Good morning.
And welcome to morning cereal
Okay, good morning and welcome to Monday.
I hope you had a fantastic weekend
and you just weren't
wishing it away to get to today.
Why?
Because today is National Cabbage Day.
It only comes once a
year, folks, so enjoy it.
And today is also National Family Day,
National Random Acts of Kindness Day,
so those are both great
days for us to focus on.
And of course, it's Presidents Day.
And because of that, maybe
you have the day off of work,
but you might be surprised to know
that that was the point.
Way back in 1971, Presidents Day moved
in an effort to create
more three-day weekends
for the public in the
hope that this would inspire
greater productivity nationwide.
It was believed that at
this point in the year,
the restorative effects
of the winter holidays
have already begun to fade and people
needed another break
to regain some of that lost stamina.
So yes, please, can I have more, please?
Okay, well, let's go ahead
and jump into today's episode
with today's quotes and
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
jumpstart your day and your
week in a positive direction.
The first quote is from Michael Jordan.
And quick side note, if you
haven't figured it out yet,
I'm a Genexer that grew
up watching Michael Jordan
become Michael Jordan.
And I had every square
inch of my room covered
in Jordan posters.
So I realize I'm a bit biased here,
but it's hard to argue
about him not being the goat,
but it's even harder to argue about him
not having an incredible work ethic.
He was known as one of the hardest
workers ever to play.
Well, Michael has lots of quotes about
success and failure,
but the one I picked for today is this.
Michael said, quote, some
people want it to happen.
Some people wish it would happen.
Others make it happen, end quote.
So get out there and make it happen.
And today's teaser quote
from the book review is,
quote, nothing good is accomplished
and a lot of damage can be
done if you tell a person
straight out that he or she is wrong.
You only succeed in stripping
that person of self dignity,
end quote.
And we'll go ahead and
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.
Today's news facts and
birthdays are for February 17th.
Back in 1876, some of you
might be super happy about this,
but I'm not.
Sardines were first canned by
Julius Wolf in Eastport, May.
Then in 1897, the National Congress of
Parents and Teachers,
better known as the Parent Teacher
Association, the PTA,
it was founded in Washington, DC
as the National Congress of Mothers.
In 1938, the first public
experimental demonstration
of Baird Color TV in
London, it laid the foundation
for color TV as we know it.
Then in 1972, the car, the Beetle,
it overtook the Model T as
the world's best selling car.
Then jumping up to 1992,
convicted serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer,
he was sentenced to 15
consecutive life terms
for the series of gruesome
murders that he had committed.
Then in 2014, American
comedian Jimmy Fallon,
he began hosting the
Tonight Show, replacing Jay Leno.
Then lastly, in 2017,
the discovery of a new,
mostly underwater
continent named Zelandia
in the South Pacific was announced.
It was announced in the
research journal GSA Today.
I think this is incredibly cool.
Apparently it's half
the size of Australia
and it's the largest
of the micro continents.
So there's that.
Well, happy birthday if
your birthday is today.
You share a birthday with a family
favorite in our house,
singer Ed Sheeran.
He turns 34 today.
Socialite Paris Hilton, she's 44.
Lead singer of Green
Day, Billy Joe Armstrong,
he's 53 today.
Then producer Michael Bay, he's 60.
And of course, the GOAT,
Michael Jordan, he's 62 today.
The show today has been
highlighting some of my favorites
and the number one song on
this date is no different.
It's from 1985 and it's the song
"Careless Whisper" by Wham
featuring George Michael.
Okay, depending on my mood,
this song is one of my
favorite songs of all time.
The vibe, the feel, the
saxophone, it's an incredible song.
And incredibly, George
Michael wrote this song
when he was just 17 years old
and he made it up
while he was riding a bus.
Well, George Michael also
wrote the saxophone solo
and he said he got more praise
about that famous saxophone solo
than any of his riding up
to that point in his career.
To this day, George
Michael says he's unsure
why the song was such a big hit,
but it was his biggest
hit as a part of Wham
and as a solo artist.
And at over 11 million copies sold,
it's one of the biggest
selling singles of all time.
And the number one
movie on this date in 1995
was "Billy Madison,"
an Adam Sandler movie
back when he was just
starting to put together
a string of comedy hits after hit.
"Happy Gilmore"
followed this movie in 1996.
But "Billy Madison," high level,
the movie is about a
rich 20-something year old,
Billy Madison, Sandler's character,
who goes back to finish each
grade in school as an adult
to prove to his rich
father that he can do it.
And you throw in some cute kids
and a romance with the teacher
and it becomes a comedy classic.
Chris Farley had a
cameo, as did Steve Buscemi.
And Robert De Niro says it's
his favorite movie of all time.
Okay, let's move on
to some personal growth
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 we're reading.
And currently we're
reading through Dale Carnegie's
"How to Win Friends"
and "Influence People."
It's a timeless book that is consistently
in all the must read lists
and it's packed with rock
solid advice and actions
for all of us to use
and build healthy
foundational concepts to live by.
