Art: More of it Please!

What is art? Is it important?If not, why not? If so, why is it so?

I started thinking about art and realized that it may be one of the most effective means of achieving progress. As I considered, I came to the belief that increasing the expression and appreciation of art can improve a person, a business, a government, or a society. The neglect of art has been the kiss of death in every instance. Art is the secret ingredient to life.

These are philosophical questions that have been raised and pondered thousands of times over thousands of years. I think every culture should ask these questions. Every organization and grouping of people should ask these questions. Every individual should question the nature, quality, and value of art for themselves. The old answers and methods are useful guides, but they are not useful answers. Only your own answer is useful to you.

In some ways, it is impossible to avoid these questions. If you accept the fact that movies, books, and music are art (if not, what are they?), then you must know what you like. You can answer whether you appreciate rap music, romantic comedies, reality TV, and mystery fiction. You can look at a painting and tell me if you would hang it in your house, and if so, which room it would go in. Your answers to preferences are based on your own pnderings, even if they are shallow or subconscious.

A deeper, conscious, and perhaps even documented approach to your own answers about the philosophy of art will allow you to appreciate it on new levels. You will begin to learn more about yourself, you will refine your approach to life, and you will develop or expand your own artistic expression.

I think one of the biggest things that is lacking in our society is a deliberate attempt at expecting, appreciating, and expressing art in every facet of our life. To seek artistic expression in business would improve our society on many levels. To seek more ways to combine art with science would make science more beautiful and art more relevant. Religion was once the primary source of inspiration for artists; if more religious people sought to express themselves through high-quality and deeply-considered artistic expressions we would have more beautiful and relevant forms of art and religion.

I think art is characterized by creation. When you really aim for artistic expression and give it all of your thought, emotion, and effort, you create something new. New is not always good and it is not always bad, but it is always required in order to improve anything. To put it another way, you will never achieve any goal you set without some level of creativity. Individuals, groups, and societies are all dependent on some level of creativity to achieve, grow, or progress. That creativity is enabled and enhanced by art.

Humans are slow in comparison to other living things. In fact, there are few animals that couldn't catch us if we were limited to our own feet and muscles. We have very limited senses; most animals, bugs, birds, and fish have senses that we can only dream about. We are weak when it comes to most animals, especially if you compare our strength to our body size. Elephants are stronger than us in every way, ants are stronger based on a ratio of body size to carrying capacity.

Even so, we have one advantage over every living thing: we are creative. Even though we cannot see as well naturally, we have developed ways of seeing our world that no other living thing can see. Despite our limited mobility and lack of swimming or flying capacity, we have created vehicles that exceed the limits of every other living thing. Our creativity has allowed us to travel to places that cannot support life without our creativity. In many ways, our creativity has exceeded the capabilities of natural life. Our creativity has the potential to allow us to create life on our terms and perhaps achieve immortality or timelessness.

The creativity that allows us to rise to the top of the living world despite our shortcomings is based on scientific technology. However, science alone is simply a matter of explanation and experimentation. Science allows us to discover and explain the details of our world, but science does not create anything new without art.

In order for Einstein to create the equations that explain the speed of light and predict the effects of energy consumption in impossible-to-achieve conditions, he needed to think artistically. By attempting to think in ways that no one else had previously done, and expressing new ideas in a meaningful way, Einstein required qualities that are true of artists rather than scientists. A scientist understands fundamental theories and mathematical methods, but artists see the unseen and venture into the unknown.

Music and paintings were once devoted to religion. Huge Buddhas, ornate Mosques, and paintings of biblical scenes are studied thousands of years after they were created by atheists, skeptics, or adherents of other religions. Even though I am not a Muslim, I can appreciate the mosaics of the Arab world. On the other hand, the ugliest religious men ever--the Taliban--banned art in every form and destroyed one of the most important and awe-inspiring works of art in the world.

Art can make religion inspiring and beautiful. I think our current state of religion (in almost every form) is focused more on theology, armumentation, competition, and defense. The religious art that exists is rarely as inspired and fresh as it once was. I see many artists imitating or copying other artists and produciing art that is vanilla and predictable. Perhaps I am missing it, but I am not seeing religious art that breaks new ground and sees new perspectives like Michaelangelo and Bach.

In the history of western civilization, there are two key periods to understand: the dark ages and the renaissance. Both of those periods are defined by the value they placed on art. In both instances, the quality of the average person's life was relative to the value placed on artistic expression. Art is a key factor in raising or threatening the quality of a person's life. For example, compare the standard of living in Turkey and Afghanistan. There are so many similarities between their history, culture, religion, and geography. Even so, the standard of living and level of artistic expression are both high in Turkey while they are extremely low in Afghanistan. That is not a coincidence, nor is it an isolated example. It is a constant throughout history in every region and culture: Art is required for life to have substance, quality, and meaning.

Art can be an expression of beauty. In your house, if you have a wall, floor, or object that is boring, shabby, or even ugly, you can immediate change the feeling of the entire room with a simple and beautiful piece of art. Take a windowless, gray basement and add a woven rug and a mural--now it is a comfortable place to spend time. Take a plain, white refrigerator and add a 1st-grader's work of art, you immediately brighten the whole kitchen. Studies have shown that adding art to the workplace can measurably boost creativity and morale (if other factors are in place such as management, market, and salary.)

Sometimes art is required to express an emotion, and the result is not beautiful. Art can be used to inspire guilt, fear, outrage, patriotism, shame, motivation, focus, or humility/awe. The key is expression and communication. Our words can be spoken or written in any volume or size and still find themselves ineffective at communicating a message fully. However, art is always an effective method to communicate a message or emphasize our words. The next time you drive down a road, compare your own reaction to signs of only text (Street signs, etc...) to signs that include pictures (Cautionary road signs or advertisements.) McDonalds has found that a picture of a Big Mac has a greater effect on their sales than any slogan or logo.

In that same vein of communication, it is sometimes necessary to use art to provide perspective. I can explain the solar system's structure a million times to you, but you may never understand it until I show you a picture of it. The perspective of a bird's-eye view can be all it takes to understand complex concepts. Perhaps such a picture would have been useful to Galileo as he argued against the church in favor of heliocentrism.

As previously mentioned in one example, art improves business. Art is not automatically profitable, but neither are other business concentrations. Businesses have failed that were based on creating new art, such as record companies and graphic design firms. However, businesses have also failed because they were so focused on the bottom line or financial gimmicks that they forgot to be creative and attractive. In my mind, the best way to illustrate the value of art in business is to look at the auto industry: beautiful and creative cars will make money of they are also marketed and manufactured intelligently. Ugly cars without creative features, like the "Yugo", will have a rough time in the market no matter how carefully they are managed.

With the word "art" many people immediately think of paintings, music, or poetry. I think that definition is too narrow to define art, and it is counterproductive. In fact, any attempt to define art threatens to limit its impact on our world. The looser we allow art to be defined, the broader we are able to consider our artistic expression and make it relevant and beneficial.

The point I want to make here is that art should always be bigger than our imagination, which allows our imagination to grow. Art is a product of our imagination. It is also a source of fuel and fertilizer for imagination. Without art and imagination, we would not have cars, computers, or even peace and prosperity.

It takes an artistic and imaginative mind to find a way to end war or to expect a life that is devoid of violence. I expect to spend every day of my life without hearing a gun-shot, without having to kill another person, or having to bury a person I love who was killed by violence. It is easy for me to think in such a way because it is a life I have always known. It will require imagination for people in Darfur, Iraq, or Afghanistan to envision a life without violence; artistic expression will enable people to expect peace and seek its implementation.

A look at recent history will demonstrate the power of art for good or evil. In Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and China's Cultural Revolution, all expressions of art were hijacked by the government and used to control the populace. Expressions of art were used by the baby-boomer generation to change our perspectives of war, race, and gender. Art is heavily used in marketing to increase sales; some people watch the Super Bowl just to see how artistic the commercials will be.

The term "craftsman" is used less frequently today than it was in the past, and is often misused. A craftsman was once a person who no only performed a task but did so artfully. They didn't just make a table, they made an object that was as beautiful as it was useful. We tend not to buy tables from craftsman anymore; we expect our tables to be cheaper and settle for simple or common tables that are mass produced on machines. An artist may be used to design the table, but after the 10,000th copy rolls off the line is it really a work of art?

I like having affordable products available to me, but I do not like the fact that mass production is more valuable than craftsmanship. It is a real loss that in place of craftsman today, we have machines that are incapable of creation, or low-wage employees that are neither empowered nor inspired to be creative. We are beginning to imitate the futuristic visions of artists such as George Orwell, Alduous Huxley, and Roger Waters. Even though we can find items that are pleasing to the eye and fulfill the functions they were intended for, it is rare to find consumer goods that contain craftsmanship, creativity. originality, or true beauty. Mediocrity seems to be the expected and accepted standard.

We need to think more about art. The same old ways of looking at business, science, religion, and life should be refreshed, enhanced, or replaced by new perspectives and ideas. By infusing artistic expression into our daily lives, in everything we do from cooking to dressing to working, we add to our pleasure. Art can be fun. It can be healing and refreshing. It can wake us up from mediocrity and monotony.

