A curious case of Campbell

Don't run - it can smell your fear

The B.S. to Reward Ratio

There are two types of salespeople in the car business today. I don’t mean good or bad. I don’t honest or dishonest. I mean avoidant or aggressive. You might think that, by definition, all salespeople are aggressive and I have made that mistake myself. You are probably an aggressive thinker, like me. See if you agree with this. 


There are two types of salespeople in the car business today. One type wants make as much money as they possibly can, deliver as many units as they can and go as far as they can in their career. The other type wants to make as much money as they can and deliver as many units as they can, for the least amount of work. 


They are masters of the B.S.-to-Reward-Ratio. They ride that particularly easy to find line between coasting and catching up. Now the first type.....what? B.S.? Bad Stress, of course. And, while we are on the topic, notice that the B.S. always comes before the money in this ratio. 


Now the first type of salesperson is extremely rare. So rare that they get special treatment. They get their own schedule, but they never take off. They always have an up and they rarely “need help”. They bring you completed deal jackets before you put a number on their trade-in. The other type of salesperson are the ones that make managers possible. If you are a manager, guess which ones you have. 


You see, the B.S.-to-Reward-Ratio is the most dominant dynamic in business today.  In my opinion, how much professional B.S. one will tolerate is a more direct factor on your earning potential than your education. I’m know many of my friends with degrees would agree. I know many of my friends in sales would agree as well. 


Some of you may agree, that this important ratio was trouble from both ends.  It seems for the last 5 years in particular, that the rewards are dropping while the B.S. is piling up. 

The Big Bounce - warning: post coffee read only.

 

Yeah - so skip that last story (from October) I didn't finish; not interesting. 

Today - well this may not be interesting either, it has me fascinated. 

Am I the only one that assumed that our Big Bang was not the first one? 

From the Scientific American article:  http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=big-bang-or-big-bounce

  • Einstein's general theory of relativity says that the universe began with the big bang singularity, a moment when all the matter we see was concentrated at a single point of infinite density. But the theory does not capture the fine, quantum structure of spacetime, which limits how tightly matter can be concentrated and how strong gravity can become. To figure out what really happened, physicists need a quantum theory of gravity.
  • According to one candidate for such a theory, loop quantum gravity, space is subdivided into "atoms" of volume and has a finite capacity to store matter and energy, thereby preventing true singularities from existing.
  • If so, time may have extended before the bang. The prebang universe may have undergone a catastrophic implosion that reached a point of maximum density and then reversed. In short, a big crunch may have led to a big bounce and then to the big bang.

Ok - so that was super geeky - and you didn't read the whole article. But, you get the point - enough to picture it maybe. 

Then check this out - from 'lazypedia'...

Turritopsis nutricula is a hydrozoan with a life cycle in which it reverts to the polyp stage after becoming sexually mature. It is the only known case of a metazoan capable of reverting completely to a sexually immature, colonial stage after having reached sexual maturity as a solitary stage. It does this through the cell development process of transdifferentiation. Theoretically, this cycle can repeat indefinitely, rendering it effectively immortal

Say what now? 

Jellyfish usually die after propagating, however the Turritopsis nutricula has developed the ability to return to a polyp state. This is done through a cell change in the external screen (Exumbrella). The ability to reverse the life cycle is probably unique in the animal kingdom, and allows the jellyfish to bypass death, rendering theTurritopsis nutricula effectively immortal.

So, if you are still reading then this next comment is certainly in context: I'm starting to believe that the universe is itself - at it lowest common denominator - one giant, beautiful fractal. 

Crystal ball

Some weeks back, I watched the Couric interview with Palin. I thought then that the Couric interview was the beginning of the end for the Republican ticket. I felt smart.


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In 2004, Ed Norton was inspired by Obama's convention speech. He began a documentary of his life and rise, all in secret. The validation Ed must feel only comes around once in a decade or so. 

From ecorazzi.com: Long before President-elect Barack Obama had even made up his mind to run for the highest office in the land, Edward Norton and his Class 5 Films production company were already documenting the Senator’s life. The 39-year-old actor said that he became inspired by Obama’s 2004 speech at the National Democratic Convention and felt inspired to capture someone from his generation — and not his parent’s — inspiring so many and rising in leadership.

“At the time, he was the new senator from Illinois,” Norton told Variety earlier this year. “None of us had voted for him or contributed to his campaigns. None of us was saying, ‘I want to back this guy for president.’ It was more this generational experience, of seeing someone we felt represented us in a very unique and fresh way, and the desire to explore what would happen to the first person our age who staked a claim to national leadership.”

