Blog Archives

Image Buster (Kris Kristofferson)

5/18/2012

I don’t know how many people remember Kris but he’s an actor, musician, singer, and song writer. His biggest hit was the song: “Me and Bobby McGee” and his breakout movie was: “A Star is Born” with Barbara Streisand.

Mr. Kristofferson has a rebel image; almost always wearing a jean jacket and having long hair (basically a hippie). He wasn’t at all the Hollywood type and instead loved hanging out with the blue collar crowd. He preferred biker bars over martini bars and trying to get him into a tuxedo for an award show was like trying to put shoes on Tom Sawyer!

I included “image buster” in my title for a reason because I’m getting ready to share a part of Kris that he didn’t want people to know. His accomplishments before breaking into the music business are way beyond amazing but there was a reason he wanted to keep them hidden from the public which I'll share in a moment. Prepared to be blown away:

1) Kris' father was a Major General in the Air Force (for those of you not familiar with the military he was a real bigwig), so he moved around a lot including to other countries.

2) While in college he was featured in a Sports Illustrated article because of how great he was at football, rugby, and track.

3) He graduated college “Suma Cum Laude.” Basically this means he’s brilliant.

4) He earned the coveted “Rhodes Scholar” to attend Oxford University in London, England. Besides being an academic wonder boy while there he also became a great boxer for the university.

5) He wrote a novel before arriving at Oxford.

6) He joined the Army and became a Captain. While in the Army he flew helicopters and he was an elite Army Ranger.

7) He was so admired in the Army they ashed him to become a professor at West Point. He declined their offer and chose instead to pursue a music career. This decision fractured his relationship with his father and as far as I know, they never reconciled.

8) Kris has been in over 70 television shows and movies. A few of his most famous movies, besides “A Star Is Born” are: “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and "Blade."

As I mentioned earlier, very few people know these things about him and it was intentional on his part. Music was so important to him and he realized if people knew his extraordinary background he wouldn’t successfully break into the music business. Music fans want to believe the person singing has actually lived what their singing about. If people knew Kris was a prodigy they wouldn’t be able to relate to him.

Breaking into the music industry is practically impossible. The fact is, we’ll probably never hear the greatest artists because they couldn't get their feet in the door at one of the record labels. YouTube has revolutionized this process because it allows artists a way to bypass the numerous gate keepers that major record companies' have. Music executives can now sit at their desks and review worldwide talent. Using the number of "views" is a great indicator as to what fans think.

Of course Kris didn't have this luxury when he was trying to break into the industry. He knew that it was important to be at the right place at the right time so he moved to Nashville realizing it would be a long shot but he had to try.

He did all kinds of odd jobs in Nashville to keep him and his family afloat including doing some contract work for a helicopter service. His job was to get oil workers to and from their at-sea platforms. He did a lot of writing while hanging out on the oil rig. A few of these ended up being major hits including: “Help Me Make It Through The Night.”

Then once again Kris showed his brilliance by getting a job as a janitor at Columbia Studios. Employees weren’t supposed to approach the stars but he worked his way in including getting Johnny Cash to read some of his songs. Mr. Cash was very impressed with Kris' work so the door began opening for him. For Kris' first three years in the business other artists were recording his material but finally Mercury Records gave him his own recording contract which was a dream come true for him. He did however end up being a way more accomplished song writer than singer.

I love this story about Kris Kristofferson because I wasn't a big fan of his until I researched his background. I think it’s very rare that someone can have so many extraordinary natural abilities and he actually did something with them. I believe Kris is one of the most (if not the most) extraordinary men in our lifetime. I also think this is one of the most perfect examples of: "You can't judge a book by its cover."

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Living Life Upside Down (Two Minutes to Read)

5/16/2012

I was listening to my radio one day when a song came on by a group named Truth. Besides the music being beautiful the lyrics were as well. When the group reached the chorus the lyrics hit me like a ton of bricks. These are the words that hit me so hard: “What if you reached up and touched the ground and found you’ve been living life upside down?”

When the song ended I turned off the radio and reflected on what the song meant. The singing group was trying to convey several messages but their most important one was that we need to take a look at how we’re living our lives because maybe our priorities are completely upside down from where they should be.

Some people selfishly pursue via their time and energy, all kinds of things in their life not taking time to help other people with their needs. These types of people have all kinds of stuff (i.e. boats, expensive clothes, fancy cars, huge homes, etc.) but they typically don’t
have many close relationships with family members and friends. The reason for this is that they were too busy chasing material things and not developing relationships. Unfortunately they find out a little too late that close relationships have greater value than material goods. This is a great example of why so many people reach up and touch the ground only to find they’ve been living life upside down.

I have to admit that I’m guilty of this at times. I know what my priorities should be but I let the world distract me to the point where I take off in the opposite direction thinking there’s something better to pursue. I eventually get smacked by the school of hard knocks and end
up heading back to where I’m supposed to be. I just can’t figure out why I continue to allow myself to get sidetracked when it always ends up disappointing me. If anyone has an answer to this please give me a call! :)

Life Changer: WMWM? (Four Minutes to Read)

5/15/2012

The abbreviation “WWJD?” has been around for years. It was (hopefully still is) a very powerful movement as people began to ask themselves:“What would Jesus do?” for how to handle various circumstances in their lives. The abbreviation “WMWM?” can also change your life forever.

