Pete Geissler

Founder & Author, The Expressive Press

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Is a Bribe Always a Conflict of Interest?

Yes, in my view.

Conflicts of interests rear their unethical heads whenever personal interests influence, or appear to influence, official duties.  Now substitute ‘Bribes’ for ‘Conflicts of Interests’. The meaning hasn’t changed.

In my previous blog, I related how Dow Jones tried to influence two professors with steaks, hoping to influence future purchases of publications; and I related how my client tried to influence me to buy his wife an expensive set of dishes in return for additional business.  Both were conflicts of interests and bribes.

Conflicts and bribes extend beyond expensive gifts. A Bishop placed political signs in his yard, hoping to influence, aka bribe, voters to pull the same levers as he does. In doing so, he ventured far beyond his official duties and blatantly fractured a timeless political principle, the separation of church and state.

A top manger hired his wife as a Vice President, justifying his actions by saying that she is the most qualified candidate, bypassing and eroding the morale of others in the firm who were more experienced and equally or more qualified.  He might be correct, but he exuded the appearance of nepotism, a peculiar type of ethical failure that is sure to enrich his family’s coffers.

A related anecdote: A high school soccer coach played his son a disproportionately high number of minutes, eroding the morale of other players. Was it ethical for him to do so? Should he have played his son fewer minutes?  Assuming his son was an outstanding athlete, would either course of action be ethical?

These kinds of ethical dilemmas are unethical requests from authority figures, and they raise serious questions:  Does the authority figure have the right to act as he/she did?   Does the act comply with the stated ethics and other policies of the organization?  Is what the authority figure is trying to accomplish self-serving?

You can find answers to these questions, as well as a plethora of interesting anecdotes of ethical and unethical behaviors, in The Power of Ethics, the book I wrote with perhaps the nation’s most insightful ethicist, Bill O’Rourke. I‘m betting that you’ll particularly enjoy reading about Bill’s anti-ethics experiences as President, Alcoa Russia.  It’s a fascinating turnaround story of the triumph of principles over pressure from a corrupt state.

  Photo :  http://reputationalcompliance.com/ethics

Is a Bribe Always a Conflict of Interest? was originally published on The Expressive Press

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Ethics, Dignity, and Conflicts of Interests

“People struggle with conflicts of interests; they just don’t get it. Yet it’s the most common ethical dilemma.” So says Dr. Bradley Agle, the George W. Romney Endowed Professor at Brigham Young University and the co-author of the first ever field guide to ethical behavior. He relates a recent event to prove the point: “A colleague and I each received a box of steaks worth about $250 from Dow Jones, the publisher of the popular stock market averages and The Wall Street Journal. The steaks were, on the surface, a harmless ‘thank you’ for buying literally hundreds of subscriptions for students. “My colleague used the steaks to host a backyard barbeque; I sent mine to the local food bank, and I’m no vegan. Why? Accepting the steaks could very well compromise my objective judgment in the future. I might favor Dow Jones when another supplier might be more appropriate … a clear conflict of their interest in selling more publications to me and my interest in buying the best publications for my students. “It’s also bribery and insulting. I am insulted that Dow Jones would think so little of my character that I would accept a bribe. I see no dignity in that.” I ran into a similar ethical dilemma a few years ago. After lunching with a client (an acceptable form of bribery in today’s business world?), he suggested that we look at the fine china at a nearby boutique, noting that he and his wife were in the market for new place settings. As we strolled through the many displays, he pointed to one particularly expensive set and said, “My wife would love that.” The conflict was clear: He wanted to save a few hundred dollars at the expense of his reputation, and I wanted to book more of his business, at the expense of my reputation. I recognized the bait, but didn’t bite. Instead, I told the story to several other clients in the same firm, and they reacted as I hoped: “It’s about time somebody gave the comeuppance to that shyster. He tarnishes all of our reputations.” He never asked me to work for him again, but others in the company showered me with work. I can look at myself in the mirror, and I hope that he can as well. Do you think that he can? Are all bribes conflicts of interests?