Art allows us to experience more of life. If you watch a movie and only understand half of the jokes, then you only enjoyed half of the potential that the movie offered. How much more would you enjoy that same movie if you understood all the jokes, assuming all the jokes were funny? As Shrek might say, life is like an onion; it has layers. As you peel each layer back, you find another layer that was once concealed to you. Through art, we discover perspectives and sensations that were once concealed to us.

If you have read this blog for any length of time, you should expect a mention of my favorite subject, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). I think that it takes the same area of our brain that creates and appreciates art to appreciate and implement CSR. Like art, CSR can open up the perspective of a business and its people, increase morale, expose and enhance beauty, and stimulate creativity. By looking for ways to be profitable while acting responsibly with everyone affected by your operation, you consider more solutions to business problems, some of which may be better than the solutions you would have considered without CSR.

By using art to create beauty, inspire emotions, and provide perspective, an artist makes his and her world a better place to live. Like karma, by sending out their art they receive a better world to live in. If a business uses CSR and attempts to express the qualities and attributes of art, they too will improve their world. They will find that their market responds to them in new ways, that their competitors become more civil, that their vendors and communities partner with them and root for their success, and that their employees are more effective and less destructive. CSR is not just a method of limiting liability and negative press; CSR can be a method of artistic expression that increases profitability and effectiveness for a business. Moreover, it can make business enjoyable at every level.

Old Stuff Becomes New

Have you ever found something of yours that you had forgotten about? Maybe it is a box of high-school memorabilia you left at your parents, and you discover it again thirty years later. Or, maybe it is a wad of cash you stashed in an underwear drawer and find much later. Perhaps you get to the back of the pantry and find a can of your favorite soup you bought months ago and forgot about, and today is the perfect day for it. Maybe you move the couch and find that ring you thought was lost forever.

How great is it to find something that you once valued, then forgot about, and finally rediscovered? It's like Christmas morning at ten years old, right? It's like you can see your net worth increase exponentially right before your eyes!

That is what gratitude can do for you if you are out of practice. It will make you instantly happier and wealthier without actually bringing anything new into your possession. Gratitude will simply help you find things that you already possess but have forgotten. Once you rediscover them and experience true gratitude for them, you can add them to your catalog of possessions that you are conscious of. In so doing, you feel richer.

Have you ever noticed that wealthy people get more freebies? Athletes get free shoes (not cheap shoes; top-of-the-line shoes), high-rollers get free stays in Las Vegas, businessman get lunch and golf paid for, etcetera. The people who can afford anything they want are given the best life has to offer for free. People who cannot afford many luxuries are given nothing and forced to pay full price. Wealth attracts wealth.

Therefore, if you start feeling richer, you will attract wealth. The more grateful you feel and the wealthier you feel, the more you will transmit such feelings like a superstar. People will not be able to help themselves; they will offer you jobs, contracts, and freebies. You will win contests and door prizes. You will attract more to be thankful for and if you feel that thankfulness, you will attract even more.

What is in your life that you have forgotten? Who is in your life that you have forgotten? What untold riches are waiting to be rediscovered, and how much richer will you be, when you spend the next few minutes trying to thing of someone or somthing to be grateful for all over again?

Why Be Significant?

I find it funny that as I learn lessons that I can apply to my life to make be a better man, I find that the same principles can be applied to a company to make it better. The self-help strategies found in How to Win Frinds and Influence People, Think and Grow Rich, Thank You Power, and The Secret can be applied to either an individual or a company and achieve the end result of effectiveness. As I work my way now through The Purpose Driven Life I am finding a similiar result.

I will start with myself. Day three of The Purpose Driven Life teaches, among other things, that "Knowing your purpose gives meaning to your life" (page 30.) The author, Rick Warren, goes on to say that by providing meaning, your life gains hope and significance. The word significance stood out to me. That is the word I have been looking for on this "Journey of Spiritual Discovery" that I am on. The end result that I intend for my life can best be defined as significant.

I always ask "Why". If I am told to do something, if the recipe calls for something, at every step in the instruction manual, I have the habit of asking "Why". I think that asking "Why" raises my level of consciousness and allows me to learn lessons that would otherwise be missed. I think that if I ask "Why" as I learn, my learning is more effective and efficient.

The question of "Why" is what lead to my "Journey of Spiritual Discovery". It is the fuel that keeps the journey moving along. As soon as I am no longer curious about "Why", the journey will transform into another pursuit.

To have finally found a word to describe my intention is a big step. Now that I know I want to be significant, I can refine my quest and focus on the lessons and methods that provide the intended result. Further clarification is required, however.

Now I have a new "Why": Why do I want to be significant? As Warren points out, there are bad things that may be driving us: anger, resentment, guilt, etcetera. The best driver, according to Warren, is God. The question for me is: What is driving my desire for significance?

I spent a few minutes Googling "significance" to see if anyone had anything to say about why you should be significant. It seems to me like it it is assumed that if you want to be significant, you should already know why. Or, perhaps it is just assumed that is a fundamental value.

For me, there isn't a point to living an insignificant life. To spend an entire life and achieve nothing (or worse, to leave more damage than creation) is not a life to me. I have known people like that; as far as I know, the only thing they did was tranform oxygen into carbon dioxide. It is as if they never even lived.

Significance is not scalable in my mind. Mother Theresa was significant to millions. My third grade teacher, Mrs. McGlaughlin, was significant to me and perhaps a few hundred. It is the same achievement in my mind. I think that Einstein's mother is just as significant as he is, especially since you cannot have the latter without the former.

Now I can refine my thoughts to "What" and "How". What is significant for me? How can I achieve that significance? The Journey allows me to chart new ground and answer questions that will keep me going when times get tough.

As I think of this for me, I habitually try to apply it to CSR. Can a company be significant? What would make it so? Why should a company seek significance?

Under the tenets of Capitalism, a company's significance is defined by profits. However, what is significant about profits in the grand scheme of things? It seems to me that there is something more significant than profits. Assets and equity are significant too, but I am thinking about people.

When I think about significant companies, I immediately think of companies who have made an impact on the human race in a good way. They developed new technologies that everyone uses, like Microsoft, GE, 3M, and Intel. Significant companies changed how we do business, like IBM, Cisco, and Ford.

The most significant companies are the ones who have provided the most benefit for humanity, in my mind. Significance, for me, is defined by how you affected the quality of other lives, how you inspired and influenced people, what you created, and what you leave for posterity. Profits, assets, and equity are fleeting; they can be eaten up rapidly by poor management or global inflation. However, if you provide education, technology, and inspiration to a third world village, you leave something for posterity. If you start with a polluted wasteland and transform it into a thriving ecosystem, that would be significant.

In capitalism, it all comes down to getting people to spend their money on you, and convincing them to spend more money than the costs you incurred. The most important factor in a customer's buying decision is their perception of the company they are buying from. Therefore, a company that is perceived as significant will be more likely to attract potential customers and achieve profitable sales.

Of course a company needs to be profitable, just as a boat needs to displace rather than absorb water. A company's efforts at research and development are vital to not only maintaining long-term profitability, but also to achieving significance. However, the profitable and innovative company that makes a positive impact on humanity will achieve a level of significance that elevates their market share, propels their share price, motivates their employees, and embraces their community.

Significant companies can not only expect profitability, they can expect to enjoy doing business. So it is with significant people. Life is enjoyable on a whole other level when you know you are doing something significant. As every artist, parent, and craftsman can tell you, there is unexplainable joy from creation that does not fade quickly.

The Opposite of CSR

I have tried to support Walmart in spirit, even though I prefer shopping at Target. I support Wal-Mart's right to grow as big as the market will allow, to force their vendors to offshore manufacturing in the interest of lowering costs, and to prevent their employees from unionizing. I think that most of the crap in Wal-Mart is low-quality and unnecessary, but if they can provide large quantities of goods at low prices then they are responding to market demand.

I really like the way Wal-Mart operates their business. They keep the business lean from the top down, they protect shareholder profits with vigilance and thriftiness, and they think very hard about how to satisfy the customer, lower costs, and grow revenue simultaneously. That is exactly the way a capitalist firm should operate.

Moreover, they are leveraging technology in ways that boggle the mind. For instance, when you make a purchase from your local store, it is automatically subtracted from the database of that store's inventory kept in Bentonville, Arkansas. They streamline their shipping, track customer buying trends, and adjust for any kind of event or trend. Before a tropical storm becomes a hurricane heading near a Wal-Mart, they are already trucking out the supplies that they know will sell out in a hurry. Technology is enabling them to meet their threefold objective of customers, costs and profits.

Should Wal-Mart pay their associates more and supply better benefits? I reluctantly refer to the market; if employees are willing and able to work at the price Wal-Mart pays, then who are we to say otherwise? Personally, I wouldn't take a job there unless I was committed to working my way up and didn't mind a little poverty along the way. There are worse places to work than Wal-Mart, if the truth is to be told. I can tell you some stories...

