Open for Inspiration?

Inspiration, says The Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary, means "a divine influence" or "the act of drawing in."

Divine influence lies all around us, all the time. But we're not always ready to draw it in.

That's because we're so self-reliant, we don't stay open to random events.

Consider the following.

In his memoir, Chronicles, Bob Dylan recounts the days leading up to his first recording session.

The sheepish 20-year old visited the office of a Columbia Records producer, John Hammond, to sign a recording contract with the company. At the end of the meeting, Hammond handed Dylan an unpublished album by a Mississippi singer-songwriter no one had ever heard of in 1961, Robert Johnson, and Dylan took it home with him.

Dylan describes how, in the weeks that followed, the record enchanted him. "Over the next few weeks, I listened to it repeatedly, cut after cut, one song after another, sitting staring at the record player. Whenever I did, it felt like a ghost had come into the room, a fearsome apparition."

Dylan transcribed all of Johnson's lyrics and studied them for hours. "I copied Johnson's words down on scraps of paper so I could more closely examine the lyrics and patterns, the construction of his old-style lines and the free association that he used, the sparkling allegories, big-ass truths wrapped in the hard shell of nonsensical abstraction—themes that flew through the air with the greatest of ease."

Dylan realized he'd found the key to his artistry in Johnson's offbeat worldview. "I didn't have any of these dreams or thoughts but I was going to acquire them."

Dylan wonders what might have been, had Hammond not given him that record. "If I hadn't heard the Robert Johnson record when I did, there probably would have been hundreds of lines of mine that would have been shut down—that I wouldn't have felt free enough or upraised enough to write."

How about you?

Are you open for inspiration?

HISTORY BUFFS' NOTE: March 19 will mark the 50th anniversary of the release of Bob Dylan's first record.

Feather of His Country

A Nebraska woman named Rebekah Speights is auctioning a Chicken McNugget that resembles George Washington, according to Yahoo! News.

Ah, capitalism at its finest.

In a letter to Benjamin Harrison, Washington wrote, "A people who are possessed of the spirit of commerce, who see and who will pursue their advantages, may achieve almost anything."

What Opportunities are You Missing?

Blogger Joyce McKee, whose Let's Talk Trade Shows is one of my favorite reads, contributed the following post.  Thanks, Joyce!

It seems we are so caught up in our routines that there may be great opportunities presented to us, and we just do not see them. 

Last week I watched this video in amazement.  It is about the age-old topic, money does not grow on trees.

How often as a child did you hear that statement when you wanted something and your parents did not have the cash to buy it and used that as an excuse?   I know I was told that many a time.

The video is created and filmed in Chicago in the summer of 2010. 

The majority of the people walking by this tree with money on it never saw it!  They did not look up or around as they walked by the tree.  Would you have noticed the money on the tree?

Just for today, start the process of observing.  With a sense of expectation, what will you see or hear?  Where is that great opportunity lurking?  Do you need to pick up the phone and call someone?  Or send a letter, email or card to someone?  Should you invite someone to join you for lunch or dinner?

Opportunities, with money associated with them, are all around you. 

Are you ready to harvest them? 

I know I am.

Ask Customers First

Today's novel idea: ask customers first.

The top managers of some top brands "have forgotten (or never knew) what every junior brand manager surely knows," write Carol Phillips and Judy Hopelain in Branding Strategy Insider.

Ask customers how they might feel about your decision before you announce it.

In recent months, Bank of America, Netflix and Hewlett-Packard have all reversed major decisions after suffering consumers' wrath.

"Senior leaders are acting like bulls in a china shop, awkwardly and prematurely broadcasting their strategic decisions in ways that destroy their company's (and their own) reputation and value," the authors say.

"What has happened to the instincts of corporate America? Have the leaders of these companies become so insular, so arrogant, or so detached from reality that they don't bother developing a customer-focused plan to communicate their decisions effectively?"

When e-research tools have made concept-testing as easy as spell-checking a memo, these folks have no excuse.

Banner Advertising Gone Wrong

The Marine Corps' commandant has decided he won't discipline the men who posed before a banner displaying the insignia of Hitler's Schutzstaffel.

The gyrenes' use of the heinous symbol was just a mistake.

"The Marines in the photo were ignorant of the connection of this symbol to the Holocaust and monumental atrocities associated with Nazi Germany," General James Amos announced in a written statement.

Spokesmarine Major Gabrielle Chapin told the Associated Press the boys thought the symbol stood for "Sniper Scouts." 

"I don't believe that the Marines involved would have ever used any type of symbol associated the Nazi Germany military criminal organization," she said.

Wisely, the Corp will use the incident as a "teachable moment."

It's a shame more teachable moments don't take place in fifth grade.

Novelist Gustave Flaubert once wrote, "Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times."