  Photo : http://www.reuters.com/dowjones

Ethics, Dignity, and Conflicts of Interests was originally published on The Expressive Press

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The Fourth Habit of Successful Writers

Start early; let your subconscious smarts kick in and do the hard work.

I absolutely guarantee that this one habit will raise your productivity and the quality of your writing, in turn raising your value to your employer and clients.

Many of my students, colleagues at the university where I taught, and clients don’t believe me. They actually think that tight deadlines accelerate the creative process and the writing itself. They don’t believe me when I tell them that I spend twenty percent fewer hours to complete an assignment if I have time to cogitate than when I don’t, and my clients and I are happier with the final document.

Why?

Your subconscious mind is the root of the great ideas that help to separate good from bad writing and thinking.

You need time to develop your ideas, i.e. to expand and support them by answering why your ideas are good or bad, and how you know. Ask yourself why and how seven times before you are satisfied that your ideas are fully developed.  Perhaps Isaac Asimov said it best:”When I feel difficulty coming on, I switch to another book I’m writing. When I get back to the problem, my subconscious has solved it.”

Your recorder is your most valuable bed and bath partner, so put one within easy reach and spit out those great ideas that come to you in the middle of the night or while taking a shower.  Carry your recorder when walking the dog, driving—doing anything during which your mind isn’t fully occupied. Use it to record thoughts after a meeting, an idea from a conversation, a TV show.

Stuff your mind with your writing—or any creative dilemma– before going to bed and watch the dilemma go away.

Photo: https://italicsmine.com/

The Fourth Habit of Successful Writers was originally published on The Expressive Press

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Squishy Ethics? You Decide

Several readers of my previous blog regarding squishy ethics asked:

“If you’re so certain that Pittsburgh‘s school board should fire the new school superintendent for plagiarism, why did you not fire a college student for the same ethical breach?

I had, and still have, my reasons. Please tell me if you feel that they are valid or not.

First, when I confronted my student, aka Jose to simplify the story and to protect his identity for obvious reasons,  he was genuinely repentant and, although he had read the university’s policies, his culture is so different from ours that he didn’t understand them.

Second, Jose comes from a middle-class family in a very poor country. I figured that his parents had sacrificed a great deal to send him to Pittsburgh for an advanced degree, and I didn’t want them to lose their investment.

Perhaps more important, I did not want Jose to lose his reputation with his family, friends, and former teachers.  I figured that he’d be hard pressed to explain why he was expelled to the people who had trusted and supported him emotionally and financially.

Perhaps most important of all, I recognized a bright young man who is dedicated to improving the environment. He once told me: “The water and air in my country are so foul that they are unhealthy, and, unlike the United States, we’re not rich enough to clean them anywhere near as much as needed. I want to help in some small way to save the Earth, and to do so I have a job with your equivalent to the EPA when I return.”

The dean and I agreed to bend the rules with a caveat: study the university’s polices and talk to one of us about any that he did not understand.

Jose graduated and he emailed me from his home to tell me that he loved his job and had started a family.  He emails me on my birthdays to wish me well and thank me for believing in his integrity. I email him and ooh and ah over pictures of his kids.

Bill O’Rourke and I make two points in our book, The Power of Ethics, that I think justify my actions: bend the rules prudently but never beak them, and the world needs ethics ambassadors such as Jose.

Your thoughts?

Photo :mpaethicsblog.com

Squishy Ethics? You Decide was originally published on The Expressive Press

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There Really Is a Free Lunch

Just ask Rocky, the squirrel and Mopsy, Topsy, and Raggedy, the bunnies.

These four freeloaders live happily on, under, and around my backyard patio. You may not find that remarkable until I tell you that a brick wall separates the patio from a busy, noisy, fumy city street by a mere six feet. I guess you could say that my patio is their safe haven, a mini wildlife preserve.

It’s also a fabulous lunch counter. Yeah, I feed them and I know that maybe I shouldn’t.  But, tell me, could you resist a squirrel that fearlessly strides up to you, stands on the toe of a shoe while grasping the bottom of your trousers, and looks in your eyes with an obvious plea for calories and preemptive thanks?

