1) I choose to be happy, contented and in gratitude of whatever I got and whatever I will get in my life.
2) I choose to live in the present.
3) I choose not to complain, but to create, change or accept the things the way they are.
4 ) I choose to respect and love people, irrespective of their background, religion, caste, creed or colour.
5) I choose to let my daughter live her own life, on her own merits and make her own mistakes and learn from them.
6) I choose to be available for her whenever she wants my counsel.
7) I choose to learn one new thing everyday.
8) I choose not to pre-judge and pre-decide on situations and people.
9) I choose to accept people the way they are.
10) I choose sincerity over intellect, honesty over intelligence and mind over matter.
11) I choose not to differentiate between the Young & Old. Young deserve as much respect from us as we give to the Old and Old deserve as much attention from us, as we give to the Young.
12) I choose to flow with life and not confront it.
13) I choose not to have attachments or expectations.
14) I choose to make every person that I meet as someone special, as others have made me so, over the years.
15) I choose to give back something to the society, to the world, to nature and to my loved ones in return of all that I have received from them over the years.
I choose to say to God “Bless this wonderful world, the wonderful people on this planet and let me experience this divine feeling forever and ever…”
Have Faith ; Rewards will follow...
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Saturday, February 28, 2009
The 10 things I want to tell my daughter…
The 10 things I want to tell my daughter before i retire to bed tonight....
1. Love unconditionally…without expectation. Like a tree offering shade, shelter and fruits to everyone, even at those who throw stones at the tree
2. Do your duty, without expecting the fruits of your labour. Like the Sun continues to shine brightly on everyone, irrespective if someone is complaining about the weather being too hot or about the day being too cold. It continues to do its duty and shines on.
3. Never hurt anybody. You don’t know what burdens the other person is bearing in their life. Your unkind words might be the one to cut them up, like the final straw that broke the camel’s back.
4. Today, this moment is all that matters. Live in the present. Yesterday is gone, past triumphs, upsets, joys and sorrows don’t matter. They have gone. Tomorrow is not here now. Stop worrying about the future. It will come on its own, later. What is important is NOW. Give it all you have got.
5. You are no less and no great than anyone else in this world. Each of us has been sent by God to play a role in this World Drama. Play your part, and play it well. Only you can play the part you are playing. No one can substitute you. Neither can you substitute anyone else.
6. Don’t fight against Life. Don’t create conflict with the way your life must be heading. It might seem to be a problem at that point of time. But life always evens out. Flow with life; don’t create conflict with the way your life is flowing. It will finally reach you to your desired destination. Whatever happens, happen for the best.
7. Build an ocean of compassion, for the less privileged in your heart. Remember that love and compassion always bequeaths more love, kindness and compassion. Do a selfless act born out of love and compassion for those people who deserve it, at least once a week. You will find the universe returning the same, with interest, when you will be in need for it.
8. Don’t judge people by their looks and appearances. Beauty is deep within, in each and every soul. Each of us has a certain unique strength, which no one else has. It is only for us to find it. Among ourselves and among others.
9. Listen. Listen. Listen. Listen to the other person’s point of view, listen to the sweet flowing sounds of a stream, listen to the sweet chirpings of the birds in the tree and listen to the thunderous sound of silence. Listening is more important than talking. That is why God has given you one mouth, but two ears.
10. Lastly, but not the least...be thankful for God, for whatever he has given you and whatever he might give you, in future. Show gratitude towards the universe, nature and God, by acknowledging it every night before you go to sleep, and the first thing in the morning when you wake up.
Have Faith ; Rewards will follow...
1. Love unconditionally…without expectation. Like a tree offering shade, shelter and fruits to everyone, even at those who throw stones at the tree
2. Do your duty, without expecting the fruits of your labour. Like the Sun continues to shine brightly on everyone, irrespective if someone is complaining about the weather being too hot or about the day being too cold. It continues to do its duty and shines on.
3. Never hurt anybody. You don’t know what burdens the other person is bearing in their life. Your unkind words might be the one to cut them up, like the final straw that broke the camel’s back.
4. Today, this moment is all that matters. Live in the present. Yesterday is gone, past triumphs, upsets, joys and sorrows don’t matter. They have gone. Tomorrow is not here now. Stop worrying about the future. It will come on its own, later. What is important is NOW. Give it all you have got.
