Good morning.
And welcome to morning cereal
Okay, good morning and
welcome to Wednesday.
It's hump day.
And I hope you got to start the day with
a bubble bath and
you're wearing your most
obnoxious Argyle.
Now why, Sean, you're asking yourself,
why would Sean say that?
Well, obviously it's because it's
National Bubble Bath
Day and Wear Argyle Day.
So I guess I just presumed.
Well it's also
National Take the Stairs Day.
So that seems like one we can all get
behind or go up, whatever.
Anyway, happy Wednesday.
Let's get into it.
Straight away to today's quotes.
One fun, nostalgic quote and then a
second quote to tease our
book review later in the
episode.
Hopefully one of these quotes will speak
to you and kickstart
your day in a positive
way.
All right.
The first quote is, "You don't need to
wear a patch on your arm to have honor."
That quote is from Lieutenant Junior
Grade Daniel A. Caffey.
He's a character from
the movie A Few Good Men.
Now I'm a huge fan of this movie and even
more so of movie quotes that can speak to
inspire us in real life.
Honor.
It's a word and an idea that our
grandfathers would fight for.
We should not ever forget
how important our honor is.
And today's teaser quote from the book
review is, "Let's get
the other person's point
of view and see things from his or her
angle, as well as from our own."
As usual, we'll unpack that here in just
a minute during the book review segment.
But first, let's jump into our usual dose
of fun and historic
facts from this day in
history.
In 1790, US President George Washington,
he delivered the first
state of the union, which
is the annual address to Congress.
In 1835, the US national debt was zero
for the first and only time in history.
For perspective here, the national debt
grew to just under $4
trillion as most Gen Xers
were making their way
through high school.
That's from $0 to $4
trillion in 150 years.
Then it only took another 30 years or so
and at the end of fiscal
2023, our national debt
was over $31 trillion.
Now that's a scary number
for any of us oddest taxpayers.
Okay, skipping up to 1968 and a nostalgic
fact here, the
hundredth episode of "I Dream
of Jeannie" aired.
Clearly, it was the reruns that I
remember watching when I was younger.
In 1992, in classic Bush form, George
H.W. Bush on this date,
he vomited on the Prime
Minister of Japan.
I do vaguely remember that, although I
wasn't following world
politics as closely during
that time.
Consequently, 10 years later on this same
date, his son George
W. Bush would sign the
No Child Left Behind Act into law.
Okay, in 1993, the GOAT, Michael Jordan,
he scored a game high
35 points in a win over
the Milwaukee Bucks, but it gave him
exactly 20,000 points in his career.
And he did it in his 620th game, which is
still the second fastest
to reach that milestone,
only after Will
Chamberlain, who did it in 499.
And by comparison, LeBron James, he
needed 106 more games
than Michael did to achieve
the 20,000.
Also in 1993, NBC offered the Tonight
Show to David Letterman
as a last-ditch effort
to keep Letterman at NBC, because
Letterman already hosted the
late-night show that followed
the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Apparently, NBC had preferred Jay Leno,
who was an
up-and-coming comedian at the time,
but they didn't want to lose Letterman.
Well, I guess we all
know how that one ended up.
Alright, lots of news on this date and
lots of birthdays, too.
Happy birthday if today is your birthday.
You share a birthday with an American
icon, singer and actor Elvis Presley.
He was born on this date in 1935.
English theoretical physicist Stephen
Hawking, you remember
him, he developed a theory of
exploding black holes that drew upon both
the relativity theory
and quantum mechanics.
I'll explain that later, but he was born
on this date in 1942.
Singer David Bowie was
born on this date in 1946.
And a birthday of someone who is still
with us, to the detriment
of the world most likely,
is Kim Jong-un, North Korean leader, and
the world's flattest head.
He was born in 1984.
He'll be just 42 years old.
He's so young to be
causing so much chaos.
Well, to end on a high note for the
birthdays, literally a
high note, Cynthia Erivo, she
will be 38.
She stars as Elphaba in the newest Wicked
movie starring alongside Ariana Grande.
Okay, now to the music in the movies of
the 80s, 90s, and the 2000s.
The number one song on this date in 1982
was "Physical" by Olivia Newton-John.
This song was Olivia's breakout song in
the US despite being
the title track on her
eleventh album.
The song, with risque lyrics at the time,
spent 10 weeks at number one.
But Olivia will always be sweet and
innocent Sandy to me.
And the number one movie on this date in
1993 was "A Few Good Men."
One of the most memorable scenes in the
movie is Jack Nicholson's
character, Colonel Jessup's
"You Can't Handle the Truth" speech.
Impressively, my wife
knows every word of that scene.
She remembers everything.
But Jack Nicholson was only on the set
for 10 days and was
paid a reported $5 million
for his time.
"A Few Good Men" was number one for three
weeks and it was
nominated for four Oscars.
Okay, let's move on to some personal
growth here in the book
review segment of "Morning
Serial."
This is where we take a few moments to
reflect on lessons learned
from the current book that
we're reading.
And currently, we are reading through
Dale Carnegie's "How to
Win Friends and Influence
People."
It's a timeless book that is consistently
on all the must-read
lists and it's packed
with rock-solid advice and actions for us
all to use and build healthy foundational
concepts to live by.