I can’t, so I drop a few of his favorite corn chips. Rocky takes them one by one to his designated and private picnic spot under my one apple tree and gleefully holds a chip as he munches, his jaw twitching so fast that it seems to vibrate more than chew. Life is good.  When will he ask for beer?

My three bunnies are newcomers to the lunch counter.  Born three weeks ago as I write this, they are so small that they could fit into the palm of my hand, and it appears that mom has flown the hutch. I am their savior.

I feed my bunnies a mixed salad of dandelion and other greens that I pluck from the nearby park twice a day, to be sure that the greens are fresh and crisp.  Passersby look at me with a mixture of curiosity and pity, and I am waiting for one to give me the cash needed to buy a proper salad.

My bunnies love their lunch, courtesy of the city.  I love giving it to them, but I hope that they will leave my patio when they are old and large enough to survive crossing busy city streets and the wild critters that live covertly in city parks.

Several readers of my previous blog about Rocky suggested that I write a children’s book about this friendly and enterprising squirrel. Now I can add three characters. Do you think I should write the book?

Photo: vintageprintable.com

There Really Is a Free Lunch was originally published on The Expressive Press

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The Eight Habits of Successful Writers

In my book, The Power of Writing Well, I list eight habits of successful writers. The eighth: Find your most congenial/comfortable/productive time and place.

You can’t compose a proper document if you’re distracted for any reason such as noise, quiet, hunger,   a caffeine fit, and so on.

Not long ago I decided to write the Great American Novel that I had firmly planted in my mind. Because I had read about so many writers who did their best work in the silence of deep woods, I rented a cabin in the forested mountains just East of Pittsburgh. When I arrived, I unloaded my laptop and toothbrush and decided to be amazingly creative and productive.

Bull*!@#.

I was so accustomed to the noises of the city–the up and down hum of traffic, the occasional siren of a police car or fire truck, the rare blare of a bullhorn– that, after twenty minutes hobnobbing with the squirrels and chipmunks, I jumped in my car and raced to the nearest and noisiest jazz joint. I am uncomfortable and distracted by quiet.

I should have known. For years, whenever I needed to come up with a great idea or write a knotty speech, I’d grab my laptop and head for the nearest bar.  I played that scene so often that the manager of one bar screwed a brass plaque into a table that declared it ‘Pete’s Place’. Quite an honor, eh?

Nadine Gordimer, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature, is my clone when it comes to finding the right spot–almost. Faced with a writing dilemma, she finds a busy coffee shop. The background noise forces her to concentrate on the task at hand.

Bernard Malamud, the author of many fine novels and short stories, disagrees: “You write by sitting down and writing. There’s no particular time and place–you suit yourself, your nature. How one works, assuming he’s disciplined, doesn’t matter.”

Agreed.

You can read about all eight t of the habits in my book. Or you can read my next blog, in which I’ll dig into my personal favorite: start early, and let your subconscious smarts do the heavy lifting.

Photo : http://goodcontent.com/writer

The Eight Habits of Successful Writers was originally published on The Expressive Press

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The Big Voting Scam Your Legislators Want (but Say They Don't)

Gerrymandering, also known as redistricting is The Big Scam.

It’s been The Big Scam in the USA since 1812, when Eldridge Gerry, 1744-1814, a signer of our Declaration of Independence and Governor of Massachusetts, established voting districts that assured that he and his party cronies were elected and e-elected ad nauseum. Since then, the cancer of gerrymandering has metastasized to all fifty states and to dozens of other countries that allow their citizens to vote, among them Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Greece, and Ireland.

The primary purpose of this nefarious political ploy is to maximize the effects of supporters’ votes and minimize the effects of opponents’ votes. It enables legislators of either party to create, every ten years in the USA in conjunction with a new census, voting districts with complex shapes that are packed with voters who are loyal to a specific party, thus assuring that candidates of that party will carry the district and be elected.