5. You are no less and no great than anyone else in this world. Each of us has been sent by God to play a role in this World Drama. Play your part, and play it well. Only you can play the part you are playing. No one can substitute you. Neither can you substitute anyone else.
6. Don’t fight against Life. Don’t create conflict with the way your life must be heading. It might seem to be a problem at that point of time. But life always evens out. Flow with life; don’t create conflict with the way your life is flowing. It will finally reach you to your desired destination. Whatever happens, happen for the best.
7. Build an ocean of compassion, for the less privileged in your heart. Remember that love and compassion always bequeaths more love, kindness and compassion. Do a selfless act born out of love and compassion for those people who deserve it, at least once a week. You will find the universe returning the same, with interest, when you will be in need for it.
8. Don’t judge people by their looks and appearances. Beauty is deep within, in each and every soul. Each of us has a certain unique strength, which no one else has. It is only for us to find it. Among ourselves and among others.
9. Listen. Listen. Listen. Listen to the other person’s point of view, listen to the sweet flowing sounds of a stream, listen to the sweet chirpings of the birds in the tree and listen to the thunderous sound of silence. Listening is more important than talking. That is why God has given you one mouth, but two ears.
10. Lastly, but not the least...be thankful for God, for whatever he has given you and whatever he might give you, in future. Show gratitude towards the universe, nature and God, by acknowledging it every night before you go to sleep, and the first thing in the morning when you wake up.
Have Faith ; Rewards will follow...
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
The Award for the Worst movie of the year goes to...
Someone had descibed it righly, when they said that "The most torturous and excruriating career is that of Movie usher or a Film projectionist. They are forced to watch the bad, ugly and the indifferent movies, over and over again..!".
They have to patiently view and watch, it's part of their job...
Like the accountants forced to doctor and dress up the balance sheet. It is sad but a necessary evil !
Wonder why none of the innumerable number of Film Awards Contests/Events etc...have not created a category of rewarding & awarding the most boring movie of the year...adjudged by the people who are forced to watch...the movie ushers and projectionists...!
Have Faith ; Rewards will follow...
They have to patiently view and watch, it's part of their job...
Like the accountants forced to doctor and dress up the balance sheet. It is sad but a necessary evil !
Wonder why none of the innumerable number of Film Awards Contests/Events etc...have not created a category of rewarding & awarding the most boring movie of the year...adjudged by the people who are forced to watch...the movie ushers and projectionists...!
Have Faith ; Rewards will follow...
Saturday, November 15, 2008
When the dust settles down…!
Last week the IRS data, (world's largest media syndicated study), for the 2nd round of 2008 finding was released, and within hours of the release, there were frantic calls across media organizations, to the MRUC and Hansa office! Everyone wanted to talk/ask/debate was on “How can Average Issue Readership (AIR), which has been a industry currency for so long, be replaced by Total readership (TR), all of a sudden? How can the Press readership metrics change in an abrupt fashion?”…so on, in almost similar veins.
After the clarifications issued by the concerned parties, the three key takeouts, from those clarifications, seemed to be:
AIR and TR are both reported in the R2 findings.
Only difference was that in the previous rounds data, analysing at a Media Reach levels, other media always used to rely on Reach reported from all the possible vehicles but Press used to report Reach for the medium only from the titles covered in the study.
TR is slightly different from Claimed readership (CR), to the extent that while CR is a measurement metric to judge the loyal and irregular readers at a title level, TR measures the sum (Gross) total of everyone who has claimed to have read any Print title/vehicle. This brings the Reach of Press in parity with other media.
At individual planning/title specific readership metric will still continue to report and analyse on the AIR. Only difference now, is that the software in the initial front end will show the TR, and then subsequently when the planner starts building the plans, AIR will be the metric it will be measured on. This would encourage the Planner to go beyond the initial run of the system.
The above really doesn’t change the planners’ life to a great extent. While previously we hardly ever looked at the CR metric, now it forces the Media professionals, to consider the TR as an important measurement to judge the efficacy of Print in general. While retaining the base of AIR as the most key attribute to measure individual titles on.
Therefore the Media professionals need to still operate on the regular metrics of AIR, to plan, buy and perform the analysis on, but TR allows the medium to be measured in the same base as other media.
Other key attributes of the R2 findings, which have been snowed under by the above issue, which we might like to point out is the higher time spent reading the print vehicle.
While this is definitely good news for the publishers, but we must remember the time spent on individual page/s would have most definitely reduced.
