Moving On...

There is a big difference between “moving on” and “moving out”. “Moving Out” has this feel of finality. It sounds like there will be no return. “Moving On”, on the other hand, says to me that good things are happening and there is opportunity out there. It also feels like you may not know when, but you’re coming back. Jane and I are definitely “moving on”.

This chapter of my career started in the copier room of a friend’s agency, next to the file cabinet on a small typing stand with my typewriter…yes, I said typewriter…from college and a stool. Decades later today, we’re leaving the big agency world where there are now four people in the office with a great view of the mountains and Puget Sound that I was occupying just a few weeks ago. Our new space is just right for us. It’s on the water too. We’re looking at Seattle’s Lake Union where the float planes come and go. We’ve got great skylights and a nice place for Friday afternoon “tension suspension” summer barbeques right outside our door. And with all my memorabilia (one man’s junk…) that I’ve been shuttling over there for a week, it’s going to feel like home.

I learned a long time ago that an office space has a personality and that it can affect the work that’s done there. When we moved into Ron Elgin’s agency almost 20 years ago, it was a fun place to be and there was great work being done there. As the liaison to other DDB offices around the country, I quickly found out that we were the exception. We may have been in the “Mad Men” world but we were mavericks. No cold, high-rise steel, glass and cubicles for us. It reminded me of my corporate days where the executive offices were in an old hotel with each of us having a hotel room with fine art in it...an original Warhol, Rothko and Pollock in mine. At DDB, we were red brick, dark wood and “conversation areas” with bright colors sprinkled all over the place. And all the time, the great Bill Bernbach, the model of a "Mad Man" looking down on you.  It was comforting.  Like a breath of fresh air.  You could breathe.

There was not a client or visitor whose mouth didn’t drop open when they walked into our offices. Even other DDBers from around the country…and the world…were envious. We were along the waterfront then and when we moved up the hill just two blocks, I was concerned that we were going to lose our personality. Well, it didn’t happen. Ron made sure that there was not a straight line or an unaccented wall in the place. He even had them cut two large holes in the floor so that we could move from area to area without elevators. We had stairs…great amazing wooden stairs! It was glorious.

From the tequila shots before the annual cruise to summer barbeques on the roof and later the deck looking at Mt. Rainier, the workplace was a model for “the best companies to work for”…and we were. My new office will be fun too. Friday Tunes from 4pm to 6pm will still signal the coming weekend, a tradition that began in the mid-90’s. We can even do our own little cruises right from the dock in front of us. We’re walking distance to such long time clients as Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the Space Needle and Chihuly Studio. And we can take the SLUT(South Lake Union Transit…they actually changed that name to simply the Streetcar for obvious reasons) downtown to visit our friends at the Seattle Symphony, the 5th Avenue Theatre and old friends at DDB. Not bad at all!

Texas singer-songwriter (Mr. Bojangles) Jerry Jeff Walker and I are kindred spirits. We’ve gone through many of the same life changes…and talked about it. He ends his live concerts with a song called “Movin’ On” that sums up my thoughts today pretty well. Change just a couple of words and it’s how I feel. Here’s the bridge, last verse and chorus.

Yeah, everybody here was great
And we liked it fine
But there's other people waiting for us down the line
We don't want to overstay our welcome here you see
When we come back next time
Think how happy we'll be

Now the right one is turning
The wheels are in the well
Whether we're remembered, only time'll tell
It's a crazy business, making people sing and dance
But we don't even think about it
We step up, we take a chance

I hope everybody here is really feeling fine
Speakin' for myself and the band
We've had a hell of a time
We laughed and cried and we carried on
Everybody sang a sing-along
Had a good time, time now we’re movin' on

WE’LL SEE YOU AT 1220 WESTLAKE AVENUE NORTH, SUITE D. YOU’RE ALWAYS WELCOME.

Then and Now...

