11-26-2006
Canon City Colorado
When The Road Ahead Is Shorter Than The Road Behind
We fear and often resent ageing out.We know that each day of our trip
through space and time brings us closer to the end. Focusing on the end
is like worrying on vacation about the stuff you'll have to do
when you return home. Fear, worry and resentment deminish
the experience.
Nothing stays the same, that's the way of things. The "order", the
"Intent" can be seen in the repeating pattern of things. We base all
understanding of things, ideas and concepts on having a
base point and then moving from there to somewhere else. Up/down, how
far up, how far down? Rich/poor, hot/cold, love/fear?
Using the Medicine Wheel as a tool we can teach basic
concepts important to our perception and enjoyment of
our individual and joint reality.
The Medicine Wheel represents the Creation, the oneness of
all...including humans.
The East side of the wheel is painted Red for that is the direction and
colour of the morning sun. It also represent the Springtime of the year
and the springtime of our lives when as infants we are creatures
of emotion and all we can do is love and be loved in return .
The South side of the wheel is painted Yellow for that is the
direction and colour of the Summer sun. It also represents the
Summertime of our lives when as adolescents we are creatures of
our hormones and the world is all about us and our needs...we
focus on self alone. Some people seem to chose to live in the
Summertime forever and never move on.
The West side of the wheel is painted Black
for that is the direction of Fall time, of the days getting
shorter. It also represents the time of our lives when we are
parents and have children for which to care. As wonderful
as Spring is with new life blooming and babies
nursing secure in their mothers arms and love ,
as amazing as Summer is with crops growing riper by the day and with
the lushness and fullness of young lust and youthful love...the Fall of
our lives is even better. To watch your children being born, to
hear a baby giggle as you nibble at its toes...yes I confess I'm
a baby toe nibbler...to see them grow and learn to walk and talk,
knowing that once they start talking they'll never again shut up...it's
GRAND being a dad..
The North side of the wheel is painted White for that is the direction
and the colour of
snow and of Wintertime. It also represents the time of our lives when
our hair is the colour of snow and the road ahead is much shorter
than the road behind...it is the time of Elderhood. As Elders we face
diminishing desires along with muscle and in time the physical becomes
harder. Free of the demands of being parents we can choose to
revert
to focus on self; or we can use our wisdom (The integration of thought
and analysis based on accumulated experience." Elhonon Goldberg.. the
Wisdom Paradox) for the good of others. Now here is the wonderful thing
about doing for others...you create a great experience for yourself.
As Elders we should let go the fear of death and instead
become an example of love of giving of ourselves to and for
others.. and who know being a true Elder may be even better than
being a parent.
Close to 8000 American turn sixty each day ...there should be plenty of
Elders around to change this world , to move mankind from a time of the
"us" and "them" to a time of the "we".
What do you think?
8-10-2006 Canon City
Colorado
It's SummerTime and the
Living is Easy...Maybe
Summer is the slow season
in the business speaking and training field due to it being a time of
vacations and holidays. On average Europeans take more time off
than do Americans but we make up for spending less time with our
families by having more stuff...bigger cars, houses and debt.
I look forward to Summer
because I'm off the road and can tend to important things like spending
time at home, but there is a trade off and it called the "to do list".
The front porch needs
painting as does the carport and the trim on the house. I had
planned to re-roof the house myself but ended up hiring a roofer
instead. The dogs and the cat like having me around because they can
bully me into giving them treats...and the yard work, yesterday I mowed
the front and back lawns.. it took 21/2 hours with my 21" push mower. I
still need to trim trees and pull weeds.
The week before my wife
and I drove about 600 miles North to the Medicine Wheel located on
Medicine Mt. west of Dayton, Wyo. http://www.crystalinks.com/bighorn.html.
>From the parking lot it is a 11/2 miles climb to the
Wheel itself . Climbing at 11,000' is work even for those of us who are
mountain people and it's even more so for flat landers. The first
thing I noticed, besides the beautiful views, were all the offerings
people have left....many many red cloths filled with tobacco tied to
the fence, and many medicine bags, head rags, beaded objects and
miniature wheels left by those who came before.
TenRivers had asked me to make an offering of tobacco
and to pray for all the people...I did and I asked for guidance in
finding Elderhood and living the last phase of my life to its
fullest potential looking out for the generations yet to come. On the
walk back to the parking lot a couple of badgers came out and kept us
company for away.
When I was young I was captured and
baptized first by Presbyterians and then by Catholics ...I escaped from
both but not before I when through the indoctrination . Last week
I saw an advertisement in the Denver Post for " Luxury
Christian Retirement Living" , talk about an oxymoron. In America we
warehouse Elders, those with money have more space, swimming pools and
golf courses..but they all live in warehouses. Elders are suppose to be
the keepers of wisdom and the guardians of the future and not
focused on themselves. One of the projects we are trying to
get started is a series of Native American retreats ,
ElderQuests, for men 50 plus years of age. I hear people my age refer
to themselves as middle aged, as if the average life span is 120 years.
I think they do so to try to recapture an earlier time of their lives,
when they were younger, because they know that the road ahead is
shorter than the road behind. Sixty year old guys on hogs and hanging
with 25 year old biker babes, or chasing around little white balls. www.turtletribe.org .