I kept giving Wal-Mart the benefit of the doubt, thinking that Sam Walton's spirit was still alive at their core. I thought that they were simply a thrifty company that paid market prices for labor and offered an opportunity to climb the ladder for those who were dissatisfied with entry-level wages. I thought that in the end, they may be cheap but they were still human.

If MSNBC is to be believed, then Wal-Mart is without a soul and Sam Walton's spirit is no longer welcome in Bentonville. According to their story which first appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart has sued a former employee to recover their costs in treating her injuries from a major car accident. The victim, Deborah Shank, was hit by a tractor-trailer and left brain-damaged. Her family received over $700,000 from the trucking company and placed $400,000 in a trust for Deborah's care. The other $300,000 was eaten up in legal fees and other costs. Wal-mart sued, cleaned out the trust, and won the appeal.

Wal-Mart's spin is that they are protecting the health-care costs of current employees. That is very responsible of them; I am sure that the 47% of their employees who are eligible for coverage are very grateful. However, I think it is a well-established and universally-accepted ethic that when tragedy strikes, you respond with charity and leniency. There is no way I could look that family in the eye and tell them that they should turnover their entire settlement to a multi-billion dollar organization and be left to support Deborah through medicare and social security.

Worse still, her husband was advised that Deborah would be eligible for more public assistance if she were single. He was forced to consider divorcing his brain-damaged wife in order to improve the quality of her care. Ugh. What country is this, again?

I am a grown-up, a conservative, and a capitalist. I am well-aware of the arithmetic involved, I realize that this is not an isolated case and that there are thousands of Deborah Shank cases every year totally hundreds of millions of dollars. I realize that there may be more to this story than WSJ and MSNBC decided to report.

Even so, I am not completely suprised with the story. This is a plausible story as it is written. I believe that there may be more to the story, but I also believce that this story may be accurate and complete. The fact that this is a believable story in America in the 21st Century is sickening.

There are so many things to be disgusted with when I think about this story. The costs of attorneys (the settlement was $700,000 but the family ended up with $400,000), the costs of healthcare (it cost over $500,000 to treat Ms. Shank so far and she will require 24-hour care for the rest of her life), the actions of Wal-Mart, and the decisions of the judges are all reprehensible. My conception of what America should be is the complete opposite of what the Shanks family experienced.

I do not know anything about the law, but it seems to me that there were other options in this case left unexercised. I would think that a judge would be able to find something here that benefitted everyone. If this were a perfect world, the judge would have thrown Wal-Mart out of court and decreed that their lawyers had to take turns caring for Deborah for the next 30 days.

I do know something about business. I know something about public relations and marketing. I know about ethics, morality, and societal mores. I am absolutely positive that if Wal-Mart had simply asked their insured employees if they would be willing to pay $1 more for one year to cover Deborah's costs, they would have unanimously said yes. Assuming that Wal-Mart has over 600,000 employees insured, that would have covered Deborah's health-care costs for life.

Alternatively, Wal-mart could have taken up a collection among its total workforce. Yahoo says that there are 1.9 million Wal-Mart associates in the U.S. which means that collecting a quarter ($0.25) from each of them would have covered the actual costs incurred. There you go, two quick and easy ways to solve the problem without anyone incurring a huge cost, especially not Wal-Mart.

If Wal-Mart were seriously interested in the tenets of CSR, they would have gladly eaten that cost. When you have 1.9 million employees, I guess you assume the attitude that you can spare a few. A business run by humans would have eaten the cost, sent flowers to the family, and used the incident to assure their employees that the company is grateful for their hard work and will stand by them in their time of need. Would anyone mind if they did that and then marketed it to you as a company that cares? I would be happy to watch that commercial, and it may cause me to think about returning to Wal-Mart soon.

Shame on you, Wal-Mart. You missed an opportunity here to pass on some good karma, help a family in need, build trust and respect with your current employees, and convince the world that there is a heart somewhere amidst all the ratios and spreadsheets.

I salute profitability, low-prices, high-efficiency, and leveraged technology. Even so, at the end of the day we are human. We have a heart, a soul, and we are symbiotically connected to the people around us. We need each other. We should reach out to people in need when given the chance, and we should expect that someone will reach us when we are in need. What is the point of high profits if you have to live in a world without compassion and empathy?

The Meaning of Life

I continue on my journey of spiritual discovery. By the way, that is what I am calling it now. It started with book browsing, and two books attracting my attention: Thank You Power by Deborah Norville and The Secret by Rhonda Byrnes. As I considered those books, I revisisted the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, which contains a similiar message to The Secret: that of using your mind to attract desirable things.

The result of these three books was twofold. First, I began to change my innner thought life by thinking less about the negative things that I experience or wish to avoid and thinking more about the positives I gratefully possess or that I desire. Secondly, I began to dig deeper into my heart to figure out what I really want and why I want it, as well as to find gratitude for the great life I have now. The side effect of these ideas were that I was happier, more peaceful, and more focused on my employer and family rather than on myself (which made me even happier, somehow.) I have pruned my life a little, which allows for new growth.

Somehow, in the midst of this "Journey of Spiritual Discovery" (when you read that title, it should have a dramatic echo to it) I stumbled on Rick Warren's name and his book The Purpose Driven Life. I am not sure where it popped up, but what stood out to me was the fact that he was talking about having a mission or purpose to your life, which would made my "Journey of Spiritual Discovery" a lot easier: journeys are easier if you know in which direction to set out. I was also intrigued by his ability to reach people like me who are not in church but also not opposed to church.

One of my Christmas gifts was a giftcard to my favorite store, Half Price Books. I used it to purchase two books, one of which was Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life. For the last two mornings, I have read a chapter and contemplated the author's points. Day one taught me that the purpose of my life is about God, not about me. Day two taught me that God had a specific purpose in mind when he created me.

I am not saying I am accepting these lessons and nodding my head in obedience to Rick Warren or to God. Actually, if I was convinced that the God of the universe had specifically commmanded me, I would nod in obedience and spring into action. Therefore, the real challenge for Warren's book is to convince me that God has provided the meaning and purpose. And only God can do that, really. Eloquence is lost on me at this point in my "Journey of Spiritual Discovery" (still hearing the echo?); what I need is action from God that guides me to a conclusion. I cannot be steered by warm-fuzzies or well-crafted C.S. Lewis-like logic. I want results, actions, evidence, and undeniable truth that is as bullet-proof as mathematics.

If anyone knew what all I had seen, heard, done, and had done to me through Christian churches (of many denominations from Catholic to Pentecostal and several points in-between) they would question why I was willing to read Rick Warren's book at all. It isn't a horror story, but it isn't pretty either. The essence is that churches have demonstrated themselves to me to be a place of destructive power at least as often as they help people.

The thing is, I cannot say for a fact that there is no God. From that starting point, I like to think that if there is a God who created everything, then he has communicated with his creation in some way throughout history. Otherwise, the belief in a silent creator is pointless: why have a God who is there but is uninterested in how we live. I would rather believe that there is a Creator, that He had a purpose in mind when He created us, and that He has communicated that purpose to us in ways that we can accurately perceive and interpret individually.

With that creator in mind, I am lead to religion. I figure that if God has spoken in a way that we can accurately perceive and interpret, then people throughout history must have recorded their experiences and can point us in the proper direction. That is where my disillusionment begins. Even if you accept the bible as the word of God, you read a depressing history of people being unable to perceive and interpet the message of God, even in the face of undeniable miracles.

By the way, at the risk of being blasphemous, I feel the need to criticize biblical miracles right now. The biblical mioracles are a major sticking point in my lack of faith. Here is the thing: between 2000 and 4000 years ago, a miracle was a simple matter. If I had a time machine, I could take everyday objects from 2007 A.D. and perform miracles before the crowds that were unimpressed by Moses, Elijah, and Jesus. A lighter, flashlight, aspirin, penicillin, ballpoint pen and notebook paper, or even a mosquito net would be considered items that would change a society. I think God wasted some tremendous miracles on a people who would have been really impressed by the effects of flint, friction, and butane.

Nowadays, it takes more to impress us. We fly, touch the moon, circumnavigate the globe from the comfort of a laptop in a coffee shop, and accurately predict the unstoppable whims of nature. We have methods, theories, equations, scales, and equipment to not only detect the physical laws but to measure them, predict them, and observe their results at the sub-atomic level. If you could do one biblical miracle today and allow it to be tested by scientific theory, you would have a greater effect on the majority of people. Sure, some sceptics would remain. But the vast majority of people who I know, read, or observe would at least start paying attention; the world is ready for a proven miracle, is able to communicate its message worldwide at the speed of thought, and are more than willing to do some good.

Because we lack the unifying morality and values that the miracle could provide, selfishness runs rampant on our planet. It is spreading like wildfire. Old, traditional notions of devotion to family, religion, race, and/or nationality are fading away. This new, flattened world is all about the individual. All around the world, people are throwing off the yoke of belonging to something bigger than themselves. They are embracing the idea that they can have everthing they want, whenever they want it. There are good things to say about this trend, but I think it is mostly bad. Eliminating discrimantion based on gender, race, or ethinicity is good. Abandoning family and neglecting the people who need us (chidren, handicapped, and the elderly) is bad.

