Michelle (my wife), Charlie (our dog) and I just got back from a 5,000 km plus trip that took us to Winnipeg and back, through Canada and many Northern States. It’s a beautiful trip across wonderful country packed with interesting people and places. Sadly we’re seeing more abandoned homes and businesses along the primary and secondary roads we travel. In some cases it’s because the latest highway improvement did away with the vital off-ramp. In other cases the industry that gave reason and sustenance to the town has moved on.

Now giant fibreglass fish, oxen, and skiers are many towns’ last investment and hope that a few tourists will stop by and help extend the town’s lifespan.

We also see a lot of discount or manufacturer’s outlet malls built around name brand discount food, gas and lodgings. They all look the same whether you’re in Wisconsin or New York state. It makes us wonder if there is a specal highway intersection master franchise licensing agreement that explicitly rules out any sense of local or cultural identity.

The Upper Peninsula (a.k.a. the U.P.) is one of the few exceptions. Local crafts are on sales everywhere – suggesting communities are working together to rebuild their tattered economies.

When I'm in Winnipeg, I can sit and watch trainloads of China Shipping containers file by all day long. And each time I wonder: what would Canada be like if it said B.C. Shipping on the 1st container, Alberta Shipping on the second container, Saskatchewan Shipping on the third container, Manitoba Shipping on the next one, Ontario Shipping on the next one. And so on and so on.

What if we were not so obsessed with “fast + cheap” and realized that if we want a great future for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren, we need to pay a bit more to enable local companies to stay here, thrive here, employ the local community, and give us all the national pride that comes from quality products and services that are “Made in Canada”. (Not just "designed in Canada and made in China").

On my birthday my mother always wishes me good health, happiness and peace of mind. For most of my life I didn’t get it. I thought sex, drugs and rock-and-roll would be more fitting birthday presents. But more recently I’ve come to treasure her three wishes and wish our great country the same three things: vibrant environmental & economic health, happiness for all Canadians coast to coast to coast, as well as local + world peace in our time.

I'll leave you with a quote (that I found on a detergent bottle of all places) because it speaks to an intellectual state of mind we all need to reach if my wish for Canada is to come true.

"In our deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations."

—     From the great law of the Iroquois Confederacy. 

After a good meal Charlie and I feel content and both want to have a little nap. And when we snooze, we loose. Opportunities continue to flow by in the river of life but we’re too comfortable to notice them and seek them out.

The greatest gains in life are made during times of social or industrial turmoil. When I felt that my situation wasn’t good enough – or as good as it could be, especially after a layoff, I took more and greater risks because I had less to loose. And so it is with brands and brand stewardship as well.

New brands that are staking out their first territory have no following to alienate, nothing to lose and everything to gain. Think Uber.

In a few years I predict Uber will scream “bloody murder” because someone has disrupted it’s profitable but flimsy business model.

The business models of the most progressive organizations that I have worked with always made alternative thinkers welcome, but not too comfortable or secure. The strategy enables most of the organization to focus on the core business while not loosing sight of the need to seek out and seize new opportunities before the competition does.   

“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” – Pablo Picasso

Placing a car into a fish-tank full of gold-fish is a nice idea.

Doing so digitally is how it’s usually done these days.

Putting a brand new car into an aquarium full of gold-fish in a busy mall takes a bit more money and far more audacity.

Audacity doesn’t win you a brand war or skirmish, but if done right, it can get you on the short list of brands that people take notice of.

Audacity is best followed by brand integrity and an opportunity to experience some of the stuff that can help assure them that your brand really is different because your culture really is different in ways that are aligned with and support thier professional or personal paths.

Better people make better communities - and run better businesses. Had I understood 1/2 this stuff in my formative I would have been a much better person, employee and employer.

While I’m not a fan of reposting, these lessons on life by Andy Rooney are worth sharing. Mr. Rooney was an American radio and television writer who was best known for his weekly broadcast "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney," a part of the CBS News program 60 Minutes from 1978 to 2011.

“1. The best classroom in the world is at the feet of an elderly person.

2. When you're in love, it shows.

3. Just one person saying to me, 'You've made my day!' makes my day. 

4. Being kind is more important than being right.

5. Never say no to a gift from a child.

6. I can always pray for someone when I don't have the strength to help him in any other way.

7. No matter how serious your life requires you to be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with.

8. Sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand.

9. Simple walks with my father around the block on summer nights when I was a child did wonders for me as an adult.

10. Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.

11. We should be glad God doesn't give us everything we ask for.

12. Money doesn't buy class.

13. It's those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular.

14. Under everyone's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.

15. To ignore the facts does not change the facts.

16. When you plan to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt you.

17. Love, not time, heals all wounds.

18. The easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am.

19. Everyone you meet deserves to be greeted with a smile.

20. No one is perfect until you fall in love with them.

21. Life is tough, but I'm tougher.

22. Opportunities are never lost; someone takes the ones you miss.

23. When you harbour bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.

24. I wish I could have told my Mom that I love her one more time before she passed away.

25. Keep your words both soft and tender because tomorrow you may have to eat them.

26. A smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.

27. While everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.

28. The less time I have to work with, the more things I get done.”

And my favourite:

29. “The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.”

Because of my depth an breadth of experience people think I can come up with better ideas faster than those with less experience. As a result I get a lot of requests to turn a project around in a few days rather than a few weeks.

Here’s a little creative process argument breakdown you can use with your clients to help them understand why two weeks can make the difference between good + great creative (money + talent aside).

• When your project arrives on my desk, it competes with a bunch of other personal and professional work; some of which I need to do and some I want to do.
• When you give me short lead times and I need to “drop everything” and jump on your project, you’re moving me into commercial crisis management mode. The solutions that I come up with will make sense and play well with your other communication elements, but because there is no time to immerse myself into your brand's or your user’s life, I’ll show you three very different communication solution options. My work will not be very insightful because your creative brief was long, vague and not (operationally or functionally) insightful.

• When you give me time and a short, insightful brief, something very different happens. I get to read the brief, ask you questions about it, digest it and then forget about it for a while. Over the next few days ideas and solutions will “come to me” that I can mull over. A few days later all of the ideas that have bubbled up will begin to sort and shape themselves as direct and oblique solutions to your creative brief. Then, when I’m caught up with other work on my desk, I can address your brief quickly and effectively because I’m not “thinking up” ideas, I’m just jotting down and sketching out the completed options that I’ve come up with.

The kicker:

While the client billable and non-billable hours for the crisis version (three good options) and the 2-week version (a dozen good options distilled down to the best two or three) are about the same.

The bottom line:

Crisis clients who only “know what they want when they see it”, usually don’t see it in the first session and ask for multiple rounds of revisions (that they don’t feel obligated to pay the agency for).

I sell in the 2-week versions of my work the first time round 95% of the time (often with-out even being in the room)!