Month: July 2011

A Lesson From Woody

Dave

Woody Hayes once noted, “There are three things that can happen when you pass, and two of them aren’t good.”  That little math formula applies to any number activities in our daily lives.

The other day a friend of mine told me that the mayor of his bedroom suburb was running unopposed.  That isn’t uncommon in Cuyahoga County.  We have 50+ municipalities in our county.  We couldn’t possibly have enough qualified people to occupy the nearly countless elected and appointed positions of all of these fiefdoms.  Once someone manages to get in, they stay in.  Mayors, Councilmen, they either get wheeled out feet first or are led out in handcuffs.  This is countywide.  Eastside, Westside, South, if the harbor patrol were elected, they would serve for twenty years at a minimum.

So I bring you back to Woody Hayes.  There are three reasons why an elected official continuously runs unopposed, and two of them aren’t good.

  1.   They are truly loved and admired by the community
  2.   Nobody respects the position enough to want it.
  3.   Businesses and community leaders have already figured out how to get around the guy holding the job.

The last one is the most interesting.  If a politician continuously runs unopposed, he/she has no need to raise a big campaign war chest.  This is great for the bottom line.  If you as a business can get what you want without having to invest in the politician through the donation/election process, you are ahead of the game and the envy of businesses locked in competitive districts.  Nothing beats FREE. 

Is there a cost associated with the time and energy a business has to expend to stroke the fragile egos of some local politicians?  Sure.  But that is negligible, at best.  We are ramping up for the election season.  Karl Rove’s Super Pac, Crossroads GPS is already running ads on TV.  Those cost real money.  Hiring a caterer to do an extra ribbon cutting is just an expensive lunch.  

So the next time someone brags to you about being unopposed, ask yourself why.  Is it #1?  Is it #2?  Or are you standing next to a walking, talking embodiment of #3?

A Facebook Dilemma

Dave

I received the first email as an agent. The second came moments later because I am also an insured. The flier that came by regular mail was sent because I’m a top producer. It had all of the trappings of a campaign. The insurance company must have hired a social media consultant. XYZ Mutual wanted me, and all of my clients, to Like it on Facebook.

Like is such a strong word. It overstates the relationship. I’m much more comfortable with tolerate. That, of course, wasn’t an option.

The insurance company had paid attention to the consultant and included a drawing for a couple of fancy juice machines. I can’t tell you much about the juicers. I deleted the emails, tossed the flier, and have yet to look at the Facebook page.

This is a Facebook Dilemma. If a friend, like Jennifer Davis, gets a new job and asks me to Like the business, I do it. That’s easy. And if I had never heard of the business prior to the request – very easy. Beth Bryan asked me to Like the Lorain Arts Council. No Problem. I find that it is sometimes easier to support the businesses and causes you don’t know than the ones you do.

Let me know if you really want to enter a drawing for a fancy juice machine. I’ll provide the name of the insurer. And as for this post, pretend you don’t know me and Like it.

The Contrary Son

Dave

“The Contrary Son says: What is the meaning of this ceremony to you?”  To you and not him.  Saying to you, he excludes himself from the group, and thus denies a basic principal of our faith.  You may therefore set his teeth on edge and say to him: “This is done because of what the L-rd did for me when I came forth from Egypt.”  For me and not for him; had he been there, he would not have been redeemed.”

I was in danger of becoming the Contrary Son, the worst of the four sons described during the Passover Seder.  It was hot.  I was tired and a touch inpatient and I was asking an important question during a fundraising/membership meeting of a local non-profit.  There was nothing wrong with the question.  The topic needed to be addressed.  The issue, possibly one that only I noticed, was that I had excluded myself from the group.  I wanted to know what THEY were going to do.  How would THEY resolve the problem?  What was THEIR goal?

I tried to catch myself.  I certainly had no interest in offending anyone.  There were only a half a dozen people in the room.  Five were true believers in the cause.  I had been invited to help, to share some ideas.  I don’t know if they expected an emotional buy-in.  I suspect that they just assumed that exposure would lead to conversion.

Didn’t happen.

Please don’t get me wrong, the charity in question is worthwhile and ambitious.  Their goals are lofty and they have a reasonable chance of success.  I hope that they succeed and I’m willing to help them.

Them and not us.

My next meeting, my fourth, was a few days later.  My internal alarm was buzzing.  This time the room was packed.  The realists were debating the romanticists.  They were all well-meaning.  They were all working, to the best of their abilities, in the organization’s best interest.  The teams changed as the issues changed.  The only constant was that I wasn’t on any team.  I wasn’t committed to any of this.

I was write a check committed.  I was call me up and run some ideas by me committed.  But I was not sit in a hot, dirty, uncomfortable room for one more minute committed.  7:30 marked the hour and a half point.  I made my excuses and left.

You can’t marry every pretty girl that’s nice to you.  You can’t donate to every worthwhile cause.  Until I learn to say “No”, I will have to settle for the self awareness of knowing when I’m in the wrong meeting.