Every choice we make is a cause and effect scenario so it’s my guess that millions of people experienced much better outcomes because they slowed down and thought through how Jesus would’ve handled various situations. This approach is certainly a life changer because it changes the direction their lives take. A good analogy of this is to visualize that
you’re traveling down a road and reach a fork where you have to choose either going right or left. The choice you make sets the course for your journey. A lot of times we end up figuring out we went the wrong way so we turn around and head back the other direction. Having to do this is more detrimental than what you might think.

When we double back we not only lose the time we spent going in the wrong direction but we also lose the amount of ground we would’ve gained if we made the right choice in the first place. In other words if you travel two hours down the wrong road it will take you two hours to get back to your original decision point. With this in mind you’ve actually wasted four hours as you could’ve been that much further down the right road. Life is moving too fast to waste a bunch of it making bad decisions.

Whether good or bad the choices we make set the tone for our lives. We need something to keep us focused each day so the world doesn’t negatively affect our decision making. I don’t know about you but I don’t think the world cares about my wellbeing as much as I do!

“WMWM” is an abbreviation for: “What matters and who matters?” If we would begin each day focusing on these questions it can change our lives forever. Any successful person or sports team didn’t get that way by chance. These people stay focused on the things that matter and don’t waste time on those that don’t. They often call this thought process:
“Focusing on the fundamental few.” Meaning they don’t allow their brains to get distracted by a bunch of variables that don’t make much difference or possibly any difference towards them achieving what matters to them.

This idea of: “What matters and who matters?” isn’t a canned model as the things that matter can be different from person to person. You get to think through the junk that gets you distracted and decide what really matters to you. You can even come up with a few things you’d like to focus on and then maybe add some other things to your list later.

Let me give you an example of “WMWM” in action. “What matters and who matters?” could include things like I've listed below.

What matters:
* Taking my family to church each Sunday.
* Being a positive role model.
* Demonstrating love to my wife and children.
* Providing for my family.
* My health.
* Staying in touch with my relatives.
* Helping those who are less fortunate.
Who Matters:
* God.
* My wife and children.
* My parents and siblings.
* My boss.

The above are a few examples so it’s entirely up to you as to where your focus should be. I would recommend prioritizing the items on your list. This way if you have to sacrifice
something for let’s say time sake, you’ll be more in tune to the choice you should make.

A good way to come up with what’s important to you is to think about what you’re thankful for (a.k.a. count your blessings). If you’re thankful for something or someone they must matter to you. Or you can think about those things you’d most hate to lose in your life. Hard to think about but it can get your list in good shape. Once you have your list (I would keep it short at first), then you should start each day reviewing it in your mind. The reason I think your list should be short at least at first, is that most of us spread ourselves to thin. We can’t make everyone happy nor can we be good at everything that matters to us. It’s better to be great at a few important things in our lives than to be mediocre or terrible at most things.

Life is certainly a juggling act so we have a lot of pins in the air. This keeps us stressed because we’re trying to keep everything afloat; but there is no doubt pin(s) will drop sometimes. There is also no doubt that we can’t get away from having to juggle a lot of things because that’s just life. The trick is to make sure the most important pins stay in the air and that we’re willing to let the less important ones drop when necessary. These other pins are inevitable life distractions that we need to be aware of but not focused on because they can cause everything to tumble down.

Have you ever seen a professional juggler start to drop one of his pins and in his effort to reach out and save it he ends up letting all of them fall? We must know which of the pins we’re juggling are most crucial to us and allow the less important ones to drop so we can save the rest.

Focusing on the things that matter can’t be something we dabble in so thinking about them every few weeks or months won’t cut it. We need to reflect on “what matters and who matters” every morning and when we can throughout the day. It’s one of those things that take practice before it’s a habit. Something to help you in the mornings is to pick a time
(maybe while you’re brushing your teeth or before you pull out of your driveway to work), when you consistently run through your mind what and who matters most to you. It would take less than a minute to reflect on these things so we have no legitimate excuses for not doing it.

I hope you agree with me that this approach can make a tremendous difference in your life. Let me give you one last incentive and that is not only will you benefit from focusing on the things that really matter but you’ll also bless a lot of other lives by doing it and the positive impact will be life-long. Powerful isn’t it!?

Money Can Buy Happiness

5/11/2012

Most of us have heard just the opposite of this so I’d like to look at it from a different perspective. There’s an important point in reference to what the bible says about money. Most people focus on the words:“Money is the root of all evil.” But there are three very
important words that are before the above phrase and they are: “The love of…” This completely changes its context. Money in itself isn’t necessarily evil but if you love money it is. Jonathon Swift said: “A wise man has money in his head not in his heart.” Very profound and fits with what the bible teaches.

I’ve mentioned before there have been countless studies on the happiness of multi-million dollar lottery winners. What they found is that most of them were worse off than they were before they won. Relationships with a lot of friends and family members deteriorated because they couldn’t say yes to everyone asking for money. Professional scammers worked their way into the lottery winners lives and took them for a lot of money. Their new homes got broken into because people knew there was probably a lot of nice and new stuff in there. All of a sudden people started filing lawsuits against them for all kinds of bogus reasons hoping to get a quick out of court settlement (these are called nuisance suits). Many of the lottery winners move from where they lived into a nicer home only to realize that a lot of their lives were tied to where they lived not what they lived in; basically they lost
touch with people in their lives and became lonely. A lot of the people who were their friends stop contacting them because they are jealous and think the lottery winner is uppity. The bottom line is that what they thought would make them happy actually made their lives worse. Many of them have said it turned their lives so upside down they wish they’d never won.