Common sense tells us that with the given volume of an average daily or a magazine going up in the last 4-5 years, through increased paginations, sectional/supplement pullouts etc, there is definitely a “pick- and- choose- the- favourite- sections” factor operating here.
Which brings us to the question on the data on Sectional readership, this ideally should be used with the AIR of the overall title, and decide on the relevant placement of the communication, basis the brand’s target audience. This would at least kick start the thinking on how to sharp-focus on our audience, even on a large & mass based Daily.
We, in our organization , do believe that the time has come for us to move away from Media plans and schedules, to Contact plans and creating engagements.
We need to follow the consumer wherever he goes, whether it’s ATL vs. BTL, classical vs. new media etc… are not even debating points anymore.
We are into the business of building connections with consumers, and engaging them, it doesn’t matter on the format of the communication.
Have Faith ; Rewards will follow...
After the clarifications issued by the concerned parties, the three key takeouts, from those clarifications, seemed to be:
AIR and TR are both reported in the R2 findings.
Only difference was that in the previous rounds data, analysing at a Media Reach levels, other media always used to rely on Reach reported from all the possible vehicles but Press used to report Reach for the medium only from the titles covered in the study.
TR is slightly different from Claimed readership (CR), to the extent that while CR is a measurement metric to judge the loyal and irregular readers at a title level, TR measures the sum (Gross) total of everyone who has claimed to have read any Print title/vehicle. This brings the Reach of Press in parity with other media.
At individual planning/title specific readership metric will still continue to report and analyse on the AIR. Only difference now, is that the software in the initial front end will show the TR, and then subsequently when the planner starts building the plans, AIR will be the metric it will be measured on. This would encourage the Planner to go beyond the initial run of the system.
The above really doesn’t change the planners’ life to a great extent. While previously we hardly ever looked at the CR metric, now it forces the Media professionals, to consider the TR as an important measurement to judge the efficacy of Print in general. While retaining the base of AIR as the most key attribute to measure individual titles on.
Therefore the Media professionals need to still operate on the regular metrics of AIR, to plan, buy and perform the analysis on, but TR allows the medium to be measured in the same base as other media.
Other key attributes of the R2 findings, which have been snowed under by the above issue, which we might like to point out is the higher time spent reading the print vehicle.
While this is definitely good news for the publishers, but we must remember the time spent on individual page/s would have most definitely reduced.
Common sense tells us that with the given volume of an average daily or a magazine going up in the last 4-5 years, through increased paginations, sectional/supplement pullouts etc, there is definitely a “pick- and- choose- the- favourite- sections” factor operating here.
Which brings us to the question on the data on Sectional readership, this ideally should be used with the AIR of the overall title, and decide on the relevant placement of the communication, basis the brand’s target audience. This would at least kick start the thinking on how to sharp-focus on our audience, even on a large & mass based Daily.
We, in our organization , do believe that the time has come for us to move away from Media plans and schedules, to Contact plans and creating engagements.
We need to follow the consumer wherever he goes, whether it’s ATL vs. BTL, classical vs. new media etc… are not even debating points anymore.
We are into the business of building connections with consumers, and engaging them, it doesn’t matter on the format of the communication.
Have Faith ; Rewards will follow...
Monday, November 10, 2008
Jerry Maguire's MS - (resembles very closely to my mindstate...now!)
Just to feel optimistic about life in general and finding an echo of some of my own sentiments, currently running thru my mind and about similarties of Jerry's career with that of my own ...I want to present the most quoted mission statement, ad verbatim :
The things we think and do not say: thoughts of a sports attorney
Miami Hilton, 1 AM
It's 1 AM and this might be the bad pizza I had earlier talking, but I believe I have something to say. Or rather, I have something to say that I believe in. My father once said, "Get the bad news over with first. You be the one to say the tough stuff." Well, here goes. There is a cruel wind blowing through our business. We all feel it, and if we don't, perhaps we've forgotten how to feel. But here is the truth. We are less ourselves than we were when we started this organization.
Sports Management International began as a small company. I was hired by Jack Scully in 1981, I was fresh out of college, I didn't even watch much sports. But a young man came to me, and his name was Bill Apodaca. He asked me to look at a contract he'd acquired to play football for the Atlanta Falcons. Before long I was overseeing the business of another member of the Falcons, and two baseball players. The nuances and the small miracles of professional sports would soon hook me - there was something simple and perfect about the way a stadium felt. The way you felt when a player you'd helped and represented made his stand in front of 54,000 people. And I remember the conversation Mr. Scully and I had by an elevator, standing next to one of those sand-filled ashtray posts, right before he hired me as one of the first agents in this company. "You and I are blessed, he said, "we do something that we love."