 The practice enables legislators to pick voters, rather than voters to pick legislators, and creates an unfair advantage for one party that is legal, but is surely unethical and discriminatory. In my book, The Power of Ethics, I point out that “the old adage, if it ain’t illegal it must be ethical, is deeply flawed. Ethics and the law are as different as the enforceable and unenforceable.”

Nevertheless, legislators in power embrace gerrymandering with the enduring enthusiasm of self-interest.

For example, the majority party in the Pennsylvania legislature, now Republicans, tends to favor gerrymandering; their members can control the way districts are drawn and, therefore, help assure their majority. The minority party, however, tends to see gerrymandering as unfair, but, in a classic, hypocritical flip-flop that both parties have practiced, will advocate it should they become the majority.

Given the huge incentive for being elected or re-elected, gerrymandering seems to be embedded in our political system. It needn’t be.

Transferring responsibility for redistricting from legislators to an independent, non-partisan body can minimize the effects of gerrymandering. A dozen or so states have appointed independent panels to study current districts to determine if they encompass an equal number of voters of either party. Theoretically, legislatures will then correct imbalances. This remedy has proven effective in other countries and can be most acceptable to legislators.

You can help to eliminate gerrymandering. If you agree with the above, contact your legislators and tell them that you want to eliminate gerrymandering so that your vote will influence upcoming elections.

Photo: http://all-len-all.com/Gerrymander

The Big Voting Scam Your Legislators Want (but Say They Don’t) was originally published on The Expressive Press

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The Seven Myths of Writing, Part Two

I was discussing the myth of multi-tasking with my class at the Graduate School of Environmental Science and Management, Duquesne University, and one student argued quite vehemently that it is not only possible, but that it is a fine way to boost productivity.

As I continued teaching, I noticed that he was reading ahead in the text. I stopped talking and, ten seconds or so later, he sensed the silence and looked up. I asked him his opinion about the topic at hand, and he blushed and stammered and finally admitted that he wasn’t paying attention and had no idea what that might be. I asked him why he wasn’t multi-tasking.

Silence.  I’m sure that he and others in the class got the point.

I read recently that drivers who are tweeting or talking on their phones cause more and more traffic accidents and deaths, which I think of as further proof that multitasking is a myth.

BTW, I ask my students at engineering consulting companies to not read ahead in the text, but some do anyway. When I spot them, I generally stop teaching and tell the tale of my student at Duquesne.

I also tell this tale on myself. I was engrossed in writing the opening lines of a short story when I decided that I needed to eat, and only scrambled eggs would calm my rumbling tummy. I cracked two eggs on the side of the frying pan and dropped the edibles in the disposal and the shells in the pan, then started to cook them before realizing my gastronomical error.

Friends to whom I told that story shrug it off as old age at work or play. Nope. I’m still a young buck, or at least am a good imitation of one. The eggs fiasco was just another failure at multi-tasking.

BTW #2:  Compartmentalizing your mind is one habit of articulate people; they are able to stop thinking about one topic before moving to the next, and they know that it is the antidote to multitasking. I describe the habits in my book, The Power of being Articulate.

Photo : www.happyislam.com

The Seven Myths of Writing, Part Two was originally published on The Expressive Press

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The Seven Myths of Writing (and the Road to Hell)

I can remember–and I daresay that you can, too–my teachers in elementary and high school knuckling into my impressionable head all sorts of misleading ‘rules’ about writing. I’m sure that my teachers meant well–what’s that saying about the road to hell?–as they filled my brain with ideals and half-truths that I had to unlearn as I matured and discovered what works in the real world of business. Here are my candidates for the top myths and their antidotes:

Write the way you talk. Instead, write the way your readers talk, and they will be more likely to grasp your message.

Start with an outline or summary. Instead, start writing with details—appendices in longer documents, the body in shorter documents. You’ll learn more about your subject as you do so, you’ll add depth to your piece and ease the tedious task of writing a summary and title.

