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That Time We Met Scott Weiland
In the summer of 1993 (July 17th to be exact) Jim Olson and I went to see Stone Temple Pilots at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. They were so early in their meteoric rise that they were opening for the Butthole Surfers. Admittedly I was there to see STP in the same way, two years earlier, I bought Van Halen tickets not to see that ridiculous power drill song — but to catch Alice In Chains opening. I was familiar with a few songs from the Surfers and was excited to see them but for us, the show was STP.
I don’t know the history between the two bands, but they played for a loooong time and even broke down to do some of the living room acoustic stuff they would make a staple of their performances later on, but what stuck with me was what happened after the set.
As soon as STP closed with “Plush” the crowd began to pour towards the back of the theater and out the door. Jim and I saddled up to the bar in the back of the room and waited for the Butthole Surfers to get on stage and about 5 minutes later a guy walks up next to us and orders a beer. I turn to see that it is Scott Weiland and for reasons I will never know, neither Jim nor I fan-boyed out at all. We nodded and said “hello.”
He nodded back with venom in his eyes as he watched these kids literally run out of the Aragon Ballroom. He looked at us and said; “I cannot fucking believe they are leaving. It makes me not want to play if all they want to see is the goddamn single.” He took a long swig of the beer and told us to enjoy the show as he ambled off.
Jim looked at me, “guess we aren’t leaving, cause no way do I want that guy mad at me too.”
The version of Plush above is one of my favorite things (and just about every Gen Xer) the band did because it captures the pain and energy of the song in a way that the plugged in version doesn’t. It also gives you a glimpse into what was to become of the band, you can nearly see the demons swimming around him in this performance which is what makes it captivating and sad at the same time.
There are those who will say he had it coming, they say the same things about Kurt Cobain,
These people have likely never dealt with addiction in their family or circle of friends to understand how hopeless it feels to watch this behavior, the whole time knowing this can happen, at any time.
Last night was that time as Scott Weiland died in his sleep and while his death is not surprising, it is incredibly sad. Sad for his family, his friends, and his fans and sad because anytime this happens I wonder if there really is a threshold of creativity the human brain can handle before it has to cross over into destructive behaviors just to keep the beautiful insanity going.
As much as I would love to say that these sorts of tales lead to people being inspired and changing behaviors so we never have to talk about losing someone to addiction at age 48 again, that just isn’t realistic.
We were blessed as fans to enjoy the art that he left behind knowing that he left too soon. #RIP #ScottWeiland
Use the force to celebrate
Monday night during Monday Night Football (MFN) we finally got the debut of the new Star Wars "The Force Awakens" trailer.
While plenty has been said about the trailer, there are two other related videos that moved me more.
The first is Daisy Ridley's (Linkedin is not a fan of Instagram embeds) reaction to seeing the trailer for the first time and the second is her co-star, John Boyega. The absolute joy in both of their reactions is priceless and profound. Profound because these two have worked, what, thousands of hours on this project only to be blown away by a 90-second sample of what they did? If you don't think J.J. Abrams has workplace culture down pat, watch those two videos again.
When was the last time you cried with joy over a project you worked on, work or otherwise? When was the last time you were even 8% as happy as those two were with something you put out? I watch them react to the trailer and just feel like we are doing it wrong.
Why shouldn't we feel like they do every time we close a big deal? Why can't we celebrate after we give a great presentation, create art and share it, get a grade on a test we wanted, get a promotion, have a birthday, or anything that you feel has value in your life.
Why don't we celebrate it with that much gusto and emotion?
My guess is because we think there isn't time. We think there isn't time because as far as we all want to be from the industrial revolution, there is a model T to ship tomorrow - so, no time to celebrate. Because there is a new metric tomorrow, so today's win no longer matters, there just isn't time.
How bout we call bullshit on that.
I watch those videos and think if I felt like that after every day I shipped something, there wouldn't be much left to stop me. I see them celebrate and think what having that sort of joy as a continuum in my life would do for those around me. I know that important work matters but celebrating it matters more, so I think we should.
You may think it is just a trailer, from just a movie that two actors got excited about. I see a pop culture moment that is reaching a critical mass that two human beings feel blessed to have worked on. We all have things in life we are blessed to do, the trick is to celebrate them each time you finish.
My friend Pat reminded me this week that we all have a VERY small amount of time in the grand scheme of it all and when I see those Instagram videos, I think there is room for me to use more of it to celebrate the time we all get to do some amazing things.
