See It to Believe It!

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In this series, we’ve focused on people, products, organizations and trends which, for one reason or another, have disappeared from the environment they were once so much a part of. We have also predicted those which will more than likely disappear in the very near future.

This time we’re going to provide you with a few resources that can accomplish a couple of things for you:

  1. Provide you with some fond memories you may have forgotten altogether.
  2. Enhance communication skills between generations.
  3. Reveal just how much things have really changed.
  4. Prove the point that while visuals are key to communication, they can also actually make explanations even more difficult to explain.

For the first time in American history, we are faced with the challenge of having four generations working together in the work place. This, of course, presents a major communication challenge which few seem to want to acknowledge. That challenge arises due to opposing environments, traditions, societies, etc. This exercise will demonstrate, in no uncertain terms, how difficult it can be to communicate with a generation other than your own.

Sit with a child or grandchild and attempt to explain each of the following graphics. Keep a close eye on facial expressions and questions which may be asked as a result of your explanation. Let’s get started.

With this first graphic, note that you’ll have to explain not only the spindle itself but the 45 in which it was inserted.

45 rpm spindles

To explain the next graphic, you may want to start by explaining why you need a key for a roller skate as you’ll be talking to someone who has only known rollerblades.

Roller-skate keys

Here you’ll want to explain how much gum had to be chewed to create this necklace, how you folded and connected the pieces and why you couldn’t find anything better to do with your time!

Gum-wrapper chains

You’re going to struggle with this one as you’ll have to explain why, how, and when it was used, which may also lead to explaining how we only had three networks, a few channels, an antenna on top of our house, and the fact that we actually had to walk over to our TV set in order to change channels and turn it on and off.

TV Test patterns

You’ll soon realize how difficult it is to explain that these signs lined our highways from coast to coast with 7,000 different sayings. Click on this link for more history and examples of sayings.  And don’t forget to explain what Burma Shave was.

Burma Shave signs

Try to keep a straight face as you explain how we used to dry our clothes by feeding them through this contraption. Explain that it was also a method of enhancing our biceps which was one of our first ways of multitasking.

Washtub wringers

You may not want to admit that anyone in your family practiced this favorite tradition. However, if you do, explain how and where we got the stamps, how we licked them for hour after hour in order to place them in books, what we traded them in for, and how many boxes of books it took to get the simplest of prizes. Don’t forget to mention Blue Chip Stamps, Gold Bell Stamps, Top Value Stamps, Gold Bond Stamps and Plaid Stamps.

S & H Green Stamps

Try to explain how you attached these to your camera, how they blinded everyone in the room where the picture was being taken, and how easily they burned your hands when you ejected them from the camera.

Flash bulbs

Realizing that you’re talking to someone who takes pictures with a cell and downloads them onto a computer, try to explain what this box is and why we called it Brownie. Be sure to point out that we could get our pictures developed within ten days of snapping them. Point out that you had to wait until the entire roll of film was used and then explain what a roll of film was.

Brownie camera

Don’t even attempt to explain this one. They’ll never believe it.

Penny candy

This one might be even more difficult for them to believe.

15-cent McDonald’s hamburgers

Last, but not least, when explaining how this contraption works and how you stored the cubes after their release, remember that you’re talking to a generation that gets their ice cubes by pushing the button on the doors—and they can get them crushed or cubed.

Metal ice-cube trays with levers

Hopefully, this exercise has illustrated why it’s so difficult to communicate between just two generations. Now consider the fact that we’re dealing with four generations in today’s workplace. Strive for empathy and understanding in dealing with this very real challenge. By the way, it was probably kind of fun attempting this experience, wasn’t it? … regardless of the quizzical looks you had to deal with.

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Size Does Matter!

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I live in Michigan, and everyone in the country knows we’re struggling at the moment in a number of crucial areas.

  • Michigan has a 12% unemployment rate.
  • Michigan is second in the nation when it comes to job cuts (California is first.)
  • According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Michigan is losing more residents than any state in the nation.
  • If the master minds in Washington, D.C. get their way, our Big Three Automakers (GM, Ford, and Chrysler) will soon be replaced by Tonka, Matchbox, and Hot Wheels.

