into my trusty iPod. Here are my favorite 10 songs released this year:

1. “Viva La Vida” - Coldplay Melodic, urgent, and majestic -all wrapped into one song. These guys are good.
2. “Supernatural Superserious” - REM A fabulous return to form (and my nominee for best song title).
3. “I Will Possess Your Heart” - Death Cab For Cutie An 8-minute opus showcasing this band’s enormous talent.
4. “I’m Amazed” - My Morning Jacket This one got lots of repeat plays in the iPod - it was a great road song last summer.
5. “Mercy” - Duffy This little slice of “blonde soul” made my feet tap and wish I was in a dance club every time I heard it.
6. “Little Bit of Feel Good” - Jamie Lidell Oh yes, this track delivers the goods promised in the title. Shuffle down any street to this one, and folks will wonder what you’re up to.
7. “Freeway” - Aimee Mann Aimee has come a long way from ‘Til Tuesday and “Voices Carry”, and this track is yet another great effort from this underrated songwriter.
8. “Wichita Lineman” - James Taylor This was a sentimental choice for me, because it’s one of my favorite songs of all time, sung by one of my favorite singers (on his recent “Covers” album).
9. “You Are The Best Thing” - Ray LaMontagne Ray has a gritty style all his own, and he showc

Generational Smackdown: Baby Boomers vs. The MillennialsDecember 24 2008

I was doing my usual full-scale digestion of the Sunday NY Times the other day when I came across a book review by Harry Hurt, entitled “A Generation With More Than Hand-Eye Coordination“.

Hurt was writing about a book by Don Tapscott called “Growing Up Digital” - in it, the author takes a deeper look at the generation now commonly called the “Millennials” - those born between 1977 and 1997.

His thesis, based on interviews with nearly 10,000 people, is that as the first generation that came of age in the Internet era, the Millennials are “smarter, quicker, and more tolerant of diversity than their predecessors”

Why? Because of the “collaborative” nature of the Internet. Us older folks, baby boomers weaned on the one-way medium of television and radio, were apparently dumber, slower, and less tolerant at a similar age.

Or were we?

On behalf of Baby Boomers throughout the world, I will take on the list of 8 “norms” that supposedly give this generation their superiority, according to Tapscott. Here we go…….

1. Tapscott: Millennials (”M’s”) prize freedom Starbucker: Baby Boomers (”BBs”) also prized their freedom, but in our case it revolved around enjoying getting Dad’s car on a Saturday night, instead of a Blackberry with texting ability.
2. Tapscott: M’s want to

Simply The Best Post of 2008: Why I BlogDecember 22 2008

My good friend Joanna Young issued a challenge back on December 5:

“Select the one post from your archive that you think is your best piece of 2008″

Now that’s a challenge - evaluating your own body of work over the course of 12 months.

I once heard Billy Joel refer to his songs as children, and that’s an apt description of blog posts too. You tend to love them all (well, almost all of them), and so it’s hard to put one over the other.

In this case, however, it really wasn’t a hard decision, because of the issuer of the challenge.

Back in May I asked my readers for suggestions as to how to improve my blog. Joanna gave me this excellent piece of advice:

“You might find it useful to try writing an ‘about the blog’ page to add to the ‘about you’ one: what would you tell a new visitor in a short page (no scrolling) about what they can hope to find at your blog. Might be a valuable exercise, for new readers and subscribers, but also for you.”

I did end up writing an “About the Blog” page, and Joanna was right, it was a valuable exercise for me. Because of the introspection necessary to write such a page, I was able to “nail” what I believe is the foundation of my philosophy of “Half-Fullism”:

Getting over the fear of b