Good writing is inborn, which is half-true. Teachers of writing worldwide agree that writing is a craft that anyone of reasonable intelligence and motivation can learn and master. They also agree that an inborn sense of rhythm and structure helps to create documents that are more cohesive and readable.

Writing is easy. In fact, writing badly is easy, while writing well is difficult, demanding, and time-consuming. Responsible writers struggle to find the right words and structures to meet their purposes, and , perhaps more important, the purposes of readers. That takes time: For example, I can write two thousand words an hour that I would never claim, but only 125 words an hour that I will.

Write solely to communicate. Communicating is the proximate purpose of good writing; its ultimate purpose is to express intelligence and, in turn, raise your productivity and promotability and, as a result, your organization’s efficiency.

Studying grammar will improve writing. Many studies have demonstrated that studying grammar actually worsens writing by deflecting writers from their real purpose of displaying their intelligence and reaping its downstream benefits.

Multi tasking raises productivity. In fact, your brain cannot multi-task two or more cerebral activities, and writing is perhaps the most cerebral of all. Yes, you can simultaneously walk and chew gum, but you can’t simultaneously write and listen carefully to a Mozart concerto.

  In my book, BigShots’ Bull*!@#, I shatter another myth of writing: that big shots understand how important clear, concise, purposeful writing is to the sustainability of their organizations. Some do, of course, but far too many in my purview say they do, and then behave as if they don’t.

What road are they traveling?

    Photo : blog.creativethink.com/seven

The Seven Myths of Writing (and the Road to Hell) was originally published on The Expressive Press

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Marriage, Kindness, and Articulation: Strange Bedfellows?

Not really.

When I was researching my book, The Power of Being Articulate, I found a plethora of compelling statistical and empirical evidence that connects the ability to communicate with wealth and jobs in the plush corner offices. I found only subtle hints that connect the ability to communicate with that desirable and decidedly personal human condition we call ‘happiness’.

My curiosity piqued, I researched the causes of happiness and found a universal truth: Happiness is caused largely by relationships with people with whom you can communicate clearly and kindly. I love ‘clearly’ and teach it ad infinitum in my writeshops, and I especially love ‘kindly’ and wish we had more of it everywhere. Is DC listening?

I then asked the seven people I profiled in the book–the seven people I dubbed “The Articulates’ for their abilities to communicate–if they are happy, and to rate their happiness on that ubiquitous scale of one (not happy) to ten (incredibly happy).   They rated their happiness at 9.1, impressively y high, especially when you consider that respondents to other surveys of more general populations rate their happiness around six.

Digging further, I read three books on happiness. All three authors are prominent professors and psychologists and agree that relationships, whether romantic or platonic, close or casual, are, if not the most important cause of happiness, certainly right up there as one of the more important. One author pointed out that being married, perhaps the closest of relationships, is the second most important cause.

David Tusick, my friend and the guru behind marketing my books via social media, married Rachel Neff on May 14 on the idyllic island of Saint Lucie, a destination wedding. If I knew them when I was writing my book on articulation, I would have dubbed both as ‘Articulates’. I predict a plethora ofsmiles and laughs throughout their productive lives.

David and Rachel remind me of Sherry Davis Guth and her husband Bob. Sherry is a marketing guru and an Articulate who I profiled in my book; she married Bob in part because of their shared ability to articulate. They actually can talk to each other clearly and kindly, and are among the happiest married couples I know.

Sherry and Bob inscribed the insides of their wedding bands with three simple words: trust, respect, honesty.  None is possible without communicating, clearly and kindly, of course.

Marriage, Kindness, and Articulation: Strange Bedfellows? was originally published on The Expressive Press

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The Seven Intellectual Standards for Documents

If you agree that intelligence is your only product and is your competitive advantage (or disadvantage), and that your documents display your intelligence most explicitly and often, then it follows that your documents should adhere to these intellectual standards:

Clarity: Receivers understand your thoughts after one careful reading/review.

Concision/Purposefulness/Relevance: Receivers must read only thoughts that are pertinent to meeting their purpose (s); they do not waste time reading extraneous excursions or redundancies.