Enough of all that. I’m sure I could go on and on about our challenges in the Great Lakes State, but national media outlets are doing too much of that at the moment. You seldom hear anything about why so many Michiganians (Michiganders or Michiganites) are still here and will probably never leave. I’ll skip the travelogue and get right to the point.

Size Does Matter!

It’s getting to be that time of the year again when the call of cracking bats and peanut vendors once again fill the air. Michigan also boasts several minor league baseball teams who happen to play in beautiful, state-of-the-art, high-tech, baseball stadiums.

One of those stadiums is Fifth Third Ballpark located in Comstock Park, Michigan, just north of Grand Rapids. The stadium is home to the West Michigan Whitecaps, a professional minor league baseball team and class A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. It currently has a seating capacity of 11,123. Don’t forget that number.

If they have their way, the West Michigan Whitecaps may soon replace the traditional hot dogs, peanuts and beer usually found in every stadium. They’ve added a menu item they have dubbed the Fifth Third Burger. Wait a minute—this isn’t your typical burger.

It starts with an 8-inch sesame seed bun that requires 1 pound of dough and is made specially for the Whitecaps by a local baking company. Then spoon on nearly a cup of chili and place five one-third pound hamburger patties on top of that. (Get it, 5/3 pounds of beef for the Fifth Third Burger?) Add five slices of American cheese and liberal doses of salsa, nacho cheese and Fritos. Top it off with lettuce, tomato and sour cream, and you have a burger that can be sliced with a pizza cutter and feed four people for $20. Jalapeños are optional. Now consider that price tag when you remember that the stadium seats 11,123. Great financial potential!

In addition to more than 4,800 calories—potentially the most caloric item ever offered at a ballpark—the Fifth Third Burger contains nearly 300 grams of fat, 744 milligrams of cholesterol and more than 10,000 milligrams of sodium. The smell alone might be 25 calories.

The Whitecaps might want to consider the potential of offering Pepto-Bismol, Rolaids, Tums, Pepcid and Maalox at their concession stands as well. This may be the real gold mine.

Here you see the giant burger compared to a McDonald’s Cheeseburger. If a single person can consume the entire 4-pound finished product in one sitting, the team plans to give him or her a special T-shirt.

The team’s Fifth Third Burger was recently featured on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” and NBC’s “The Today Show.”

Maybe this article should have been filed in our “Out-of-the-Box Thinking” category as the creative minds in Grand Rapids seem to have a knack at producing mind-boggling and stomach churning specials such as:

  • deep-fried Twinkies
  • deep-fried Pepsi
  • entire turkey drumsticks
  • frozen bananas dipped in chocolate
  • sandwiches utilizing such potential ingredients as cactus, sausage gravy, Spam, fried eggs and grape jelly. Fortunately, not all on one sandwich.

However, they’re going to have to go overboard to top the Fifth Third Burger.

What were they thinking?

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Wal-Mart Gets Bad Rap

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To do my job properly, I have to do a great deal of research. I read constantly—magazines, newspapers, and articles on the Internet. I watch news reports on cable and network television and have lost count of the videos I’ve researched. I listen to the radio as well as hundreds of audio tapes. I’ve been fortunate to have had conversations with board members, CEOs, CFOs, COOs, CIOs, etc. I’ve also made it a point to converse with middle managers, frontline employees, vendors, and customers from a wide variety of industries. I’ve tried to remain open-minded and neutral in my research as I’ve had to investigate organizations I didn’t necessarily agree with, support or respect personally. I share this information for a valid reason.

After decades of seminars, keynotes, and consulting situations, I’ve been exposed to opinions and rationale both for and against many organizations. It appears that the more successful the organization, the greater the controversy that surrounds it. It’s happened to the greatest leaders in every industry over the years: General Motors, Boeing, GE, Microsoft, Sears, McDonald’s, Proctor and Gamble, Motorola, Harley-Davidson, 3-M, AT&T, Sony, and many, many more.

These organizations have received the greatest of accolades and the most diabolic and vicious criticism … often concurrently. The target for the past few years has been Wal-Mart—the largest and most successful retailer on the face of the earth.

