A delicate balance between efficiency and exploration

You are SO busy.

You find yourself deleting every incoming email that isn't absolutely necessary to read. Maybe it has become your policy to do so.

You've become great at saying no – to every committee, volunteer opportunity, maybe even every industry podcast.

You have lunch at your desk.

You put off meeting the person from the company or organization down the street (or across the state) who thinks you may have working synergy. Hey, you don't even take the phone call.

The fact is, you may save yourself valuable minutes every day.

But you, and we all, have lost something, too, and that is the freedom to stretch your mind and enlarge your base, grow your idea bank and enrich your network of people, ideas and opportunities.

When I started van Schouwen Associates way back in 1985, it was still relatively easy to get a meeting with a prospective client, even if the time wasn't right to do business. People were comfortable talking for a few minutes, and holding out the possibility that they might someday work together – or not. They read materials sent to them – even, sometimes, direct mail flyers! They accepted phone calls.

Now, many people find themselves the recipients of too much of nearly everything… from emails, texts, calls, and social media alerts to demands on time, talents and resources. In many professional disciplines, we're expected to do more with less, respond faster, create better results, and to avoid mistakes and waste, at all times and at all costs. It's hard even to take a vacation day "unplugged."

But… again. We've lost something. It would be great to make room, talk with different people, listen to new ideas, have contact with groups from which we may learn, or may just enjoy.

Here's a proposal: Where you can, and where it may add some value or color (to your day or your life), I urge you to open the door, read the email, listen to the podcast, attend the meeting, or agree to volunteer. Create the time to explore new ideas, new paths, new relationships. Work and life can be a little broader and richer... even if it is less efficient by a small factor.

One question every person in charge should ask

There is not much of a silver lining to the Gulf oil spill, but people in charge – whether entrepreneurs, executives or longtime business owners – can garner valuable wisdom from one of the many mistakes that made the disaster more likely.

Potentially, busy with the severe recession, the financial sector bailout and the fight for a national health care plan, the Obama administration missed at least one ball it should have been keeping in the air: effective regulation of the oil industry in general and of deep-water drilling in particular.

The potent lesson for those of us in charge? There's a question we should ask ourselves often, and that we should grant ourselves the mental space and creative license to answer: What am I missing?

It's natural and tempting to get on a track and follow it, or to create a plan and execute it without taking the time and energy to step to the side and take stock - frequently. Are you missing opportunities? Not alert to certain dangers? Letting issues, people, money, or projects slide while you deal with everyday urgencies and tempests in a teapot?

It's true that people in charge have many of their best ideas while driving, showering or taking a vacation. Extend that freedom of mind into your everyday routine. Assign or put aside routine tasks to facilitate your own creative thinking. Read a business book on a new topic. Ask yourself if there's anything on your mind that you're not dealing with (it's often right there below the surface). Access your right brain.

What am I missing? I'm glad I asked myself. I'll ask again. And again.

Painfully obvious PR from the man in charge.

"And I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar; we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick," proclaimed our president this morning in an interview with Matt Lauer on the Today show.

Some people may object to this remark because it is coarse. I object because it is disingenuous and clearly the brainchild of a media relations team. "President Obama! The American People think you're an effete intellectual. They think you lack emotion. They want to see you get mad!" And, "The American People do not want to hear about experts or scholars. They want you to get out there and KICK ASS!"

President Obama, polls or no polls, please speak with your authentic voice. Work with BP, work with everyone who can help clean up this terrible mess, build some regulations, kick some ass if necessary, but don't talk to us as if street fightin' is your way of life. Get real.

Neither here nor there

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Telecommuting, flex time and virtual business models are all the rage. Outsourcing projects rather than committing to long-term staff additions is popular now, too. No surprise there. The current state of the economy (I can barely wait until we're no longer using that phrase quite so often!) demands efficiency, forces uncertainty, and makes available some stellar candidates with whom to work. In other words, a lot of great people are out of their former 9-5 salaried work routines. Even the 2010 census work is moving faster than expected because of the availability of outstanding temporary labor. Oh, that's not much of a silver lining, perhaps, but there it is.