America’s Bi-Centennial year sort of gets lost in the shuffle but it was 35 years ago. Wow! That’s more than a generation. It doesn’t seem so long if you’ve lived it. I know for certain that I looked different then, as this picture with environmental activist Bill Ruckelshaus and corporate giant Irwin Miller, shows you. Bill has an office in the same building that I do here in Seattle. We often reminisce in the elevators and parking lot and when I showed him this photo, we could only smile and shake our heads.


But we were different inside then, as well. My journal (yes, I have them all since my college days) tells me that the night I’m thinking of was Monday, December 7, 1976. I was ping-ponging between Seattle and New York then talking to institutional investors and financial media about the corporate situation with Cummins Engine Company and its investment in K2 Skis. (Why would a diesel engine manufacturer invest in a downhill ski company? That’s another story.)

On that particular New York trip, I was there with two of my corporate colleagues and, as luck would have it, we had Monday night open. With Broadway dark, I scanned the New York Times for movies (I love them). There I found a big feature story on an independent film by a completely unknown actor-writer that was made for under a million dollars and shot in 28 days. It was having its previews in Manhattan that week. This movie had been picked up after long trials and tribulations by Columbia Pictures, a studio that hadn’t won a Best Picture Oscar in over 40 years. Sounded interesting and my friends were game, so off we went to find the mid-town theater where the film was playing.

There was no long line to see “Rocky”. It was a fight movie. Probably pretty limited appeal, we thought. But, every so often, a movie about prize-fighting comes along that catches the public’s fancy. Raging Bull, Cinderella Man, The Hurricane and Million Dollar Baby are just a few of the most recent. From Rocky’s opening scene in gritty black and white, we were all hooked. It was new with fresh faces and a different never-say-die outlook. And that Hollywood ending is still hard to beat. The rest is, of course, history. Sly Stallone and his curled lip have made millions of box-office dollars since then and I think at least 6 Rocky movies. The film won the Academy Award on the strength of Stallone’s character and some great screen-writing. We were celebrating America back then and we loved a winner.

I’ve just seen “The Fighter” and I have to say it’s the “Rocky” of the Millennial Generation. Many of the themes are the same. Overcoming adversity and dysfunctional families (Man, is this one dysfunctional!) are there in both, but add drugs and violence and community degeneration and unemployment to the mix in “The Fighter”. Movies are more realistic now and this one holds nothing back. Christian Bale looks more like Ratman than Batman and his performance is electric. You feel like he’s ready to explode every time he’s on the screen. Bale and Melissa Leo who plays mother Alice are definitely Academy-Award-worthy. This is a story of the streets, just as Rocky was. But the streets are much scarier today…hookers and drug dealers instead of harmonizing hoods on the corner.

Films like these have great impact. They move people personally. Just as you see the players in the film respond to the HBO special about Bale’s character Dicky, this film holds you by the throat right to very end. I’m glad I didn’t know the ending because it made it much more meaningful. And then seeing the real Micky and Dicky during the credits gave it perfect closure.

Sorry that this sounds like a film review but, for me, it’s not. It’s my personal thoughts about two movies that bookend a period of time that has changed all of our lives in countless ways. The trip from the Bi-Centennial to the new millennium has been a million miles in terms of life in America. We were on a real high at the beginning of the journey and now there is nothing but stress and uncertainty all around us. We’re so different now. Just look at the characters in the two movies (notwithstanding the sisters in “The Fighter”:>) ) and you can see how we’ve changed. I couldn’t help but notice the ad for a dot-com on the floor of the ring in the latest…changed, indeed.

We still love a winner but it’s harder to win these days. And it’s harder to know whether winning is worth it or not. But we do have hope and that’s what both of these movies give us…a big dose of hope. Even in these times, I’m proud to be an optimist. We can all be winners.

The 80's go to Goodwill

The IBM Selectric typewriter in royal blue was the industry standard.  Every office had one.  You couldn't communicate by written word in business without one.  Then along came the MacIntosh computer.  Floppy disks, such a deal.  We kept them both for awhile but then, except for typing envelopes, the Selectric became just too much trouble...changing typeballs and ribbons...how ancient!  They've been in the basement museum for a long, long time.  The day after New Year's, I just decided to move them.  I thought about the Smithsonian but I think that's already been done.  So off I went to Goodwill.  The kid that took them out of the trunk probably was born in the 90's.  This was like my grandfather donating his Model T to charity.  Communicating is easier now...but we always will have the good times of the 80's...at least we thought we were moving fast back then.