Quick Recap

  • #2 on the Fortune 500
  • Revenues: $404 billion,165 million
  • Employees: 2,155,000
  • Total U.S. Stores – 4,259 total units
    • Wal-Mart Discount Stores (891)
    • Supercenters (2,612)
    • Sam’s Clubs (602)
    • Neighborhood Markets (150)
    • Marketside (4
  • Total International Stores: 3,629 in 14 countries
  • Total Stores: 7,888 stores

All of this comes in a mere 47 years. Wal-Mart began operations in 1962, the same year Kresge introduced K-Mart and Target stores opened their doors.
I share this data to make a point. Wal-Mart is not a fly-by-night organization. They’ve accomplished what no other retailer has even come close to achieving and reached levels that very few leaders in any field have attained. However, 90% of the information you find in the media about this Fortune 500 leader is negative. Granted, they’ve made a lot of mistakes. They, themselves, have admitted that. That happens when you’re that large and that successful. However, you seldom hear about the many positive things that could and should be said about Wal-Mart.

For instance, as economic disaster sweeps across this nation, wreaking havoc at every turn, Wal-Mart Stores is awarding about $2 billion to its U.S. hourly employees through financial incentives, including handing out $934 million in bonuses, $789 million in profit sharing and 401(k) contributions, millions of dollars in merchandise discounts and contributions to its employee stock purchase plan. This move comes as a result of the world’s largest retailer gaining market share amid a recession! You don’t see this happening in the mortgage industry, among our largest bankers, or from any of the auto manufacturers. Note that the focus of these awards is NOT high-paid executives … it’s aimed at rewarding those hard-working employees who have created the great success currently enjoyed by this successful organization.

While it’s easy and sometimes popular to take shots at any large, successful organization like all of those named above, it might be wise to pause and recognize those who have earned their success and are willing to share it with their employees as a way of saying “thanks.”

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Cannibals and Administrative Professionals

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You probably never expected to see the above words in the same sentence. However, finish this article, and you’ll quickly see the obvious connection.

Last month we celebrated Administrative Professionals Day, formerly known as Secretary’s Day. This month we celebrate National Receptionists Day. These special days were set aside to recognize the work and tremendous contributions of secretaries, administrative assistants, receptionists, and other administrative support professionals.

Having worked closely with this particular group of very talented and experienced specialists over the years, I personally feel they should be operating under a new title: “The Secret Service.” More often than not, what these talented professionals do is in the background and not completely noticeable to the rest of us. And yet, we know who really runs the business these days, now don’t we? By the way, most everyone at C-Level (CEO-CFO-COO-CIO, etc.) would agree with that statement.

“The Secret Service” are responsible for a variety of administrative and clerical duties necessary to run an organization efficiently. They serve as information and communication managers for an office; plan and schedule meetings and appointments; organize and maintain paper and electronic files; manage projects; conduct research; and disseminate information by using the telephone, mail services, Web sites, and e-mail. They also may handle travel and guest arrangements. But any administrative assistant worth his or her salt will tell you this barely scratches the surface of everything they do.

The good administrative assistant knows intimately how the office functions. While all offices look the same on the surface, each office is different, often influenced by the industry it serves. Some have a more casual chain of command, some are very formal. In the office, the experienced administrative assistant knows, for instance, which faxes are important and which are trash; what snail mail can be safely discarded; which e-mails must be forwarded to the boss, and which he or she can deal with. The administrative assistant also deals with the public in many offices and is a source of general information. He or she will also probably be responsible, at least in part, in training new office staff. She has to know how to work with a variety of office equipment, and may be experienced enough to do minor repairs.

Overworked, underpaid? Maybe, but one thing is obvious. Many of them are not given enough credit and recognition for their crucial roles in the work place. Despite this they wear smiles on their faces and carry a grim determination in their hearts to make their bosses succeed. “The Secret Service” are the heroes in the work place. Yet they don’t get the credit, thanks, praise, and devotion that they richly deserve as they take initiative to make things happen and always seem to be the “go to” person for everyone in the organization.

Here’s a Generational Gem that will explain everything:

Even Cannibals Know the Difference!

A big corporation hired several cannibals. “You are all part of our team now,” said the HR manager during the welcome briefing. “You get all the usual benefits, and you can go to the cafeteria for something to eat, but please don’t eat any of the other employees.” The cannibals promised they would not.

A few weeks later the cannibals’ boss remarked, “You’re all working very hard, and I’m satisfied with you. However, one of our secretaries has disappeared. Do any of you know what happened to her?” The cannibals all shook their heads, “No,” they said.