Since 2006 — starting with Obama’s trip to Africa — Norton and his team have had the cameras rolling every step of the way. The whole project was kept fairly secret — since neither the campaign nor Norton wanted it to fuel any criticism of Obama’s ‘celebrity’. Last month, Norton spoke briefly about the project to the Vancouver Sun saying, “We’re making a historical record, not something to play a role in the election. So we have an agreement with [the campaign] that we won’t talk about this, or publicize it until the election is over. I can’t talk about access [but] it’s a fascinating thing to document.”

What an amazing hunch to run with documenting Obama — from before he declared his candidacy to last night’s acceptance of the Presidency! Such a historical record of those behind-the-scenes events is certainly priceless.

Of course, you can bet this footage to carry some kind of price. Back in August, it was reported that HBO was highly interested in snagging the rights to the footage. Their initial plans were to air the series within the first ‘100 days of the Obama Presidency’; provided he win. Mission accomplished.

So — stay tuned. We may have witnessed history last night, but we’ll also be privy to the behind-the-scenes two years of effort and drama it took to get there. Thanks to Edward Norton for having the foresight to document the ride.

 

'One Word Truth' is the new black

I have been in sales, of one sort or another, since 1991; 17 years for those scoring at home. This is neither long nor short, in my view. It is quite a long time for a man of 39, though. I mean, for a guy who has had fifty-leven bazillion jobs - keeping them generally pointed the same way is something quite near to pride for me. And pride, for salespeople, is a primary motivator.

People choose sales as a wind-up job; they 'wind-up' doing it as a 'best option forward' type of decision. For example, if you ask any second grader what they want to do when they grow up - don't bet on 'salesman' to rank in the top 5...ok, top 50. You see, there are no 'hero' salespeople. Sure, there are heros to salespeople, but none are heros to anyone else.

'Next on Channel 5 news, salesman saves the day' is not a common tease prior to the requisite commercial break.

No, sales is a job/career for those who have lost their child-like wonder in the world. Once, we realize that we are not going to be Superman or a Fire Chief or an Astronaut, sales comes down to one major factor.

I call that factor the 'Bullshit to Money Ratio'.

Somewhere in my first job as a Potato Bar Engineer/Drive Though Host at a Rax restaurant (anybody remember Rax?) my competitive nature kicked in. I wanted to bag my order faster, make my potato prettier - use a friendly voice with my customer when I served that now cliched query: do you want fries with that? Then, sadly, when my manager did not recognize nor participate actively in the manifestation of my personal greatness - when they did not build, from the ground up, my very own Rax restaurant and bequeath it to me immediately, I responded - with all the entitlement I could muster, 'that's Bullshit.' I took the only reasonable course of action available to our 16 year old, budding hero, I got a job waiting tables.

Tips, my boy, tips are what you want to work for. Fear not the slave wage of $2.13 an hour - for you have the power of charm and wit - powered by a sense of urgency and a natural talent for consolidation, you now qualify for a sliding scale of 10 - 20% of your diner's check - in cold, hard cash, right in your pocket at the end of every shift. Oh sweet mystery of life at last I've found you - holla dolla, dolla bill, y'all.

Oh, yes. The sweet seduction of the 'Bullshit to Money Ratio'. It's siren song swept me through the ranks of epicurean servitude until it spat me, unfulfilled out the other side - head waiter in the fanciest of the shmanciest restaurant in the whole damn, 'little pond' that was my life until then.

Then into the life of every waiter must fall the gentle rain of reflection. For me, it went something like this, "ummm.....if I am a waiter at this time next year, I believe I might jam my wine key into my skull until I pull out that part of my brain that gives a shit about my life."

More to come.....

Noah Kalina (6 years pic everyday guy) just got SCHOOLED

Just goes to show you, be humble. No matter how cool, creative and awesome you think you are, somebody, somewhere will go all schooly-dooly™ on yer ass.


Legal notice: 'Schooly-dooly™ is a trademark of Lane 'Curious' Campbell and is not approved for commercial use without the written, express permission of moi and a hundred-pound bag of hundred dollar bills.....y'all.

Finally - a useful virus

It has been said that politicians use lies to obscure truth; artists tell lies to show truth. 

Perhaps our politicians should be forced to write their own damn speeches and read them to their mother or father; their children perhaps.  

If you can't look your parents in the eye or explain your speech to your kids, then you are not allowed to say it to me and you are damn sure not allowed to do it to my country. 

Listen_to_yourself