"There is no one-size-fits-all approach to leadership." Tom Peters

After years in the film industry, Stephanie Palmer thought she might know a thing or two about "taking a meeting." As a result, she started a coaching/consulting practice—see stephaniepalmer.com—and she wrote Good in a Room: How to Sell Yourself (and Your Ideas) and Win Over Any Audience. You can read her Cool Friends interview, or listen to it by using this link for an MP3 file. For a few short and quick tips, we also have available an MP3 titled "Three Things."

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Steve Yastrow

dispatches from the new world of work

Happy Birthday, USA!

While we Americans wake on this day each year and look forward to hamburgers, hot dogs, beer, and fireworks in the night sky, we were also reminded earlier this week by William Kristol in a New York Times article to look back at the Declaration of Independence that is the source of our celebration. Turns out that Mr. Kristol now gathers each 4th of July with friends and they read it aloud. "It's a longer document than one thinks; the charges against the king take quite a while to get through," he writes.

To up the ante this year, he's going to add one text to the reading list: Thomas Jefferson's letter to Roger Weightman of June 24, 1826, explaining that ill health prevented him from traveling to Washington, D.C. to celebrate the 50th anniversary of American independence. As it turned out, that was the last letter Thomas Jefferson would write. Mr. Kristol points to a passage in that letter that perhaps ought to be as well known as the famous phrases from the Declaration.

May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains, under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings & security of self-government.

I intend to put aside some time today to read aloud these two documents and re-acquaint myself with what we're truly celebrating. And then I'm going to fire up the grill and enjoy some burgers and beer.

Later this evening, we Americans will gather on the shores of the Charles River in Boston, near the presidential monuments in Washington, D.C., on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, and on town greens across the country and tilt our heads back and 'ooh' and 'ahh' as we stare into the sky watching the 'rockets red glare' re-enacted again and again.

Happy 4th of July to you all!

Links:
Declaration of Independence

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Roger Weightman

Erik Hansen posted this yesterday.
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ZIM

Air conditioning towers

I'm in Macau (the next-door island of Taipa-Coloane, actually), speaking to the global leaders of ZIM Integrated Shipping Services—one of the world's largest cargo shippers. The LONG and PRESENTATION versions of my slides are available.

(Above is a photo from my hotel room window that I've titled "Global warming? What, me worry?" It is a small segment of the cooling towers-apparatus used for climate control here at The Venetian—sister of the Las Vegas property by the same name.)

Tom Peters posted this on 07/02.
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OMG, A Positive Airline Story!

Never thought I'd be caught saying something nice about an airline, but here goes. Was scheduled to fly United from SF to Macau, via Taipei. Was indulging myself with a 1st class seat. But transfer process in Taipei smelled nightmarish.

Looking around for alternatives I found EVA Airways. (My travel agent-Goddess had booked it as a very second "safety choice." (My contracts require a backup.) I don't pretend to be omniscient, but I'm a little leery of airlines I've never heard of after several million miles and several million years of flying. At the EVA website, though, I had the opportunity to go to a neutral site for customer comments—while a couple were minor complaints, the vast majority were very positive. Given the comments and the fact that the connecting process in Taipei appeared to be painless—we booked EVA about eight hours before I was to leave.

Enough of the build-up. Bottom line, top line, middle line: A fantastic experience. Flew business class—$7,500 (no bull) less than United. Everyone, as in everyone, had great attitudes. Check-in painless and positive. Lounges great in SF and Taipei. Transfer in Taipei very easy. And on and on. All together, a rare A+ experience.

(Guess what airline I'm flying back to Boston?)

(FYI fellow ignoramuses: EVA was launched in 1989 with a $3 billion aircraft order. It is a sister of the much older, Taipei-based Evergreen Marine Corporation, the 4th largest containership outfit in the world. I'm slightly embarrassed that Evergreen Marine is a competitor to my hosts at ZIM!)