After the boss left, the leader of the cannibals said to the others angrily, “Right, which one of you idiots ate the secretary?”

A hand rose hesitantly in admission. “You fool!” said the leader. “For weeks we’ve been eating managers, and no one noticed anything, but nooo, you had to go and eat someone important!”

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Forget Politics – Consider Leadership! What Would You Have Done?

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I don’t want to waste your time re-telling a story you’ve been recently bombarded with in all aspects of the media. Therefore, I won’t. However, there’s a valuable lesson to be learned here so I’d like to challenge you to recognize it, share it, and learn from it to avoid future distress for you and your organization. By the way, this issue has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with leadership at a variety of different levels so let’s agree NOT to point fingers at either political party or any one political figure. You’ll soon see why.

I’m certain the recent Boeing 747 New York City flyover didn’t have the impact on the majority of this country as it did on the people of Manhattan and Jersey City. Can you imagine having survived the horrific attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on 9-11? Many New Yorkers have yet to recover from that nightmare. And yet, millions of New Yorkers (population: 9,428,000) were suddenly exposed to the vision of a giant Boeing 747 followed closely by two accompanying F-16 fighter jets, flying frighteningly close to the lower Manhattan skyline near the Statue of Liberty and the previous site of the World Trade Center. What would you think at that moment? An unbelievable number of workers and residents evacuated buildings in both New York and New Jersey fearing another attack. People were running, crying, and panicking as they shouted “Run, run,” “Oh, my God,” and some expletives.

All of this you’ve heard in great detail. Let’s consider some other factors.

Why Did this Occur?

These two planes were taking part in a classified, government-sanctioned photo shoot. The White House Military Office was trying to update its file photos of Air Force One and wanted shots of the plane over the New York skyline and especially the Statue of Liberty. What were they thinking? DreamWorks, Pixar Studios, Sony or a college student using software like Photoshop could have, in minutes, produced a convincing image, superimposing a shot of Air Force one over a picture of the Statue of Liberty without ever leaving the ground! By the way, this ill-fated flight cost taxpayers $328,835 … well over a quarter of a million dollars! What were they thinking?

Who Knew about It in Advance?

  • White House Military Office
  • The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
  • U.S. Air Force officials
  • Department of Defense
  • Senate’s Armed Services Committee
  • Andrews Air Force Base
  • Mayor Bloomberg’s office
  • New York Police Department
  • New York City Hall
  • The United States Park Police
  • New York state and local authorities
  • New Jersey state and local authorities

Who Had Absolutely No Advance Warning?

Nine million, four hundred twenty-eight thousand, six hundred and forty-two traumatized citizens (9,428,000)!

Consider this:

  • Browse the list of responsible organizations listed above which were aware of this scheduled flight.
  • How many positions of leadership do you think might exist within those official organizations?
  • Of that very large number of leaders, do you think someone might have thought and/or said something along the lines of: “Gee, I wonder if this is a good idea, under the circumstances?” or “Has anyone alerted the good citizens of Manhattan or Jersey City of this flight?” I’m sure you get the drift here.
  • A quick glance at that list of very professional organizations above causes one to realize how critical each is to the protection of this country. To think that not one single person considered the ramifications of such a project makes one question what other areas of leadership should we be concerned about. Again, this is far from a political situation. This is, without a doubt, a leadership and common-sense consideration. Could this type of tragic circumstance occur within your organization? Think before you speak. Shudder if you must.

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

The Flip Side of Change

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We read so very often about how much and how fast things are changing. I certainly can’t disagree with that fact because I write about it on our blog, and it’s a big part of our training and keynote material.

However, there’s a flip side to this constant focus on change because there are so many facets of our life that never seem to change and probably never will. Read the following statements, and I’m certain you’ll agree with the majority of the content. In fact, you’ll probably recognize it immediately. What may very well surprise you is WHO said it and WHEN it was said! Take a look!

“What’s happening to our young people today? They disrespect their elders. They disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. What is to become of them?”
~ Plato, 427-347 B.C.

“Nothing worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.”
~ Khufu, Egyptian Pharaoh, 2560 B.C., on building the Great Pyramid

“Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, and nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.”
~ Cicero, 106-43 B.C.

“The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they knew everything, and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for the girls, they are forward, immodest, and unladylike in speech, behavior, and dress.
~ Peter the Hermit, 1050-1115 A.D.

