Honesty is hardly ever heard

Sorry to steal a line from an old Billy Joel song, but it is true … honesty is a vanishing commodity. I recently had someone apologize for being so honest, and it got me wondering … can we really be too honest? And why is honesty something that everyone says they cherish until it is given to them as a gift?

It seems in this world we all try to be Politically Correct (PC) and end up being Emotionally Incorrect. When we are being PC we are trying to “minimize offense” which seems to imply that we are attempting to minimize honesty. And why are we attempting to minimize honesty?

Well, in today’s world it seems that many conversations have an agenda, and that agenda is the main focus of the words and images we use in the conversation. So we custom-craft our words so as to forward our agenda and “minimize offense” to the other party … because being offensive would hurt our agenda.

What would the world look like if we all had the internal courage to say the truth while forwarding our agenda? What does that internal courage look like? Are other people’s points of view, emotional baggage and overarching power enough to keep our tounges still from saying the truth and having that internal courage?

In fact, when someone does speak the truth, damned be the consequences, we usually applaud that person for having courage and for saying what everyone else was afraid to say: And in that saying … in that truth ... lies power. Being afraid of telling the truth is being afraid of … everything.

So I say tell the truth, be clear in your vision … tell the truth without directly harming others … but tell the truth and see what you get in return.

As Clarence Darrow said “Chase after the truth like all hell and you'll free yourself, even though you never touch its coattails.”

See you on the wire

Steven

Clarity of Vision

In my last post, I talked about "clarity of vision" and related that to being pure ... seeing the truth without the distortion of denial. I took this idea and walked it through with a friend and started thinking what clarity of vision really means.

And we came up with what I consider a pretty good definition:

clarity of vision - A single articulated point of view that is difficult to misinterpret

Of course since I'm in the business world, I related that to business, and basically came up with the elevator pitch -

Netflix - No late fees
Southwest - Fly instead of drive (Southwest started competing against Greyhound buses)
Amazon - The worlds biggest book store
43Things - 43 things to do before I die

All of these companies and concepts have one thing in common - A single statement that drives their entire purpose. Now executing on those statements is difficult, but nonetheless important.

So, I ask you ... what is your "clear vision" ... for you? Personally? Professionally? They are tough to find, but once you find one ... and it rings true for other people, I think you have struck gold.

See you on the wire

Steven Cardinale

The definition of purity

A friend and I have been recently talking about purity, and what that means: Is Madonna pure? How about Paris Hilton? Brad Pitt? George Clooney? Barack Obama?

Are politicians pure? What about Hollywood? Wall Street?

When I say purity, my friend likes to say "your definition of pure ... right?" Well maybe. And of course since I've been looking at purity the following Rolex ad just caught my attention -


And right in the middle of the ad, it talks about "absolute purity"


Now, I know what Rolex is talking about ... they are talking about removing as many impurities out of their process as possible.

When I talk about purity, I don't mean in the good vs. bad way, I mean in the clarity of vision way - with the following dictionary.com definitions -

* free from foreign of inappropriate elements
* without any discordant quality; clear and true
* being that and nothing else
* independent of sense or experience

I mean the way Wall Street is pure (make more money tomorrow than today and you're still in the game), the way Hollywood is pure (as long as the grosses don't go down, you are our star), and the way strip clubs are pure (the dancer is not going to do anything but dance, and I'm not getting married to the dancer).

So my definition of purity is "to see the truth without any distortion." Basically to not live in a state of denial and to see the truth in reality. Tough to do, but amazing clarity of vision when it happens.

Of course the real question comes from the Rolex ad: how close to "absolute purity" can we get?

See you on the wire

Steven Cardinale

Initial Thoughts

I'm starting ... or have started ... this blog simply to express my thoughts about a wide range of topics: A range too generic to cover any specific category like business, technology, etc. Rather this blog is more of a stream of consciousness type blog where I can talk about everything from the antics of Paris Hilton to Buddhist philosophy.

Of course, since I am a business and innovation guy, I'm sure these topics will end up having some cross over to the business world. But I'll try to stay away from business specific items.

Hope you enjoy my rants ...

See you on the wire ...

Steven Cardinale