And today we are finishing
up chapter two of part two,
which is entitled "A
Sure Way of Making Enemies
and How to Avoid It."
Carnegie began this chapter
by revealing the art in conversations,
whether we are right or wrong.
We are learning that
it's difficult to change
someone's way of
thinking and their beliefs.
They are deeply held
and they are associated
with their self-esteem.
And as such, people will
cling to them, even unreasonably.
So we need to artfully
approach these conversations.
Carnegie says it well saying, quote,
"When we are wrong, we
may admit it to ourselves.
And if we are handled
gently and tactfully,
we may admit it to others,
but not if someone else is trying to ram
the unpalatable fact down our esophagus."
End quote.
Carnegie provides two real
world examples of these methods
and he suggests these
examples are typical experiences
of thousands of people.
The first example is about a woman
who approached a business meeting
with a new way of providing
incentives to her employees.
And she initially prepared
and spent her time showing management
how the current system was wrong
and that she had all
the answers to fix it.
Well, that fell flat.
Once she realized her mistake
of basically telling
other people they were wrong,
in the next meeting, she
led them little by little
through points of concern
with the current system.
And with timely, low key suggestions,
she eventually led
them to her conclusions,
which they then gladly accepted.
Here's what she said she
learned from that experience.
Quote, "I am convinced
now that nothing good
is accomplished and a
lot of damage can be done
if you tell a person straight
out that he or she is wrong.
You only succeed in
stripping that person of self-dignity
and making yourself an
unwelcome part of any discussion."
End quote.
In the second example, a lumber salesman
was dealing with an
inspector at a company
that believed the lumber
delivery was not up to grade.
Historically, the lumber
salesman was fiery and combative
and often he won those types of arguments
based on his knowledge
of the lumber grades,
but often still the
lumber would be returned.
After taking Carnegie's course,
the lumber salesman
used a different approach.
And in the next situation,
he had the inspector
keep on loading the truck
and he asked the
inspector to set aside each piece
that did not meet grade.
And he was careful to
say that they did not have
to accept anything that
was not up to standard.
Well, the inspector
began to warm up after a bit,
given the salesman was
not looking to argue.
And the salesman said, quote,
"An occasional
carefully put remark on my part
gave birth to the idea in his mind
that possibly some of
these rejected pieces
were actually within
grade that they had bought."
End quote.
Note here, as we talk about
the art in the conversation,
the salesman said his
carefully placed and timed remarks
gave birth to the idea
in the inspector's mind.
The art is to lead others down a path,
sowing unnoticed seeds,
where the other person begins to see
and believe your idea is their own idea,
or at least your
perspective begins to dawn on them.
So the lumber salesman summed up his
experience like this,
quote, "In that one instance alone,
a little tact and the
determination to refrain
from telling the other man
he was wrong," end quote,
saved his company the sell and money,
and that, quote, "It would
be hard to place a money value
on the goodwill that
was saved," end quote.
So Carnegie closes out chapter two,
making the point that we
need to adjust our perceptions
of people that we are disagreeing with.
We shouldn't look at them as the enemy
and treat them as the enemy.
Carnegie quotes Martin Luther King,
who said of a man that had
different views than him,
quote, "I judge people
by their own principles,
not by my own," end quote.
And Carnegie says that this chapter
is only supporting principles
that have been around
for thousands of years.
And Carnegie quotes
Jesus again saying, quote,
"Agree with thine
adversary quickly," end quote.
And 2,200 years before Christ,
an Egyptian king told his son, quote,
"Be diplomatic, it will help you gain
your point," end quote.
Carnegie sums up the
chapter saying, quote,
"In other words, don't
argue with your customers
or your spouse or your adversary.
Don't tell them they are wrong.
Don't get them stirred up.
Use a little diplomacy," end quote.
Chapter two is entitled,
"A Sure Way of Making
Enemies and How to Avoid It."
And Carnegie's principle number two is,
"Show respect for the
other person's opinions.
Never say you are wrong."
Isn't the human psyche so interesting?
Sometimes we really do boil down
to just simple concepts like self-worth.
Well, I hope your
self-worth is high this Monday
and your week is off
to a fantastic start.
And I forgot to mention it's also
National Pancake Day.
So if you haven't had breakfast yet,
I'm sure the
International House of Pancakes
has some killer deals today.
We start chapter three tomorrow entitled,
"If You're Wrong, Admit It."
So come back for that.
Now go out there today and be like Mike
and make it happen today.
Thanks for joining and
have a fantastic day.
Don't forget to follow and subscribe to
the Morning Serial
podcast on the One Life
Live It channel.
You can find more episodes and videos by
visiting our YouTube channel and the
website at seaningless
and at seaningless.com, where you can
also follow our other
podcast, the Mr. and Mrs.
Inglis podcast and the
Life Happens podcast.
In these other podcasts, we'll dive
deeper into everyday issues,
self-improvement and
well-being, business and finance, and we
welcome special guests too.
So join us.
It'll be a good time, I promise.
Thanks again for listening.
Have a fantastic day and
we'll see you tomorrow.