Tonight, I find those words guiding me back to an important place, and an important truth. I care very much about the fact that I have learned to care less. Now our company is one of the top three in this business, and we represent over a thousand athletes. Over sixty agents work at our huge new office, and I still haven't met all of you. The business of sports has never been bigger, or tougher, or more written about. And we are at the forefront. But I wonder tonight, as we leave our 13th annual conference ... we've talked a lot and partied a lot over the last three days, but I dare say that not one of us, our diet Pepsis and sheaf of papers in hand, have said what we really think.
It is beyond the easy arguments waged against sports, and our business on the editorial pages of the New York Times. It is beyond the huge salaries, the endorsements all our clients now want because "I'm a better actor than Michael Jordan." Beyond the globalization and merchandization of the games. It's more subtle than the baseball strike, more about loyalty than the Colts moving to Indiana, the Rams going to St. Louis, or the Cleveland Browns moving to ... someplace. I'm talking about something they don't write about. I'm talking about something we don't talk about.
We are losing our battle with all that is personal and real about our business. Every day I can look at a list of phone calls only partially returned. Driving home, I think of what was not accomplished, instead of what was accomplished. The gnawing feeling continues. That families are sitting waiting for a call from us, waiting to hear the word on a contract, or a General Manager's thoughts on an upcoming season. We are pushing numbers around, doing our best, but is there any real satisfaction in success without pride? Is there any real satisfaction in a success that exists only when we push the messiness of real human contact from our lives and minds? When we learn not to care enough about the very guy we promised the world to, just to get him to sign. Or to let it bother us that a hockey player's son is worried about his dad getting that fifth concussion.
There is a good bet that I will erase all of this from my laptop, and you will never read it. But if you are reading it, and you're reading it right now, it is only because I was unable to stop. I was unable to forget the quiet questions in the hallways, when some of you, usually the younger agents, or interns, asked me on the side: "How do you keep all these lives, all these clients, separated in your mind?"
Chances are, I didn't say much. I might have told you "it's easy," or, "you're not working hard enough." Chances are, I said something that you expected, maybe even wanted to hear. But it wasn't the truth, and it wasn't what I felt. And if you ever wondered about the drawbacks of being quiet about important things, talk to yourself in the mirror some time, say the truth. Yell the truth to yourself, when no one is listening. See how good it feels?
My father worked for the United Way for 38 years. We lived in San Diego for many years, before I left to move up the coast to Los Angeles. One of the things my father said was: "Every time you allow a problem in your life, you are actually at a point of transformation. Crisis is a powerful point of transformation." (Never mind that he sat at the same chair for 38 years, and when he retired said only that he'd wished he'd asked for a more comfortable place to sit.)
We are now at a point of transformation with this company. But this is not something to fear, it is something to celebrate. Because I come to you tonight, looking out at the dark Miami skyline, not only with a challenge. I come to you with answers too.
But first let us define our position.
Right now we are a breaking point with our client list. We are not so huge that we must hire more agents, and not so small that we have not experienced huge success. We are at a point of neutrality. We are all, right now, neutral. Neutral, as in not black or white. Not bad or good. Even. neutral.
Even in my own life, after 35 years, I feel that I have never done that one thing, that noble thing that defines a life. Even writing this Mission Statement is odd for me. I am used to flying below the radar, enjoying my life and friends. But I have not been truly tested. I have not gone to India to explore my life, as my brother has. I have not been in a major car accident, or fathered a child. I have not created a life, nor have I killed anyone. I am neutral. I haven't started a war and I haven't stopped a war. I have broken even with my life. I have a nice home, a nice car, a fiancee who makes my heart race. But I have not taken that step, or risk, that makes the air I have breathed for 35 years worthwhile. I once had a yellow couch. I got rid of it because it was neutral. My life is now like that yellow couch.