Tom Peters posted this on 07/02.
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Election Junkies

Maybe I'm the last to catch on, but usaelectionpolls.com is a marvelous site with an astounding array of polling info—more than anybody sane could want, but, then, I'm not sane when it comes to either elections or statistics.

(FYI, there is no partisan commentary—but there are very useful explanations of poll strengths and weaknesses and methodology.)

Tom Peters posted this on 07/02.
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Steve Yastrow Rules!

Steve posted recently on dealing positively with the recession by doing better by your existing customers—and thus getting more of their business. Well, here's some nice support for Steve's view (and a useful quote). Horst Schulze is the legendary former Ritz-Carlton chief—father of "ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen." He's come out of retirement to launch a luxury brand of small hotels. Here in Macau, I came across an interview with Horst in Prestige magazine (06.08). He directly addressed, with aplomb, the issue of starting a new business during a recession: "I [will] not accept the explanation of a recession negatively affecting the [new] business. There are still people traveling. We just have to get them to stay in our hotel."

More or less took the words out of Steve Yastrow's mouth. (And words with which I agree heartily.)

Tom Peters posted this on 07/02.
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100 Ways to Succeed #130:

Bad Times?
Become Top Line Hypermanic!

Cutting, cutting, cutting is typically Recession Obsession-Preoccupation #1. Cutting may well be necessary, but don't let it get in the way of, in reality or psychologically,* becoming born-again Sales Hounds. With whatever tools you can dream up, re-double your time and effort aimed at increasing your business with existing top customers.

Start within the ... hour!

(*The "cutting psychology" is deadly—most everyone goes into a defensive shell when "cutting-is-all" becomes the odor of the place.)

Tom Peters posted this on 07/02.
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26 Rules for Recessions

I spoke last Friday to the Pacific Coast Builders Conference—those left standing remain at the heart of a Perfect Storm. One solution to passing my 90 minutes would have been a prayer meeting. Passing on that due to lack of leadership qualifications, I decided, at the urging of the conference chairman, to talk about "excellence in tough times." I began with a list of assertions, which I reproduce here. The ones which were totally limited in scope (remarks about Barry Bonds, Sandy Koufax, Port Hueneme CA, et al.) have been excised. Though some of what follows is still narrow in focus, most of the "assertions" have reasonably widespread applicability. I have only lightly annotated my simple statements:

**That which goes up also comes down.
**That which goes waaaaaay up also comes waaaaaay down. ("It was in the Beginning and now and ever shall be. Amen."—maybe I could have led a prayer meeting after all.)
**IQs rise as markets go up. (Isn't it amazing how smart we all were 18 months ago?)
**Why have we done this s%^# over & over & over?
**Why will we do this s%^# again & again & again?
**The "madness of crowds" is the most profound statement of truth ever.

[Sooooooo many "smart" people get conned over and over and over. This is the second time in a single decade—dotcom crunch time was 2000 more or less. Near the end of the dotcom era, I admit that I tossed a few bucks at the market. I'm not all that interested in stocks—real estate is my indulgence. But my irrational side said, "Sure, it's overpriced, but you can't sit the whole damn thing out." So I invested, and a year later got about 2 cents back on the dollar. Timing is, of course, everything—but that's not enough to explain our chasing markets whose valuation is nutty-squared to the naked eye. The dotcom cycle was even more absurd, if lower in impact—companies valued at fives of billions of dollars, without a penny of revenue in sight. It is plain madness, the provenance of shrinks, not economists.] [And, alas, forewarned is definitely not forearmed.]

**Bigger is almost never better.
**Big mergers are stupid.
**Big mergers spring naturally from big egos.

[At times of market uncertainty, the biggies, even the so-called "good" biggies, bulk up to defend themselves. We've seen it in financial services, consumer goods, pharmaceuticals, steel—you name it. The strategies invariably lead to the loss—rapid loss—of even hundreds of billions of dollars in market cap. And yet we do "it" again and again, and the perps are often our most "heroic" execs.] [And, alas, forewarned is definitely not forearmed.]