So far everything is going against my argument so I’ll try and turn it around. There have been several studies (one global by the Gallop Organization), to compare the differences in people who spent money on themselves versus those who spent money on others. Their findings weren’t even close. People who were unselfish with their money increased their
happiness substantially over the selfish group.

So here’s the deal; money can great when used for the right reasons. Many lottery hopefuls dream of things they’ll buy and places they’ll see but these things will do little towards
making them happy. For thousands of years there has been a truth that has never gone away and that is:“It’s better to give than to receive.” You don’t have to be a millionaire either to experience joy through giving (a.k.a. random acts of kindness). Here are a few things I’ve done in the past that brought me great joy:

* I’ve secretly purchased meals for senior citizens I saw in restaurants. There was one time when I went back to a restaurant and found out from the owner that one of the people I bought a meal for did the same thing for someone else; kind of a pay it forward kind of
thing.

* Several times I have seen associates from my company in various restaurants and paid for the meals while I was checking out. Sometimes I got caught sometimes I didn’t, but it was always worth doing.

* I’ve left $20 dollars on the counter for convenience store clerks. They make such little money and in some cases their jobs are dangerous.

* I helped pay for a church van for a small church in Tennessee that had a lot of senior citizens in their congregation who needed transportation.

* I set up a small fund for a church where the money is used specifically to help the elderly stay in their homes. Men from the church use the money to buy supplies they need to help upkeep the senior citizens’ homes.

There are so many more things you could do with your time and money but you get the picture. I intentionally left out tithing because it’s not a random act; at least it shouldn’t be! Some of these things cost me very little money yet the joy I got from doing them was priceless. I try to do these things incognito but I’ve had a few people find out what I did and caught me in the parking lot to thank me. The look on their faces told me they couldn’t wait to do the same thing for someone else.

One time there was a gentleman sitting at a table by himself so I bought his meal. I told the waitress not to say anything but he made her tell him who it was. He came over to my table (I had a co-worker with me) and we talked for about 15 minutes. He was a Marine and a Korean War Veteran. He and his wife had been married over 50 years and she passed away the year before and the restaurant we were in was their favorite.

He told us it was the first time anyone had done anything like this for him and that he was so thankful. Once we were wrapping up our conversation we thanked him for his service. When he walked away from the table I looked at my co-worker and we both had tears welling up in our eyes. I promise you that we got more out of the $10 I spent on his lunch than he did.

I hope you’ll agree with me that although
money has its evil aspects it can also be used for a lot of good. With this in
mind, it can make both you and other people very happy if your money is used for
lifting other people’s spirits. I promise you that when you make others happy
you make yourself happy; best of all you’ll make God happy. Doesn’t it make you
feel great when you see one of your children do something nice for someone else?

The Death of Universities (Seven Minutes to Read)

5/6/2012

I’m not saying that brick and mortar colleges and universities will be extinct but I am saying they should be put on some kind of an“endangered” list. In order for something to survive it must provide value and quite frankly their value is fading fast. I do realize there’s a correlation between how much money people make if they go to college or not but the gap is narrowing because of the rising costs of education. This means the investment in a college education isn’t providing the return it once did. I’m not saying it isn’t important any more to go to college but there are some things everyone should think about.

Besides increasing costs for an education another reason colleges/universities are losing their value is due to so many students opting for the easier courses they offer. Many degrees have no real application for either the private or public sector. In some cases if a student does get a job in his or her field it isn’t one that can realistically provide them a living so they end up moving on to another occupation. These students’ parents might have spent $100,000 getting their child a degree in something that only allowed their child to potentially get a job interview. Of course all of the other job candidates would have degrees as well so it becomes an issue of whether or not your child could quickly jump into the job and start making a positive difference. If he or she took a light course load they might be in trouble.

The fact is when a college student gets their degree in Liberal Arts & Sciences he or she will very unlikely work in their field. Someone who gets their degree in music has a tough road ahead because most of the jobs available to them are very low paying. A student who gets a degree in political science (even if she moves on to law school) will initially have some very low paying jobs before their career will hopefully take off. They are often treated like interns in law and medical practices where they get paid little money and are expected to work eighty hours a week. Plus at the same time their trying to pay down their college debt. Unless this young person doesn’t have to worry about money for about five years, she might want to reconsider her degree. One more example, if a student gets his degree in history (it’s one of my favorite subjects), making a living off of the degree will be very difficult. The problem is that a student coming out of college might luck out and get a job in the school system but once again it is a low paying job. To have a decent shot at becoming a professor and making more money, the student would need to obtain his doctorate in history (which means more debt). Then they have to contend with the fact that job openings for teaching in
colleges and universities that pay well are few and far between.

Colleges are struggling because their students spend four years in school yet would have a very difficult time passing an exam that employers come up so they can figure out whether the job candidate has the skills they’re looking for. All that time spent studying and they can’t
take it with them to the marketplace. One of the primary reasons for this is that students didn’t learn hands-on applications to the real world so the calculations don’t stick. Also it is the timing because if they learned applicable math their senior year it would be easier for them to remember but a lot of courses that address the skills they need on the job are sometimes offered their freshman and sophomore years.