And yet, as I sit here in the wonderful Miami Hilton, I have never been so happy to be alive. I have said "later" to most anything that required true sacrifice. Later I will spend a weekend reading real books, not just magazines. Later I will visit my grandmother who is 100 and unable to really know the difference. Later I will visit the clients whose careers are over, but of course I promised to stay in touch. Later later later later. It is too easy to say "later" because we all believe our work to be too important to stop, minute to minute, for something that might interfere with the restless and relentless pursuit of forward motion. Of greater success. Make no mistake, I am a huge fan of success. But tonight, I propose a better kind of success. I could be wrong, but if you keep reading and I keep writing, we might get there together.
Sports Management International, founded in 1981, was dedicated to the then-rock solid notion that athletes deserve a decent home with decent pay. The original client roster existed of four athletes, one of them was the first American Frisbee Champion, Chester Savage, who was actually born in Australia.
* * *
Now of course we all know that we possess the job of the decade. Last year, when a poll of college students was taken, our occupation, Sports Agent or Sports Attorney ranked number two to Rock Star. But rock stars, like sports stars, have a limited time in the spotlight. Nobody likes an old lineman or a bald rock star. But sports representation can give you a career into your 80's, like the original sports agent Dicky Fox, who died on his way to a Chicago Bulls playoff game in 1993. He died gloriously, right by the B gates, a happy man who had actually written a book called A Happy Life. Taken by a heart attack, he left a loving wife and family, and a home next door to his first client. And we won't talk about the two guys who stole his playoff tickets, right out of his pocket as he lay on the cool floor of the 'O Hare airport. They were yanked from Dicky's seats in the first quarter, and two guards kept the seats empty in tribute to him.
A Happy Life.
And to those young agents who never met him, Dicky Fox always said the same thing when asked for his secret. "The secret to this job," he said, "is personal relationships."
We are agents. To some, that brings with it the image of a Slickster. A Huckster. Someone profiting off the efforts of others. For many of those we've met or observed, that is what we are. I know an agent operating in this very state who regularly gets the phone numbers of college athletes by calling school offices and posing as a tutor who has lost their student's contact number. He is often successful in acquiring athletes, but none for very long. Privately, an agent can be a father, a friend, an inspiring force in the life of a young man or woman. We are sometimes as important as priests or poets, but until we dedicate ourselves to worthier goals than getting a illegal phone number, we are poets of emptiness.
Somehow all this has been bubbling up inside me. A man is the sum total of his experiences. And it is now that I am interested in shaping the experiences to come. What is the future of what we do? Give me a goal, and I will achieve it. That has been my secret design for most of my life. Perhaps you are the same. We're all goal-oriented, so I hereby present a goal.
How can we do something surprising, and memorable with our lives? How can we turn this job, in small but important ways, into a better representation of ourselves? Most of us would easily say that we are our jobs. That's obvious from the late hours we all keep. So then, it is bigger than work, isn't it? It is about us.
How do we wish to define our lives? So that when we are sixty, or seventy, or eighty and we're sinking down onto that cool floor of O'Hare airport, with playoff tickets in our pockets, perhaps we too can know that we led A Happy Life? Is it important to be a Person and not just a slave to the commerce of Professional Sport? Do we want to be Remembered?
Or do we just want to be the guy who sold the guy who sold shoes that came with the little pump?
Recently I was asked by the son of a client, in so many words, "What do you stand for?" I was lost for an answer. At 14, I wasn't lost for that answer. At 18, I wasn't lost for an answer. At 35, I was blown away that I had no answer. I could only look at the face of a 12 year-old boy, concerned about his dad, needing my help, just looking at me for the answer I didn't have.
The look on that kid's face is a part of me now. And the feeling I had, and have now, is pushing me forward, in writing this Mission Statement.
Have Faith ; Rewards will follow...
The things we think and do not say: thoughts of a sports attorney
Miami Hilton, 1 AM
It's 1 AM and this might be the bad pizza I had earlier talking, but I believe I have something to say. Or rather, I have something to say that I believe in. My father once said, "Get the bad news over with first. You be the one to say the tough stuff." Well, here goes. There is a cruel wind blowing through our business. We all feel it, and if we don't, perhaps we've forgotten how to feel. But here is the truth. We are less ourselves than we were when we started this organization.
Sports Management International began as a small company. I was hired by Jack Scully in 1981, I was fresh out of college, I didn't even watch much sports. But a young man came to me, and his name was Bill Apodaca. He asked me to look at a contract he'd acquired to play football for the Atlanta Falcons. Before long I was overseeing the business of another member of the Falcons, and two baseball players. The nuances and the small miracles of professional sports would soon hook me - there was something simple and perfect about the way a stadium felt. The way you felt when a player you'd helped and represented made his stand in front of 54,000 people. And I remember the conversation Mr. Scully and I had by an elevator, standing next to one of those sand-filled ashtray posts, right before he hired me as one of the first agents in this company. "You and I are blessed, he said, "we do something that we love."