Our forefathers (white black, arab, asian, christian, buddhist, muslim...all forefathers, I mean) needed to have unity in their community in order to provide them with a community that kept them safe and provided for their needs while giving them an outlet for their own talent. Now that we have created a global community of more security and free trade, our need for belonging (and conforming) to a larger group is lessened. We seem to seek less miracles and more scientific discovery. We seek less tradition and rules which provide morality and ethics, and we seek more freedom to enjoy life and find out the truth for ourselves.

Even so, we are left adrift. Science and technology has been tremendously effective at improving our existence. However, they have failed to answer our fundamental question of "Why?" Instead, they distract us from the question.

Materialism causes us to pursue wealth and commodities. That pursuit can so consume us that we never stop to ask "why?" Some people amass a houseful of trinkits, collectables, and commodites and at the end of their pursuit they realize that they missed out on so many good things because they were consumed by their pursuit of stuff. They realize, too late, that the stuff was meaningless in the end.

Television, video games, mass-market papaerbacks, and a myriad other forms of entertainment distract us from the "Why" question. In fact, we may be distracted by a movie or book that makes us think we are pursuing the "Why", but we are being led in circles or to dead ends. Other times, we never are aware that the "Why" question exists. The technology magician keeps waving a hand over here and a handkerchief over there, directing our attention away from anything meaningful and producing that shallow, uncomprehending smile from us that he loves so much.

This planet has seen it all before. We don't even see the planes and helicopters in the sky anymore unless they are particularly loud; the ancients from the bible would have had a cartoon-like reaction to such a sight where their jaw hits the ground and their eyes pop out of their heads while an old car horn exclaims "ah-ooo-gah!" We have already imagined it all. We have seen the earth destroyed on TV so many times it bores us. We have seen into the lives of every historical character, rewritten history, and glimpsed the future.

Somhow, we are still easily impressed by triviality. When Paris Hilton burps or Britney Spears runs to the store for eggs, we send an army to film it. We spend millions of dollars to watch people throw and catch a ball, and then bet millions more on the outcome. We bring a multi-billion dollar industry to a screaming halt (and thousands of paying travelers along with it) and forget our political prejudices for a while when airplanes are flown into buldings. We have the ability to be impressed, and it wouldn't really take much--just don't give us the same old-same old.

If some guy showed up today and could demonstrate his inexplicable ability to heal, transform water into wine, or feed thousands with a fish and a loaf, he would be on "You Tube" in a heartbeat. You can actually videotape him walking on water with your cell-phone, immediately upload it to the web, and then start spreading the word. It would clog email servers worldwide within an hour. Scientists would show up and test the density of the water, weigh him, take air-quality samples, and make everyone pee in a specimin jar. Unless there was a known reason why he stood on top of water, science would have to concede that they couldn't explain it. That would distract most people from their meaningless lives. They would start to listen to what the guy said and would be convinced to take action on his message. If his message was as relevant as Jesus', and rang as true on as many levels, then that guy would get a religion named after him.

I cannot get the "Why" question out of my head. I would love to. I have always been willing to just fit into the societal mindset and quit trying to find deeper meaning. I suspect that I would be happier and more peaceful if I could just accept that life is absurd and meaningless, and catch up on all the celebrity gossip and NBA drama.

What keeps me from giving up the quest to find out "Why" is the suspicion that if I could answer the question at least partially or superficially, I would be much happier and more peaceful. In fact, I do have some answers to "Why", though they beg more questions. I am not drifting completely without meaning.

For instance, there is value in being happy. Not "I just finished chocolate cake" happy, but "I just made my daughter smile" happy or "I just accomplished a major goal" happy. Therefore, part of why we are here is to discover the things that produce the most joy and do more of them. Why should we make ourselves happy and why do certain things provide more joy than others? I don't have that answered comepletely yet, but it feels right; I have the impression that it is a truth as fundamental as 1+1=2.

On a personal, individual level, I have a very distinct purpose defined for me by the universe: raise my kids. Not just physically, not just intellectually, but to raise kids with esteem, ethics, morality, confidence, power, grace, humility, and direction. That purpose is temporary; when they become adults I will have a very limited role; I will need another purpose to occupy the rest of my life. It would be best of I have a larger purpose that encompasses my career, my child-rearing, and any other purpose for me. That larger purpose is hazy on the best of days for me, hence my "Journey of Spiritual Discovery".

I was very frustrated and stressed out a few years ago because I could not figure out what I was "supposed" to do with my life. That was based on a notion that I had been created by a specific God who had a specific purpose for me. I was frustrated because I could not determine what that purpose was. If I had been born with a natural ability to play piano, sing, or paint, then my purpose would be clearer. When a man finds himself standing at 7 feet tall, he is forced to consider a basketball career, so if that was me I would have had something to consider. If I had been born into an environment that directed me into a specific purpose, that would have clarified the question. If an Angel in all his shining glory appeared before me and declared my purpose, I would at least have something to go on.

I have nothing like that. I have no talents that stick out and define me. I am average in almost every way. My above-average qualities are more like character traits. My desire to do well, my ability to persevere, think larger than the problem at hand, and connect with people are all geared to many occupations. Basically, I am equipped to do anything I want to do and expect results consistent with my efforts. At the time, I did not see that as an asset and did not enjoy the freedom it implied.

At some point, I read the book What Should I Do With My Life by Po Bronson. My conclusion from that book (and I think it was the author's as well) is that we are free to choose our own purpose. Some people have their purpose defined for them, but in the end they remain free to choose that purpose in the same way that I do. The implication is that without a purpose being handed to me, I had more freedom than those with a clearly defined purpose, who I resented.

Bronson's book helped me release the resentment I felt about not being handed a purpose, and that was a huge weight lifted off me. I embraced the concept that I had been granted freedom to choose my purpose by whatever Gods may or may not be. However, it didn't help me find that purpose. I was free to choose, but choose what?

I have asked myself if I need to have a purpose. I have concluded that yes, I do. If you start a company without a purpose, how can you expect to make a profit? If you start a non-profit NGO without a purpose, you will not receive any donations, be recognized by the IRS, or accomplish anything. In fact, the question is raised: does a non-profit exist without donations, recognition, and accomplishment? I say no, it is nothing without those things at least.

Does a person exist without a purpose? My answer is no. Sure, you occupy space and leave progeny, but did you exist? My concept of existence is based on the fact that we are conscious. Apes take up space and leave progeny, but that is their purpose. They cannot hope for anything better than that.

We can do more than reproduce. Even though our eyes, ears, muscles, lungs, and skeletal structure are far inferior to most animals, we conquer our world through our existence. Our consciousness creates new ideas in how to gather food, build shelter, transport ourselves, fight, communicate, and even reproduce.

The word "create" is what brings me closer to answering the "Why" question. According to the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian traditions, the first thing that God did in our world is create. He created everything we know, ending with Eve (he saved the best for last.) Then, he told us and all the animals to go out and procreate.

For all the animals, birds, fish, bugs, trees, flowers, and the rest of life, that is all they can do. They create new life. They do so with little or no consciousness; I doubt there is much thought involved when a tree drops an acorn or a fish sprays an egg cluster.

We create with our mind and our actions. I created my children in my mind before I was in the same room with my wife. I began creating my children while I was still a child dreaming about what my future may hold. Not only that, but I created this blog. I can create works of art (though only my mother would hang them up proudly), I can think up ways to redirect water or move mounds of earth on a scale that no animal has ever approached. The creativity of the human mind is what makes us exist. We create more than just progeny, we create legacies.

Therefore, I think the larger purpose of life for humans is to create. To say it another way, our purpose is to be creative. We could just make babies, watch TV, and burp Budweiser for 77 years; however, would that be meaningful?

The thing is, many people consider the meaning of life for only a brief moment. They realize it is a hard question to answer; they decide that they can either accept someone else's answer (religion, state, family, company,or other authority) or they can ignore the question. I think that many people realize the fundamental truth that life should include as much happiness as possible, so they seek an easy way to make themselves happy. They find someone to make babies with, buy a TV and a comfortable couch, crack open a Bud, and burp their way to ignorant bliss.

I think they quit too soon and would find that their beer tasted better and TV would be more satisfying if they had a larger view of the answer to the question "Why?" Why are we here and what is the purpose of our life? What provides meaning to our life? Obviously, happiness has something to do with it. However, what is the point of happiness? Moreover, why is happiness so fleating, and why do so few people find it? You probably know a lot of people who say they are happiest on their couch with a remote in one hand and a bag of Doritos in the other, but their expressions and actions tell you how unhappy they really are.

Happiness merely points the way forward. It is the first step in the process of finding meaning, and it is a step that you return to often. I think the deeper meaning of life is creativity. Create something and you will have begun to define your purpose and meaning.

I am left with the question: create what? Create something that makes you happy. Of course, first you need to know what makes you happy. You need to seek deeper levels of happiness. Doritos and Budwiser may provide happiness, but they are low on the scale of potential happiness.