Lawyers, Journalists and other users of the English language beware...

...too many words are useless...even professors are susceptible..this from an educator friend of mine:

I wonder if I might crave your momentary indulgence in order to discharge a by-no-means disagreeable obligation which has, over the years, become more or less established practice within our circles as we approach the terminal period of the calendar year, but not financial, of course. In fact, not to put too fine a point on it, I submit to you, with all appropriate deference, for your consideration at a convenient juncture, a sincere and sanguine expectation -- indeed confidence, or even, one might go so far as to say, hope -- that the terminal two weeks of this calendar year may be, at the end of the day, when all relevant factors have been taken into consideration, susceptible to being deemed to be such as to merit a final verdict of having been by no means unsatisfactory in its overall outcome and, in the final analysis, to give grounds for being judged, on mature reflection, to have been conducive to generating a degree of gratification which will be seen in retrospect to have been significantly higher than the general average.

In other words, have a Happy New Year.

The Christmas Limp

During my grade school years, no matter where my military father was stationed, we would  often return to the family farm in Indiana for Christmas.  My uncle and his family would show up and we would have a week or so of fun and reminiscence.  On Christmas eve, there was always a  unique happening that made us kids giddy with joy.  After dinner, we would all be in the living room of the old farm house talking about how hard it was going to be to get to sleep, when we would hear the sound of sleigh bells…real sleigh bells.  They would get closer and closer and then suddenly there were feet on the roof and the sound would literally make the room vibrate.  One year in particular, we thought we could actually hear the sleigh take off from the roof with a woosh and a bump. Nothing was more exciting than those few moments in our young lives.  Then it was off to bed with anticipation of the Christmas morning  festivities. Pa, as we called our grandfather, seemed to especially enjoy seeing our faces after the sleigh bell incident, though we never remember seeing him in the room while it was happening.  That particular year, we did notice that Pa was walking with a limp for the next few days.  It had been snowing and on Christmas morning, we could definitely see the footprints on the roof but they turned into a slide trail that went right over the steep side and into the bushes next to the house.  Strange way for Santa to leave, we thought. Oh well, all seemed fine and Pa’s limp got better too.  He said he “slipped on the porch steps going to the barn.”  Grandpa’s are great, aren’t they.  They will do anything to make us happy.  Have a safe and happy holiday season.

One thing leads to another...

When World Expo 2010 in Shanghai held its closing performances, parades and forums on October 31, it was the final chapter of a very exciting year filled with global events for us. We were fortunate to participate in the Vancouver Winter Olympics, the South African World Cup and the Shanghai World Expo, beginning in February and ending about a month ago. 98.2 million people attended these three events and all three set records for media coverage worldwide. Hardly a person on the planet missed seeing or hearing about one or more of these events and our business of communication is at the heart of that experience.


The host committees sought our communications and sponsorship strategies and crisis communications counsel and that made for some interesting encounters and creative problem-solving which I have written about in earlier messages. Noteworthy to me is that each of the hosts had very specific objectives to realize from their investments, which totaled in the billions. Vancouver sought tourism. South Africa wanted the world’s appreciation. Shanghai wanted business partners. In my mind, all three achieved their goals.

The series of events that brought us to these world-class happenings began three years ago with a sponsorship summit in Shanghai. It was clear to me then that China does not want to do business alone. They want to collaborate. They want to grow with the help of others. This year they became the world’s largest economy. That’s no accident. The Expo attracted 246 countries and organizations and that is quite a buffet of opportunity.

Contacts we have made over three decades working abroad have led us to many corners of the globe. The Shanghai Summit brought us to the attention of the Beijing Olympics and many of the organizers there were involved in the prep for the World Expo. Olympic contacts we made also opened the door to the Vancouver event. Working in these circles makes for long plane rides on short schedules but decisions are made quickly and you move on to the next subject or issue. There is not much time for contemplation.