Accuracy/Precision: Receivers can verify or agree with truths.

Specificity: Receivers are not required to accept unsupported/unsupportable generalizations.

Depth: Receivers grasp underlying rationales that answer why and how questions.

Breadth: Receivers comprehend other perspectives and points of view.

Logic/Cohesion: Receivers readily perceive that you have arranged your thoughts in an understandable sequence.

I am continuously amazed and amused by documents that cross my desk that fracture one or more of the standards.  What do you think of the person who wrote this, which I read in The London Review of Books: “Located in the Botanic Garden in Uppsala, the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS) is a national institute for advanced study.” (Do you think that the writer should attend the collegium? My writeshops?)

What do you think of the civil engineer who reported: “Typical annual volumes reached 8,250,000 gallons per month at a cost of approximately $27,000.” (What is the annual volume? What is the annual cost?)

And how do you feel about a real estate broker who wrote this to convince me to buy a condo:  “The property was originally offered for $235,000. It has since been reduced twice. According to market comparables, it is our opinion that the current listing value is between $240,000 and $250,000.” (What is the price of the property? Do you think I bought it?)

I address how to meet the intellectual standards in my book,  The Power of Writing Well, and I address why most businesspersons should care about meeting the standards in my book, The Power of Being Articulate. The two books complement each other to create compelling competitive advantage in your professional and social lives.

      Photo :  writersfest.com

     The Seven Intellectual Standards for Documents was originally published on The Expressive Press

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You Are Your Most Important Asset

…but I’m betting that you’re not listed on your personal or company’s balance sheet.

Pity. Your intelligence is your earning power. Ergo, it is your source of hard assets such as your house,computers, desks, cars … the trappings of your life. You are the mother lode from which all your other assets emanate.

I came to that rather obvious but elusive conclusion more than twenty years ago when I first started to work with my asset manager, Jim Browne. One of his first admonitions was to trade my unsafe car for a safer model, pointing out that without me he would manage fewer assets, perhaps none at all. He was protecting his future and mine.

I cannot advise you to sell your car, but I can suggest that you protect your earnings and enhance your balance sheet by writing and speaking well. Many studies, including one of mine, connect being articulate, i.e. communicating intelligently, to enhanced earnings, happiness, and overall satisfaction with life … an impressive return for honing one basic skill.

John Yasinsky, former CEO of GenCorp and several other companies, writes in the Foreword to my book, The Power of Being Articulate: “I first learned the truth and power behind communicating intelligently when I lived in a grimy coal-mining and steel-making town in Pennsylvania, where it was clear that articulate professionals were more successful than the less articulate miners and mill workers. My education continued years later at the top levels of government, business, and academe where I observed power brokers and decision-makers use their considerable skills with language to think clearly, arrive at logical decisions, and convey those decisions clearly to others. And over the years, I saw that my happiest friends and associates were able to communicate clearly with spouses and others with whom they enjoy close relationships.”

BTW, business gurus always list being articulate as one of the several traits of effective leaders. One noted that it is the one essential skill for success in business and industry.

Photo : www.radiolab.org

You Are Your Most Important Asset was originally published on The Expressive Press

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'Writer' Not on Your Card? It Should Be

Even if ‘writer’ isn’t in your title or job description, you’re a writer.

We live in a world in which we must write. Your choice of words – in an email, a proposal or report, an article, a blog post, even a text or a Tweet – can open (or close) opportunities to be  rich (or poor), happy (or sad).

We also live in a world in which intelligence, aka innovation, is your only product, your only competitive advantage. Most people display their competitive advantage (or disadvantage) via writing, less by speaking or visuals. Your brilliance is useless unless the world knows it and rewards you accordingly by buying your product or idea, or promoting you to a more responsible position.

Like it or not, you will be judged by your writing – on your style, structure, argument, storytelling, grammar, punctuation, spelling and so on.