Some have asked about
Canon City , Colorado and what it is like living here...well it is a
small town growing fast due to the great location and access to water.
Canon City only pulls 1/6th of the water it is allowed to pull from
the Arkansas River so in a dry state we are water rich. http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=9380..
Fran Ghrahm and his wife Colleen are building a home west
of town would like to sell their home in town www.forsalebyowner.com
listing # 20607883 . Besides being a handyman Fran builds "choppers",
if you have an interest in either the house or a chopper Fran's number
is 719.269.9572...if you talk with Fran tell him hi for me.
ben Yoseif has been hard
at work updating the Tribe of Turtle Island website and we will soon
have the store up and working...visit you may see something you like. www.turtletribe.org
It's SummerTime and the
living is good.
Mitakuye Oyasin,
WalkingBear
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2-28-2006 Canon City,
Colorado
IWOPs, some thoughts on illegal immigrants and card carrying
Indians.
On the way to catch an early morning flight out of Heathrow
airport in London I said to my Indian taxi driver, "You know I be
Indian as well." I saw him looking at me in his mirror and
then with a confused look on his face he asked, "And what part of
India are you from?" "Toas New Mexico .", I answered.
He thought about it for a bit and then he said , "You be a redd
Indian!" A few minutes later he asked, "Why is it they call you
Indians?" "It was Columbus, he was looking for you and he found
us.", I said. "And why was he looking for us?", he asked. "He wanted
your spices.", I replied.
I once had an American of Italian descent tell me that when his family
first came to America they were badly treated and were called "wops". I
asked him if he knew what that meant and he said he didn't but he knew
it wasn't a good thing. "Maybe it was the sound made by their shoes?",
he guessed.
WOP was stamped on papers issued to immigrants who arrived in
America without documentation and meant With Out Papers.
Today there are 25 to 30,000,000 Americans of native
American descent and only about 2,000,000 card carrying
Indians...those recognized by some government or tribal entity .
Among the card carrying Indians are blond haired and blue eyed people
who may be descendants of "ten dollar Indians", white men who
paid a bribe to be added to the Indian rolls so that they could
claim land set aside for Native Americans .
There are card carrying black Indians who look like African
Americans for a reason; their ancestors include escaped slaves
who while allowed to be free in the North
were not allowed to intermarry with whites but who were accepted
by Native Americans .
IWOPs (Indians With Out Papers) make up the vast majority of
Americans of Native descent. There are those IWOPs whose
ancestors "stayed out of the fort", who refused to be counted and
labeled; and then there were those ancestors who tired of seeing their
children go hungry and who cut their hair and learned English
...some "passed" for Mexican .
My people have always lived in the Toas area of N. New
Mexico. America came to us in 1848 with the signing of the Treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo which ended the expansionist war began by
the U.S. and in which Mexico lost its territory north of
the Rio Grande .
Prior to the Americans the Spanish had come to us
starting with Coronado in 1540...eighty years before the Pilgrims
landed on Plymouth Rock.
My wife tracked down one of my ancestors to 1720 , a Spaniard
named Bernardo Sanchez, who may have been Jewish.
My father always said that his mother was Zuni and he looked it for he
was a small nut brown man with a round face and pug nose. I never
got to know my Indian grandmother for she died when my father was about
ten. My mother's family were light skinned people who looked down
on Indios, and those who they married . Growing up in N. Colorado
the Mexican kids would called me Indio, until I grew to be larger
than most of them and they came to regret their words. The
white kids thoughts we were Mexican and called us "beaners"
. Loose teeth and split lips were a way of life.
My younger son came to me when he was about seven and
asked what he was; they must have been talking about "race" in
his school. He was confused, "We have an Hispanic last name, you
are an Indian and mom is of English and Irish/Scot descent, what am I?"
he asked. I said to him that he was a little on the tan side ,
although he'd had blond hair as a small child. We are all
children of the same God and there is only one "race", the human race.
Throughout human history there have always been those evil
ones of all colors, sizes and shapes who in their fear create
hate among people.
I believe that the day of those who would use fear of
others to advance their own agenda is coming to an end, for
I believe that good people of all colors and shades far out
number the hate mongers and I believe that some
day people will not care what others look like and from
where they came.
Mitakuye Oyasin,(we are all related)
WalkingBear
2-02-2006 Canon City
, Colorado
Appreciation and Showing Appreciation
My friend ben Yoseif , MaggidbenYoseif@amigo.net , says
that ingratitude is the basis of all inequity . He also says that
a "blessing" is your reward for doing for others.
An other friend now departed, Jack Brightnose , would start his day by
giving thanks for the gift of life. He would seek ways to do for
others, to give of himself.
One man is a Torah scholar the other was a Cree medicine man,
both followed different paths to the mountain top...but it is the
same mountain.
Righteousness: free from guilt or wrong, virtuous, moral and ethical.
Talking right and then walking your talk.
Man is a quest hero, a wanderer, a voyager, a seeker after adventure,
knowledge, power, meaning and righteousness . The quest is dangerous
and unpredictable. Often in weariness he wishes he had never set out
upon it - but it is enjoined upon him by his nature. from Loren
Eisely, The Unexpected Universe
Everyone has a philosophy, a unique way of understanding the life
experience...and by exercising our free will we get to define the world
we inhabit. We can not control the things that happen to us but we can
choose how we react to things that happen.