On-line learning has become popular so some college professors post their lessons on-line and then coordinate tests sometimes on-site sometimes via the internet. One of the problems with this is that many students don’t learn well on-line and I’m one of them. I don’t know why this is the case because I love to watch presentations on-line (www.ted.com) where professionals come in and talk about all kinds of topics but for some reason I have a tough time following an on-line college course. I’d be much better off in class listening and watching my instructor because they give better clues as to what part of the material being learned is the most important.

Next I’m going to cover a great option to overcome the devaluing of a university degree and that is for a student to attend a technical college (I’m including community colleges as well). Technical colleges are more closely tied to the business community and what their needs
are. These colleges better project where the jobs are headed so they can offer the courses necessary to fill the marketplace’s needs. They’re way better at caring for the student after they graduate and use their ties in the business community to help their students find employment. Universities often just churn and burn their students because they have too many students to make a dent in helping them after they graduate.

Many universities reach a point where they don’t think they have anything to learn; they get pious about their institution. They look at themselves as consultants to the business community. This creates a big problem because unlike what technical colleges are doing, universities are terrible about being in touch with businesses’ wants and needs. They're usually very good at collecting donations and marketing their college but these things don’t end up enhancing the quality of their students’ education.

I don’t understand donations by alumni because I believe if you have some discretionary money it would be better spent on real people and organizations in need. Universities are not unlike our government, there’s so much waste in their budgets. There is so much fluff built in that doesn’t benefit their customers (students). So the return an alumnus gets from their donation doesn’t sound very good to me.

Technical colleges are more lean and mean. They often have great instructors who don’t have the lucrative salaries that university professors have. Their instructors usually aren’t academia but instead have worked in the real world. At one time I managed a college intern
program and every student told me they wish their professors had real word experiences to share. Community college instructors are great at hands-on training in areas that require it (i.e. computer programming, electrical engineering, graphic design, etc.); basically less talk from them and more action. This type of teaching is much more effective towards learning. Plus when you respect your instructor you’re much more inclined to listen to her.

Some people might wonder if their child might be less competitive in the market place if he or she went to a technical college versus a major university. Throughout my career with privately and publicly held companies, where someone got a degree and what level of degree mattered less than the skills listed on the resume and whether or not the candidate was involved in some form of community service. Most job descriptions automatically list a four-year degree required but they realize degrees are a dime a dozen so they want more. If someone were an Eagle Scout or a Vet they definitely got a chance to interview with me. We were concerned if someone had a Liberal Arts degree because we felt it said something about their thoughts towards business and the skills we needed them to learn in college. So what it all boils down to is that as an employer we wanted new employees with good character and who could start contributing quickly because a lot of training isn't taking place like it used to.

Students who attend community/technical colleges often work to pay for their education. Once again this is a character issue as we knew the young person could hold down a job and that he or she knew what it meant to work. We realized that working for us would be much better than where they were working so they came on board with great attitudes. Several of the young interns that I brought into our company worked at the same part-time job for years (began in high school). I’d feel more confident about hiring someone like this than a student straight out of Harvard.

Once again I’m not saying a college education isn’t important and I know of many colleges and universites that are fantastic and don't fit the profiles I'm mentioning above. What I am saying is that maybe a four-year degree isn’t for everyone and that some students who attend community colleges or technical institutes might have a better shot sometimes than the millions of college educated young adults who are competing with other people with the very same resume.

I’m also saying that colleges/universities should take a hard look at their bureaucracy because student costs can’t continue to go up like they have. I think they should bring in more instructors/professors with real world experience so the students would respect them more and enjoy learning more. I think universities should do away with professor tenure because it makes zero sense. All it does is give a professor a lucrative salary for he or she to teach less. Students don’t deserve to attend a class based on the premise that an Ivy League professor is going to teach the class when they end up with their professor’s assistant teaching and advising them. These tenured professors are usually off writing articles for trade magazines or writing books in order to pat their own and the school’s ego. Of course the school uses the professors writing for public relation purposes.

I’ve attended a community college, technical college, and a four-year university. In my case I learned more from the smaller institutes and I enjoyed the classes more. The bottom line is that I think we should take a good look at advanced degrees and figure out what we need
to do to churn out students who can compete in a global economy. We don’t need a bunch of kids with ideological views but instead kids who can immediately contribute to the marketplace. We don’t need our kids to think they are losers for not attending universities and instead support the fact that for some young people attending community colleges and technical institutes could help them achieve just as big of dreams as those students attending four-year colleges.

The best thing we can do for our children is encourage them. Having an advanced degree will give them a leg-up in the marketplace but what is most important is their character because as Abraham Lincoln said: “Ability may get you to the top but it takes good character to keep you there.”

Lawn Madness (Two Minutes to Read)

5/4/2012

It’s difficult to find a lot of good research on the subject of the expense of keeping up a lawn but the best average I could come up with is around $1,100 a year for maintaining one third of an acre of grass. This may or may not sound high to you but for people who keep their lawns up there is the cost of fertilizer, gas, pesticides, pre-emergence, water, etc. Plus there is the equipment involved that needs routine maintenance. If a mower and trimmer run you around $700 and they last an average of seven years then you also have to consider an annual fee of $100 for equipment. Then lastly there is the amount of time you spend mowing; it just keeps adding up. And keep in mind if someone uses a lawn service it can cost over $2,000 a year.