I came to these conclusions back in the 1970s when I noticed that my clients in the larger and plusher corner offices lived more comfortably and happily. Discounting any connections between wealth and happiness (there aren’t any beyond their shared roots in vocabulary), I wondered why some people were able to reach that desirable human condition, and others weren’t.  My curiosity first led me to a few simple studies based on observations, and then to some powerful assertions by respected thinkers. To paraphrase, one noted that our ability to use our language determines, to a great extent, the amount of money we will earn during our lives; another noted that our ability to create and sustain close relationships, necessarily based on open communications, determines our happiness.

I am centuries late with that thought. Back in the mid 1400s, Pope Pius II said, “A mighty thing is eloquence … nothing so much rules the world.”

More recently, in the late 1900s, management guru Peter Drucker said, “The one basic skill needed in industry is the ability to organize and express ideas in writing and speaking.”

I plow deeply into those thoughts in my book, The Power of Being Articulate: The Thoughtful Leader’s Model for Wealth and Happiness.                                                                                                         

Caution: reading it could improve your life.

        Photo : http://www.coe.com/writing

‘Writer’ Not on Your Card? It Should Be was originally published on The Expressive Press

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Drink Deep, Dammit

I was writing an op-ed essay on that awful voter fraud called gerrymandering when I unexpectedly discovered huge gaps in my knowledge and understanding of a complex subject that, on the surface, seems so simple.

When I told a friend and fellow writer of my mental gaps, she reminded me that we – the two of us – could fill a Library of Congress with what we don’t know. Point made.

Then I flashed back 65 years to a beloved high school English teacher who read to his classes with the fervor of a man totally enamored with the beauty of our language and its ability to express our deepest and most profound thoughts. One unforgettable day he read a timeless poem by Alexander Pope (1688- 1744), An Essay on Criticism. Its first four lines are:

A little learning is a dangerous thing;

So drink deep or taste not that Pierian Spring;

There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain;

And drinking largely sobers us again.

  Then, on the 19th and 20th lines, Pope returns to his opening theme:

True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,

As those move easiest who have learned to dance.

  I had not drunk deeply enough from the Pierian Spring– the ancient Greek’s metaphorical source of knowledge of art and science– and I surely had not learned to dance the gerrymandering cha-cha. Back to research mode.

I had read and studied enough to know that gerrymandering– aka redistricting– is a fraud that cheats many voters from participating in the election of state and federal legislators. In essence, gerrymandering enables legislators to pick their voters, not vice-versa, as it should be. I hope that my op-ed piece eventually helps to expose gerrymandering as the self-serving, hypocritical practice that it is, and be eliminated.

Meanwhile, I’m back into research mode, drinking from the Pierian Spring, learning to dance, and adhering to my own advice about writing: know the subject to create and convey the deep thinking that properly demonstrates intelligence. Intelligence is our only product in this age of information and innovation, and demonstrating it clearly is our competitive advantage.

BTW, you can read those thoughts in greater depth in my books,  The Power of Being Articulate, and The Power of Writing Well.

  Photo : www.articulatemarketing.com/writing

Drink Deep, Dammit was originally published on The Expressive Press

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The Presidency and My One-man Bandwagon

Back in the early to mid 1800s, John Adams and his son John Quincy were what I might call America’s first political family at the presidential level. Fifth cousins Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt followed the Adams boys in the early to mid 1900s, and George H. W. Bush and his son George W. followed them in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Perhaps the wife/husband team of Hillary and Bill Clinton will be next, and, a decade or so down the road, Chelsea might join her parents in the presidential fray.

A quiz. Who said, “It’s not something (politics) I’ve ever been inclined to do, but I’m 34 and who knows? At this point I would never contemplate it, but that doesn’t mean that when I’m 50 I won’t have a change of heart.”

Give up? Ivanka Trump, Donald‘s daughter, said that in an interview that appeared in the February 2016 issue of Town & Country magazine.

In it, she was thoughtful, bipartisan, poised, in control of her personal and professional lives, and quietly articulate. (I’m disappointed that I did not profile her in my book, The Power of Being Articulate.) An anonymous person described her as “the quiet power behind the Trump throne.”

Presidential.