73 million people attended the World Expo. Shanghai’s population is 20 million and the drive market around the city is almost twice that number. Like all three of the global events we worked on this year, there are many foreign visitors but most of the attendance comes from the surrounding area. Two things impressed me about this World Expo. First, I’m sorry to say that the US pavilion was a bit embarrassing. I’ve heard stories about the bureaucratic starts and stops and lack of funding, but the experience boiled down to watching a bunch of promotional videos from brand name companies. How disappointing. There were indeed some amazingly interactive experiences to be had at the event. It’s just too bad that none of them were associated with our country.

Secondly, China’s young people are making a great impression on the world. In all the events I’ve been involved with over there, “interns” abound. They are both interesting and interested. They have learned English in school and are making themselves very valuable to business. China’s young are becoming the best ambassadors for that country. Universities are overflowing with talent and the West is benefitting from it.

As we come to the end of our “Big Event” year, it’s important to note that, despite the travails of the world economy, life goes on. Both in business and our personal lives, we continue to move ahead, making advances where we can. Predictions and forecasts aside, this is still a time of great change and opportunity. Communication Technology is an ever-increasing part of our lives and it applies to all aspects, from business to culture, sport and education. We’re on an exciting ride right now. We need to hang on and keep going. I’m looking forward to what’s coming up. We’re already working on projects next year and beyond. I can hardly wait.

Stop complaining for one day...

All of us Americans grumble a lot. We are frustrated with our government. We don’t like many of our elected officials. Taxes are too high. Schools are not good enough. Our air and water could be cleaner. Even our cable television channels make us mad. But this is it. This is all we have. This is the life we live in a free and open democracy. How did we get to this point in our lives? Most of us were born here. Many of us came here for our own personal reasons and have become full-fledged citizens. Can we change the way things are? Can we make our lives better? We can certainly try and, in this country, no one can stop us from complaining or trying. Guess why?


Today is Veterans Day and, at least for today, we should think about those who have served our country proudly and how they have protected our right to complain…and our right to try to make things better. We only have a draft or conscription during war times…and then with exceptions. Otherwise, our military is volunteer. Many other countries have conscription. China, Russia, Germany, Israel, South Korea, even Switzerland require two years of military service at the age of 18. There are many reasons to serve your country. Personally, I like patriotism. Being a patriot is honorable. It is a distinguishing characteristic. The dictionary says one who loves, supports and defends one’s country. We all may have different reasons but I think, deep down, we love our country.

I am reminded of a line from the powerful movie about military service, “A Few Good Men”. The lawyers who are defending two Marines in a case about their commitment to service are arguing about the motives of these two young men. One lawyer asks, “Why do you like them so much?” The other answers, “Because they stand upon a wall and say ‘Nothing’s going to hurt you tonight, not on my watch.’” That’s patriotism to me.

I come from a military family. My father was a career Army officer. He was drafted in World War II and fought on D-Day and in the Battle of the Bulge. Later in his career, he worked to create Civil Defense, now FEMA, to help our country in emergencies. I still remember seeing him on television standing behind President Carter at Three-Mile-Island when he was Chief of Staff of the Department. He was a patriot to the end of his days and he would have been appalled when “W” uttered that now-infamous statement, “Good job, Brownie.” Brownie would have been my father’s boss and he would have been embarrassed. He was a patriot.

It took me over a week in the 3rd Grade to be able to bounce a quarter off the square-cornered blanket on my bed. When I could pass my Dad’s inspection, I went on to other things. I never considered not serving my country during a very unpopular war. I’m definitely a veteran and I sincerely hope I’m a patriot. I have the greatest respect for those who have served our country. It should be considered an honor. Every veteran deserves our applause and gratitude…at least, on this day dedicated to them. So take a break from your belly-aching long enough to give thanks to those who have helped make this country a place we can all love. Salute the veterans. They deserve it.