Good morning.
And welcome to morning cereal
Okay, good morning
and welcome to Thursday.
It's been a chilly week for many of us,
which makes me feel better
that today is National Comfy Day.
Sounds good to me, sign me up.
A little couch time and my comfy sweats
catching up on some Yellowstone.
Calgon, take me away.
Do you remember that saying?
Well, stay warm out
there and hang in there.
Spring is only 28 days away.
Well, let's spring into today's quotes.
One fun nostalgic quote
and then a second quote.
Tease our book review
later in the episode.
As usual, I hope one of
these quotes will speak to you
and jumpstart your day
in a positive direction.
All right, we'll stay
with the spring theme
for the first quote today,
which is quote, "No winter lasts forever.
No spring skips its turn."
End quote.
This quote works on many levels, right?
Whether you're just
waiting for warmer weather
like we are today,
or if you're a different season of life
and waiting for a warmer chapter in life.
They both are coming.
Just keep moving forward.
And today's teaser quote
from the book review is quote,
"A drop of honey catches more flies
than a gallon of gall."
End quote.
And as usual, we'll unpack that here
in just a few minutes
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 20th.
Starting back in 1872,
the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
the Met in New York City,
it opened up to the public.
Then in 1877, Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake,
it premiered and it went on to become
one of the world's best known ballets.
Then in 1902, Ansel Adams,
the most important landscape photographer
of the 20th century,
he was born in San Francisco.
Then in 1962, NASA's John Glenn,
he became the first
American to orbit Earth
and he did it three times.
Glenn's five-hour space
flight came almost a year
after the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin,
he orbited the Earth on April 12th, 1961.
Then in 1967, singer Kurt
Cobain was born on this date.
Then skipping all the way up to 1998,
Tara Lipinski, she became
the youngest figure skating
American to win gold
at the Winter Olympics.
And then finally in 2007,
Baywatch actress Carmen Electra,
she divorced rocker Dave Navarro
due to irreconcilable differences
after less than three years of marriage.
Man, I thought they
were a forever couple.
That's a shocker to me.
Anyways, happy birthday.
If today is your birthday,
you share a birthday with
young singer Olivia Rodrigo.
She's 22.
Singer Rihanna, she's 37 today.
My wife and I actually saw Rihanna,
I don't know, 15 years ago or so.
She was walking into a Victoria's Secret
on the Mag Mile in Chicago.
I doubt she shops there anymore.
Continuing on,
comedian Trevor Noah, he's 41.
And then 90s supermodel
Cindy Crawford, she's 59 today.
And lastly, the round
mound rebound, Charles Barkley,
he's 62.
And the number one movie
on this date back in 1983
was the movie "Tootsie."
Now I've never seen this movie,
but it stars Dustin Hoffman,
who received a
nomination for an Academy Award
for his role as an actor
that dressed as a woman
to get a role on a soap opera.
And the number one song
on this date back in 1986
was "How Will I
Know?" by Whitney Houston.
This is a classic
wholesome Whitney Houston song,
which actually featured her mother
singing the background vocals.
And it became Whitney's
second number one hit,
following her first number one hit,
"Saving All My Love For
You" in the previous year.
Okay, well, let's move
on to some personal growth
in the book review
segment of "Morning Serial."
This is where we take a
few minutes 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
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.
Yesterday, we finished the
third chapter in part three,
entitled, quote, "If
You Are Wrong, Admit It."
And Carnegie started
the chapter suggesting
that we beat others to
the punch if we are wrong,
saying, quote, "If we know
we are going to be rebuked
anyhow, isn't it far better
to beat the other person to it
and just do it ourselves?
Isn't it much easier to
listen to the self-criticism
than to bear the
condemnation from alien lips?"
End quote.
And if we do this, chances
are that the other person
will have a forgiving attitude and
minimize our mistakes.
Carnegie's principle number
three in a chapter entitled,
If You're Wrong, Admit It.
Principle number three is,
If You Are Wrong, Admit
It Quickly and Infatically.