These new ways of working bode well for some businesses, and for some individuals. Streamlined processes, virtual meetings, work from anywhere (okay, let's not text from a moving car - work from almost anywhere) are a boon for the highly motivated, organized and talented. But what about everyone else?

One of the concerns many thought leaders express about the new economy is that it yields work for the best, brightest and most driven (now including all that consulting, flexible positions, telecommuting, and other non-traditional arrangements). It also continues to offer a range of service work that, at least for now, requires a human presence (from health care to fine cooking). And there are still a number of U.S. manufacturing jobs, although that number continues to dwindle.

But what else? There's a gap, likely to continue broadening, where there used to be more jobs for the rest of the workforce. As the economy continues to shift, what happens to the worker who needs the structure of an office to maintain motivation? The person who shows up for the assembly line? Where are the jobs for the capable person willing to work steadily all day or night but simply not constituted to come up with lots of big ideas, manage time completely independently or work alone? If you've ever been an employer or a manager, you know that these people make up the majority of many a workplace – that's the way the world is and probably always has been.

This week, Time magazine's article The Workforce: Where Will the New Jobs Come From? provides hope that there will be new jobs. That's good. But for any leader or citizen who hopes to see the economy truly thrive again, there's that other question, not so easy to answer. Will there be enough jobs for the great majority of working class and middle class Americans who do well working for a company, who respond to expectations set by management and who would like to put in a good day's work for decent pay, then head home to their real lives? That's a lot of people, and we all need to put our imaginations to work to make sure our economy continues to fully employ and value what continues to be the majority of the population.

Continued funding programs for better roads and bridges? Encouraging young people to go into trades such as plumbing or electrical work, in which shortages are predicted? Putting more adults in the schools to work with the kids? Opening more child care centers, which require staffing? Offering real live tech support? Human cashiers at the supermarket?

What could work and be valuable? What do you think?

Complacency vs. strategic planning and action

Are you tired of hearing the words, "No one could have predicted..." and variants thereof? I am, because the consequences of people in positions of responsibility not thinking outside the box and not planning and initiating appropriate action are often extreme. Here are just a few examples that should be etched into our collective memories:

Predictable given the mood of the public-Scott Brown's election and the resulting likely (if temporary) demise of comprehensive health care reform: Putting your personal politics aside for a moment, imagine you are President Obama, Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid - it's okay, it's just for a minute. Obama should have become more involved, and Congress should have moved faster - before the Democrats lost their filibuster-proof majority.

Predictable given geological and infrastructure facts-Haiti's disaster: Construction with few building standards built on a fault line. An airport with such small capacity that only a few planes can be there at any one time. Add one (predictable) earthquake and we have the tragedy we see today. Worst thing? It could happen again.

Predictable given economic facts and indicators-The collapse of the housing market and the too-big-to-fail banks and our subsequent economic woes. As I've mentioned in this forum in the past, my father, a retired schoolteacher, accurately predicted the housing market collapse a couple of years before it happened. It's hard to believe bankers, economists and politicians lacked the same data.

Predictable given clearly inferior engineering combined with neighborhoods below sea level-By now, what we knew and didn't act on following Hurricane Katrina should be obvious. But guess what? We still haven't fixed the problem with the levies, even as we rebuild below sea level in New Orleans.

Those are political issues that affect the world. Complacency and inaction are enormous factors in business, too. Consultatively, vSA always urges business leaders to step outside the box to think the big thoughts and then to act on them as needed. We all know how easy it is each day to pursue the latest deal, address the most recent 200 emails and just try to stay afloat keeping up with the urgent. However, it is hardly cliche to remember this: Do not overlook the important in favor of the merely urgent.

Thoughts, examples, strategies?

Dangerous complacency

I hope Martha Coakley will win the Massachusetts Special Election today, I really do.

As I voted for her this morning, I was struck by a feeling that she needs all of us to pull her feet out of the fire and that, to some extent, she has earned this close race through her lackluster campaign. This is not to say she won't be a good senator - she's been a good attorney general. She simply isn't experienced as a politician running for election, and she appeared to somewhat take this election for granted once she'd cleared the primary.