Realizing the fact that “some things simply never change” may very well help us deal with those things that seem to change constantly. Apply both theories to challenges such as customer service, product development, marketing, advertising, employee development, etc.

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Shocking Revelation

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I want to keep this short and to the point in hopes that it will sink in. I’m going to tell you something that is truly hard to believe! The sad truth is the fact that very few people will read this message for the following reasons.

  1. Those who should be reading this will never see these words for the simple reason that it takes action to do so.
  2. Those not included above are too busy making things happen to take the time to read this. Thankfully, this group doesn’t need to hear this message because they’re living it.

There are those in today’s business world who take great pride and joy in the fact that they can call themselves a CEO, President, V.P., Supervisor, etc. These people are sitting comfortably at their desks waiting for the phone to ring or a knock on the door bringing in much-needed business to survive this much publicized recession. Those people will not survive the recession.

The next few quotes support the message that you must take action if you want to see results. Heaven help those sitting at their desk waiting for the phone to ring! Do something!

  • “A year from now you may wish you had started today.” ~ Karen Lamb
  • “The key to getting ahead is getting started.” ~ Agatha Christie
  • “ACTION is the foundational key to all success.” ~ Picasso
  • “We have a strategic ‘plan.’ It’s called doing something.” ~ Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airlines
  • “This is so simple it sounds stupid, but it is amazing how few oil people really understand that YOU ONLY FIND OIL IF YOU DRILL WELLS! You may think you’re finding it when you’re drawing maps and studying logs but you have to drill!” ~ John Masters, Canadian wildcatter, from his book, The Hunters.

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

U.S. Experiencing Dynamic Extremes

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On tonight’s national news, two emerging stories struck me as being unbelievably ironic. They obviously reflect the chaotic nature of our current environment across this country. I’ll avoid sharing my opinion and allow you to draw your own conclusions. However, I would ask you to do one thing … look and listen through naive eyes and ears as though you just arrived on our shores and knew nothing of our culture or current challenges. What conclusions would you come to?

Summary of Story #1

Sacramento, California, the state capital of the seventh-largest economy in the world, with a movie-star governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and an NBA pro athlete for a new mayor, Kevin Johnson, is also the home of a tent city housing more than 400 homeless men, women, and children.

The capital’s tent city sprawls messily on a grassed-over landfill beneath power lines, home to countless citizens with nowhere else to go. It has been here for more than a year, existing without running water or sanitation. It’s one of many tent cities located in this community alone.

Sacramento city officials announced yesterday that the famous tent city would be cleared out by the end of April. The evacuation is necessary, an official reports, because the tents are pitched on land owned by a utility company that plans to develop the site. Can you imagine being evicted from a tent city? What’s next? By the way, tent cities are springing up all over the U.S., and they won’t be hard to fill. More than 651,000 people lost their jobs LAST MONTH, and experts are predicting as many as 1.5 million MORE Americans will lose their homes to foreclosures this year.

Summary of Story #2

I’ll avoid naming names here as it’s the story which is most relevant. A bitter, high-stakes divorce battle is currently taking place in Connecticut between a Swedish countess (36) and a current company chairman (67) with an estimated net worth of $329 million.

The countess is demanding $100 million from her husband as she needs more than $50,000 A WEEK to maintain her lavish lifestyle. She filed court papers showing she has more than $53,800 in weekly expenses—more than most American families make in a year—including maintaining a Park Avenue apartment and three residences in Sweden. Her weekly expenses also include $700 for limousine service, $4,500 for clothes, $1,000 for hair and skin treatments, $1,500 for restaurants and entertainment, and $8,000 for travel.

Sharing this particular news story isn’t meant to place blame on either the company chairmen nor the countess. I’m sure they’ve both worked hard for what they’ve earned. It just makes one wonder if a small portion of that $53,800 PER WEEK might buy a better grade of canvas for some of those homes in tent city … not that these two particular people are obligated to do so.

What were they thinking when they decided to go to court?

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Are the Experts Really Experts?

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It’s always nice to have support and receive advice when tackling a project or challenge. However, it’s just as important to recognize that not all advice is good advice.

Too many people today are discouraged, deterred, or manipulated by the criticism, predictions, or negativity of others. While advice and input can be worthwhile in many situations, they can be extremely detrimental in others.