When we do for others with no expectation of being paid back,
when we show love we create heaven on Earth...here and now.
When we are focused on self alone we cut ourselves off from love, we
live in fear and we create our own hell...here and now.
Each day we must be appreciative of the gift of life, we
must
be aware of the benefit received and share the gift with
others...for if we do not we slip into ingratitude, which is a state of
fear.
A Lakota Prayer
For all the people. Great Mystery we ask for guidance, help us to
listen with an open mind and pure heart which knows no fear. Help us to
speak and act in a way that honors all people and their
teachings. May our words and actions bring understanding, healing
and justice to all the people of Turtle Island, all their children and
all our relations.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Mitakuye Oyasin (we are all related),
WalkingBear
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1-02-2006 Canon City ,
Colorado
Looking Back and Ahead...
Sometimes when we look back at what use to be we catch a glimpse
of what is to come.
GM, Ford,Car Rental Companies, Insurance Companies and Government
Agencies are at risk of missing out on the future of ground
transportation, and if they do Americans will all suffer for it.
Prior to the automobile ground transportation for most Americans was a
slow and smelly affair . I like horses but man do they make
a lot of poop. I'm down to three dogs and one is a small
dog , and I do a lot of poop scooping...I'd hate to scoop for
three horses.
In 2007 China will be exporting automobiles to America...not just
parts but the done deal. Those who own stock in or
are in some other way invested in the American auto industry
should be worried...unless they wake up and seize the
future.
The primary reason autos exist is to move people from point A to
point B...having a/c and looking good in the process are extras.
With the cost of energy going up, with Americans aging
out in records numbers ( 6000 turn 60 every day)
, with China building cheaper cars of high Japanese
quality, with 40,000 plus Americans dying on the roads every year and
hundreds of thousands more being injured, with advances in technology
(the application of science), ...why oh why doesn't the American
automobile industry wake up and move beyond the old replacement for the
horse and buggy?
Someday soon we will not have hunks of
expensive junk cluttering our yards, streets
and parking lots, and instead of having three car garages...one
for a car and the other two for storage.. we will be able to cut back
to two car garages just for storage of our other junk. We won't have to
take time to wash or maintain our own cars..and when we need ground
transportation we will be able to call up whatever we need and
when we are done with it, it'll go away. Automate the auto.
I live in a prison town..John Gotti use to be my neighbor...on the
other side of the wall.
How many young and not so young dumb Americans are doing time
related to drunk driving? It seems like there is always
some story in the newspaper about drunks killing or injuring people
while trying to drive. Those cells could be put to better use, those
prisoners and prison guards could be making music or teaching
kids...rather than doing time.
It would cost a lot to wire/link American roads, businesses and
homes with autos, to build automated cars, to put in place the billing
system ...but at the end of the day the costs would be paid back in so
many different ways...ways that would improve life.
Just as the horse had its day so has the unautomated auto...the only
question is who will do it. Will the auto of
the future be a Ford, a Chevy or a Red Star?
On a different note, my friend Rich Williams past
away the week before Christmas.
Rich was alone in life, having lost his wife and son in an auto
accident many years ago. He'd sometimes blame himself for not having
been a better husband and father when he had the chance.
Rich was to join us for Thanksgiving dinner but
he had car problems and couldn't make it, but
he'd gotten a new car and was to have been with us
for Christmas dinner. There was service for Rich held
in Boulder but I couldn't make it because its
a two hundred miles drive one way from
Canon City and my night vision is not what it once was.
Rich died in his sleep...I hope he has found the
peace that he and we all deserve.
Mitakuye Oyasin,
WalkingBear
*******************************************************************
12-03-2005 Canon City,
Colorado
Bright eyes at the edge of the forest...
Loren Eisely was a scientist, a writer and a poet. He studied
Nature and said something to the effect that there are always "bright
eyes at the edge of the forest waiting their turn to be the dominant
life force." Author of Starthrower and The Unexpected Universe
I had the same feeling while in Europe for two weeks the latter part of
November.
Sharp young, and not so young guys...
Galway is at the western end of Ireland and I was there to do a
training program for the Irish Institute of Credit Management and
that's where I met Sarah-Jane O'Hanlon who works for Siebel. I talk
pretty darn fast, in part because I want to keep people listening and
in part because it's my way.
There were some very sharp young people in the room but one stood out,
the pick of the litter..Sarah-Jane was right on top of every thing
going on. When I questioned the audience she had the answers and
was ready for more knowledge.
In Cork I met Michael Murtagh of ICC Information, and like his boss,
James McGovern, who I had met earlier ; Michael has a keen sense of
order and a quick mind.
Dublin was my next port of call and that's where I met Marketa
Strzinkova ....
Marketa not only attended the morning session on Profit Centered
B2B/Commercial Credit Management , she hung in for the afternoon
roundtable and again the "bright eyes" were there taking in, asking
questions and contributing to the conversation . A smart young woman ,
Marketa is the Managing Director for Atradius in the Czech Republic.