To the Coakley campaign, Scott Brown probably appeared at first  to be an upstart without a chance. Martha Coakley's campaign missed the mood of many Massachusetts residents - residents tired of the bad economy, worried about what health care reform will actually mean to them and impatient with the Obama administration. Brown painted Coakley as an insider and himself as some odd combination of good lookin' cowboy and down-home neighbor. In fact, he's more conservative than is a match for Massachusetts. Boston.com published a January 10 article citing important examples: "Last week he embraced waterboarding. Last month he expressed skepticism that climate change is being caused by humans. He has even denounced two national proposals that he supported in Massachusetts as a lawmaker - mandatory health care coverage and a cap-and-trade system to cut global warming gases." Great.

Martha Coakley, I hope you win... despite yourself.

Perspective

Every once in awhile, something happens in the world that is so immense that it jars us out of our daily routine. The earthquake in Haiti is one of those events. It puts into perspective our daily travails: business concerns, stress, minor disagreements with family, and that ten or twenty pounds we want to lose or gain.

Of course, many people here at home and globally struggle with serious issues, too. For those of us whose worries are not so dire, this is a good time to remember that we are empowered to help - to support people in Haiti and everywhere whose lives are truly a day-to-day struggle. In the instance of Haiti, consider an online donation to the Red Cross or to Clinton Foundation fund for Haiti Earthquake Relief.

Marketing asymmetric ends of DNA strands to Qatar using advanced SEO.

Is it just me, or is business getting extraordinarily complex?

Oh, it's just me?

I'll pretend I didn't hear that. Because here's my thesis: nothing is easy anymore. Only the strong will thrive. Just as jobs for low-skilled labor are as scarce as flowers on Mars (or has that changed, too?) successful careers for high-skilled professionals in marketing, technology, industry, and the like are not for the weak of spirit.

Top five reasons why Work is So Complicated Now:

5- The oversupply of really smart people, devising new stuff. Innovations are everywhere.

4- Global everything, with all the cultural differences, language barriers, legal obstacles, and heavy competition that brings. (Leben ist schwierig.)*

*Life is difficult (German).


3- TECHNOLOGY.

2- Related to #3, new communication techniques, and a startling abundance of information sources, some of them reliable. Who can possibly read it all? Or remember 50% of what one would like to know?

1- Energy. And I don't mean alternative. I mean the kind that you and I need just to keep up, let alone lead the pack.

How does a marketing professional serve clients brilliantly, especially when staffing is short, budgets are tight, and careers can live or die by short-term ROI? Few people can glide by for too long anymore without hard work. (And yes, I suspect that once, in a faraway time, perhaps the 90s, some mythical ad people could do just that. Probably they had talent, or charm. Something like that.) In a profession that has at times received and on a few occasions even earned the dubious distinction of being composed of hot air (yes, marketing, unfair as that may seem) the air has cooled, at least for the moment.

Now, working smart is critical. Just for starters, keeping up with industry news and trends is a marketing must. At vSA, we've become selectively engaged with Twitter, for example. We can use it to quickly get the word out about news of interest to important editors and our clients' prospects. We've also seen that our clients can sometimes benefit as much by having customers make positive comments about their products on Facebook and post engaging videos on YouTube as they do from certain trade shows. More than in the past, we feel the need to monitor even relatively recent vSA work to assure that it's up to the minute: for example, some Web applications we created to help clients sell online four years ago need to be updated... already and probably not for the last time.

But we have an additional responsibility as well. Outside of subjects that are clearly "of our industry," it's become more incumbent than ever to follow world news, fast-changing consumer trends, the mood of the nation, the day-to-day state of various segments of the economy, and more. Today I learned something more about Total Recall, a Microsoft research project based on the prediction that an archive of an individual's digital data, largely generated without much of that individual's thought, through GPS, cell phones, cameras, credit cards, health records and everything else he or she does, will someday create a pretty comprehensive record of that person's life... and will thus change the way humans use and recall memory. Concepts like that, when they achieve traction (aside from being in my opinion pretty creepy) are always appropriated by business and marketing interests. So we marketers need to know about them. I also learned today that some prominent economists are concerned that the Obama administration has lost its way in pushing for regulatory reform of the financial markets and that these same economists fear that another economic collapse may be just scant (really scant) years away. Mmmm, hope they're wrong, but better bear it in mind.