I’m guilty of spending over $1,000 on my lawn each year and it’s a little less than a third of an acre. I usually get a couple of comments every year about how good my yard looks so I guess that’s $500 per great comment. Sounds expensive to me!

The reason I mention I feel guilty is that I grew up on a farm and we grew a variety of vegetables. It provided us with money and food for our home. My dad has passed away but I guarantee you I’d never want him to know how much it costs me to maintain my yard. He wasn’t a typical businessman but he certainly understood a necessary return on your money, blood, sweat, and tears. When he put $1,000 into something it returned real value.

I realize there’s no way of getting around keeping up our lawns especially if we have an aggressive home owner’s association but that doesn’t stop it from being a bit ridiculous. Societal norms will certainly continue to push us into spending these large sums of money to keep our lawns cut and green but wouldn’t it be great if someone would invent a no maintenance yard; maybe something like an artificial football field. If something like this cost even $5,000 to $10,000 it’d probably be worth it if we plan on staying in our homes for more than five years. With how advanced we are in technology surely some company could come up with something that would work and be cost effective.

Let me wrap up by saying we might be able to tweak back a bit on the water even though our lawns might not be as green. When we do cut it maybe we could cut it down a little further and push out our mowings beyond a week. Things like this certainly aren’t the solution to the problem but it would add up dramatically if we did what we could.

Side note…there are always two sides to every story and the fact is that companies who provide lawn care materials and probably some of the companies that sell their products, would go out of business if we came up with a way to reduce our need for their products and/or services; this would lead to a loss of thousands of lost jobs. As usual all things are connected so we can't address one issue without potentially negatively affectiving another.

What Do Teenagers Know About Love (Two Minutes to Read)

5/4/2012

One of the most difficult things to address with a teenager is the subject of love because they don’t think we have a clue about it; although a long time ago I’m sure I was the same way. Love in some ways is hard to describe as it is slightly relative in nature because of our stages in life. We all know that feeling that came over us when those initial feelings of love hit us. It’s especially powerful when we’re young because of the high octane hormones raging within us.

With the above in mind, how can a parent successfully define love when feelings and logic about the topic seem to collide a bit? As an adult and due to the numerous wedding ceremonies we end up attending, we often hear the most beautiful description of love ever written. This insight into love is directly from the Bible:

1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres.

What a beautiful verse. There is no doubt that if we want to logically define love this is it because it boils down to: “Don’t tell me show me.” So don’t tell me you love me, show me if you want me to believe it.

Let’s say you have a teenage daughter and she’s madly in love. Good luck telling her she doesn’t have a clue what true love means but that’s what we usually do. Let’s take a look at this for just a moment to see if there’s another side to the story because although she might not know what it means maybe she’s living it which is certainly more important.

The reason I say this is that I feel people who initially fall in love more naturally live what the Bible tells us to do. Teenagers often have rose colored glasses on so they treat the person they love with patience and kindness. They’re unselfish always looking for ways to please the other person. They look past their partner’s imperfections. They are excited about their relationship which makes it much more enjoyable for both of them. There’s more but I’ll stop here.

Now as adults we certainly know what love is but more importantly are we living it? Do we act like teenagers in love and do the things that 1 Corinthians asks us to do? If we’re honest most of us would have to say no. So it begs the question are our teenagers clueless or are we?

The Great Crusaders (Seven Minutes to Read)

5/3/2012

You probably remember a little bit from your history class about the Great Crusades back in the 1100’s to 1300’s. If you’re like me, I didn’t remember much so when I researched the topic I was reminded of a few things but I also learned a lot of things I never knew. Here’s the story:

First of all it began with nine French Nobles (Knights) all of whom were related with three of them being brothers. These men were strong Christians so when they heard that some people who were trying to visit the Holy Land were being murdered by Muslims, they decided they would put together pilgrimages and help them get to Jerusalem safely.

The men moved to a site that was rumored to be the gravesite of King Solomon so people started calling them the Knights of King Solomon’s Tomb but later their name transitioned to the Knights of the Templar. They were kind of like priest in they took a vow of chastity and poverty. What wasn’t known at the time is they were mighty warriors who never retreated. Their reputation grew as they would win battles no matter what the size of the enemies they faced.

Because of their reputation in battle and their overall mission, people swarmed to join their cause. As they traveled through villages men would volunteer to fight. What started off as nine men turned in to an army of thousands. Although this sounds good it actually led to their demise and this isn’t uncommon to any organization which I’ll explain at the end of my blog.

One of the first problems they incurred is that the original passion they had for protecting Christians became watered down as most of the volunteers weren’t joining the army due to the Knights mission but instead for food and money. During these medieval times conditions for farmers and surfs were terrible. Their governments took so much from them they could barely feed their own families. So although the king of their province tried to stop them, men joined the army for the provisions not the cause. Most experts will tell you that passion motivates people more than material things. With this in mind, the army became stronger in number but not in effectiveness.

Another negative issue that came up with the massive amounts of people joining the Crusade is they no longer had knights/noblemen serving but now had non-soldiers in their ranks. So at first the Crusaders didn’t have to spend a lot of time and resources training but all of a sudden they did and they couldn’t keep up with the demand. Men were going into battle with equipment but not the skills necessary to use them; naturally the army lost strength.

