Archive for January, 2008

I have the greatest respect for Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple, as a visionary corporate leader. As a communicator, he is among the best.

BusinessWeek’s Carmine Gallo examined Jobs’ recent speech at Macworld and shares a ten-part outline on how to “wow” an audience.

The dynamic of perception is so interesting to watch, and sometimes, it is allowed to influence reality. Today’s headlines suggest economic hard times ahead … a downturn in the economy, and possibly recession. All over the subprime lending “crisis.”

And, what is it based on? Bad business choices by banks that had hoped for great financial gain by lending money in the form of home mortgages to people who lacked the means to repay them. The debt was sold to subprime lenders and fueled by greed. When people defaulted, everyone turned to the government for a bailout and ran around like a bunch of Chicken Littles, crying the sky was falling.

But, here’s the rub – the loans were backed by real collateral: houses, real estate. The only real injury here is to lenders who had hoped for a quick buck.

The economy of the U.S. is strong … unless we allow some people to manipulate perception that things are worse than they really are.

Seems I haven’t posted anything new for about a month. Several reasons — work demands at my day job of consulting, revamping BoomerCafé, now in its 9th year and the most popular online magazine for baby boomers with active lifestyles; the holidays; and, I am restraining myself from saying much more about the political campaigns.

To the latter, I have written that the American people will respond better to a message-driven approach by a politician, rather than a more inward consultant-driven style, as is the case with Clinton and others. Nearly all the politicians persist in cluelessly talking about themselves. Here’s a hint — nobody gives a damn whether you are ready for the White House … what are you going to do to fix our nation?

Obama and Huckabee are the only candidates with credible messages, in my opinion, that are focused on what voters care about. Everyone else is talking about themselves.