My point is that to be truly excellent as a high-level consultant in marketing today requires vision, diligence in meeting world situations face-to-face and the energy to continue to understand the ways people want to communicate now - and what these people want and need to hear. No hot air.

Distraction

I'm not sure if this happens in other fields - I'm guessing it does - but I find that an awful lot of what goes on in the world reminds me of the primacy of communication. Then, when I think about communication, I think about the importance of being logical. Which leads me to the enormous hoopla about executive bonuses, namely, those unfortunately paid by AIG to its people.

It would be easy, speaking of logic, to feel a need to comprehend why AIG sallied forth with a plan that (in retrospect) looks a lot like a greedy company hurling toxic waste at already angry taxpayers. But let's not look back. This is now, and AIG brass have in their fists very nice bonus checks (which some may be loath to return because - of course - they've already committed them to a new vacation home or liposuction for the whole extended family). American taxpayers are madder than wet hens as they gaze at their household bills, their unemployment checks, oh, and let's not forget their 401 (k) statements, now printed on post-it notes due to the reduced number of digits in the account balances.

It's the present that worries me. The new U.S. administration has a lot to do. Most likely (!) we should REALLY tighten up our bonus rules for companies taking tax dollars from annoyed citizens. But we should admit (if sourly) that the estimated $218 million (gulp!) in AIG bonuses is a trifle in comparison to the $XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX* in total loans, bailouts, offerings to the gods and whatever else we're throwing in the fires of the Great Recession. *(I'm looking for a total dollar figure but there are so many choices I'm getting terribly confused). And because we are v-e-r-y busy with important matters, surely we shouldn't act draconian and transparently political and impose a retroactive 90% tax on this AIG bonus money. Pul-eazze. What if these were working class people? Or union members? Who the heck gets taxed 90% on ANY form of income? Sure, we must address the gaping holes we find in our new recession-fighting programs, and there will be plenty of those. I'm saying that this done-deal-already-contracted-already-paid AIG bonus is a foolish distraction at best and a damaging misuse of our government's, news media's and public's valuable focus at worst.

I like the idea of highly bonused AIG executives graciously returning the money. But whether that happens or not, let's move forward with the business at hand. Let's not spend too much energy and time chasing a couple of hundred million dollars that, even though it sounds like a lot, in the end will mean Very Little in the face of the Very Much we need to fix.

Necessity

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A saying from a friend: "The best boat pump in the world is a sailor with a bucket... in a very leaky boat."

So true. In the last recession, spanning the years 2000-2001, our company started out with several sales professionals. We ended the recession with just one... that ONE was me. I believe I represented the sailor with a bucket. Who more than the owner of my small company, after all, knew how much bailing how many sales were required? This time around, the entire van Schouwen Associates staff is truly engaged and actively involved in seeking and leveraging all opportunities. In other words, we have more sailors with buckets now. This is better.

Of course, I keep making the mistake of looking at the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which is one global representation of the water level in our collective economic boat. The DJIA is currently under 7,000, pretty dismal, eh? I hope by the time I hit the "publish" button for this blog entry, it has gone back up. (Really, aren't we running out of patience for this?)

You know best what bailing your own boat means to you. Perhaps, literally, it means your job isn't what it used to be and you need to... sorry... BAIL and get a new one. (Okay, I won't play with the word "bail" anymore, really. Don't go. I'll say "necessity" instead.)

For our company, necessity means we continually strengthen our prospecting and outreach efforts - something I think we're good at anyway - because we need to keep the phone ringing. To accomplish this, we're working our butts off. Not to put too fine a point on it.

Impersonal? Are you kidding?

A glance through my last couple of weeks' email dispels - at least for me - the widely held concept that email has depersonalized communication, harshened our tone, and further isolated us from one another. Oh, sure, "you've got mail" on your screen is not the same as a perfumed note with dried violets inside (but how often did you ever get such a thing even in the "good old days" of snail mail?)

