CHASING FIRE ENGINES WITH RUBE WADDELL

I'm an avid fan of baseball, and as much as I love the strategy of the game, I'm even more enamored with it's rich history of glorious achievements and colorful characters. One of my favorite characters from baseball lore is the legendary turn-of-the-century (Okay, turn-of-last-century) pitcher, Rube Waddell.

Rube pitched for Louisville, Chicago and Philadelphia in the Senior Circuit, and moved to the American League when it began, pitching for their Philadelphia franchise, as well as the old St. Louis Browns. In 13 major league seasons he won 193 games, and finished with a career ERA of 2.16.

Rube was, to say the least, eccentric. In fact, many historians now believed he was mentally handicapped. Great stuff on the mound, a welcome presence in any team's rotation, but he also took quirky to a whole new level. The ballparks in his day were build within the confines of crowded city streets, and when the horse-drawn fire departments happened to race by the ballpark, Rube's teammates knew they had to pour out of the dugout and literally tackle their fine hurler, or he'd bolt from the mound, tear out of the park, and chase the fire department through the city streets. Who knows what Rube would've done had he caught them? Opposing teams soon figured out they could break the pitcher's concentration and distract him on a nice sunny day just by catching the sun rays with their watch, and flashing the reflection his way. He would literally stop pitching and freeze, staring into their dugouts at the strange and perplexing light.

Obviously, all the high jinx weren't enough to stop him from having a fine career. In fact, the Veterans Committee saw fit to put him into the Baseball Hall Of Fame back in 1946. How could you not love a guy like this?

It's silly, of course, for a a grown man being distracted by the glint of sunshine off of someone else's watch is, or the idea of that same man abandoning his post every time he heard the clanging bells of a 1900's fire wagon roaring by. No doubt, the historians are on to something, and all was not right with our illustrious hero.


It's a refreshing story though, in times like these. The economy, partisan bickering, the haves and the have nots, we're stressed to the max and at each other's throats. Our 401-K's disappearing before our eyes and people see themselves ruined overnight, while the media pursues pop singers and Hollywood actors like they were Churchill and Roosevelt during WWII, and we hang on every word that drips out of their mouths.

Business people sell out their partners for a bigger share of the pie, husbands leave wives (and wives leave husbands) to deal with mid-life crisises, teenage girls get knocked up "proving their love" to dimwitted boys who wouldn't know what love was if it slapped them silly. We exhaust ourselves and add to our fame pursuing financial wealth, political power, fame, expensive toys, sexual conquests, socail status, designer wardrobes and countless other things that have one thing in common - they'll all end up on the garbage heap one day. Temporary, worthless things - things that will never live up to the promise they make, the promise to somehow fulfill us.

This isn't what it's all about. 'Can't be. This isn't the American Dream (in fact, it's the stuff most of our founding fathers risked and often lost to pursue the real American Dream - but that's another story). This is an illusion, a distraction, a lie. There's got to be more to life than chasing this stuff down. Hey, I'm not pessimistic. I don't think life is pointless. I relish it. I just think it's easy to get off track and chase stuff that doesn't last - that doesn't matter. I think we need to put more thought into the logical conclusion of the things we pursue, the things we do with our lives. Otherwise, we might discover that Rube Waddell wasn't so bizarre at all. Maybe he is us and we are him - pointlessly chasing fire engines down the street and staring off into a beam of sunshine!

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE STORM

Growing up on the coast of North Carolina I heard all kinds of stories about shipwrecks of old, and why not? The coast of my home state is universally known as "the Graveyard of the Atlantic" due to the inordinate number of ships that have gone to their watery grave there - from lost colonial explorers, 18th century pirate attack victims, hurricane casualties and even World War II era U-Boat casualties. Yes, the reasons for the wrecks are various, but the most common culprit has always been the weather. The three capes of North Carolina that jut out and produce south-facing beaches just lie in wait for coastal hurricanes, the warm water of the Gulf Stream collides with the frigid Labrador Currents coming down from Canada off our coast, creating unstable jetties, sand bars and channels that shift and change overnight, making nautical charts obsolete before they go to print, and the massive size of the planet's second largest body of water has a meteorological impact all it's own. But here's the thing - no sane sailor has ever set sail for the storms. They just find themselves in them. It's what you do when it happens to you that matters. It's not a situation you relish, but throwing your hands up in the air guarantees a death sentence. You're left with no choice but to navigate through the storm.

The storm clouds have been brewing around our global economy for some time. Now the crashing waves and thick black sky is upon us. Our first, terrified instinct is to throw our hands in the air, look for someone to blame, and cry woe is me. Which is, of course, a death sentence. If you've got a job, you've got to protect it. If you don't have a job, you've got to get one. If your finances aren't in order, better late than never. I'm no financial expert, and I certainly don't find myself in the midst of this storm anywhere close to being as prepared as I'd like. That's not the point. The storm's here. Let's navigate through it.

This isn't a financial advice blog - if you're taking financial advice from me you've got bigger problems than any blog's going to address. This isn't a pro-business, or pro-government, or even-pro little guy spiel. The situation upon us is difficult, scary and dangerous, and it's not to be taken lightly. I guess this is about perspective. The storm's here, period. So what do we do now?

Be realistic. Your job is going to change. You're going to be taking on new responsibilities, new challenges - truth be told, new opportunities. Yes, opportunities. It's all in how you react to whatever gets thrown your way by the wind and the sea - regardless of how fair it is. In fact, it's not going to be fair. Count on that.


You can gripe about, or seize the day. It doesn't matter to the storm clouds. Remember that, in the midst of the storm, the unexpected is the one thing you should expect. Take nothing for granted. You can't afford to let your guard down. You also can't afford distractions - it's not time to wander down to the galley to see what there is to eat. This is about survival. And when you come out the other side of the clouds, if you've successfully navigated, you'll be a wiser, more prepared, more skilled sailor than when the storm came upon you. You've weathered the storm, learned the lessons it had to teach, and survived to be a better, stronger, wiser you. Opportunities, indeed.

HOW ABOUT A NICE, HEAPING BOWL OF LOGO SOUP?

How often have you had some entity - charities are particular good for this - call you up, try to get you involved in some event, and offer as some great value to include your logo in the print ads, the t-shirt, the poster, whatever? It happens all the time, and most of us jump at the offer. Especially when it's an established, well-attended event? "You know how many people are going to see our logo? That's great branding!"

I believe there are two issues with being an ingredient in this logo soup. First, people seeing your logo IS NOT BRANDING! Branding is when you manage to associate your name with a word, an attribute, in people's minds. I say hamburgers, you say Mcdonalds; I say soda, you sayCoke; I say toothpaste, you say Crest; I say beer, you say Budweiser - that's branding! (and you have to ask the question that way - it's the first thing that comes to mind when you mention the service or attribute, not what service or attribute you associate with the business name. I could whip out most any fast food joint and you'd associate them with hamburgers, but when you just say hamburgers, it's amazing how many people's instintive response is "McDonalds".

The other issue is, even if being part of the soup was branding (and it isn't!), how valuable is it. When your logo is spotlighted it may stand out. Many who look will actually see it. But the last time you had a piping hot bowl of seafood gumbo, did you notice all the ingredients - every single one? Or did you just see the soup as a single entity, noticing a couple of key ingredients (hard to miss the jumbo shrimp, right?) but instinctively letting the bulk of the "stuff" blur into one?

So the next time someone pitches including you in the print ad, the t-shirt, the poster for their big event and you excitedly state to your peers "You know how many people are going to see our logo?" the answer well may be darn near zero, and, futhermore, so what if they do?