  • Stop NegativityListen to the input.
  • Weigh the pros and cons.
  • Determine what will be helpful.
  • Seek additional input.
  • Focus on the positive.
  • Disregard the negative.
  • Take action, be flexible, never give up.

Over the decades there has been much advice offered by highly educated and experienced people to those attempting a new and improved approach to a variety of challenges. While education and experience can often be powerful attributes, they don’t always guarantee success. In some cases, it can be just the opposite. Consider “Sacred Cows,” “NIH” (Not Invented Here), “We’ve Always Done It That Way” and other attitudes that so quickly stifle progress.

Here are a few examples:

“I cannot see any nation or combination of nations producing the money necessary to put a satellite in outer space.”
~ Sir Richard Wooley, Astronomer Royal, 1957

“Television won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.”
~ Darryl F. Zanuck, head of 20th Century Fox, 1946

“No woman in my time will ever be prime minister.”
~ Margaret Thatcher (prime minister), 1969

“No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris.”
~ Orville Wright, 1908

“That is the biggest fool thing we’ve ever done. The bomb will never go off.”
~ President Harry S. Truman, after being briefed on the Manhattan Project in 1945

“I cannot conceive of anything more ridiculous, more absurd, and more affrontive to all sober judgment than the cry that we are profiting by the acquisition of New Mexico and California. I hold that they are not worth a single dollar!”
~ U.S. Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, 1845

Successful people throughout history have never been deterred by the negativity of others. To achieve true cutting-edge progress in any endeavor, apply the seven step process noted above.

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Fall of the Mall – History in the Making

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I know you’re terribly busy today with so much going on in these chaotic times. However, it might be interesting, educational and even entertaining to invest a few moments to sit with your children and discuss the history changing events that are currently taking place in your community.

Discuss the days when downtown was the happening place to be. I live not far from the capital city of our state, and I can vividly remember how busy and vibrant the crowded streets were at any given time. Eight downtown theaters and two bowling alleys provided entertainment day and night. Today, they’re all gone. Sears, J.C. Penney, Montgomery Wards, S.S. Kresge, F.W. Woolworth, W.T. Grant, Cunningham Drugs, Ben Franklin and many more lined the cobblestone streets. Today, not one of those gems has survived the ravage assault of that treasured landscape. Twenty-one restaurants (without bars) were always packed. Today, we have nine bars which happen to serve food. What happened?

Strip shopping plazas and centers starting popping up in the suburbs, providing easy access to those who once had to travel into town to shop, eat and entertain themselves.

It wasn’t long until the mammoth shopping malls emerged on the scene allowing you to shop to your heart’s content, safe from inclement weather conditions, enjoy every type of food available, and see your favorite movie at any one of 20 screens.

Today, we’re witnessing the fall of the mall as online shipping provides us with a wide variety of products, discount prices, and free shipping from most anywhere in the world—all without leaving the comfort of our living rooms.

It’s all well and good for consumers but mall culture in the United States—at least as we know it—is coming to an end. As malls across the country start to fade into obsolescence, what is to become of these massive structures which were once home to our favorite retailers? Well, keep your eyes peeled because the transformation has already begun since landlords simply can’t afford to board up storefronts day after day. Not only are they losing precious income but those abandoned stores are sending a bleak message to shoppers that times are a-changin’.

While numerous shopping malls have actually closed their doors due to the exodus of their occupants such as Steve & Barry’s, others have focused on creating a more useful, long-term multipurpose community space in hopes of luring local shoppers back to what was once a family comfort zone.

Some have chosen to add pedestrian walkways, outdoor dining, and even residential units to those retailers who are still operating under the hope that the market will return. Colleges, churches, bowling alleys and even museums have all found their way into the mall community. Look for insurance companies, law offices, doctors, dentists, financial institutions, tattoo artists, hair stylists, photographers, day care, and auto repair shops to fill the ever-increasing vacancies. Batting cages, amusement rides, and paint ball battlegrounds have invaded some mall sites. There have even been reports of hospitals, funeral homes, and car dealers taking advantage of the reduced real estate opportunities.

The mall is changing … of that there is no doubt. How may be another question as we are currently witnessing both the fall of the mall and the sprawl of the mall. Watch closely as history unfolds in shopping meccas as it seems to be doing everywhere else.

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.