**It doesn't get any better than this—the likes of U.S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, and John C. Fremont were born for moments such as this. There is no such thing as a good-great leader who has not confronted, been battered by, and stumbled through-overcome a catastrophe. The Upside for the resilient and gutsy and creative is as high as the downside is low for those who attempt to hide in the closet until the fur stops flying.

[Find me a single example of someone who made the history books who hadn't had the crap kicked out of him-her—typically time and time again. Adversity is the soil of great accomplishment—period. Which doesn't make getting kicked around any more fun at the time. I'm at a bit of a loss here for pragmatic ideas—assuming you are not the boss of bosses, perhaps a good bet is to form some sort of offensive support group—The Resilience Rambos? The idea is to dwell on the opportunities that doubtless lie amidst the wreckage.]

**Take advantage of others' timidity; tighten the belt with a mighty tug, but in a key area or two, double the strategic project budget rather than halve it.

[When the dotcom implosion occurred, most IT budgets were slashed and slashed again—but Sysco's CEO saw a once in a lifetime opportunity in others' timidity, and pulled in the reins very hard in general to free up money to act hyper-aggressively on IT. Some others in this wee wise wedge have taken advantage of slower times to juice up the training budget, hence increasing the quality of the workforce.]

**Women rule. And make (almost) all the residential real estate decisions.

[Tom on his high horse again—women make the purchase decisions, yet my audience was mostly male. Stupid. In talking with folks afterwards two themes emerged: First, women are less ensnared by competition for competition's sake; their drive for excellence is as high as any man's or higher, they are just less inclined to try and prove themselves by outbidding "the other guy" for an already overvalued asset. And second, women simply are better listeners—which makes them particularly more effective in the homebuilding world, where the customer's decision is one of the most important in her life. Listening is also a miracle strategy when times are tough—e.g., the Great Listener is far more likely to get the loan extension!!]

**Decency must not be sacrificed in tough times.
**Decency is more important than ever in tough times.

[Insanely, great numbers of businesspersons, panicked by rotten market conditions I suppose, resort to shortcuts and churlish behavior to last out the day. In fact, bad times are the best times to behave well—for pragmatic as well as philosophical reasons. At the very least, if you go under, your personal reputation will be in tact—which is the ultimate cornerstone for a comeback.]

**Painful decisions must be made—make them as gracefully as possible; doing so is the best investment in the long term possible. Your reputation will be shaped by the long memory of how you behaved when the fan was covered with yogurt.
**Tough decisions mostly affect other people's families. You must still make the tough decisions, but the minute they cease to be agonizing, resign—you're not worth saving.
**Character rules in adverse times.
**Now is when investment in relationships pays off—and now is when you pay the full price of not having invested in relationships when times were good and you didn't "need to be nice" to others.
**Keep good people—if it kills you.

[Don't mess with your franchise players. Nurture them as never before.]

**Practice transparency to a fault.

[People in the know—from receptionist to EVP—are far more likely to be positively engaged and supportive during a nasty downturn. "In the know" means "the works," not just a few breadcrumbs of sanitized info.]

**If your world is in relatively good order do not be tempted to use this "opportunity" to "consolidate" by acquiring questionable assets at firesale prices—you are not good enough to turn cow pies into gold; only your ego thinks you are, and your ego is, as usual, wrong.

[For example: We'll see, but the Bank of America seems to believe that it can sprinkle some sort of pixie dust on the remaining Countrywide staff, and create a real estate powerhouse down the road. I, instead, see a washout and 6,000-foot drop at road's end.]

**Smaller but really good is a better place to be.

[As always, in my remarks I referred to Germany's "Mittelstand," its middle-sized, focused stars that propel Germany to the top spot in global exports. I am the unabashed fan of the smaller or middle-sized focused enterprise. The Mittelstand Spirit and commitment to Excellence are also the best defense against hard times!]