Declan Flood of the IICM spoke at the Irish programs about the need to
constantly improve, to not get comfortable with the way things
are, to seek out new knowledge...he was inspiring.
The following week I attended a meeting at the London Chamber of
Commerce and while the people there were on average older, still the
"bright eyes" were there thinking, thinking and thinking more. I got to
spend time with one of the most creative men I've ever met, Simon
Groves, who is the Marketing Director for Atradius in the UK and
Ireland and is the Editor in Chief of the Global Business Publication,
"COMPASS" and who hosted the London meeting. Simon took me to a "pub"
for bangers and mash. It was a pleasure to be there with them all.
Then on to Amsterdam for Credit Expo 2005 where I did two presentations
to people who looked at times to be too young to be attending a
business expo...maybe its me.
Not only were there all these sharp young people but also older
guys like Tim Lane the Director of European Operations for the
FCIB and Arie Zwartewaalsloot of Ingram Micro who still have the light
in their eyes.
While in Amsterdam it was my pleasure to share breakfast with Miel
Brinkhuis and his associate Patricia...neat, sharp young people who
work for Atradius and who I pressured to think about having
babies...not together.
At the Credit Expo 2005 I spent time with Jorgen Lund
Lavesen who I'd met before in Copenhagen and with Marc Bill, Marcel
Verweij, Carlinda Lengkeek ...all with Atradius and all sharp, eager
and full of energy. I also met Richard (Ricardo) Cruz a sales manager
with Atradius who reminded me so very much of my younger son, the one
who went bad and is an attorney in San Francisco...too sharp...too fast
...so great.
I hadn't planned to be in Europe two weeks back to back but
things happen and I was sure glad to get home . This last
Friday the temperature hit 60 and the sky was blue, yesterday we awoke
to some snow on the ground...just enough to give everything a clean
look and smell. Today its about the same as yesterday and my big dog,
the one that's half Husky loves it...so do I.
Mitakuye Oyasin(we are all related),
WalkingBear
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11-14-05 Canon City,
Colorado
Guilt, self loathing and mitote...the fog of the mind and of the soul.
Everyone screws up and says and does things that they know are
wrong and that they later regret.
But there's are differences in how people deal with their
sins.
There once lived a man who had every advantage that the world could
offer. Wealth, family position and a grandmother who doted on him and
taught him self love. Later in his life the man gained worldwide fame
and was accused of being a hypocrite, of having
talked
out of both sides of his mouth about a human value. His response
was, "It is not important that I remain consistent with what I may have
said or done in the past. What is important is that I remain faithful
to the Truth as it revels Itself." This man didn't believe in
wasting the gift from the Creator, the Life energy, in feeling guilt
and punishing himself over and over again for the wrongs he'd
committed. He'd learned early in his life that such self focus was
selfish and
obscured the lesson . His name? M.K. Gandhi.
An other man, my friend and mentor Jack Brightnose, had a very hard
life. Taken
from his loving family when he was a child in Winnipeg and sent
off to "Indian" school he was shamed by his
tormentors time and again for being born the wrong color and into the
wrong culture. He learned self hate at the hands of evil
people who claimed to be doing God's work. In his early life he
became a skid row drunk and fathered and deserted two sets of
children. He bore the the scars of living such a life; scars
where his body and his spirit had been cut and slashed. During
the lowest point of his life his oldest son disowned him and swore to
hurt him if he ever dared to come near him.
Brightnose was sober for the last 30 years of his life and spent his
Life energy trying to help others and was always there when he was
needed; but he never forgave himself for what he'd done. He told
me that one day his son called him and said that he was in Fargo, where
Brightnose and his wife were living, and wanted to meet him at a hotel
lobby. He tried to sneak out but his wife caught him and didn't want
him to go , after all he wasn't a young man and his son had been very
angry with him and might hurt him.
Brightnose told his wife that he had to go no matter what
happened...this was the boy he'd deserted so very long before and he
had to go.
Upon entering the hotel lobby Brightnose was trembling, not from fear
for himself but of not knowing what would happen, of facing
this son who he'd failed.
Brightnose said that he saw his son, a woman and some children and that
he closed his eyes. The next thing he knew his son was hugging him and
he could feel his son's tears as they rolled down his face and all his
son said was...."dad".
Things happen to us and we learn fear and we carry that fear with us
and it fogs our minds and our souls, our Life experience.
Brightnose told me that the day he met his son a great weight lifted
from his shoulders..he finally forgave himself.
Mitakuye Oyasin,(we are all related)
WalkingBear
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11-04-2005 Canon
City, Colorado
Beyond the bling...the basis for wisdom.
When people live in places without street signs and GPS it's important
to know the four directions ..if you are to find your way home.
It's the same in our lives.
A teaching tool used by First Americans (Indios) is the medicine wheel
which teaches about the different directions, the seasons of the year
and the seasons of our lives.
The side of the medicine wheel representing the East is painted
red for that is the color of the direction of the morning sun.
East also represents the Spring of the year and of our lives when we
are infants and creatures of emotion . When we are babies all we can do
is love and be loved in return.
The side representing the South is painted yellow for that
is the color of the Summer sun. South also represents the Summer of the
year and of our lives; the time of being a youth and of
learning about the world, about others and about ourselves.