What is your potential happiness? Finding out how deeply you can experience happiness is a great journey in itself; I have found that there is always another layer. What I considered happiness at 20 years old is nothing compared to the deeper levels I am discovering as a father.

Heck, just getting sober expanded my scale of happiness. I am not here to say that alcohol blocks everyone's ability to experience happiness. I will say that you don't know if it is or isn't until you have spent 3 months sober.

However, I will concede that many people are affected by alcohol in the same way that I am by coffee--in other words, some people can achieve total hapiness and enjoy alcohol in the process. In light of that, is it possible that there is something else standing in your way of happiness? I didn't know how happy I could be until I let go of alcohol, some resentments, and some other negativities. I am finding new levels of happiness as I embrace new levels of gratitude and positive thinking. I have no idea how deeply happy I can be, but I aim to find out and remove every obstacle I encounter.

Since this blog is about me, I am going to focus on my purpose. I post this in the sincere hope that someone can read it and take a step towards finding their own purpose in life. I am sure this world would be a better place if more people were seeking some meaning. I am equally sure that people would seek meaning more often if there were more mysteries to our everyday world. Alas, we don't know how our stuff works, but we know it has something to do with oil or electricity, it was conceived by by a human, and most of it was made in China. We know that if we had to explain it, we could Google it or ask our 13-year-old neighbor to explain it.

Back to me: I have a sense on a fundamental level that 1+1 will always equal 2. That sense of a priori knowledge also leads me to believe that I should be happy, that I should do my best to raise my kids, that I should make the world a better place, and that I am meant to create. That is the meaning of my life, at least as far as I have defined it.

I have made the assumption that I can possess a priori knowledge, and that I can sense it. I have assumed that my senses and logic can be trusted in this regard, even though science has consistently demonstrated that our senses can be easily fooled and that our capacity for logic is often flawed and easily influenced. I am betting my life, or at least the meanining of my life, on these assumptions.

Do you have a better idea? Rick Warren thinks he does. He believes that God created each of us for His purpose. Warren bases this assertion on biblical passages, and expects that we will find out what God's purpose is for us by understanding the bible.

I am unconvinced that the bible is the word of God. I am unconvinced that there is a church anywhere in the world that Jesus would be proud of. I am unconvinced that Rick Warren has all the answers, either in his head or in his book. Finally, I am unconvinced that I can find all the answers in one place, book, man, or method.

Conversely, I am unconvinced that Albert Camus and his dreary Existential brothers were right about the absurdity of life. I am unconvinced by Bertrand Russell and other brilliant Atheists who teach that belief in God is illogical. To be succinct, I am fairly sure that there is a God and he had something in mind when he created this universe.

In the first two chapters of The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren has already provided me with an exercise that is good to run through occasionally. I am now considering my place in the universe, the quality of my life, and whether there is an even higher purpose that I can achieve. Even if God and Rick Warren are fake, the act of examing your concept of the universe and your place in it is beneficial.

This examination allows me to see things I would normally overlook. You know, you drive to work everyday past thousands of stationary objects, but I'll bet that you have only seem half of them, or less. You could drive down the same road everyday for 60 years and not realize that there was a tree at a certain spot until that tree falls on your car. So it is with so many things in your life.

My search for the Meaning of Life may never be resolved. I may reach my death bed and conclude it was all meaningless and absurd. I may change my answer several times, or I may be stuck with the same vague answer I have today for the duration. What I think is important to know is that the quest for meaning is more important than the final answer. By seeking to be meaningful, we are able to live a life that is more effective. We will have well-defined and tested values. We will know how to make ourselves happy and maintain that happiness regardless of our condition. We will prune the dead branches and nurture the fruitful ones. We will be left with pride and satisfaction, rather than regret and depression.

I hope that God did create a specific purpose for me, and that Rick Warren can help me discover that purpose. If not, I can take comfort in the fact that the journey is a fun ride, and that the freedom is mine to choose.

Merry Christmas

I am not usually a Christmas kind of guy. Actually, for the last decade or so I have been the Grinch meets Scrooge. Having kids softened me a little, but not much. I usually just cringe and wait for the holidays to be over with.

However, for the last several weeks I have had a change of heart. Since I have been applying the principles in The Secret and Thank You Power, I have focused less on things I dislike and more on things I am thankful for or that I desire. This has allowed me to view Christmas differently.

With these new eyes, I can view Christmas as an opportunity to be generous rather than stingy. It is an opportunity to thank the people who I am grateful for. It is an opportunity to provide my kids with some great memories. Christmas has meaning for me again.

Therefore, I want to tell anyone who stumbles on this message: "Merry Christmas!" I sincerely hope that this holiday season is one of fortune, safety, love, and friendship. I hope you get everything you hoped for, and that you can have the satisfaction of giving someone the things that they hoped for.

The Benefits of Gratitude

I am thankful for Deborah Norville and her book "Thank You Power: Making the Science of Gratitude Work for You". No, I am not aiming to be funny when I say I am thankful for a book on gratitude. I am sincerely thankful that I knew who she was (I remembered her from the local news in Chicago as I was cutting my news-junkie teeth), that my eye is drawn to striking blondes (she gets prettier every year), that I was open to this message, and that the message is relevant to me right now. This book is elevating my level of happiness while it raises my potential prosperity and makes dramatic improvements in my family. For all of that, I am truly thankful.

This blog entry is not a book report. In fact, I don't really need to read the book; I know all I need to know about saying thank you. What Deb's book does for me is awaken forgotten knowledge, and guides my thoughts into channels that help me apply the knowledge I already possess.

My parents taught me gratitude. They forced it down my throat, as all parents do...and should. When I learned to talk, one of the first phrases I had to learn was "thank you". That came right after the word "please". I remember my parents handing me the object of my desire but not releasing it to me until I said "thank you". Soon, I learned to say "thank you" so easily that I could do so without sincerity, I could thank without thought.

Now I can say thanks 1000 times a day. I rarely mean it, but I often say it. When the fast-food employee who visually disgusts me and took too long to fill my order (and probably screwed up the "no onions' and "no ice") hands me a rumpled bag of greasy, overpriced artery-clogging "food", I always say thank you. Why? I am not truly thankful; in fact, if it was up to me that person would be on a diet and in college, the food would be more carefully prepared and lower in fat/sodium/volume, and the price would be lower. I am not thankful for eating fast-food, I do it out of necessity and reluctance. However, I habitually say thanks.

On the other hand, when my wife buys me something at the store, I complain that it is the wrong brand, size, or flavor. I am thankful that she thought of me, but I complain because she did not completely satisfy my desire. That is freakin' stupid. Why in the hell would she want to do anything nice for me if I complain rather than thank. Here I am, slightly thankful for the effort but all I express is ingratitude. I am an idiot.

What a jerk I have been, yet all along I compared myself to really scummy jerks and think that I am a prince in comparison. Truth: I am a pretty good guy. I have good manners and a reasonable temperament. However, the times that I am ungrateful are too often and they are a major drain on my relationships. They are a drain on my happiness. They are a drain on my energy. If I could cut my ungrateful moments by just 10%, I would be living a completely new life. If I continued to increase the margin, who knows what potential riches and happiness I may find.

Here's the thing: when I say "thank you" sincerely, I have sent a message to that person. If they are listening, they now know what I like, that they will be recognized for their efforts, and that I will likely return the favor one day. Therefore, they will be more likely to do me another favor.

On the other hand, if someone does something nice for me and hears either complaints or silence, then they realize that their efforts are wasted on me. Furthermore, they may believe that doing me a favor is unethical; it would simply enable me to believe that my ingratitude is okay and my egomania is justified. They will deny me favors to prevent the monster from growing.

I have this feeling that I am way below where I could be in my career, education, and status. Part of the reason is because I have been hindered more often than I have been helped along the way. I have yet to find a mentor that really helps me along and reveals what I need to know in order to succeed. More often, I find people who hate me for no reason and they prevent me from feeling good, earning accolades, or getting promoted.

I think that the greatest obstacle to my success has been my ingratitude and sense of entitlement. I have always felt like I deserved better. People picked up on that and either withheld favors to avoid my ingratitude or set out to humble me and teach me gratitude. I always felt like I wasn't getting what I deserved; now I know that I am, in fact, getting exactly what I deserved.

Nothing reveals my ingratitude like adversity. As soon as life takes a turn, I am blaming and throwing a tantrum, rather than being thankful for what I have. When life is not going well, all I can think about is what I think I should have, what I think other people have, and how I should have something better. I think that I am better than other people, so I should have more than them. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Adversity should be an opportunity for me to count my blessings. I am a lucky man. If I never receive another thing in my life and live for another 100 years, that will be alright; I have received enough already for 200 years.

I hate my job. Not always, sometimes I "kinda" like my job but wish I was doing something else. I always have this sense that I should be higher up; a privileged decision-maker raking in the big bonuses. This is not only true of my current job, it is always true of every job I have ever had.

Focusing on the negative is a crappy way to live. it drags me down. I makes it harder to go in to work, and it prevents me from enjoying my day. From a self-centered, short-sited perspective alone, ingratitude is not beneficial.