**Work out more and harder in bad times—get high or less low on chemical cocktails generated by killer workouts.

[Bad times are killers, literally, especially if you respond with strings of 20-hour days. Among other things, your judgment goes to hell in a handbasket—and your inevitably irritable disposition is an inspiration to no one, starting with your 9-year-old.]

**You will be remembered in the long haul for the quality of your work, not the quantity of your work—the quantity part is just your defective ego talking—no one evaluates Picasso based on the number of paintings he churned out.
**Take advantage of tough times to realize that in the long haul you will be remembered for your humanity not your net worth—think Tim Russert.
**You, too, God willing, will be 65 some day—and when you look back it's never the easy times that pop up in the viewfinders; it's the valiant struggles and adversities suffered and occasionally overcome that fill the highlights tape.

**If not Excellence, what? If not Excellence now, when?

[Pursuing Excellence in all we do is the ultimate turn on, and the ultimate source of resilience in difficult times, in particular. And, as I see it, there is literally no way to lose. All that "stuff" about "the journey is the reward" turns out to be 100.00% right.]

Tom Peters posted this on 06/30.
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The HFMA Event: More

Tom spoke to the Healthcare Finance Managers Association on June 26. In his speech he touted their magazine Leadership, and he insisted that we point you to its website. It provides stories about "compelling and inexpensive efforts" from all over the U.S. to address such pressing issues as patient safety. Tom added that "it proves this stuff can be done—and a million bucks of funding, or a twentieth of that, is not required to get on with it."

As a result of this engagement, Tom also got a chance to meet Michael Millenson in person for the first time. For years Tom has been quoting Millenson's book, Demanding Medical Excellence, and he credits it with fueling his interest in healthcare. I found this quote from the book in a Master presentation dated 20 June 2001: "A healthcare delivery system characterized by idiosyncratic and often ill-informed judgments must be restructured according to evidence-based medical practice." You can read more of Millenson 's commentary at his website, HealthQualityAdvisors.com.

Cathy Mosca posted this on 06/30.
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PCBC2008

I spoke yesterday to PCBC2008, the Pacific Coast Builders Conference (residential contractors), on the meaning of excellence in tough times. My title: EXCELLENCE. THE BASICS. NOW MORE THAN EVER. I shared the platform with, among others, Carly Fiorina, Malcolm Gladwell, and Gary Hamel. While I deny owning rose-colored glasses, I do believe that nasty times provide exceptional opportunities for those who grasp the nettle vigorously. Thus, among other things, I said, and meant:

"It doesn't get any better than this—U.S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, and John C. Fremont were born for moments like this. There is no such thing as a good-great leader who has not confronted, been battered by, and stumbled through-overcome a catastrophe. The Upside for the gutsy and creative is as high as the downside is low for those who attempt to hide in the closet until the fur stops flying."

[For the slides, you can use this link: Pacific Coast Builders Conference.]

Tom Peters posted this on 06/28.
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Event: HFMA

In Las Vegas today, Tom is speaking to the Healthcare Financial Management Association. I'm sure Tom has a great deal to say to them. We'd love to hear about the event in the comments, or if you'd like to get the slides, you can use this link:
HFMA, Las Vegas, NV

Cathy Mosca posted this on 06/26.
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The Downturn Is a Rounding Error

The U.S. economy is in bad shape. If, by chance, you haven't heard about this yet, just turn on cable TV news for 30 seconds.

What does this mean to your business? It could be terrible, but it doesn't have to be.

How can I say that?

For the last few months, I have been asking workshop audiences the following questions:

1. What percent of your customers are giving you all the business they reasonably could?

2. What percent of your referral sources are giving you all the referrals they reasonably could?

The answers to these questions have stunned me, because they have been so low. I knew they would be quite a bit lower than 100%, but I've found that most executives estimate that only somewhere between 0 and 25% of customers are giving them all the business they could. The numbers are even lower for referral sources.

So, let's say that the economic downturn has softened the market for your products or services by 10—20%. Yes, that's a lot. But it pales in comparison to the 75% of the business you are missing if your current customers are only giving you 25% of their potential business.