Tonight, I find those words guiding me back to an important place, and an important truth. I care very much about the fact that I have learned to care less. Now our company is one of the top three in this business, and we represent over a thousand athletes. Over sixty agents work at our huge new office, and I still haven't met all of you. The business of sports has never been bigger, or tougher, or more written about. And we are at the forefront. But I wonder tonight, as we leave our 13th annual conference ... we've talked a lot and partied a lot over the last three days, but I dare say that not one of us, our diet Pepsis and sheaf of papers in hand, have said what we really think.
It is beyond the easy arguments waged against sports, and our business on the editorial pages of the New York Times. It is beyond the huge salaries, the endorsements all our clients now want because "I'm a better actor than Michael Jordan." Beyond the globalization and merchandization of the games. It's more subtle than the baseball strike, more about loyalty than the Colts moving to Indiana, the Rams going to St. Louis, or the Cleveland Browns moving to ... someplace. I'm talking about something they don't write about. I'm talking about something we don't talk about.
We are losing our battle with all that is personal and real about our business. Every day I can look at a list of phone calls only partially returned. Driving home, I think of what was not accomplished, instead of what was accomplished. The gnawing feeling continues. That families are sitting waiting for a call from us, waiting to hear the word on a contract, or a General Manager's thoughts on an upcoming season. We are pushing numbers around, doing our best, but is there any real satisfaction in success without pride? Is there any real satisfaction in a success that exists only when we push the messiness of real human contact from our lives and minds? When we learn not to care enough about the very guy we promised the world to, just to get him to sign. Or to let it bother us that a hockey player's son is worried about his dad getting that fifth concussion.
There is a good bet that I will erase all of this from my laptop, and you will never read it. But if you are reading it, and you're reading it right now, it is only because I was unable to stop. I was unable to forget the quiet questions in the hallways, when some of you, usually the younger agents, or interns, asked me on the side: "How do you keep all these lives, all these clients, separated in your mind?"
Chances are, I didn't say much. I might have told you "it's easy," or, "you're not working hard enough." Chances are, I said something that you expected, maybe even wanted to hear. But it wasn't the truth, and it wasn't what I felt. And if you ever wondered about the drawbacks of being quiet about important things, talk to yourself in the mirror some time, say the truth. Yell the truth to yourself, when no one is listening. See how good it feels?
My father worked for the United Way for 38 years. We lived in San Diego for many years, before I left to move up the coast to Los Angeles. One of the things my father said was: "Every time you allow a problem in your life, you are actually at a point of transformation. Crisis is a powerful point of transformation." (Never mind that he sat at the same chair for 38 years, and when he retired said only that he'd wished he'd asked for a more comfortable place to sit.)
We are now at a point of transformation with this company. But this is not something to fear, it is something to celebrate. Because I come to you tonight, looking out at the dark Miami skyline, not only with a challenge. I come to you with answers too.
But first let us define our position.
Right now we are a breaking point with our client list. We are not so huge that we must hire more agents, and not so small that we have not experienced huge success. We are at a point of neutrality. We are all, right now, neutral. Neutral, as in not black or white. Not bad or good. Even. neutral.
Even in my own life, after 35 years, I feel that I have never done that one thing, that noble thing that defines a life. Even writing this Mission Statement is odd for me. I am used to flying below the radar, enjoying my life and friends. But I have not been truly tested. I have not gone to India to explore my life, as my brother has. I have not been in a major car accident, or fathered a child. I have not created a life, nor have I killed anyone. I am neutral. I haven't started a war and I haven't stopped a war. I have broken even with my life. I have a nice home, a nice car, a fiancee who makes my heart race. But I have not taken that step, or risk, that makes the air I have breathed for 35 years worthwhile. I once had a yellow couch. I got rid of it because it was neutral. My life is now like that yellow couch.
