WELCOME ABOARD the Neverending Ocean Cruise!

Welcome to the deep end,
Glad To Have You Here
...where we find shorter spaces between us.
-- Bobby Ocean

Saturday, October 22, 2011

DO WHAT YOU LOVE


In Passing, On Steve Jobs' Passing

In trying to find words to express how I feel about the recently deceased Steve Jobs, I find his words work best. I know that he communicated his ideas through words and, unerringly, he chose them with deliberateness. Constantly, he used them for furthering.

In Steve Jobs' own words, then, from the Commencement address at Stanford, spoken to the graduating class on June 12, 2005 when he was CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios:

"You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle."


I love those two words, they're deep: "Don't settle." Don't ever think you don't have another option because you do. What you hold dear is worth more than assenting to another's limitations. It may not be the easiest path, but it will bring you back the love you invested through joy and satisfaction.

When it's a truth, it has universal application. The same advice that can bring you success in business also applies to the dance floor.

"As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."

There is is again -  don't settle for less. In fact, push to make it even better than originally conceived. Know yourself, invest yourself.

Steve continues, "When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: 'If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right.' It made an impression on me, and since then...I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

Listen to these words from renowned mystic, scholar, activist and Vietnamese monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, in his book, "Be Still And Know," said, "Understanding and love are values tht transcend dogma." Jobs said much the same to the Stanford grads.

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."

Jobs was right on the mark there, too. It does take courage to empty your head and heart of old thinking and concepts to embrace the complete unknown. Empty, you do not block out new information. That courage is in you. Own it.

"When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation....On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now...I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."

Follow those words and you could just end up making a dent in the universe.
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Friday, October 14, 2011

Bobby Ocean's Stuff For Sale

Pick Through it; See Whatcha Like...
Times are tough, I don't hafta tell ya. Most of us are lightening our load, selling our stuff and traveling lean.

I'm cleaning the garage and thought. "...this is a perfect time to inventory some stuff, might discover a few assets, never can tell. Well?" Could happen...

So let's look over da moichandise. Lessee...
  • An Air Freshener...
  • Keychain with Compass...
  • A Couple Of Those Dollar Wire Mesh Back Supports...
  • One Back Scratcher.
  • Used Paperbacks, Assorted...
  • Drug Store Readers In Different Strengths...
  • Bottle Of Stain Remover...
  • Micro-Fibre Towels, Two.

Oh yeah. There's a fortune here.

I could go on eBay and say, "Hey, best offer," but I'm far too much of an old Bob Barker Fan. (Please spay and neuter your pets, but don't tell them I said anything)

Instead, I just wonder, if there was a Special Showcase Channel For My Stuff, ya know? Would I push it?

Tell em what's in the Showcase, Johnny...

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Thursday, October 13, 2011

POPULAR OPINION HAS CHANGED AGAIN

It's ALWAYS Time To Update Our List

I have always had more than a keen interest in Pop Culture. As I grew through grade school, television added to my fervor. Then radio.

Pop fascinated me. Any popularly held viewpoint could change; it could be expressed in almost any way. There were experts who had a professorial delivery. There were snobs with their better-than-thou pontification, there were opinions in editorials, there were positions to protest, there were comedians with current relateable barbs. Popular opinion was entertaining and all over -- the news, it was in the papers, the movies. And it was in the songs on my almighty radio.

Popular Opinion was very commercial. marketable. It wore many masks and even occasionally surfaced as just what it is, the more current references to the past. It has been called Trivia, Name That Song, Books Of Lists, tons more, but its one common factor is its transience.

It's called "popular" opinion because the trendy, prevalent perspective would change all the time, like the weather. It could well be termed "Current Opinion," but that doesn't have the same phonic fluidity. Looking further, the whole phrase seems to infer an opinion involved, when it's really just complacent, dazed mental grazing. What was giddily popular one day becomes another's trivia.

During a career in radio broadcasting, as a DJ playing popular music ("the Pop Hits!, the Top-40, then 30, then 20"), the value of Popular Opinion became instantly apparent and, of course, grew with the ongoing experience. I had already decided that, if I was going to go on the radio and make a fool out of myself, it might as well be the most popular one. Now, decades later, looking back on the whole thing, I see a string of number one ranked stations on my resume. And much valued experience.

Occasionally, it so happened on the radio dial that a dark cloud formed over a frequency and its station's type of presentation completely failed with the public, When this happened, it was not an uncommon practice to change the call letters along with the music playlist and all the previous players. Sadly, I knew powerful people who really enjoyed the firing process.

Not very deep thinking but that's the way it was. And, that's the way it is. job insecurity is everywhere today, with a slight update. It's no longer so much "you're fired," as it is "we're changing the direction we're going and you're too closely associated with what we're leaving behind," or "we're eliminating that position. You'll have to apply for the new one."

