June 28, 2009
“Unreal.”
He hardly noticed the lurch of the train leaving the station. His attention was on two small pieces of paper in his lap. One…a 30-year old candy bar wrapper with the words “Forever yours!” indelibly scribed. The other…a plain white sheet with “Go home.” in large girlish print. Hearts for “o”s.
“It had to be Lisa!”
He certainly didn’t know her handwriting anymore (the last time she wrote him was in the 4th grade!) but he sure as heck remembered the wrapper. Lisa loved chocolate. So naturally his love notes to her had all been written on the inside of candy bar sleeves.
“Probably the most romantic thing I’ve ever done,” he mumbled to himself. “How sad is that.”
Surprisingly, he remembered the day he gave her this particular note.
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June 10, 2009
A thunderstorm came through today that forced the question “Did Zeus build himself a vacation home here?” A lot of other people did and the mountains are fantastic, so who knows? Maybe he stopped by to fix it up prior to a short sell.
Anyway, it made me think about the odds of getting struck by lightning (576,000:1) or inspired by it (1:1). As exciting as it would be to get hit, a young man was hit here just a few days ago (and he’s doing fine) so I figure the odds are even longer. And standing out in the rain holding up a tall metal rod would just look stupid. So instead I spent some time being inspired. And wouldn’t you know it, I got hit anyway!
A few weeks back I introduced my PURPOSE acronym (here) which begins with the three essential attributes of effective presentations: Passion, Utility and Recall. A few weeks later I followed that with a more detailed discussion of Passion (here). But since then I have struggled with an effective way to communicate the critical importance of Utility. Then today, in a flash of lightning, it struck me: my answer sits in the hands of Zeus. …the Thunderbolt!
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June 5, 2009
I recently ran into an acquaintance of yours. No, really, I did. I’ll leave you guessing for a couple minutes. But here are a few clues…
It turns out he was assisting a friend of mine who presented at an event. And I’ll tell you what, he was in top form! Do you remember being out with someone who consistently stole your punch line or kept pulling the conversation away from you (even knowing that you’d waited MONTHS for this precious opportunity to talk with her!? For Pete’s sake! I mean my knees buckled whenever she walked by! What the…) I’m sorry. I digress…
So this acquaintance of yours - this Glory Sucker – is a living irony. He makes his living “helping” people with their speaking engagements and, ironically, FAR MORE OFTEN THAN NOT ends up spoiling the whole show. To be fair, I’ve seen him do great things, which is why he keeps getting the calls, but when he’s off…dang!
He often goes by his initials: PP You probably know him by his stage name: PowerPoint. read more »