The side representing the West is painted black for the time of
the year when the days grow short and it represents the Fall of
our lives when we are adults and we take care of the children and
support the elders.
The side representing the North is painted white for the time of the
Winter snows and for the time of our lives when we are elders and
charged with looking out for the children yet to come.
Elder hood and wisdom should go hand in hand, but sometimes fear gets
in the way .
Elkhonon Goldberg in his book, "The Wisdom Paradox" writes that
"Wisdom in an integration of thought and analysis based on accumulated
experience.". He writes that contrary to the old thinking
about the mind deteriorating as we age new research has found
that in fact the mind grows stronger. And yet it seems as
if many fear becoming an elder, of sharing the wisdom of a
lifetime so that others can learn and profit
from it.
In today's world many seem to think that the best time of their lives
is when they are young and we see many trying to hold back their very
nature with face lifts, hair plugs and young husbands or wives.
Old guys on motorcycles and chasing little white balls.
We fail to accept that living a fulfilling life requires
that we embrace the changes.
Each generation stands on the shoulders of the generation that came
before, and if we refuse to accept our role as elders we weaken the
generations to come. We must be thankful to those that came before, who
worked to make our own way easier and we owe it to the future
generations to show them the way home.
The Creator , the Great Mystery gave us the gifts of life and
of free will so we could choose to ponder, to reflect on our
actions ; and therein lies our salvation, our ability to rise above the
fear of aging, of being old and of dying .
Unhappiness comes from judging every experience and trying to hold on
to some beyond their time, rather than accepting things as they
are. Those that speak of could've, should've, would've and go'na
miss out on the here and now, they miss out on the life experience
before them. They miss out on the gift.
Bling is shiny and fun but it can blind us to the
wonders of elder hood if we continue to worship things and the
getting of things beyond its time.
The world has more elders today than ever before in human history and
yet it seems there is less sharing of self, of giving. We
seem to have lost our way, we choose to remain forever young ..as if
that is the way to true happiness..its not.
Mitakuye Oyasin (we are all related) WalkingBear
****************************************************************
10-17-2005 Canon
City, Colorado
This week's blog entry has to do with TQM from the back of the parade,
and for the younger guys who may not be familiar with TQM it
stands for Total Quality Management....doing things as right as
possible the first time.
Identifying The Wrong People for the Job
My people are from Toas N.M. and America came to us in 1848. In my
family I'm the tallest at 6', most Pueblo people being on the short
side. One of my cousins, a real short man was once arrested for being a
"peeping Tom"; they never would have caught him if it wasn't for that
ladder he carried...he was the wrong guy for the job.
Prior to entering the consulting field in 1982 I served as the
Corporate Credit Manager of a $55M a year distribution company.
In my position I was involved in resolving things
that had gone wrong and in so doing I could identify "areas
of opportunity for improvement". In a competitive business environment
a company must have quality in it's product/service as well
as in the way business processes are carried out.
When things go wrong in business, regardless of the source or who's at
fault, the net effect is that the cost of doing business goes up for
EVERYONE. The most expensive work done in business is a re-do.
From my position at the back of the parade not only could I provide
feedback as to how the "total costs of doing business" could be
reduced by constant improvement of how we, our vendors, and customers
did things..I also knew who the screw ups were, those
people who were responsible for things going wrong.
After my first two weeks on the job I went into the
ExecutiveV.P.'s office with a list of four people he needed to
fire. Understand that when I'm on the job, whether it's for a month, a
week or a day ..that company picking up the tab is my main
concern...it's my business and I want my company to do well. Nothing
personal.
The first name on the list was my boss, the assistant
Comptroller. The Executive V.P. kind of did a double
take when he saw the list and said something to the effect that some of
the names on the list were people who'd been with the company for
years..and I'd been there two weeks. I said to him, "Let's start
with Peggy, the Asst. Comptroller, are you aware that Peggy has
instructed the branches to send all cash payments to her here in
corporate in a plain brown paper envelope, and that the money goes from
the envelope to her pocket?" The woman was a thief and they fired
her but didn't prosecute. She went to work for a radio station in
Denver and over the years I've wondered how much of their money stuck
to her fingers.
Number two on the list of four was the A/P manager , Mary. I liked
Mary, she was a kind woman who brought in cookies. Mary had one
flaw, maybe more, she'd go to lunch and come back to the office three
sheets to the wind. I've been there and you may think that you can work
just fine when you're half drunk but it's just not so. At that time
rehab was not an option and after Mary left the company we found about
$250,000 in overpayments.
Both Peggy and Mary were the wrong guys for the job.
Maybe I'm a hard case but I believe that it's everyone job to do their
best when they are at work, and it's not just for the sake of the
company and all the others who need their jobs in order to care for
their families . If we go to the job with the idea that we are going to
sluff off or fail to do our job we cheat ourselves. Gandhi said, "Guard
your thoughts for they will effect your words, guard your words for
they will effect your actions, guard your actions for they will define
your character and guard your character for it will determine your
destiny ."
Yes the job of a good credit manager is to find ways to say yes to
profitable credit sales, to keep customers current and buying , to
identify and control bad debt....but the greatest pay back is the
ability to identify "areas of opportunity for improvement", and yes to
identify those who by their actions would pull down the company.
