Memorial Day: Just a Long Weekend?
Memorial/ n :
"something by which the memory of a person, persons, or an event is kept alive."As a veteran of the United States military I am reminded on this day that most all of us at one time or another have been in the company of heroes. A neighbor, an uncle, someone sitting beside us on a plane... Posing as ordinary people, they did something extraordinary for a cause bigger than any single person. How can we ever thank them?
Let us always keep their memory alive.
Let Freedom ring. God Bless America...Remember... it's Memorial Day!
Graduation...or Commencement?
For the second year in a row I delivered a commencement address to a group of high school graduates this weekend. I had about 2 hours of stuff I wanted to tell them from politics to personal development to the marketplace, but you and I both know no one wants to attend a graduation where the guest speaker drones on and on with some noble message on life, liberty, and the pursuit of whatever.
So I took my 26-year-old son's advice... "Dad, don't go in there and say anything controversial or make anybody mad. Just get in, say something inspirational, and get out. That's what they really want." Ah yes, the wisdom of youth. So...I did. In just 12 minutes (a new commencement record for speakers I think), I made them laugh and made them glad (short speeches can do that you know) and hopefully made them think just a bit. And then I gave each graduate a copy of my book on commitment.
For all my young graduates, commencement is less about what's just happened and more about what's ahead. Let the living and learning COMMENCE...and Godspeed.
Leaving Las Vegas
What a week in "The Show!"
Las Vegas is THE SHOW. Lots of people come here for fun. Some come for work, but few really learn the secrets that make Vegas, Vegas! This city can make you extend your work stay for some play stay. A speaking event that could have been an "in-one-day-and-out-the-next" in many other cities turned into a family-in-tow trip that took us from the Venetian to the MGM. With shopping, fabulous food, Freemont, The Strip, Celine & Cirque', Blackjack and Binion's and big fun all around. Oh yeah, and I spoke for an hour too.
There is lots of SELLING going on in Las Vegas. And it's so subtle, and feels so good to buy, that often people don't realize they're being sold! Because they're being ATTRACTED so strongly to the selling proposition or VALUE proposition that's offered. Where else can you dress up in white linen, paint your face and hands white, act (somewhat) like a "living statue" and get people to stop, gawk, take pictures, and leave money, CASH MONEY, at your feet.
(You gotta' love this country...)
Vegas gets it. And their "it" is always getting bigger, and newer, and hotter, and cooler it seems.
What NEW or COOL or ATTRACTIVE thing are you doing to get noticed, get people talking, have cash falling at your feet, and keep them coming back? Next time you're here, pay attention. You just might learn something you can use in your town that makes Vegas...VEGAS!