Moreover, ingratitude sends a signal. To be more accurate, it puts out an odor. To desirable mentors or employers, I stink. They run away or conceal themselves when I approach; they do not want to waste their efforts on an ungrateful person who will trip over his own ungrateful feet.

If I can't be happy in my current job, what's to say that I will be happy in the next job? Or the next? The truth is that you are capable of creating your own happiness right where you are. People have been known to sing and laugh in concentration camps or on death beds. Happiness is inside of you, not outside. Therefore, if a hiring manager smells unhappiness, they will be repelled.

I believe that there are levels of communication that we transmit without knowing it. We pick up on communication subconsciously. We transmit and receive on levels we are not even aware of, such as through pheromones. There are probably channels of communication that we cannot detect with current instruments, we can only see their results.

Therefore, I firmly believe that your thoughts are more creative than you may realize. If you are always thinking along the lines of entitlement and ingratitude, you will communicate those thoughts on many different levels. You can try to cover up your rude and selfish nature, but it will be perceived by people all the same.

By thinking such thoughts, you repel good things from being offered to you. People who possess good things to give will avoid your ungrateful odor like the plague that it is. People who are unable to avoid you (family, etc.) will withhold their best gifts because they do not want to waste their effort and they do not want to encourage your piggish behavior.

I know this to be true. I can see the principle of ingratitude at work in my own life. I have also seen how my moments of gratitude have benefited me. I have seen truly grateful people get more than they asked for. I am sure that the principle of gratitude works even better than ingratitude.

Therefore, I am declaring myself a scientist, researching the principle of gratitude. I am the subject of my research. My life before now is the control, my life going forward is the experiement. I will begin to think thoughts of thanks. I will strive to find new things to be thankful for. I will strive to find more ways to express my gratitude.

This experiement will continue through December 20, 2008. After that day, if I do not notice a remarkable leap of happiness and prosperity, I will conclude that excessive gratitude is a waste of effort and a farce; I will return to my normal level of cynicism, depression, and frustration.

My hypothesis, however, is that I will be a completely different man on December 21, 2008. I will be happier. I will have more good things in my life. Even if I suffer tragedy and loss, through gratitude I will attract good things to compensate. Really, how can I go wrong with gratitude in all things?

Attraction, Gratitude, and CSR

Yesterday I mentioned how I am discovering the power of my thoughts on a whole new level by using the principles of "The Law of Attraction" and the "Science of Gratitude". This is a growing movement right now. Because of the popularity and marketing of the books The Secret by Rhonda Byrnes and Thank You Power by Deborah Norville, thousands of people at once are discovering these powerful forces.

What I have not heard mentioned yet is how these exact same principles can transform a company on so many levels. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has proven to be an effective business strategy in many arenas. Lately, it is usually only spoken of in terms of environmentalism. Politics is the force driving CSR, so whatever force is driving politics will logically filter down to CSR. Global Warming is the hot topic now, so it hogs the spotlight.

While our environment is very important and should take a prominent place in our discussions, I think that we should realize that other issues deserve our attention as well. We should also realize that CSR has other facets that can benefit a corporation as well as its stakeholders. Just to name a few, there are issues of diversity of the workforce, giving back to the community in a tangible way, enforcing CSR standards on your vendors, and improving the customer experience.

I apply the law of attraction to my life by thinking positive thoughts about what I desire. I do so with a firm belief that I will attract those things into my life. The result is that the soundtrack to my thought life contains less negativity and focused, positive concentration on my goals and desires.

Once I accepted the validity of this concept and recognized the benefits of it, I realized that a corporation can make this work for them even more powerfully than an individual could. The funny thing is, they are often unaware of how they are using some of the principles of the law of attraction right now. If they deliberately set out to think as a group about a goal and attain it, I am sure that company would conquer their market and exceed expectations.

The people who are teaching The Secret call it the "Law of Attraction" but I don't think it is a law that always works. I believe that at all times there are other forces at work: gravity, thermodynamics, etc. In addition, you have other people manifesting their thoughts. In The Secret, they teach that if you are in a car accident it is because you attracted that to you with your thoughts, even if it was inadvertent. I think that there are times when you are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time while someone else is manifesting their thoughts in some way.

Not only can we be affected by other people's thoughts, but we can combine our thoughts together. I think that if several people concentrate at once, that their thoughts together can affect their world. That is why sporting events can be more exciting when you have friends beside you or you go to a stadium. I think that is why movies are always better in a theatre. And I think that is a major force in the success and failure of corporations.

When you see a corporation full of excited people who all have the same purpose in mind, like Google and Wal-Mart, you find that they are unstoppable and limitless in their power to conquer markets. When you have corporations like Ford where you have several groups competing against each other and various visions, you see struggle despite having all the ingredients for a successful corporation.

Wal-Mart has underpaid employees, from executives to associates. They have a tiny headquaters far from civilization. Even so, they grow, profit and innovate like no other corporation. They penetrate "unpenetrable" markets, they exceed revenue forecasts, and they keep finding new sources of revenue.

Ford has an illustrious history, international brand recognition, some of the brightest professionals from many different fields who are highly compensated, and a network of invested interests to support their every need. Even so, they have been surpassed in several markets, have had to close dealerships, and there is little hope for the near future.

Wal-Mart has a vision and purpose. They have a corporate cheer. They strive to keep all levels of employees in close contact with each other. There are voices of dissent in Wal-Mart, but they are few. The vast majority of Wal-Mart is solidly in step with the vision of low prices, everyday.

Ford is divided in so many ways, it would take all day to point them out. To name a few: They own various businesses that do not synergize. They have unions with one vision and executives with another. They have the Ford family vs. the other shareholders. Their international business is at war with their American masters. The franchise owners disagree with the corporation on the business model. The customers of Ford even seem to disagree with each other on whether Ford is a low-price product or a quality product.

The point I am making is what Abraham Lincoln was trying to say: a house divided against itself will fall. If a company can find a way to focus everyone's thoughts on one goal, they will achieve exactly what they set their mind on. The only challenge at that point is having a dream as big as the resources available to you. Remember September 12, 2001? It was a rare moment when all Americans were thinking and feeling the same thing and having the same desire; no one ever wants September 11th to happen again, but I think we all agree that our nation would be better off if we could agree like we did on September 12th.

From the "Science of Gratitude", we learn that being grateful at all times is a powerful force. Even if we are facing adversity, if we count our blessings we realize that we are at the starting point of a great future. This applies to companies as well.

Truly grateful companies that fail are rare. I can't think of one off the top of my head. I can think of thousands of companies who have found success while showing gratitude. I would argue that it is easy to prove that their gratitude is a major factor of their success.

Have you ever worked for a boss who seemed to be truly grateful for your work? I have had bosses who recognized my extra efforts; I was more likely to make an extra effort if I knew it would be recognized. I am not talking about cash, I am talking about a nod or a word of thanks. Cash is always welcome, and it is appropriate if my extra efforts resulted in additional revenue or cost-reduction. However, if all I did was add an extra column to a report or I reorganized the supply cabinet, all I need is thanks and I will find some other way to go above and beyond.

One boss looking for opportunities to thank his or her employees could transform a department. If you take it up to the corporate level, you can create a culture of gratitude. There are all sorts of examples where companies train their management, implement recognition programs, and provide employee appreciation days or Christmas bonuses to show their gratitude. A company's benefits program is often a strong indicator of their gratitude to their employees.

A corporation has other interests to be grateful for. First of all, there are the stockholders who risk their money on the company. To show them gratitude is easy: pay a dividend, grow the business, and stay out of trouble. Corporate officers who pay themselves rediculous bonuses and spend millions on perks are ungrateful. Companies like Wal-Mart who keep their executives in a thrifty mindset are expressing gratitude to the people who have risked their savings on company.

A corporation needs to appreciate their customers as well. The Bell Telephone companies did not do this while they held a mopnopoly on the market. In 1996, that market was opened to competition, and customers fled in droves. The same happened in cable TV markets when satellite TV became affordable.

On the other hand, market research has shown that people will knowingly pay higher prices out of loyalty or preference. For instance, I will always get my oil changed at Keystone Chrysler in Mission, KS. I started going their because they were a customer of mine. Because my company did not appreciate them enough, they are leaving us. However, I will not leave them because they have shown their appreciation to me every time I go in there. I don't know if they are the best bargain in own, but they treat me the best and that is worth it.

Look in your wallet and identify all the cards you use earn points at your favorite businesses. Not credit cards, I am talking about the rewards cards. I have cards for Borders, True Value, Price Chopper, and Holiday Inn, among others. When I travel, airlines and hotels show me appreciation by awarding points to me. They know that my company is paying the bill, but they also know that I likely influenced the decision and they appreciate that.

For me, the "Law of Attraction" and the "Science of Gratitude" define the fundamental principles of CSR and make its implementation easy. If a company wants to improve its situation, it has to get everyone focused on the same goal. One way to begin to focus people is to provide them with a goal they can all agree on: clean water, feeding hungry kids, or maybe improving education. A focused CSR intiative could be the first step in focusing the various stakeholders on unifying a corporate mission.