Truth be told, it has little to do with the workers; it's their salaries that go beyond the newly hired boss' dictated pay grades. The Boss also has his strings being pulled and will also most probably be let go soon enough.

Why get rid of the personnel who were only doing what they were told? Because the new regime wants to totally distance the station from that previous "loser" image, Thus,  a clean slate. In radio that meant "re-branding" the call letters successfully enough to go out and sell time again.

Re-branding. It can certainly be misused. In radio slang, it is called "putting lipstick on the pig." I know broadcasting so I use it as a metaphor, but it is just one of thousands of industries suffering the same disabling effect of greed at the top.



The Top Ten Of List Disappointingly Ineffective Industries is such a small fraction of all of them that you might run away, crying if the entire list was posted. Still, it's a start. My immediate top Ten List includes: the Oil Industry, The Medical Profession, Fast Food, Banking, Wall Street, my own Broadcasting Industry, the Oakland PD and a few others that have achieved such a Massive Amount of Nothing, or Sustained Evil In Such Propensity that, if they were radio stations, would have been repackaged long ago.

Popular opinion, and consequent re-branding, is moving faster and faster now. You can see it everywhere. Some will see it in the current Occupy Movements, others in the Netflix Switcheroo from Quickster and back to square one again. Others witness radical changes from the standpoint of practicing To Live Without As Much, which can be akin to spiritual.

Considering how disastrously current popular opinions have changed on so many of the products, and institutions with which we grew up, it occurred to me to draw up a Short List that most needed a re-branding if they are to survive. (I'll leave the Long List for you to compile, k?)

Tracking Current Popular Opinion, we note the following need Emergency Re-Branding, stat! Your list may vary:

Fast Food Industry - Seen As: selling Mystery Meat along with chemically injected ground beasts and artery-clogging fried potatoes, to go. They've lost the Wholesome Feeling. Need to regain trust. Hmmm..
Should be Re-Branded as: Keebler Burgers.

Broadcast Radio and TV News - Seen As: completely missing the concept of the product they're assigned to deliver, losing focus of the big picture and constantly re-hashing shared footage. This is a result of corporate "cost cutting," the two-dimensional juggling of numbers that fired just about all the reporters, and reduced even shareholders' TV content to bad play-acting and rendering that new HD-TV screen close to useless, unless you like re-runs. They've lost the entire nation's trust. How can they be repackaged?
Should be Re-Branded as: "Ken and Barbie World News Rehash."

Banking Industry - Seen As: so greedy as to be institutionalized in a mental hospital, hiring only McHelpers with no authority whatsoever, willing only to make 30-years loans.
Should be Re-Branded as: "Safe Stay-cation Theme Parks," where you can still stand in long lines, spend all your vacation money and not have to go on those pesky rides.

Apple's New iCloud - Already Seen As: way easier than Facebook, but, then, isn't everything? It's looked upon as as way to save a lot of money and time by easily, effortlessly synching up all proprietary appliances with no cords, redundant downloading or personal time spent; it's automatic. Seen as a huge parting gift from Steve Jobs, it enters the marketplace beloved.
Could be Re-Branded as: "iCant Do Without It"

The Oakland P.D. - Seen As: that place in TV shows, like Wired, where everyone on the force has dark secret and multiple shadow alliances. Seems they go through their own Chiefs Of Police faster than TV Season pilot shows; been through three Chiefs and hundreds of cops in the last few years. They badly need to rid themselves of old thinking and start fresh.
Need to be seen as doing their job, so, in order to reestablish believability, so should be Re-Branded as: "The Oakland Boy Scouts," but until they achieve that stage, just call them: "The Oakland Raiders"

Oil Industry - Seen As: heartless fiduciary ticks on the warm, unprotected underbelly of an innocent populace. The people bought the damned cars they saw whizzing around corners, parking with ease, in the commercials. Now the people are inching along in Reality towards their jobs spewing fumes from the poisonous gas they were sold at a daily fluctuating price. They know they've been suckered. They pay for parking, maintenance, bridge fares, and know the money trap machines are addicted to gas. As SOON as any alternative is put on the market, they'll be all over it.
Should be Re-Branded as: "Not Snakes."

That's a Short List. Half a dozen embarrassing cases only. There are too many more; we could both blog for years. point is: their CEOs should, at the very least, resign.

Popular Opinion mutates and spirals in all different directions every day, faster and faster. In Online Marketing, it is becoming more and more important to protect your "Net Reputation." One sure way to maintain this critical focus is to concentrate on serving rather than harvesting for self.

When you find other ways, be sure to share. That's how our perception changes, twists and rolls. It is a spiraling energy. A revolution.

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