Today, we're still in part two of
How to Win Friends and Influence People.
And recall, part two is entitled,
"How to Win People to
Your Way of Thinking."
And today we begin
chapter four of part two,
which is entitled, "A Drop of Honey."
Carnegie again shoves us
straight into the deep end
with an opening quote from Woodrow Wilson
about our tempers.
Wilson said, quote, "If you come at me
with your fist doubled,
I think I can promise you
that mine will double as fast as yours.
But if you come to me and say,
let us sit down and
take counsel together.
And if we differ from each other,
understand why it is that we differ,
just what the points at issue are,
we will presently find that we are not so
far apart after all,
that the points on
which we differ are few
and the points on
which we agree are many,
and that if we only have
the patience and the candor
and the desire to get
together, we will get together."
End quote.
Carnegie illustrates this
through a story about Rockefeller
and how he handled a bloody strike
of his miners in Colorado.
The miners had wanted more pay
and the conflict had
risen to such a level
that the US government sent
military to keep the peace,
but peace wasn't kept and
some lives were actually lost.
So you can imagine the
level of emotion and anger
and violence towards Rockefeller
at the height of the confrontation.
And Carnegie suggests
that Rockefeller delivered
one of the most eloquent and radiant
speeches to his miners,
people that quote, "Wanted to hang him
by the neck from an apple tree."
End quote.
Rockefeller has spent a
few days previous meeting
with the workers in their
houses, hearing from them
and making friends.
And as Rockefeller
stood in front of the crowd
of angry workers that
day, he addressed them,
quote, "Not as strangers, but as friends.
And with a spirit of mutual friendship,
our common interests, it
is only by your courtesy
that I am here."
And after this speech by Rockefeller,
the workers went back
to work without a word
and without the wage increase.
Here is part of what
Rockefeller said that day,
quote, "This is a red
letter day in my life.
It is the first time I've
ever had the good fortune
to meet the
representatives of the employees
of this great company.
Its officers and
superintendents together.
And I can assure you
that I am proud to be here
and that I shall remember
this gathering as long as I live.
Had this meeting been held two weeks ago,
I should have stood here
a stranger to most of you,
recognizing few faces.
Having had the
opportunity last week of visiting
all the camps in the Southern coal field
and talking
individually with practically all
of the field
representatives, except those who are away,
having visited you in your homes,
met many of your wives and children,
we meet here not as
strangers, but as friends.
And it is in that
spirit of mutual friendship
that I am glad to have this opportunity
to discuss with you our common interests.
Since this is a meeting of
the officers of the company
and the representatives of the employees,
it is only by your
courtesy that I am here,
for I am not so fortunate as
to be either one or the other.
And yet I feel that I
am intimately associated
with you men, for in
the sense I represent
both the stockholders and the directors."
End quote.
Carnegie asks how different that
situation may have been
if Rockefeller stood up there that day,
throwing facts and figures around,
arguing his point with
tones and insinuations
that the other people were wrong.
Would there have been more anger?
Would there have been
more hatred, more revolt?
Well, we'll end today on a
quote from Abraham Lincoln.
And I bet you may already
be familiar with this one.
Lincoln said, quote, "It
is an old and true maxim
that a drop of honey catches more flies
than a gallon of gall.
So with men, if you would
win a man to your cause,
first convince him that
you are his sincere friend.
Therein is a drop of
honey that catches his heart,
which, say what you will,
is the great high road to his reason."
End quote.
The high road, all of Carnegie's paths
lead us to taking the high
road, being the bigger person.
It's hard at times,
but today we heard a tale
and tomorrow we'll hear
more tales of successful people
that learned and have
implemented this philosophy
to their great advantage.
So come back tomorrow for that.
All right, we've got that
Friday Eve energy, people.
So if you're facing a big
project, a personal goal,
or just another day on the grind,
know that you've got this.
Have the audacity to
just keep moving forward
in a positive way.
Thanks for joining today.
We'll see you tomorrow
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.