The influx of volunteers led to another huge problem for the Crusaders because the various kings were upset with them for taking away their labor. Plus they were afraid of them because the Crusaders had a large independent army. They figured that at any time the Crusaders could turn on them and take away their kingdoms; of course they never tried to do this but the fear was there. So the various kingdoms started spreading lies about the Crusaders to tarnish their image and stop the donations that were coming in to support their cause. They said things like the Crusaders were raping and pillaging, that they were getting rich off the donations, etc. Their strategy worked because more and more people were concerned about helping them. With the army of Crusaders being as large as they were, not getting help from the communities was devastating.

If you remember from your studies the Crusade lasted for years which meant they kept getting further and further from their homes. With this in mind many of the men deserted the army. The money they were getting for fighting wasn’t worth not being with their families so the size of the army began to shrink taking away from their effectiveness.

One final point in reference to the demise of the Crusaders is that once they started to lose battles they lost their edge. Armies were afraid of them which made it difficult for them to beat the Crusaders but once there was a chink in their armor it opened the floodgate to continued defeats.

The Knights of the Templar were like a civilization unto themselves so they did last over two hundred years before they disbanded so their overall track record wasn’t bad.

This is the end of the story regarding the Templar but if you read on you’ll see there are some great lessons for businesses from what the Crusader’s experienced. In it you’ll get a good idea as to where your company stands in the “life cycle” of existence. Of course some of the best of companies only last three generations so the cycle turns at a much faster rate than what the Templar experienced. As you read what I’ve written see if you can spot the similarities between what the Knights went through and what companies go through.

Problem number one is that when a company starts there’s a tremendous amount of passion for the products and/or services the company offers; they’re excited about their name and the logo. The more the company grows the more diluted the passion becomes because it’s only natural that most people will start joining for financial reasons. Usually the original employees will get frustrated with the addition of new employees because they don’t feel like they have the work ethic they do and this isn’t good for morale.

Another issue that develops when a company grows to fast is they begin to lower their standards a bit in reference to the quality of employee they bring on board. Sometimes they’ll kid around and say something like: “If they’re breathing, hire them!” They’re somewhat kidding around but there’s certainly some truth in it.

These people generally require more training to get them up to speed but most companies are terrible at allocating the resources necessary for quality training. So what ends up happening is that employers end up with people that aren’t necessarily representing the company well. Of course this means customers will start leaving and will have a bad attitude towards the company. The problem is they don’t keep this to themselves so all of a sudden the company starts having people bad mouthing them and negatively affecting their reputation; definitely not good on sales.

It’s kind of funny how this next thing works and I definitely experienced it in my start-up company. As long as you’re not on the radar of your competitors you’re fine but once you start negatively affecting their sales, you’re a target. We would nibble away at small clients but when we started taking away large ones from our competitors’ things started getting ugly. They began starting rumors about our company that we were stealing clients, that we weren’t living up to our promises, etc. None of it was true but it was still out there for us to have to overcome to stay in business.

Lastly I’ll mention a major problem with growth if it happens too fast. Many companies go bankrupt because they try to expand too quickly. Their cash flow gets stretched too thin to stay afloat. Most of the time they overestimate what the new business will do for them. Say for example someone opens up an outdoor furniture store and it’s doing great so they decide to open up another store. Too often they think that after six months it will become profitable but it is rarely the case. Many times it takes around two years for a store to get a foothold and start to stand on its own. With this in mind the owners have to continue to pump money into the start-up store until it becomes profitable and because they often neglect to plan for this, the bank start calling in loans. The owners not only lose their expansion store but their original one as well. Very rarely can a company sustain quick growth without eventually crashing and burning; the examples are endless including many companies that are/were traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

So the story of The Great Crusaders has many similarities to what any organization goes through. Maybe now you can get a decent idea of where your company is in reference to an organizational life cycle. Please don’t be afraid if you see your company is in a bad place because companies turn around all the time and abandon their current approach. There are many things that are too late for them to change but if they will at least pay attention to the type of people they are bringing into the company, allocate a proper amount of resources to training and development (usually 4% of profit is good), pay attention to growth because it makes much more since to take care of your current client base and have their positive word of mouth help grow sales for you, and lastly make sure that all employees are constantly exposed to the desired culture from the owners and why the products and/or services are better than your competitors. This will help instill some passion into the employees; certainly not as much as the founding members of the company but a lot more than if nothing was done at all.

Alexander Was Truly Great (Ten Minutes to Read)

5/3/2012

It’s difficult to find a more interesting historical figure than Alexander the Great. I decided to conduct some research on him and found a fascinating story that I never knew existed and I’m positive you weren’t aware as well. My research came from a variety of sources (there were plenty available) but mostly from Oxford University where they have an amazing expert on Alexander.

Alexander was born in Greece and had extraordinary parents. His father was a mighty king (King Phillip) and his mom (Olympus) was considered not only beautiful but extraordinarily bright. People also considered her a spiritualist who was dedicated to Greek mythology. One of her favorite gods was the one of Passion and Wine. I can see this god having a large congregation! The craziest thing about her is that she said the Greek god Zeus was the one who impregnated her with Alexander.

King Phillip was a mighty warrior (Alexander worshipped him) and his men loved following him into battle. Of course Alexander had the advantage of learning from his father as soon as he was strong enough to wield a sword; he quickly became a great soldier. Like a lot of powerful men King Phillip had a passion for women which created a lot of discourse in their family because Olympus had a strong personality so she wasn’t the kind of wife that took this kind of thing lightly.