In my email, here are just a few happy examples received in just in the last few weeks:

From one high school friend to another, copied to a whole group of us scattered around the world, solace upon his losing a much-loved job (this was accompanied by an excellent essay on why and how he should consider self-employment):
To quote David Brown, "the rest of your life is the best of your life".

A coworker from 25 years ago connected with me through email and shared these thoughts on children - his range from adults to a toddler, so he certainly knows:
When you have kids you get to watch how nature and nurture interact to make a whole person with his or her own quirks, strengths, weaknesses and, of course, with everything that makes us all human together.

And from a member of my book group, a heartfelt sentiment about middle age:
I can't remember s**t these days.

I hear from someone in my family, or an old and new friend, nearly every day in part because no one needs a stamp to get in touch. And because email is easy and quick. That's fine. Their emails feel to me as personal and wonderful as any note or card in the mailbox, plus simpler for the sender to accomplish than a phone call when time is short or schedules are odd. Email me anytime.

Cataclysms, unexpected turns and renewal

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Were you looking for logic per se?

Here's guessing: 2009 will be a year during which more people than average experience life upheavals. With hundreds of thousands of layoffs, companies closing and money shrinking, it seems obvious that security elements of our lives are getting trampled. In a new book, The Tyranny of Dead Ideas by Matt Miller (jokingly characterized in one review as "Commie Pinko Socialism") Miller proposes that we can't expect what we've come to expect (health care from our employer, cradle-to-grave work from same said employer, etc.) and proposes new solutions. Government solutions, largely.

That's one look at cataclysm, unexpected turns and renewal. Some of the change I expect to see, in myself and others, will be from within. Frankly, I've had a window-view of big change as of late - I lost a husband - a good one! - to heart disease suddenly in 2006, and my two young sons have done what young sons often do - they went off to college and life, calling and emailing me remarkably often but nonetheless no longer daily eating my hotdog casserole (recipe not necessary) or savoring my daily advice on Girls, Grades and Grammar. That was big change in my book, and I'm slowly following it with big renewal - closer ties with old and new friends, new love, a new blog (this one! this one!) new speaking engagements, and an updated love affair with boats. Plus, less visibly, a new viewpoint. A few examples: I can now imagine being released from a job (although since I'm self employed I can always have a job, just maybe no pay). Or ending a relationship (personal or business) that makes one feel uninspired or less than worthy. Or perhaps exchanging a spacious home and an hour-long commute for an apartment in town from which one can walk, or bike, to the office. These days I can imagine not only the fear, but also the eventual liberation that a once-unwanted change could bring. Fear and uncertainty aside, I finally see that big change can mean new opportunity - the cliche "when one door closes one door opens" is sometimes true.

Are YOU a good recession citizen?

There are good reactions and bad reactions to living in The Current Economic Climate. Depending on what extremes you care to go to (and listed here in no particular priority) I venture to classify the following as good and bad responses:

Good: Pointing out to your offspring that college is very expensive and that excellent careers exist in growing fields like Unemployment Check Printing, Developing Dollar Menus at McDonald's and the like. Better yet, certain of these careers require only a fifth grade education, so you can also save money on school supplies and clothes from Abercrombie & Fitch by forgoing middle and high school.

Bad: Hoarding your money if you still have a good job and could be supporting the rest of us, for example by buying items we've placed in our front yards for sale, or have dangled temptingly before you on eBay. Buy something, wouldya?

Good: Letting your cousin or your brother move into your basement when she or he loses that job Printing Unemployment Checks.

Good: Planning for a dreamy life that isn't so expensive. My little dream? Waiting tables in the Virgin Islands and living in a hut with a grass roof. Yum. (Okay, sure, it's just a dream and yes, we'll turn in your projects next week as promised, dear clients!)

Bad: Trying to shame other people because they have to make an income and thus attempt to charge you a living wage. ("How dare you charge me $4 for a latte? Haven't you read the news?") Skip the drama and make your own coffee if that's the way you feel.

Good: Buying an investment property or investing in stocks. But read Suze Orman's new book and advice columns first, since I don't know bupkas about this.