I have no idea what next week's blog entry will be about..you'll just
have to be surprised...just like me.
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9-26-2005
Canon City, Colorado
Have you ever scared yourself? I don't mean doing something
stupid that almost gets you killed; like I did last year when I
fell asleep while driving and hit a light pole. I mean have you
ever been startled , taken by surprise? Sometimes the the
"scary" thing happens when you stop
to think about how things are compared to how
they use to be, and how things are changing
"Web2.0 and Obsolete Words" is the topic of this week's entry
"Telegraph! If you want to communicate with someone it's the
fastest way to do it. And the greater the distance the greater
the difference between the "telegraph" and any other form of
communication. " The telegram was magic; wires
that sang a song as they carried words. The wireless (radio) and the
telephone made the telegraph obsolete.
Today we are on the verge of a digital revolution that will
effect and change all of our lives beyond anything we have known before.
Today, on your wireless, hand held do-hicky you can make phone calls,
surf the web, send and get email and other instant
messages. You can write, edit, spell check, and publish
with the same machine. TV, radio, payforview...what ever.. it's
there . The word "Digital Interface" DI will soon make all those other
words used to describe a form of communication obsolete. Web2.0
is even scarier.
"Change has no conscience, doesn't play favorites, takes no
prisoners. Change will ruthlessly destroy organizations with cultures
that don't adapt. Leadership is easy; it is the constant consummate
management of change." from a speech by Jerry Pearson in Oct.
1993.
The internet and email are magic. The "web" allows us to reach
out worldwide, to communicate with a great number of people at very
small cost. We can access web based knowledge and gossip. Knowledge
spreads and changes with every new use and telling and then it grows
and changes again and again. Change is driven by new knowledge, it a
cause and effect thing.
Web2.0 is here in bits and pieces . As wonderful as hyper links are for
the communication of knowledge, they are but a
starting point for new applications that remembers
whatever you "search" for and then it keeps searching new web data and
sends you an e-mail when new information is found. Another application
goes into web sites looking for new data.
How long before the ever rising cost of gas finally bring about true
telecommuting ? Even if people want to go in to an office it might only
be 2 days a week. Better and more cost efficient communications
will lead to better matched car pooling. Educators who really want to
teach could do so for neighborhood kids who could walk home for lunch
with their parent(s).
Rather than highways getting wider all the time we may see
them shrink due to less and more efficient traffic. And when we
finally get around to automating the automobile the 50,000 of us killed
every year will survive and that may have a direct effect on you.
A Yogi Berra quote from Jerry Pearson's Oct. 1993 speech
...."When you come to a fork in the road, take it."
Next week's entry will be about some of the feedback I've had on this
blog...maybe.
Mitakuye Oyasin,(we are all related)
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9-16-2005
Canon City, Colorado
This week's blog entry was going to be on Web 2.0 and how words
like email, TV, fax, computer, telephone, cell phone, radio will soon
be obsolete; replaced by DI (digital interface). Remember
"telegraph"? But the web 2.0 entry will have to wait for
another day, instead this week's entry deals with "free will".
The cat woke me up about 5
AM , he wanted out, and I couldn't get back to sleep. Sometimes
reading helps quiet my mind.
My friend ben Yosef had
given me a copy of "Red Hat Speaks" and as I read I came across a
couple of things concerning "free will" that you might find of
interest.
Gandhi said, "Be the
change you wish to see in the world." We create our reality by our
actions, but things happen beyond our control and the only thing we are
left with is how we react to what happens to us. Acceptance of the
Creator's will is the purest form of "free will".
Acceptance allows us to
move from trying to be God and control our own little universe to being
with God . Its OK not to be in control , to judge ourselves and
others. We are truly free to enjoy the gift of life only when we
acknowledge that the only true control we have is over how we react to
things and people.
Acceptance of our own
weaknesses, our fears, must come before we can fully love
ourselves and others; otherwise we will judge ourselves and others as
being lacking and then the punishment starts.
I'm driving over to
TenRivers today, about 80 miles away. I haven't seen him in
awhile and I've missed our time together. He helps me to appreciate how
good life is and how my problems are small compared to the blessings in
my life.
Tomorrow is my wife's "Jam
and Pot Luck" day, a time of friends getting together to play music ,
eat and enjoy each other's company.
I hope you are happy and
that you are getting to spend time with your family and friends..it
goes by fast this life thing.
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9-9-2005
Canon City, Colorado
Skunked dogs and 90 day plus A/R; both smell.
This week's blog entry is about how to deal with skunked dogs and
90 day plus A/R.
It's been a few years since I've last had to deal with skunked dogs,
but this last Thursday 2 of the 3 dogs got sprayed.
The smallest dog, a five year old long haired miniature dachshund
who is known by a number of names including "Miss Ethyl Merman" , has
the distinction of being the only dog I've ever had that I can
outrun. She was also the more skunked of the two.
90 day plus A/R also smell bad. Not only do they have a negative effect
on cash flow, they also run a higher risk of ending up a bad debt write
off and if there is enough of them it can be a sign of
mismanagement.