Olympus also had a lot of influence on Alexander and he shared her desire for learning. At the age of 13 she sent him away to study under Aristotle for three years; this of course made him much more intellectually advanced than most of the people around him. One of the things Alexander was most transfixed on was Homer’s stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey and all the battle action that took place. He was most impressed by stories of the great warrior Achilles and that he sacrificed everything in his personal life to fight. Achilles became Alexander’s hero and the type of man he wanted to become.

When he got home from school he found things were in an uproar because his father had married another woman while still married to his mom. What was worse is that King Phillip had a son with his new wife which meant Alexander might have to fight for his father’s throne.

This eventually became a non-issue as his father was stabbed in the back at a wedding ceremony and died. The man who killed him was immediately killed which meant they had no idea as to whether he had any accomplices. There were a few rumors that came out including that Olympus had him killed because of his adultery and because she wanted to secure her son’s place on the throne. Another theory is that the man who killed him was a spurned lover (during those times there was a lot of bisexual behavior). And lastly that maybe Alexander had him killed. Alexander was a likely suspect because he would secure the throne as his younger half-brother wasn’t old enough. Plus a lot of people knew that Alexander was livid with his father because he was getting ready to embark upon a major military campaign and he wasn’t taking Alexander with him. Alexander was all hopped up on the stories of Achilles and he also thought he’d be a mighty warrior just like his dad so he wanted to prove himself. Anyhow, nothing was ever proven as to whether or not someone else was in on the killing so Alexander became king at the age of 20.

It took him about a year to get his kingdom under control after his father’s death. Once established he set his sights on Prussia (a comparable campaign to what his father wanted to do), which included modern day Pakistan and Turkey. A hundred years earlier the Prussians ransacked Greece and destroyed a lot of their temples so they wanted revenge.

Alexander ended up being a mighty warrior.  People who fought with him said he was driven to be greater than his father; actually obsessed with it. Like Achilles he didn’t care about dying as long as he left a great legacy about his life. It worked as even West Point studies Alexander’s military strategies and tactics.

It didn’t take long for Alexander to gain an even better reputation than his father. He was a brilliant military strategist and he always came across as completely confident which made it easier for his men to follow his directions. Alexander wasn’t the kind of leader who hung out in the back of his army; instead he wanted to be in the mix fighting alongside his men. This inspired his troops to fight even harder.

When Alexander’s army reached Prussia they encountered a much larger army than their own. Part of his strategy was to instill fear into their enemies. He had his men bang their swords against their shields, he had his men swinging their spears, and as they marched towards the Prussian army he had his men do a loud war chant. They charged into battle and quickly caved in Prussia’s left flank. With this opening Alexander charged through looking for Prussia’s king. When he found him he killed his guard but the king got away on horseback. Once the Prussian’ soldiers saw their king running they were scared and some of them began retreating. By the end of the day more than 50,000 Prussian’ soldiers were killed. It was a massacre by Alexander and his army.

Along their way, many kingdoms surrendered so Alexander’s army didn’t have to fight. But then they encountered the kingdom of Tyre. Alexander was livid that they wouldn’t surrender and it ended up taking him seven months to defeat them. Most of the enemy’s men were killed and their women and children were taken as slaves. To send a message to their enemies in their route, Alexander had over 2,000 of Tyre’s soldiers crucified.

When they encountered Gaza (part of it still exists today), they met resistance again. Alexander and his men became more and more brutal in how they treated their enemies. In this battle they took the enemies’ leader and tied him to a horse (he was still alive) and dragged him around the city until he died. His head was eventually cut off and kicked around by soldiers. West Point teaches that this brutality was one of the reasons Alexander’s army was so successful. More and more kingdoms were laying down
their arms out of fear. Alexander the Great was good to the places that wouldn’t fight. They didn’t kill anyone and instead treated them with respect because they needed their support as part of Alexander’s expanded kingdom.

One of their greatest conquests was when they went to war against Egypt. What they weren’t counting on at the time is that most of the Egyptians were glad to see them because they hated their Pharaoh and his family. This made it much easier for Alexander to add Egypt to his kingdom because the men and women were glad for him to take over their country. They gave him the title of Pharaoh which was what he considered his destiny because Pharaoh’s were considered gods. His ego became larger and larger as people were bowing down to him and even to this day you can see him depicted on temple walls in Egypt. Egyptians were a very proud people so the fact that they included a Greek in the art was amazing.

They kept on marching and reached upper Prussia (modern day Bagdad). This is where they encountered an army three times their size. King Durias who snuck away from their first fight put together a large army in an attempt to get his kingdom back.

Alexander’s army was surrounded but he was smart enough to focus his troops on one section of the enemies’ line and once it was broken they were able to come around and attack Duria’s troops from behind. Then Alexander’s men shifted their focus to the soldiers who were being attacked from behind and the battle was completely changed and Alexander won again. What also happened again is that King Duria ran off but this time he was killed by his own men because of his terrible leadership and cowardice.

Alexander and his men marched on and he ended up being crowned the Lord of Asia. Of course this wasn’t enough for him so he told his men they were going to push east to Kabul. This is the place you’re thinking of so they headed towards what is today Afghanistan. The conditions there were brutal as they had to deal with the same problems we’ve had with them as their fighters were spread out over a large territory instead of in one force. The terrain was terrible and not anything they had encountered before.