Bad: Assuming this slump will last forever. It won't, especially if you keep working, buying grass huts and humming a little song as you go through your day.

Please tell us the good and bad recession citizenship examples you're seeing. All our readers are in the mood to hear them because all anybody talks about anymore is... surprise!... The Great Recession! Cheers.

History, and yikes, and history.

History

Barack Obama's inauguration was so moving. Not just because he's broken one of our nation's most ferocious barriers, the mental block of race, but also because he is highly intelligent. And assertive. And he appears to have a plan. Whooo-eee!

And he's already working. He's stopped for review Bush's last "midnight regulations", which included allowing carrying concealed weapons in some national parks. He's moved to halt war crimes tribunals at Guantanamo, and is meeting with the national security team to determine direction in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama is already back to work on the much-needed economic stimulus plan, too.

Yikes

Then why can't I stop my personal "yikes" factor from kicking in, even yesterday, on such a historic day?

Just a few reasons, small and large.

-The speech. It was grim. I was hoping our problems, particularly economic, wouldn't sound so... grim yesterday. Obama is clearly taking the current not-so-hot state of this nation seriously, because that was not a soaring speech, but a get-our-hands-dirty-we've-got-urgent-problems call to action.

-The stock market. The Dow fell four percent to celebrate the day. Super.

-People. Take Timothy Geithner, vying to be Treasury Secretary. Look, even I know to pay all my self-employment tax, and nobody would consider me to be their bookkeeper, let alone Treasury Secretary. Self-employment tax is a no-brainer. And, once you've spotted an error in your taxes, going back a few years to see if you've made that same error multiple times is not rocket science either.  With Obama, we raised our expectations for excellence in leaders. Let's not lower them for his appointees. Barack Obama can't do his job alone, and the people who surround him need to be really smart and really honest.

History

In four years, we'll remember this historic day. The "yikes" factors will, I hope, have faded. Hopefully our set of problems will have shifted somewhat. Your thoughts?

Trusting a stranger to trust a stranger.

The infamous Bernie Madoff. So much has been said and written about him since the tale of his bilking both private and institutional investors hit the scene that I nearly didn't write this entry. But isn't it worth saying that Madoff can - inadvertently of course - teach us something?

-The appealing culture of "my word is my bond" can be a trap. We like to believe that we can, through intuition and experience, determine that someone is good, honest, skilled, and trustworthy. Even today we often make deals on a handshake. The list of institutions, organizations and wealthy individuals that dealt with Madoff is troubling in part because each and every one of them wrongly depended on either their own judgment or someone else's, then entrusted Madoff with their money. It's hard to imagine completely abandoning our own intuition, but in the words that Ronald Reagan made immortal, "Trust, but verify." And certainly don't outsource the job. Don't trust a stranger to trust a stranger. Ever.

-And the Securities and Exchange Commission?? That's even worse because the SEC supposedly knows and cares about what it's regulating. Right? But the SEC gave Madoff a pass after a recent investigation of his operation. The jury (and there should be one, eh?) is still out on this, but the word negligence is too mild, and the word criminal may be just a starting point. Just saying. Sadly, here it is again: we can't trust strangers to take care of us, and apparently that includes the SEC.

-Little-known and poorly understood financial constructs (like Madoff's hedge fund) are dangerous investments, even if you're Steven Spielberg or an international bank. Abstruse mechanisms are sometimes that way for a reason. It's easy to get stupid in the search for way-better-than-average results, whether in love, finance, beauty, sex, or other matters close to the human heart.

-There must be other Madoffs out there. I hope I'm way off base on this, but suspect we'll uncover other investment frauds during the next challenging couple of years.

Urban myths and the new American Dream.

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Two happenings got me thinking this week.

First, the scam. I got the email from a client. It said Talbots is closing all its stores. And J.Jill. Ann Taylor - 117 stores closing. There was more, but I couldn't see past the tears. After all, I am slightly petite. 5 feet nothing, actually. And like many women, I've learned where I should shop and where I shouldn't. I should shop at Talbots, Ann Taylor and J.Jill.The good news? The email was a fake. Thank heaven! I figured it out before I emptied the stores of everything I could squeeze into.