The best way to deal with skunked dogs is to rub them down with a paste
made from a small box of baking soda,a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, and
a dash of dish washing detergent. Don't forget to rinse them off .
The best way to deal with 90 day plus A/R starts by trying to
avoid them in the first place by practicing good credit approval.
Determine "who" the customer is (type and time in
business), how they do business (P.O#, POD, A/P cycle, etc.), how
they check out (if a potential credit customer has never paid
anyone in the past you're not going to be the first).
And then weigh their "profile" and "past performance" against
your "product value at time of
sale" .
The foul odor of bad debt lingers long after the sweet
smell of huge margins wears off.
Then start contact and follow up on past dues early (3 to 5 days
after due date).
Four Steps in Completing the Sale: 1) Contact the person
who can tell you when you'll be paid and why payment
was not made by the due date 2) after you've worked on relationship
development , say to your friend (the customer) "Our
records show invoice number so and so dated so and so for blank
dollars as still being open, can you please help me with this?" 3) find
a solution to the reason given ( often past dues are tied to
something going wrong) 4) repeat your understanding of who is
going to do what ....follow up follow up .
Don't forget the 80/20 rule... 20% of the accounts may make up 80% of
the dollars...work the largest first.
Next week my blog entry is about Web 2.0 and how some words
are becoming obsolete.
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8-31-2005
Canon City Colorado
This week's blog entry falls under the category of "Hanging with the
Dogs"
"In a Rat Race the Rats Always Win"
It was early this last Sunday when the dogs and I made our way to the
patio. Me with my coffee and the Sunday Denver Post and the dogs
with their "good morning- good puppies" treats.
The front page story was about how United Airlines retirees' pensions
are being taken over by the government and how this means less money
for the retirees.
The front page story in the Business Sunday section was about how
Americans and America is drowning in debt. Gloom and doom, but
some interesting lessons.
First the story on "Have-it-all Habits Put Lien on America's
Future".
Long term obligations undertaken by the feds now equal $145K for every
man, woman, and child in the U.S....and it grows daily. Increasing debt
and record low savings means that if someone is dumb enough to listen
to Pat Robertson and "takes out" Chavez of Venezuela and if they,
Mexico, and others cut off the sale of oil to the U.S. (there are
plenty of other buyers) our overindulging lifestyle and world
would crash.
Or, if the rest of the world stops buying our IOUs, or if the
bottom falls out of the stock market (it's happened before) we'd
be unable to service our debts and obligations.
The gist of the story being that if Americans, and more specifically
U.S. Americans, don't stop buying stuff we really don't need with money
we really don't have ...we could be in a world of hurt.
On to the UA retirees; several and their stories were featured and
their stories were all uniform..we worked..they lied..we got taken.
One man featured is a 60 year old former pilot with two kids, 10
and 12. This man worked at United for 35 years and was earning $220,000
a year for trips that kept away from home 3 to 5 days a week. His
pension is $11,000 a month but once the government takes over it will
drop to $2300 a month.
The man is quoted as saying that he "sacrificed time with his kids
thinking he could catch up later".
Now, instead of spending more time with his family this man has taken
an other job that keeps him away 3 to 5 weeks at a time...more
time away than before. The story went on to say that the man has
$600,000 in a 401K and who knows how much in home equity,
savings and other assets.
KIDS ARE ONLY KIDS FOR A SHORT
TIME and adults for a long time.
And how long does a 60 year old think he is going to live?
The man blames the PBGC, United, Glenn Tilton the CEO who has
held on to $4,500,000 in a trust ; and he blames the pilots union.
"Its going to ruin people's lives, its not what we planned, it
will mean a lifestyle change", he is quoted to have said.
There are small towns in Iowa and other states that are losing
population. These are great places to raise kids and housing is cheap
or in some cases free, and where new families with children are
appreciated and welcomed. $2300 a month and close to a million
dollars in assets would go real far in such a place.
Who is ruining whose life?
Who makes us buy stuff/junk we don't really need? Who tells
young couples that they need a 3000 plus sq. ft. house with a
three car garage or they are failures? Who makes us sell a bit of
our soul...time with our children, for an SUV?
An American future where time with family and friends is more
highly thought of, where people live in smaller houses and drive
smaller cars , but have bigger
lives...Bring It On.
What do you think?
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8-23-2005 Canon City Colorado
This week's blog entry is titled "The Truth is Knowable, The Question
is How?"
Before I get into this week's entry I want to thank everyone who
responded to last week's entry on "Should CEOs and Senior Managers be
Term Limited?" There was some great feedback and as I sort
through it I will post it . Thank you.
"The Truth is knowable , the Question is How?"
If an action is repeated and each time the result is consistent then we
have a scientific
truth. A sincere feeling is true. A social truth deals with death and
taxes.
And the truth can set you free if its in the form of new DNA
evidence that overturns a wrongful conviction.
Telling the truth means corresponding with fact, with reality.
But who's reality? His Holiness, The Daily Lama says that there
are 61/2 billion of us humans and 61/2 billion different
realties. There are convent truths such as those voiced by politicians
prior to and then following elections.
Gandhi believed that God existed in absolute Truth. Absolute is a
powerful word that is not to be doubted , nor limited, nor restricted.
To be perfect, complete and positive is absolute.