And yet, as I sit here in the wonderful Miami Hilton, I have never been so happy to be alive. I have said "later" to most anything that required true sacrifice. Later I will spend a weekend reading real books, not just magazines. Later I will visit my grandmother who is 100 and unable to really know the difference. Later I will visit the clients whose careers are over, but of course I promised to stay in touch. Later later later later. It is too easy to say "later" because we all believe our work to be too important to stop, minute to minute, for something that might interfere with the restless and relentless pursuit of forward motion. Of greater success. Make no mistake, I am a huge fan of success. But tonight, I propose a better kind of success. I could be wrong, but if you keep reading and I keep writing, we might get there together.
Sports Management International, founded in 1981, was dedicated to the then-rock solid notion that athletes deserve a decent home with decent pay. The original client roster existed of four athletes, one of them was the first American Frisbee Champion, Chester Savage, who was actually born in Australia.
* * *
Now of course we all know that we possess the job of the decade. Last year, when a poll of college students was taken, our occupation, Sports Agent or Sports Attorney ranked number two to Rock Star. But rock stars, like sports stars, have a limited time in the spotlight. Nobody likes an old lineman or a bald rock star. But sports representation can give you a career into your 80's, like the original sports agent Dicky Fox, who died on his way to a Chicago Bulls playoff game in 1993. He died gloriously, right by the B gates, a happy man who had actually written a book called A Happy Life. Taken by a heart attack, he left a loving wife and family, and a home next door to his first client. And we won't talk about the two guys who stole his playoff tickets, right out of his pocket as he lay on the cool floor of the 'O Hare airport. They were yanked from Dicky's seats in the first quarter, and two guards kept the seats empty in tribute to him.
A Happy Life.
And to those young agents who never met him, Dicky Fox always said the same thing when asked for his secret. "The secret to this job," he said, "is personal relationships."
We are agents. To some, that brings with it the image of a Slickster. A Huckster. Someone profiting off the efforts of others. For many of those we've met or observed, that is what we are. I know an agent operating in this very state who regularly gets the phone numbers of college athletes by calling school offices and posing as a tutor who has lost their student's contact number. He is often successful in acquiring athletes, but none for very long. Privately, an agent can be a father, a friend, an inspiring force in the life of a young man or woman. We are sometimes as important as priests or poets, but until we dedicate ourselves to worthier goals than getting a illegal phone number, we are poets of emptiness.
Somehow all this has been bubbling up inside me. A man is the sum total of his experiences. And it is now that I am interested in shaping the experiences to come. What is the future of what we do? Give me a goal, and I will achieve it. That has been my secret design for most of my life. Perhaps you are the same. We're all goal-oriented, so I hereby present a goal.
How can we do something surprising, and memorable with our lives? How can we turn this job, in small but important ways, into a better representation of ourselves? Most of us would easily say that we are our jobs. That's obvious from the late hours we all keep. So then, it is bigger than work, isn't it? It is about us.
How do we wish to define our lives? So that when we are sixty, or seventy, or eighty and we're sinking down onto that cool floor of O'Hare airport, with playoff tickets in our pockets, perhaps we too can know that we led A Happy Life? Is it important to be a Person and not just a slave to the commerce of Professional Sport? Do we want to be Remembered?
Or do we just want to be the guy who sold the guy who sold shoes that came with the little pump?
Recently I was asked by the son of a client, in so many words, "What do you stand for?" I was lost for an answer. At 14, I wasn't lost for that answer. At 18, I wasn't lost for an answer. At 35, I was blown away that I had no answer. I could only look at the face of a 12 year-old boy, concerned about his dad, needing my help, just looking at me for the answer I didn't have.
The look on that kid's face is a part of me now. And the feeling I had, and have now, is pushing me forward, in writing this Mission Statement.
Have Faith ; Rewards will follow...
Saturday, October 11, 2008
An Eye Opener
Consider this...a you know a person for a very very long time.
You think you know that person,almost as well as you know yourself..inside out!!
But surprise, surprise...suddenly you come across something completely unexpected and totally out of the blue, about the same person which is an eye opener.
A hidden dimension of that paticular person unfolds in front of you. You thought you knew them..! But its almost like a new revelation, a new hidden image of that person, comes out in front of you.
I had that same experience today. I felt numbed and i felt ashamed about pre-judging someone, pre-deciding on their qualities, their strenghts and weakness. All based on superficial levels of interactions. I am more than convinced about the fact that, underneath of our external layers of behaviour and superficial characteristics, lies the real 'us'....With our insecurities, faults, fears and apprehensions...I saw something about a very close person, whom i always judged wrong. But iam making a promise today..Never to prejudge, predecide and hold a prejudice against anyone ever..!
