Creativity, is it dead?

So in the IT sales business it is important to take the same solution and sell it over and over.

Recently I have watched several TV shows that are lacking creativity.

First is Knight Rider. The new one. I really enjoyed the first one with David Hasselhoff. The high tech stuff, computers and such. Now the new one is so predictable. KITT (The Car) can transform into virtually anything. What is hard about fighting crime if you have a tool that will do anything? Anyway, Michael is after some bad guy that stole some secret. The show has to have a girl in distress, somehow the car has some mechanical issue, there is a "SPY" party. You know, the tux, gambling and dancing. Then the hero comes through and a high speed chase. Pretty much no change in the formula. How boring.

Then is Chuck. Similar story. Geek wants hot girl, Super cool spy gets hot girl. Geek disappointed. There is the "SPY" party, and Geeks saves the day. HOW BORING

OH yea, I forgot that most of these people have a way of doing things that no one could ever possibly do. You know get blown up and live, jump 3 stories and run and know some type of karate that beats everyone.

And pretty much every show these days has some type of technology that is impossible. Holographs, cars that talk, voice recognition that works, artificial intelligence and so on.

So I am a bit down on entertainment today. I will just turn on my 3d glasses and enter the holadeck.

Clearly the networks have good marketing, I have wasted hours on their terrible television.

Its like watching fire!

Have you ever been in a trace watching a fire? In the fireplace, at a bon fire?

The same can be said about watching it rain (Or hearing rain on the house) I think that these things are what relax me. After a certain amount of time it is nice to have a nice rain storm.

It is important to know what calms you down. When you get all stirred up, seek these things out. (Clearly I can't make it rain...Yet)

Product placement?

So another rainy Sunday. Football and movies. I had a chance to watch Ironman. I would give it 3 1/2 stars. It was ok.

Interesting thing I noticed that I have not seen in some time was the strong (And obvious) product placement. First was Burger King. " I have to have a burger before... ' It was completely out of place and really not part of the movie. Then on the bag (Showed several times) the BK logo. Then there was the Audi endorsement. He could drive classic cars, lambo's and such are in the garage, however every scene it was possible he drove the Audi with the obnoxiously large logo.

I am used to the Cisco phones located everywhere! Others are catching up.

Does this type of advertising work? I think it does. I have been craving BK since.

Pumpkin Patch

What a great time. Boys went on a hay rack ride, see the animals (Chickens, goat and rabbits) and go through the maze. Really a low cost outing.

Jenifer wanted to go to the other pumpkin patch in Dorrance. In my opinion the commercialized patch. Pay for a train ride (Little carts pulled by a tractor), Pay for maze, Pay for pumpkins, Pay for petting zoo, pay for smores (You cook for yourself) and everything! Plus pay to drive the 45 min there.

What are YOU DOING?

The media is asking that quite a bit right now.

What are you doing to secure your financial future?
What are you doing to protect yourself from the recession?
What are you doing to secure your kids financial future?
What are you doing to protect your community from the recession?
What are we going to do in these "Terrible" financial times?

I have to be honest, the media has created a self fulfilling prophecy. If all every one talks about, looks for and sees is financial problems they will come true.

It even has my wife asking "What are you doing?"

I have to ask the same question. What are you doing to show confidence in the market? What are you doing to look for the positive things. What are you doing to change things up?

More lessons in Golf

Spent a little time on the golf course yesterday. I really didn't have much focus the first 9. It showed. Poor shots, bad decisions and all around pathetic performance. After the first 9 however I had 3 par's in a row and it really came together.

I think that this is why you need focus in business. Without it you really have no goal, your wandering around the business course spraying shots and really achieving nothing. If anything you are still putting in lots of work, just no results.

This is also why you keep score. If you don't you can feel like your getting somewhere but when you check the score you just did average? Score isn't just to see who won, it is also to better yourself.

You can't teach common sense!

I have hear the term Book smart. I would refer to myself as more street smart. In fact I would prefer common sense. It is no secret that I struggled with the book smart. How interesting that now some of my most favorite TV and books are history and discovery? When I graduated college is when I think I started learning.

Sometimes I see things that seem basic and obvious, however some of the smartest people I know do the most stupid things.

I would love to figure out a way to measure common sense. I think that most "Good" Sales people are rich in this area.