Social Free Sundays
If you have spent even 5 minutes on Linkedin, followed Gary Vaynerchuk, Grant Cardone, or Ross Simmonds you have heard every variation of the following phrases:
"Hustle beats talent"
"Everyday hustle"
"Weekend hustle"
"Detroit hustle harder"
"Hustle mode on"
Understand this, hustle is important and the person who hustles harder has a GREAT shot to beat most. However, even a Tesla Model S has to recharge every once in a while to keep at peak performance.
You simply cannot win on hustle alone, you need
The twenty years I spent in radio taught me hustle, I can work longer hours without even thinking about it than most people I know. Especially in those that few years spent working in the digital strategy realm it was a 24/7 job as there was always one more thing to post, one more pageview to get, or one more unique to deliver. The problem I would
So, when I had the opportunity to change, I wanted to make meaningful change in every facet of my life. The first thing I did was set up some boundaries for my family, the first of which was Monday thru Friday from the time I get home until my daughter goes to bed, the phone is in a drawer or on the charger. We spend time together as a family sharing a meal, connecting, relaxing, and most importantly playing.
The benefit?
Besides the relational benefits, I find the work I do during the later hours of the evening while everyone sleeps MORE impactful because I spent time recharging, imagining, and getting inspired by the things around me, in the real world.
After a month, I didn't feel that was enough of a change, so I established another rule, one in which I am breaking to write this blog post about said rule. That rule is one day during the weekend, every weekend, I forget my phone. For 24 full hours (this usually Sundays since lots of UFC events are on Saturday and I cover that for my
You may be saying at this point, "I unwind all the time, just look at my Instagram" but that misses the entire point of losing the phone. You see, when you are posting on Instagram you are creating a version of yourself, not the real you, but a digital mock-up of what you want to be allowing the world to view it through the lens of Instagram. So that post of you in a hammock by a beach on Instagram is you posturing to get the best photo of that exact moment, while what I propose is just enjoy the hammock and ditch the photo op.
Have that moment, just for you.
What I have discovered
The fun thing about weekends is there is another one in just a couple of days, so try ditching the phone and just doing the weekend "social-free, " we even call it "social free Sundays" at my house and you may feel free to steal that name for yourself.
If you afford yourself the opportunity to unplug and decompress without the seen and unseen pressures of the social web, you would be amazing the change you will see in yourself, your attitude, your relationships, and your actual social graph.
There was, until there wasn't
This weekend was a great weekend to be a Michigan fan, there were just ten seconds left and you held off the Michigan State Spartans 21-23 to win for the first time in seven years.
All you have to do is punt the football.
It was a great day to be a Michigan fan - until it wasn't.
The lesson to be learned from Saturday is not the horrible vitriol that volleys back and forth between the fans. Instead, it is the power of thinking you can win even when you shouldn't. MSU doesn't practice that play, there are simply far too many variables to prepare for this situation. What they do practice is making every play count and prepare to win every down.
This is NOT to say that Michigan doesn't because that isn't true and it takes away from a truly great football game that broke all sorts of TV viewing records. Both teams played a fantastic game, the difference is that one didn't give up when even some TV stations thought the game was over.
It wasn't.
Brands experience similar challenges; the pitch didn't go well, the client is probably going to say no, your recruitment campaign isn't getting the right candidates, or your company is missing its goals. There are people in these situations that will say "there was nothing more I could do" or worse yet, "what did you want me to do?"
These people are standing around waiting for the punt.
These people will lose in the last 10 seconds, every time.
There are others who anticipate the "no" and create campaigns that you simply cannot say "no" to. These people understand the calendar year ends on December 31st and you make a choice if you hustle to the end. These people prepare for every pitch, work towards every roadblock to anticipate the friction and negate it. They work nights and weekends, they put off vacations, or other rewards until they get it right.
These people understand that you don't stop until the buzzer sounds or until the referee pulls you off of your opponent in a fight. These people understand 10 seconds in plenty of time to win the game. So they tend to win.
Because they understand there wasn't a smartphone until there was.
There wasn't a social network until there was.
80' hair bands ruled the rock charts until this happened:
And this Gary Vaynerchuk quote:
There wasn't, until there was.
If you had 10 seconds would you give up? Or figure out the way to win?
That is your choice, every day.