Second, the reformation. Last night I attended an outstanding event sponsored in part by a client, FieldEddy Insurance. John Zogby, pollster, spoke about his new book The Way We'll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream. John says Americans will focus less on material things (in part because many of us have gone downhill, shall we say, in financial terms). We'll want our tombstones to say more than that we spent "37 years in a cubicle." Also, a million people now approaching 60 will live to be 100! He adds that we'll NEED to live that long if we want ever to retire.

Seriously, he makes some great points: that more isn't always meaningful, that we're tired of fake and want authenticity (he pointed to the Dove ad campaign for real beauty, with ads that feature women with real, lovely but imperfect bodies, as an example of how wildly successful that approach can be). IN FACT, we're so sick of the meaningless and the trivial that we didn't care about Bill Ayers or "lipstick on a pig" in the recent election. No, we wanted some real help and a real transformation.

Investment advice... anyone??!

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Step 1: I decided to look over my investments. Being thoroughly up-to-date, I have everything accessible online. Being thoroughly a coward, I hadn't looked at any of it in... oh, shall we just say, quite a while.

Step 2: Returning from the kitchen, now with a paper bag into which I expect to breathe for some time, I sat down to think. I thought about simplicity. I thought about how much I enjoy my work, and wondered if I will still enjoy it when I am 86.

Step 3: I realized I don't like simplicity all that much. No, I needed facts. An action plan. And thus I began my research.

Step 4: My financial advisor, whom I trust, said it's hard to predict what will happen next and how long recovery will take. NOT GOOD. Like a student seeking her guru, I continued my search.

Step 5: I assumed the major investing publications would help out. What sectors are good? What kind of a time window is needed to recover while staying largely in equities? Should I sell my jewelry on the streets of Springfield? I hoped to find the answers to these and more deep questions.

Step 6: "The answers" I have found

Big Oil: We told you so.

If you can learn from the mistakes of others, now is a great time to be an investor.

Dow 20,000 or 5,000? (Author doesn't know)

I've also learned that I should: use Quicken, keep putting lots of money in my retirement plan (kind of like dumping sand into a big wet hole you've dug on the beach, but okay), and look at exciting vehicles such as whole life insurance (who needs ACCESS to the money when you know it's somewhere out there?)

Step 7: What? I'm taking a nap now. Let me know when I should wake up.

What can hope inspire?

[caption id="attachment_255" align="aligncenter" width="354" caption="Prior to the election, this huge display in Fairhaven, MA read "Obama Now!" "][/caption]

It feels like many Americans, no matter who they voted for, are now very proud of the U.S. for the historic accomplishment of electing our first African American president. I'm proud of us, too.

Of course, the next question is, "what can he do?" The country is in a bit of a pickle, economically speaking. (In fact, I'm burying MY spare change in the backyard and I really hope you won't dig it up.) Our health care system is great - if you can afford it. We're mired in Iraq, although to an expert military strategist such as myself it is evident that it's time to pack up and head home (I know, I know, not so simple). And we continue to be a divided country in so many ways - by religion, social class, political leanings, race, taste in shoes, and more. One election can't erase that.

However. The last eight years were a study in fear and resignation. Our foreign relations were often embarrassing. Our president couldn't pronounce "nuclear." (This is major.) We responded to an attack by retaliating - mostly at the wrong country, since Iraq clearly had nothing to do with 9/11. Oops, sorry, Iraq. Chances are good that that we can do better.

Obama represents even more than our first African American president (and I sort of worry about that term, because like so many of us, he has a mixed lineage and I feel bad labeling him). He is highly intelligent (what a novel idea! a smart president!). He appears to be principled and has the ability to analyze and deal with information in a sensible, non-hotheaded way. And just as lovely is the fact that well over half of voting Americans gave him a mandate and are squarely behind his presidency. While the stock market bounced up and then tumbled during and following the election, showing that optimism is fragile, I do believe that having a president we can be proud of, and one who clearly represents the future and not some worn-out past, will make a difference in citizens' faith in the U.S. and the way we move forward as a nation.

Could it be??