Try to visualize this; Alexander the Great took 30,000 troops to Afghanistan and cut through the mountains where there were freezing temperatures, snow, and limited oxygen because the mountains were so tall. At one point they travelled through a narrow path and had to travel through it single file. Because of this his army was stretched out over ten miles. Could you imagine?

Speaking (or writing) about his army, things were getting worse within the ranks. The reason for this is that to keep his army large and strong Alexander recruited people from armies they conquered. So all of a sudden Greeks were sharing their space with the Prussians who they had spent years hating. When troop morale is negatively affected their effectiveness in battle takes a hit.

To make matters worse, Alexander’s ego kept getting bigger. During a drunk fest he was bragging about what he had accomplished and that he was a greater warrior than his father. One of the men there was a loyal soldier of Alexander’s father. This man saved Alexander in one of their battles. He got tired of Alexander’s bragging and yelled at him saying everything he is, is because of his father’s influence. A drunken Alexander took a spear and killed the popular military officer. As you can imagine many of Alexander’s top men became extremely concerned by his erratic behavior. This incident wasn’t the only strange thing that began happening as Alexander also told his men they had to bow down anytime they approached him; this greatly upset his men because it diminished their importance. This is another reason why his army began to lose their effectiveness because they started losing respect for their leader.

Alexander the Great heard about a land east of where they were (India) that it was some of the most beautiful land on earth. The Prussians told him they tried several times to attack them but the Indians were too powerful to defeat. This was too tempting for Alexander since no one else was able to beat the Indians; he’d prove that he was mighty enough to do it.

Much to Alexander’s soldiers dismay the Indian army was almost twice the size of theirs and they had a secret weapon that the Greeks had never seen. The Indians used war elephants that were at least nine feet high and weighed tons (this was kind of like having military tanks). The Indian’s would charge their enemies with the elephants and trample the men. The soldiers sitting on top of the elephants had shields and they were so high up that their enemies found it too difficult to kill them; especially with several tons of animal charging towards them.

Alexander quickly revised his strategy and had his men criss-cross and feint moving one direction then charging to another. He didn’t want his men to stack up and go directly towards the enemy because they’d just get mowed down by the elephants. Because they attacked to the side of the elephants it took them mostly out of play because if the elephants tried to move to the side they would trample their own men. He then had his men focus on a attacking the elephants. They used their spears to take the elephants down then killing the soldiers on top of them. The elephants became so rattled they began retreating and trampling the Indian soldiers. So once again Alexander the Great ended up being victorious in a battle he shouldn’t have won.

This time Alexander did something completely unexpected. He was so impressed by the way the Indian army fought that he gave the Raja (King) his kingdom back. The Indians couldn’t believe it and Alexander ended up being a hero to the Indian people. Of course his men were extremely upset because some of them lost friends in the battle that at the end of the day meant nothing. The troops were at their breaking point and refused to go any further (Alexander was livid about their insubordination), so after eight years of fighting and over 17,000 miles of marching, Alexander and his troops headed home.

No one knows for sure why he did it but Alexander chose a terrible route home that included a long march through the desert. He ended up losing two-thirds of his army to heat stroke, starvation, and thirst. The men who survived were mad beyond belief. Some people thought Alexander took them through the desert to punish his troops for demanding they go home. Other people thought he was so egotistical that he didn’t even think the desert was a challenge to him.

Once past the desert they reached the Prussian city of Susa. Alexander’s strange behavior kicked in again as he had 100 of his men marry Prussian women (he married three). Strangely enough his intent was to get the Greek bloodline into Prussia so relations would be better with them once he went back and had to rule them. Most of the men were extremely mad because they hated these people. More disgust began seeping into the ranks as they didn’t have a clue what the 30 year-old Alexander would do next.

Alexander returned home the greatest hero they’d ever seen. During the campaign Alexander had a historian record what they were doing so the citizens knew of his amazing accomplishments. His kingdom now ranged from Greece to India, far beyond anything his father had done. He didn’t last long at home as he became gravely ill after a night of extreme partying. He lived for eleven days then passed away at the age of 32. They didn’t know for sure what Alexander died from because it seemed like alcohol poisoning and regular poisoning weren’t likely because it would’ve killed him faster. They decided that Malaria or Typhoid were probably responsible.

His crazy story doesn’t end there because as they were taking his body back to Macedonia a large group of soldiers attacked the convoy and stole his body. It was found out later that they took his body to Egypt and placed him in a lavish tomb where he could be worshiped. Years later his body was stolen from the tomb and no one knew where it was taken; it still remains a mystery to this day.

There is absolutely no doubt that Alexander the Great deserves the respect he has been given because of his military genius; West Point teaches his military strategies and tactics to this day. He conquered thousands of miles of territory and he did it without losing a single battle; can any other military leader claim this amazing feat? Through most of his career he was a hero to his men but for some reason he began having mental problems which certainly contributed to his demise. If diagnosed today he would be most likely defined as being hypo bi-polar which would account for his sporadic crazy behavior. At the end of the day though Alexander the Great achieved exactly what he wanted because his amazing legacy lives on.

One side note, it was rumored that Alexander was either bi-sexual or homo-sexual. The primary reason for this is that Alexander had a very close friend in his army and they spent a lot of time together. Anytime Alexander would venture away from camp his friend rode with him and it was said that quite frequently they would take one horse. If Alexander was gay it wasn’t a big issue to the Greek soldiers because of the Greek culture of bi-sexuality.

Author: John Mann

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