Meanwhile, her father was stumping for votes in three states. His fellow Republican hopefuls were calling him a “phony” and joining forces to stop his candidacy. Donald was fighting back with a hollow promise to a Pittsburgh crowd:”Don’t worry; we’re bringing it (the steel industry) all back”, without even hinting at how he would create that miracle.

Not Presidential.

If by some stretch of my hopeful imagination there’s a contested convention, I want to draft Ivanka. Anybody out there want to jump on my one-man bandwagon?

Photo : washingtonpost

The Presidency and My One-man Bandwagon was originally published on The Expressive Press

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We've Built a Friendly Monster

I founded The Expressive Press two years ago with one author, one officer, four books, and one market: North America.

The firm has since grown to six authors, four officers, and fifteen books, but still only one market: The world.

Officers in Pittsburgh, Shanghai, and Dhaka (Bangladesh), met via Skype on Wednesday, April 27, to discuss our global reach. The meeting was decidedly upbeat:

Kamrul Islam, Chief Development Strategist, reported from Shanghai that revenue was 30 percent higher in March than it was in February, and he projects another increase of at least 10 percent in April. David Tusick, Chief Marketing Analyst, reported from Pittsburgh that visits to our website and social media sites soared more than 500 percent in March over February.

Samiha Nawshin, Chief Operating Officer, reported from her base in Dhaka that design of our new book, Rockin’ Romance, a collection of true short and vivid stories about people searching for satisfying sexual relationships, is 95 percent complete and the book can be launched in ten days.

Pete Geissler, CEO, opined from Pittsburgh that Rockin’ Romance could be an intriguing movie or TV series and he will begin to search for a producer. He also announced that two new authors of mysteries are eager to join a growing publisher, and that he is writing a creative non-fiction novel.

Strategies for continuing growth are in place: attract additional authors, accelerate global marketing via Facebook and other social media, and expand our reach to include academia in North America and Great Britain.

We like the way our friendly monster is growing and hope that you, our customers, do as well. Thanks for your generous support.

We’ve Built a Friendly Monster was originally published on The Expressive Press

[theexpressivepress-blog]

Plato, Happiness, and Ethics

A few years ago, I attended a fundraiser dinner and, by the sheer whim of the draw, the host seated me next to a US Representative, a DC insider.

Naturally, the conversation turned to the current state of politics and the mood of the voters. I opined that Americans seem demoralized in ways that Plato would have understood:  America is no longer a civil society and the common notion of truth as a shared agreement has all but disappeared. Perhaps leading the way is a deep distrust of politicians who seem to act in ways that assure their election or re-election, not in the best interests of their constituents or the country.  Doing so actually harms the nation and each of us by replacing societal interest with self-interest.

I then asked, rhetorically and a bit maliciously, “How can we resolve national and global issues when our leaders are more concerned with keeping their jobs? Isn’t that unethical?

“Many voters think that”, she replied, and quickly changed the subject.

Sometime around 375 BCE Plato opined that each individual’s best and truest interests lie in behaving justly, i.e. with equal treatment under the law and with a strong sense of what is ‘right’ for a civil society. I think that equal treatment under the law is as hopelessly idealistic now as Plato thought it was more than 2300 years ago.

And I think that a civil society is a long shot given the uncivil, boorish behaviors of the politicians hoping to be President. Calling each other liars and dummies, aka unqualified, hardly is civil or dignified.

In the book I wrote with Bill O’Rourke, The Power of Ethics, we point out the monumental benefits of behaving ethically: Happiness that is grounded in the serenity of a mind at peace with itself; Prosperity that is derived from avoiding the fines and incarceration of illegal behavior; and Sustainability and Independence that is the direct result of trust, perhaps the most important characteristic of long-term relationships.

I wish that all our politicians would read the book and learn from it. I know: I am being hopelessly idealistic again. What’s that saying about hope springing eternal?

And the just, ethical person is the happy person (which Plato defined as that state of contentment in which the elements of our nature are in harmony).

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Plato, Happiness, and Ethics was originally published on The Expressive Press