"American Public Rejects Global Warming." (Serious PR required)

"No, Mabel, I still don't believe there's a tornado out there."

Naturally, when I mutter "PEOPLE!!" and shake my head in disbelief, I don't mean you. You're really savvy.

But who ARE these people - the one in three Americans who do not believe there is solid evidence of global warming and the full half of us who don't believe pollution is causing the earth to warm? (All this from a 2008 Pew Research Council survey). And perhaps worse yet, what about the fact that only 41% of Republicans believe the earth is warming now - but 56% of Republicans know that most scientists think it is? (Gallup.)

Clearly, the scientists must be wrong.

Clearly, there must be reasons so many Americans don't believe it, don't care and (apparently) don't care to listen to scientists.

I got my son's Columbia University alumni magazine, (current issue not yet online, sorry) and to save the earth I kept it rather than mailing it to him. In the latest issue, the article The Deep Sleep sheds some light (heat?) on this subject. Columbia, kindly enough, has established a Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED). Some of CRED researchers' and analysts' findings, briefly paraphrased below, indicate that we need to create much better public relations outreach on why Americans should act now to slow global warming... and why we don't.

• We think it will be a problem for poorer countries, not so much the U.S.

•We have 52 senators from coal mining states blocking better federal policies - but coal, no matter how we position it, ISN'T clean.

•Some Americans' values preclude dealing with global warming: I know it's hard to fathom, but white, male, religious, conservative radio talk show listeners (yup) often don't believe in global warming.

•Global warming is just... too vague. We haven't seen the most catastrophic effects yet, so we focus on more immediate problems.

CRED researchers contend that people's responses to global warming information can change based on small differences in the way the information is presented. For example:

•Doomsday scenarios, while terrifying, tend to turn people off and away. Better to focus on solutions.

•When proposing a solution, describe its benefits before its costs (Marketing 101, of course).

•Explain specifically how our planet has been damaged and what needs fixing. Forget all the nature talk - we place higher value on what we've lost than what we still have.

•Look at people's values and address them. For example, the Christian right? Remind them of their duty to help their neighbor - including that poor soul living at sea level in the developing world.

•Tell people specifically how they can help. Which color Prius is best??

An Inconvenient Truth was a good start. But global warming is still very inconvenient, and we should make sure urgency outranks ennui in the American public.

Dragged kicking and screaming into a new world.

Change is a pain. C'mon, admit it. Unless you're one of those hardy, adventurous souls who's currently stuffing your backpack for a long trip to the Arctic - oh, yes, after quitting your job and kissing your family goodbye, that is. The rest of us, sad to say, prefer the comfort of driving the same route home from work most days. Even if we hate to admit it.

Well, here's news. Obama and McCain are mouthing the right words. "Change is coming!" Etc. Only thing is, the changes they're promising probably aren't the biggest curves ahead. Don't spend your tax break yet.

No, the changes ahead will be more profound. Our basic confidence in the great economic engine isn't gone, but it's shaken. People are actually thinking about (next time) buying homes they can afford (and heat), about the merits of state colleges for their own offspring, about getting a smaller car, wearing a sweater (mittens??) at home this winter, and perhaps even buying less stuff in case times get worse.

The amazing thing? This may be all for the good. In our rush to trash our planet, we in the U.S. have consumed oil and gas, cows and fish, plastic, and ice cream (oops, that's just me) at a truly alarming rate. What we're seeing now is LIMITS. Limits that will prod us toward changes we've resisted, as a nation, as businesses and as individuals.

As in...

-All that money Wall Street was flashing around? Lots of it was fake, a bubble, a myth. The way it was "made" was something no one really understood, and now much of it is gone - actually GONE.

-Peak oil? How many of us have skimmed the articles and turned the page? Yes, Virginia, we will run out.

-Spending as fast as we earn? Oops. Not so smart.

I don't think the American way of life is doomed, or that we'll be living in huts in the dark anytime soon. Instead, I think we'll need to look at how money, honest money, is actually generated and at how our incredible inventiveness can help us come up with technologies and systems for a more sustainable, perhaps more sensible, world.

It could be fun. Really.