Things we learn on Google...

Today, as I was daydreming, I thought about Dennis Harrington a former colleague of mine at Look, between 1979 and 1981.

I hadn't not heard from him from a long time, didn't have his contact information, googled him and randomly landed on his obituary. I was shocked to learn that he had passed away 3 years ago at the age of 70.

Dennis was recruited away from Olin skis and came from an ultra-corporate environment to land in a small company, poorly funded and badly organized. He was placed at my hierarchical level (I did general management and marketing while he was in charge of national sales) and the Look higher-ups' idea was to see which one of us would take over.

Dennis had a long commute from Connecticut that made his family life miserable. Further, his expertise was more in advertising (one of my assignments) than sales. Because of it he was neither successful at staffing his sales force effectively and didn't quite understand how to work our dealer network; he lasted less than two years on the job.

After that, he stayed in the sporting goods business as a rep. With him, I learned one other definition of world “ albatross” that he loved to use all the time: “something that causes persistent deep concern or something that greatly hinders accomplishment...”

The photo that illustrates this blog reminds me of the Beatles; of the four guys pictured, only two survive today. Steve Doe and I...

Way to go Bob!

I've always loved Bob Dylan, ever since I was a teenager in France and couldn't quite understand what he was singing, but somehow recognizing that he had something important to say. saw him perform in Park West in the late 80s.

Interestingly, I didn't know that Dylan was performing in Park City that night, but a few days before that, I was sitting next to his mom, Mrs. Zimmerman, in a flight between Minneapolis and Denver; she told me that she on her way to see him play in Colorado Springs, and that the next night, he'd be in Utah!

I was nicely surprised and delighted when I heard this morning that he had been awarded the Nobel Prize. His songs have touched me greatly and, most importantly, they touched millions of folks like us, including the entire intellectual and poetic world. It's good to see that the Swedish Academy is not a stiff monolith that can't see literature beyond the printed word.

Those who support Trump...

Supporting a cause or an individual always comes with a strong conviction, either backed up by some hard facts and observations, or by sheer belief into what that person tells.

Donald Trump is excellent at coming up with predigested concepts and ideas that are, in most cases not backed up by strong evidence. His luck is that he his very smart and skilled enough to reduce his philosophy into very short, simple, understandable and attention-grabbing messages that he delivers flawlessly.

Of course, it takes people with little critical sense, education or intelligence to accept what they are told and feel so elated by their leader. Generally, most of these folks have been prepped by deep religiosity, including early and intense brain-washing, and have always been told never to question dogma.

This is in my view why Trump has been able to garner almost 40% of the intentions of vote from a large group of fanatics, and this paint a rather dismal picture of America and its far-right, super-religious electorate.

So come hell or high water, this part of the population is too radicalized to change its mind and will follow its leader off the cliff or take arms for him if nothing develops as planned...

The United States of Hypocrisy

As usual, an election season is a good opportunity to be reminded that if we are good at entrepreneurship or innovation, we're also excel at hypocrisy.

Look at tax “avoidance” as a prime example of our efforts to try to pay as little tax as possible in order to skirt our fair share of participation into programs that are intended for the good of society.

Then, there's charity. If giving was not tax-deductible, you would see philanthropy as a whole take a huge dive!

Next, there's racism that was supposedly eliminated; for the past 8 years, Obama has been obstructed every which way by a congress that couldn't quite live with his skin color and cops have continued their lethal “shoot to kill” tactics, not counting on the ubiquitous cell phone videos.

Democracy? Well in our mercantile society, it's just pay to play and big money has never been so prevalent over the people's voice.

Of course, there is religion, with our national act of face “In God We Trust” printed on banknotes (I've always wondered why the US Treasury did not demand the same slogan on my Visa or American Express card?)

I won't even go into the unceasing contradictions exposed by our Presidential candidates; I've already covered that subject ad nauseam.

Finally, there is freedom that used to be an elastic value when the CIA was propping up the Shah or ousting Allende in exchange for Pinochet. We also hold another bad record in that department with the highest prison population in the civilized world...

If Hypocrisy was an Olympic sport, we'd beat everyone else by a long shot. By the way, if you're not American, how is hypocrisy doing in your country?

Adolf Trump

Trump is demonstrating that bullying, name calling, interrupting and general misbehavior works in trampling over members of a civil society that doesn't play by the same rules.

To use a much fashionable qualifier, he's a “disruptor”. This said, what a disgusting example he sets for our youth!

Usually bullies sprout during teenage years and remain in someone's thirties. With Donald, it spans into the seventies.

He's already trampled his 16 primary opponents in that way and still seems to believe that his method will also work in annihilating Hillary Clinton.

It's time to call him for what he is: an out of control bully, a big, filthy mouth, an utterly rude person and someone who belong alone, on a deserted island or, God forbid, a totalitarian leader in some banana republic without any checks and balances.

Old, greedy and bitter

The above description pretty much encapsulates Donald Trump's persona and is a far cry from the “winning image” he would like to project or say is part of his make up. Sure, the true philosophy he relishes is “win-lose” and nothing approaching “win-win”.

Since I'm almost his age, I can relate to him from a geriatric standpoint, but still can't understand his unfathomable ambition and his sad or grimacing face. I do what I can to appreciate and enjoy my everyday's life and get satisfied with whatever I still can get out of it. I'm filled with hope and positive expectations.

If this doesn't sound like much to many folks, it's plenty for me and I'm content with it.

The Bully's short lifespan

Being an effective bully is closely linked to proper timing. Just like sushi, bullying doesn't suffer extended periods of exposition and Trump's problem is that the American electoral cycle is too long for his bullying strategy.

When Donald Trump bowed out of 2012 US presidential election race on May 2011, he had learned enough to prepare himself for “Round Two” in 2015, yet he underestimated that the race would be a real marathon, not just a half race.

Had the total campaign, included the primary, lasted eight month he could have won the presidency, but reality is that bullying is like a booster rocket, its effects can only last so long before it peters out.

At least one valuable take-away the political class who supported him so unexpectedly will have learned at its own expense...