For instance, at Ford they could all choose the goal of wiping out malaria on the continent of Africa. I predict that it would not be hard to get the employees to agree to give up a little time and money to help out on that mission, no matter what color their collar is. Moreover, surely every Ford customer wouldn't mind financing an extra $20 on the purchase of their car to be donated to the cause? The communities around Ford plants would probably forgive many offences if they knew that Ford was making a difference in fighting Malaria.

Can you see the worldwide marketing campaign now: "At Ford, we not only build safe and efficient cars, we reduced deaths from malaria last year by 25%". After the one unifying mission is in full swing and everyone feels good about it, a discussion about Ford family interests or collective bargaining would have a channel and a meeting point. Everything else would just be details. There would be evidence in everyone's mind that they can all work together efective on malaria, so why not on other things as well?

If there was more gratitude at Ford, they would be a very different company. Even Wal-Mart could learn a lesson here. To be honest, if Wal-Mart showed more gratitude to their entry-level associates they would probably move from company to cult. Seriously, if an unskilled and unambitious person knew that they could go to Wal-Mart, work hard at the entry level for twenty years, and be rewarded with a livable wage and basic benefits, they would devoted to the end. They would jump on a grenade for a company like that.

This is the major failing of the Conservative Political mindset. We believe that the marketplace efficiently establishes rates of pay based on supply and demand. However, like the "law of attraction" there are other factors that can influence supply and demand. Many of my fellow Conservatives speak disparagingly of low-skilled and unambitious employees. They seem to believe that these people are by-and-large lazy and unethical. I cringe when I hear a person of my political philosophy saying that poor people need a kick in the pants, or that all they have to do is [enter activity here] and they would get ahead.

In real life, it is more complicated than it is in the mind of many Conservatives. I do not propose that we should pay janitors the same as engineers or CEO's. However, if the guy is happy as a janitor and doesn't want to be a manager or take college classes, why can't we just be grateful to have a good janitor and reward his hard work and attention to detail with a livable wage and decent benefits. If the janitor is good, he should be able to afford a decent car and a decent place to live, provide his family with a comfortable life and reliable health care, and set aside some money for retirement.

Are you so far unconvinced that we should pay a janitor more than the market requires right now? Okay, close your eyes and imagine your company without a janitor. Can you see the trash? Can you smell the bathroooms? Can you feel the insects and rodents crawling up your leg? Now do you appreciate your janitor? If so, pay him like you mean it. Only an idiot could make an arguement that janitors who do their job well shouldn't be paid better.

The alternative is what we have now: dirty bathrooms, unmotivated janitors, and janitor's kids growing up without every seeing a dentist or a regular doctor. You have things being stolen by the night cleaning crew to help them compensate for their status and treatment. You have high turnover because they can always make ten cents more per hour down the street.

Public school janitors are an example of how this can work well. Have you ever heard of a school janitor strike? I haven't; certainly it is rarer than a teacher's strike. The janitors who I knew growing up would help us with anything we asked. They were always seen doing something productive, rather than spending the whole day on a smoke break. They knew they had it good, and that their retirment would be taken care of. They enjoyed their work. Therefore, they did their job and a few extras along the way.

You will notice that I use the words "livable wage" rather than "living wage". This is where I define myself as a conservative. I think that if the government legislates minimum wages, they end up making the situation worse rather than better. When the minimum wage goes up, the law of supply and demand becomes the primary factor here: there are now less job opportunities available in the economy.

You see, there is a certain amount of money available for wages at any given time. Let's say that in Kansas City for 2008, there is $1 billion available for wages. In the current conditions, lets say there 1.5 million jobs, of which 500,000 are at the minimum wage. Now, add a city law requiring an additional "living wage" increase of $2.00 per hour on top of the federal minimum wage. What happens?

If Kansas City increases the minimum amount that you can pay an employee without also increasing the amount available to pay wages somehow (through a tax cut or other established means), then you have essentially ensured that job opportunities in Kansas City will decrease.

If you increase the amount a business has to pay in wages without increasing their revenue by that exact amount simultaneously, then the money will have to come from somewhere. Many leftists would say that the business owner should willingly give up some of their profits to their employee. I agree, but that cannot be legislated. If the business owner does not decide on their own to give up those profits and does not accept a reason to do so, then they will simply decrease the number of employees that they have on staff. Alternatively, they will take their business to another city or country. See China for a dramatic example of that. You will have some employees laid off and now receiving no wages rather than minimum wages (increasing the burden on public assistance). The employees who are left will have to work harder for the same pay.

What many leftists do not understand is that business owners who are most affected by minimum wage increases and living wage laws are not enjoying huge profit windfalls. There are many businesses who are just barely getting by or are working hard to grow into their market. The owners do not have equity or cash, they just have debt, bills, and an idea. By increasing their overhead without increasing their revenue, you have limited that business owner's effectiveness. Maybe they were competing against a Chinese company and gaining ground; now that you have increased the minimum wage they are unable to compete with the Chinese company. Surely you'd agree that is not best for the minimum wage employee, the city, or the country. Only the Chinese would root for that scenario.

When we express gratitude, we are rewarded. The quality of our own thoughts and emotions are improved. Our cummunications with, and relations to, other people are improved. We begin to receive back the karma we send out. People begin to send us more favor because they know we will appreciate it and think we deserve it.

When a company appreciates people, they gain power. They can negotiate with unions easier because they are already known as an appreciative employer. They can earn favor from their customers and communities. They earn loyalty and extra effort from their employees.

If corporations are grateful for what they receive, they receive more. In that case, unions become unnecessary...if other factors are taken care of as well. Minimum wage increases become unnecessary. In fact, in a perfect world of appreciative corporations we wouldn't need to worry as much about Social Security reform, insolvency and bankruptcies, health care and medicare, and elderly people living on dog food. Marketing costs would be lower because people would mention your good works and good products together in excited tones for free. Political backlash in foreign countries would be minimized because who wants to bite the hand that irrigates, educates, and feeds them? If oil companies in Venezuala had been more appreciative of their hosts, we never would have heard of Hugo Chavez.

Think about companies like Jet Blue. They have a vision for their employees: let them spend more time at home with their family. The employees are committed to this vision; they appreciate the policy and the policy makes them feel like they are appreciated by their employer. Therefore, their minds are now open for Jet Blu to add a vision. The employees of Jet Blue are more likely to hear the vision, accept it, focus on it, and work on it together because they are already in a position of gratitude. Now, Jet Blue can say, "Always try to upsell a flight to Salt Lake City with every call" or "Reduce call time by 1 minute without reducing revenue or customer satisfaction" and the employees will be more likely to accept the vision, focus on it, and achieve it.

I would like to point out that when a company expresses gratitude, it must be sincere. It will take thought, discussion, and soul-searching to reach a point of effective sincerity, and that path leads through profitable analysis and brainstorming. Only sincere gratitude will allow a company to maximize its effectiveness during implementation. Insincere gratitude will just be a cardboard cut-out of what they could be benefitting from.

To top it all off, people can smell the difference. If Pepsi implements a truly sincere gratitude program and Coke copies it without sincerity, the end result will be tremendous dividends for Pepsi and miniscule or negative dividends for Coke.

I have said before that CSR needs to be sincere. It is great if a company donates money to a homeless shelter, whether they are sincere in their effort or just doing it for publicity. However, an insincere comapny will end its efforts as soon as they feel they have milked that cow dry. A sincere company will continue its efforts even when the cameras shut off. That sincerity will generate a special kind of loyalty among its stakeholders. Employees, communities, NGO's, customers, vendors, suppliers, and even shareholders will recognize and reward sincere efforts at gratitude and responsibility.

People are less likely to sell off a stock at any price if they really like the company, while they will sell at the drop of a hat if they do not have any feeling for the company. The difference has saved some companies from the total wrath of bear markets; compare Cisco and Google to some of their fallen comrades over the last 10 years.

How does a company implement sincerity? That is a topic that has failed to show up in any business book I have read. However, in considering how to get the "Law of Attraction" and the Science of Gratitude" to word in a corporation, I realize that it all starts with gratitude.

If the leaders of a business sit down and discover the things that they are truly thankful for, they will have a great starting point for implementing CSR. No matter where a company is financially and strategically, they have something to be thankful for. Once they start listing those things and then reaching out to express gratitude, they will see the ship start to turn. Each time they do this, they will find that their gratitude attracts more things to be thankful for. By thanking a vendor for meeting a deadline, they will find that they not only get better service but they also get price breaks or extra service. By appreciating the employees they have, they will find that the quality of employee that they attract increases. As they reach out to their communities, they will find that they get attacked less and defended more. Appreciating customers attracts customers, and their marketshare doubles.

At some point of considering the things to be grateful for, you begin to appreciate democracy, capitalism, clean water, lack of war, an educated workforce, quality of American healthcare, and so many other basics that we usually take for granted. A company who sincerly appreciates what they have will naturally want to provide some essentials of civilized life to a people who do not have it available to them. That is when their attempts at CSR will turn the world upside down.