So God give me that strength.
Have Faith ; Rewards will follow...
You think you know that person,almost as well as you know yourself..inside out!!
But surprise, surprise...suddenly you come across something completely unexpected and totally out of the blue, about the same person which is an eye opener.
A hidden dimension of that paticular person unfolds in front of you. You thought you knew them..! But its almost like a new revelation, a new hidden image of that person, comes out in front of you.
I had that same experience today. I felt numbed and i felt ashamed about pre-judging someone, pre-deciding on their qualities, their strenghts and weakness. All based on superficial levels of interactions. I am more than convinced about the fact that, underneath of our external layers of behaviour and superficial characteristics, lies the real 'us'....With our insecurities, faults, fears and apprehensions...I saw something about a very close person, whom i always judged wrong. But iam making a promise today..Never to prejudge, predecide and hold a prejudice against anyone ever..!
So God give me that strength.
Have Faith ; Rewards will follow...
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Cases of Desperation
Some people might say, that desperate situations demand desperate measures. But i would like to offer a counterpoint : Desperate situations, need a quiet and a well thought out measures. Acting in haste, always seem to be a half baked solution. But reacting at your own charmed time means...well the time has passed, and the solution might seem to be a little out of context.
So the balance of well thought out course of action, and at the same time reacting/responding in time to the situation has to be achieved. For e.g. if the teacher has complaints regarding your child's behaviour in the classroom, one must react positively, firmly and in time. No need to rush in and scream at the child, nor is it appropriate for us to wear velvet gloves and act like the 'friend' of your child. An all around assesment of your child's hidden motivations for the behaviour needs to be unearthed. It's easier said than done..!
For e.g, if a client calls for an emergency meeting, since his TV advertising campaign is not making his sales graph zoom northwards. I guess most of the communication experts will blame the creatives, the schedules of the TV plan, the sudden drop of TV viewership etc. But do we look inwards at our own distribution strengths, our pricing strategies, our timing of entering into a campaign (is there a seasonal purchase downturn)? There is a problem somewhere...Hence we do the easiest thing that's possible. Pump in more investments into media, re-jig the TV plan, create shorter edits of the creatives and achieve more frequency..But the real problem is somewhere else..! Did we investigate enough?
Sometimes, we don't have time for well thought out responses. Look at how our powers-that-be react to a natural disasters that hits our country from time to time. In Bihar, recently, the government machinery swung into action, only after 10-15 days of twiddling their thumbs. But at the other extreme are the NGOs, private enterprises which start donating, collecting and distributing at the very whiff of a disaster. Which course of action do we subscribe to?
There is a subtle difference between a Reaction and a Response. Medical emergencies, natural or manmade disasters require reactions. The other so called serious/emergency situations require a response. But this is my take on this topic. What's yours?
Have Faith ; Rewards will follow...
So the balance of well thought out course of action, and at the same time reacting/responding in time to the situation has to be achieved. For e.g. if the teacher has complaints regarding your child's behaviour in the classroom, one must react positively, firmly and in time. No need to rush in and scream at the child, nor is it appropriate for us to wear velvet gloves and act like the 'friend' of your child. An all around assesment of your child's hidden motivations for the behaviour needs to be unearthed. It's easier said than done..!
For e.g, if a client calls for an emergency meeting, since his TV advertising campaign is not making his sales graph zoom northwards. I guess most of the communication experts will blame the creatives, the schedules of the TV plan, the sudden drop of TV viewership etc. But do we look inwards at our own distribution strengths, our pricing strategies, our timing of entering into a campaign (is there a seasonal purchase downturn)? There is a problem somewhere...Hence we do the easiest thing that's possible. Pump in more investments into media, re-jig the TV plan, create shorter edits of the creatives and achieve more frequency..But the real problem is somewhere else..! Did we investigate enough?
Sometimes, we don't have time for well thought out responses. Look at how our powers-that-be react to a natural disasters that hits our country from time to time. In Bihar, recently, the government machinery swung into action, only after 10-15 days of twiddling their thumbs. But at the other extreme are the NGOs, private enterprises which start donating, collecting and distributing at the very whiff of a disaster. Which course of action do we subscribe to?
There is a subtle difference between a Reaction and a Response. Medical emergencies, natural or manmade disasters require reactions. The other so called serious/emergency situations require a response. But this is my take on this topic. What's yours?
Have Faith ; Rewards will follow...
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