Gandhi's goal in life was to see the face of God, to know absolute
Truth.
The closest he ever came to seeing the face of God, as he recalls in
his autobiography "My Experiments with the Truth",
was during a train trip. It happened in India years after he'd
gained worldwide fame for his "peaceful non-cooperation" campaign in
South Africa.
Gandhi had to travel between two cities for an important meeting and
had chosen to travel 3rd class. He was world famous and highly thought
of by the people of India and he had just ended a fast to atone
for wrongs committed by those he'd trusted, they had stolen some money,
and so he was weak. He could have traveled first class but he chose 3rd
class.
Third class travel meant no seating, no clean drinking water and no
toilets on what were often hours long trips. Third class
was reserved for the victims of what Gandhi had come to see
as the greatest sin of Hindu society, the caste system. In this
evil system the lowest caste members and their children were forever
doomed to an inhuman existence. They were considered to be
sub-human and were so treated.
As Gandhi tried to board the 3rd class car he was pushed aside by the
bigger and the stronger. As the train left the station he had a porter
shove him through a window.
I try to imagine what that must have been like , a skinny little man
crashing into that crowded mass of unkempt humanity, the stench, the
insults flung at this little man with legs like an old
rooster. Gandhi writes that he was given barely enough room to
stand and for hours he bore the ugly comments directed his
way...comments meant to diminish his person and his soul.
He was about to faint when someone recognized him and word spread
through the car that the Mahatma, the old soul, the great soul,
was with them. Gandhi writes that he was given enough space to
lie down, water to drink and food to eat and that he could feel the
love and affection of these people who themselves had never known
a kindness, who were condemned to an earthly hell.
It was then that Gandhi came closest to seeing the face of God, of Love.
Truth is right and wrong is untruthful; it comes down to how we define
right and wrong.
In a future blog entry I'll write about the method that Ben
Franklin used to determine right and wrong...but not today.
What do you think?
*****************************************************************
08-18-2005
Canon City, Colorado
Welcome to Walking and Talking Bear's blog.
In this, my first entry I'm going to address a business topic that may
cause some to have a negative knee jerk reaction. My intent is to get
people to think outside their normal box. To question what is
best for their
companies, and for themselves.
The topic of the entry is "Should CEOs and Senior Managers Be Term
Limited?"
A future entry will be about, "When is Enough Enough and What is the
Cost of Too Much".
Beside business topics I'll also be writing about "Lessons From
History" ,"The 6th Circle; Conversations with Gandhi, Brightnose, ben
Yosef and Ten Rivers", and my favorite, "Hanging With the Dogs".
"Should CEOs and Senior Managers Be Term Limited?"
James Russell Lowell (1819 to1891) wrote, "He who is firmly seated in
authority soon learns to think security and not progress".
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 to 1882) in essays on Self-Reliance wrote, "A
foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by
little statesmen and philosophers and divines."
Do our fears form our perspective, our view of reality which drives
decisions and processes?
The call was from the CEO and owner of a west coast company and he had
a question about a $250,000 past due account. He told me the story
about how the customer was ducking him and wanted to know what I
thought he should do. After we'd talked about the account I asked him
if he was stressed. "Do I sound stressed?" , he asked. "Yes". I said.
This man then went on to tell me how he gets up at 5:30 every morning,
hits the "club" for a workout, is at his desk by 7:00AM and works until
7:00 PM. "Why?". I asked.
He went on to tell me how besides the big house in the city he also had
a mountain home, a boat, and other expensive toys to pay for, insure
and
maintain.
The call was from the Operations VP of a company with 8 locations, A
sharp young man in his mid thirties, he'd started with the company when
he was 18 and they only had 1 location. His story was one I've
heard before. The owner of the company was one of those guys who
thinks he is smarter than his employees..proof of that being that he
was the boss. It didn't hurt any that before him his father in law was
the
boss.
This key manager, the operations VP, had been
offered a better job by a competitor and he was torn between
leaving the company he'd worked so hard to help grow or staying in a
situation where the boss didn't listen to what others thought.
Following a presentation I did for an international business group in
Las Vegas, a line formed of people who wanted a little one on one time.
In that line I could see two Japanese men, a younger man and an older
man. The older man left the line before they got to me and when the
younger one got to me he asked, "How can I get senior management to see
the need for change?"
A recent issue of Time Magazine , in the business section, had a story
about how Best Buy had gone to flex time. One of the people quoted was
a VP who said that when his children were young he didn't see much of
them, but that with flex time he had the chance to spend time with his
grandchildren.
Humans are creatures of habit and if we walk a rut long enough it
becomes a trench. At the point where we are entrenched we have a
limited view of things, and a limited life.
Life is a cycle starting with that time in our lives when we are
infants, creatures of emotion that survive by being loved and giving
love. Then we become adolescences and we enter a time of
selfish growth, of testing ourselves and those
who for some reason still love us. If we are lucky we survive to become
adults with children to care for and to love. Elderhood, the final
stage is at its best a time of giving, of taking care of the
generations yet to come.
How many rooms can we live in at a time? How many awards do we
need hanging on our walls?
Should CEOs and senior business managers , for their own
good and the good of their companies, become something more?
What do you think?
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