The difference between sincere and insincere attempts at CSR are obvious. Sincerity adds a level of passion, detail, and effectiveness that is unknown by insincere companies. Why should a company seek to sincerely implement an effective CSR initiative?

1. Because it increases your leverage amongst your stakeholders: employees, communitiues, giovernments, vendors, customers, shareholders.

2. It multiplies your marketing efforts.

3. Because you find that you are truly thankful for what you have and you want to express your gratitude--hoping that your karma comes back you.

Be Thankful and Attract your Thoughts

Two books have seized my imagination and thought-life lately. One is "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne and the other is "Thank You Power" by Deborah Norville. I do not know why either book caught my eye while I browsed but they did, on separate occasions. I did not buy either book when I first saw them. I went home, and found that I couldn't get them out of my mind. Something was telling me to buy these books. The funny thing is, I discovered them and purchased them separately, and had no idea that they went together so well.

Now let me add a disclaimer to this website. I am an engineer. I am a devoted proponent of science and a major skeptic. I do not believe in ghosts, Aliens, UFO's, Faith Healers, or any other subject that is commonly considered nonsense in our western, American culture. However, there are times when I cannot explain a process but believe in it anyhow. These two books (especially "The Secret") may come off as new-age, mythological, psychobabble. However, if you just seize on the fundamental principle that focusing your thoughts has a powerful impact on results you will see the logical basis. Sometimes science is unable to explain how this works, but the anecdotal evidence is overwhelming that a person's thoughts can often influence the outcome of a situation. It is an accepted scientific fact that prayer has a beneficial affect on medical results, even though God and Spirit of not accepted facts.

In a nutshell, here is why I believe that the law of Attraction and the Science of Gratitude are important: they change the way you think for the better if you embrace them. If you believe in the Law of Attraction and use the power of your mind to try to attract the person, money, job, or something that you desire, you may end up not receiving what you conceived. However, you never know until you try. We all know that we can sabotage ourselves with negative thinking. We have no idea what we can achieve by thinking positively and communicating that to others. We also have no idea how often we communicate subconsciously. Therefore, if nothing else, "The Secret" teaches us to efficiently focus our thoughts to achieve our goals and desires. It also teaches us to push out the negative thoughts that hog time in our brain focusing on what we don't want.

For me, that is the benefit. I have ADD; I am naturally unfocused and scattered. I also have a history of mild bi-polar depression. To top it all off, over the years I have developed cynicism and skepticism at levels above the recommended dosage. Therefore, if we could analyze my daily thoughts on a spreadsheet, you would see high percentages where I was focused on slow traffic, problems at work, and thinking about things that I do not want and how to avoid them. The percentage of time that I am thinking positively about my future would be about 1/4 the time that I spend thinking about what could go wrong and how to hedge my bets.

I wasn't aware of how negative my thinking truly is until I read "The Secret" and began to apply some of its principles. There is the other aspect to the book: that there is a natural force at work in the universe that responds to our thoughts and attracts to us the things we think about. That is where the book may veer off to the weird for some people. However, we can believe that the force is God, we can believe it is presently unexplainable (agnosticism), or we can believe that it is a heretofore undefined law of physics that helps explain gravity and quark movement. Ms. Byrne made the mistake of focusing on the Law of Attraction as if there aren't other forces at work. Therefore, this book is not a scientific text or a theological manifesto. It is great reading though, and provides a great method of visualizing the principle and applying it in various situations.

Both of these books mean the same thing to me: by changing my thoughts I will change my life. This is not new information for me. I have been through this many times on different levels. However, this time is more advanced learning. I am working on the finer details of thinking my way to happiness and prosperity.

You had mathematics in grade school. You had it again in High School, but it was more advanced: there was more information and a deeper understanding. Again, in college you were required to take some more math, and you ventured a little deeper into the subject. Then, your electives may have incorporated a finer understanding of some mathematical principles. With math, there is always a deeper level and a new application.

The same is true with your thoughts and thanks. I don't know if there is a limit to how deep you can go. I take that back, there is one limit I know of: yourself. If you decide that you have gone far enough, then that is all you're gonna get. However, if you remain open, there may never be a limit to how much you can achieve and receive from thankful thoughts and focusing on what you want.

"The Secret" has reminded me to "accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative." Deborah Norville's book on how science is proving the benefits of gratitude is the perfect compliment. I am finding the principles of both books jumbling in my mind. Seeking to think gratefully and communicate gratefully is profound. Sure, you've been doing it all your life. Or have you? That is an important aspect of your life to examine on a regular basis.

I think we all tend to reach moments of egotistical, ungrateful stagnation. Some people do not last long there, others build a homestead and refuse to budge. I know that as I examined my own life, I was shocked at how many opportunities I had missed to be grateful for and how rectifying that immediately and dramatically improved the quality of my life.

When I find my blood pressure rising and my fist clenching, I am now finding that switching my thoughts from frustration to gratitude for something feels good! I try to take a daily inventory now of what I have to be grateful for. I am trying to expand the list daily so that it isn't the same old stuff. From there, I try to focus on a few things that I want and communicate to the universe that I want them, I expect to receive them, and I am already thankful for receiving them. Now, all I have to do is get on with my life and look for opportunities to achieve my goals and express gratitude.

I sum up these two books by saying that the end result is: I feel good!

Explanation of Hiatus

There were many reasons for me to take a hiatus from blogging. When I boiled it all down, I was left with one main reason: I didn't want to suck.

Now, I never set out to achieve blogging greatness. This blog was created for personal expression, for writing development, for ego validation, and to add my 2 cents to the internet. I never intended to spend the time and effort to make this blog world-famous; my family and career are more important and carry more potential for my self-actualization goals.

However, I always intended to be read. I wanted people to read my blog and usually come away with new thoughts or knowledge. I did not want to bore people. It is hard not to blog your opinions without a little self-indulgence and borderline arrogance, but I never wanted to come off as a know-it-all. Worse still, I never wanted to be that guy who is so impressed with his own brilliance that he can no longer critically read himself or receive honest feedback from others.

Also, I realize that I write too many words--especially for a blog entry. A reader wants only a few paragraphs from a blog so that they can get on with their life, but that is a real challenge for me.Even in school: when an instructor says 5-7 pages and everyone else is wondering how they can write that many pages, I have trouble cutting ten pages down to seven.

I had many brilliant things to say about life, CSR, politics, etc. Or, so I thought. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I had a lot more learning and thinking to do before I would become as smart as I think I am. I needed to refine my thoughts in order to achieve brevity and insightfulness simultaneously. I found that I could only prevent bad-blogging through abstinence.

So I spent a few weeks thinking, evaluating, and trying to achieve a reasonable humility. Humility for me is arrogance for others; it is a relative term and I set my own standard for humility at a more-inflated level than others might. Therefore, if you think to yourself that my attempt at humility has a long way to go, realize I have come pretty far down and I am trying to stay grounded.

I feel bad about not blogging regularly. I hate having gaps in my blog archive. I don't know why I feel that way, though. A gap means that I had nothing pressing to say and chose to remain silent. That is rare in this culture. Every channel on the TV is jammed pack with nothing to say; the best shows are rarely broadcast to maximize their advertising revenue while the drivel fills in the gaps that should just be static.

To sum up, this is Phase II of my blogging. I am now seeking brevity and insightfulness. If my blog entry cannot edify the reader quickly, then it needs to be refined rather than posted. I write to develop my thoughts and skill; however, there is no sense in writing if it is not readable by others. I write for myself, and I write for you to read. This blog is my gift to you, whomever you are. Thank you for taking the time to read me.

A Financial Blog

I found an interesting blog today that I will be keeping an eye on in the future. It is written by a financial planner/investment adviser who appears to have a conservative and down-to-earth outlook—we need more of these kinds of people in the financial arena. I am not recommending his advice at this point, I am just recommending his writing. He is an interesting writer who makes the reader think, stays to the point, and holds the reader’s interest. If nothing else, perhaps I could learn these writing secrets as I read his work.

Russell Bailyn says that “Buy, Hold and Forget” is the way to go in this volatile stock market of 4th quarter 2007 — good advice to avoid getting burned in market-timing as the market swings for little or no reason each day. More importantly, he makes a great point that gets overlooked by nay-saying negative-nancies: A weakened dollar is good for you if you are selling dollar-denominated products. For instance: if you are US Manufacturing, you are getting a boost now from a weaker dollar. If you are selling real-estate, you have more buyers from foreign markets (which is called FDI and is necessary for economic growth.) An increase in buyers helps to keep prices from dropping to unreasonable levels by rising the demand to meet supply.

I have more to say about supply, demand, naysayer’s, economic prognostication, and the like. Since my local college football team (KU), NFL Team (Chiefs), and fantasy football team are all letting me down, I am able to commit more brain cells to economics. Perhaps that is a good thing, but I sure like having bragging rights in football conversations.

I first found Russell’s article here: http://seekingalpha.com/article/55744-buy-and-hold-as-true-now-as-ever?source=yahoo

However, Russell’s blog is located here: http://www.russellbailyn.com/weblog/