Alright, yesterday we were still making
our way through chapter
three, which is entitled,
"He Who Can Do This Has
the Whole World With Him.
He Who Cannot Walks a Lonely Path."
So far in chapter three, we're unpacking
the importance of
understanding what other people
want because everything we do in our
lives is because we want something.
Carnegie is walking us through examples
of talking and thinking
in terms of what other
people want and how to look for and see
situations from someone
else's angle and as well as from
our own.
Carnegie spends a few pages walking
through a letter that was
written by the head of a
radio department for a
national advertising agency.
And as I mentioned yesterday, we can
think of this letter as
an email that was sent to
all the local radio
stations across the country.
Carnegie provides commentary to each
section and as I read some
of this and walk us through
his comments, take a moment to
contemplate how we can learn from this
when we're communicating
at work or within your
organization or social group.
Okay, the letter starts off, "The blank
company desires to retain
its position in advertising
agency leadership in the radio field."
Now Carnegie rips into this immediately
saying, "Who cares what
your company desires?"
Remember, these other people are worried
about their own problems
in life, like paying the
bills.
The stock market is down.
The government is losing their mind.
I have to get a cavity filled.
I have a nail in my tire.
And the doctor says I
have high blood pressure.
And now I have this letter from someone
in New York yapping
about what his company wants.
Carnegie is suggesting this intro isn't
setting the right impression.
The next sentence of the letter talks
about the national
agency's scope and success having
kept the agency as the best
in business for another year.
Carnegie's response to this is, "Oh, you
are big and rich and
right at the top, are
you?
I don't give two whoops and Hades."
I say that all the time.
I don't know about you.
"I don't give two whoops and Hades how
big and important you are."
And Carnegie goes on to say, "If you were
smart," referring to
the writer of the letter,
"then you would realize that I am
interested in how big I am
and making myself important."
But instead, Carnegie writes, "All this
talk about your
enormous success makes me feel
small and unimportant."
I think you're getting the point here.
The writer of the letter is only talking
about himself and the
wants and the desires and
the accolades of his company.
Thus far with no mention or care for the
reader and completely
missing Carnegie's primary
point here in chapter three of talking in
terms of what other
people want in order to
influence them.
Carnegie continues to rip through the
form letter as the writer
again says, "They desire
and they request such and such with an
aura of expectation,"
and then ending the letter
asking for prompt acknowledgment of
receipt of the letter
with a single vague comment
on being mutually beneficial.
Carnegie makes the point here that
someone in advertising is
supposed to understand the
human psyche, human emotions.
They are supposed to be the experts in
the art of influencing people to buy.
And if they can send out such a poorly
written letter that
completely misses the boat like
this one did, then what can we expect
from those of us that
aren't experts in such a
field?
Well, Carnegie provides another letter
example, which I'll sum up
by giving a few words from
the person receiving the letter as saying
that the letter was, "Raising a spirit of
antagonism rather than cooperation."
And again, it's because the letter
started and focused on
the writer's needs instead
of focusing on what's important to the
person receiving the letter.
As you may have guessed, Carnegie
suggests rewrites of the
letters, again calling on
Henry Ford's words, "Let's get the other
person's point of
view and see things from
his or her angle, as
well as from our own."
You know, it's interesting.
I've been in finance my whole career and
I've taken courses on
how to send business
emails and I can't recall a time being
instructed on focusing on or
constructing my email around
the other person's needs.
I learned to be succinct, to put my ask
up front, among other
things, but I think what
Carnegie is getting at here is something
you learn over time,
and that's more persuasive
writing.
We can still be succinct, but doing so
taking into account the
other person's angle and
finding that right balance to influence
someone in such a way
that they want to do it.
Today's book review segment may feel a
bit more technical, but
it absolutely still applies
to our everyday lives.
I think of emails I send every day that
are outside of a business
environment, to my kids'
teachers, to the HVAC
person, to my insurance agent.
And Carnegie's points can be helpful here
to build bridges and
not burn them by simply
making sure I consider their perspective.
For example, that teacher probably has a
million other parents, or
the HVAC guy has a million
other clients calling them, wanting
something or complaining.
Now think of how much we would stand out
from the crowd by
incorporating what Carnegie
is teaching here.
And do we believe that that would help us
influence them as
being one of the few that
actually have taken a moment to care
about their perspective
and how it relates to ours?
I think it would be a
breath of fresh air to them.
Alright, nicely done.
We are still in Chapter 3 tomorrow, and
Carnegie dives deeper
into the how we get people to
want to do something.
You'll want to hear what he says.
Okay, you're nearly
halfway through the week.
One of my favorite quotes from a movie
that applies to life
very well is from Dory in
Finding Nemo.
She says, "Just keep swimming.
If life or the schedule is
tough today, just keep swimming.
You'll get through it."
Okay, have a fantastic day, and we'll see
you back here tomorrow.
And don't forget to follow and subscribe
to the Morning Serial
podcast and The Life
Happens Live Balanced channel.
You can find more episodes and videos by
visiting our YouTube channel, At
Shawningless, or our
website at atshawningless.com, where you
can also follow our other
podcasts that are coming
in January.
That's when our first Mr. and Mrs.
English podcast and The
Life Happens podcast will
air.
So join us on those
other podcasts as well.
Thanks again for
listening, and have a fantastic day.
We'll see you tomorrow.