Here's the cold, hard (but potential-laden) truth: For most companies, the untapped latent profit in their existing customer relationships is much greater than the magnitude of our current economic problems.

The downturn is real. But so is the amount of business you are missing from your current customer relationships. How do you develop this potential with your existing customers?

Customers who believe they are in "We" relationships with you will give you a larger share of their business. They are willing to pay more, and they are less likely to leave you for a competitor. On the other hand, customers who are in "Us & Them" relationships with you are more likely to spread the business around among your competitors, and will also be more likely to bolt to the competition for a lower price. If you create "We" relationships with your customers, one relationship-building encounter at a time, you will go a long way towards making up for—and maybe even surpassing—the effects of the soft economy.

Steve Yastrow posted this on 06/25.
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The "Stuff" Is the Fluff, The Flower Is the Power

Vase filled with flowers

I see there's a lotta talk about Posts with flowers pics! Fact is, The Great Peony Post was just an innocent (I thought) riff about missing home, pretty flowers, and Mid-summer's.

But if you wanna fight ...

I stand foursquare ("fivesquare," if there were such squares) on ... The Side of the Flower.

Remember my Post a while back about "mapping your competitive position," in which I said, in effect, forget the intellectual mapping exercise—go visit a customer instead? Well, I feel the same way about Peonies.

Forget the "clever" rants on "mergers, yes or no" or some such weighty strategic matter, and get on with the business—The Real Business—of, say, recognizing someone who went the extra quarter step for a colleague, vendor, customer. Recognize him-her-them, I suggest-demand-command, with Flowers! Do it ... NOW!!!!

Invest in a new, well reviewed management book (or an old one, by me)? Or invest in Power Peonies to enhance or cement a relationship? Game, set, match, Center Court Wimbledon to those Relationship-building Peonies!

(Above, from our garden—Susan's garden!—for Midsummer's.)

Tom Peters posted this on 06/24.
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100 Ways to Succeed #127:

Send Flowers! Today! X10!

Send 10—TEN!!—people flowers. Today. As "Thank yous" for good things "small"—or even large—done in the last two weeks.

Tom Peters posted this on 06/24.
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See How Simple What You Cannot Do Is: The 240% Factor!

Woody Allen's "Eighty percent of success is showing up" was the topic of a recent Post. One great comment (Rob) added a nice twist: "And I reckon a large part of the remaining 20% is Refusing to Go Away Again."

Coincidentally, I came across the following the next day while listening to Ernest Hemingway's Garden of Eden:

" ... Finishing is what you have to do. If you don't finish, nothing is worth a damn.

" ... Write the hardest story there is to write that you know. Start it tomorrow. The hell with tomorrow. Go and start it now.

"He sat down and wrote the first paragraph of the new story that he had always put off writing. ... The very beginning was written and all he had to do was go on. That's all, he said. See how simple what you cannot do is?"

Message-Lesson/s: The first 80% of success is showing up! The second 80% is sticking around and refusing to leave! The final 80% is finishing! See how simple what you cannot do is?

(NB: Sounds like a biography of U.S. Grant—and doubtless many-most others who succeeded against very long odds.)

Tom Peters posted this on 06/24.
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The World Is a Liar!

100 Ways to Succeed #128:

And You [Me]?

I wish you a long life, but if tragedy were to have struck you yesterday, what do you think "they" would say at your memorial service? This maudlin question is not to be dwelt on "24/7," but it is worth considering on an irregularly regular basis.

Tom Peters posted this on 06/24.
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When The "Enemy" Really Wins

Business Brickyard book cover "Lose Your Nemesis": "Obsessing about your competitors, trying to match or best their offerings, spending time each day wanting to know what they are doing, and/or measuring your company against them—these activities have no great or winning outcome. Instead you are simply prohibiting your company from finding its own way to be truly meaningful to its clients, staff and prospects. You block your company from finding its own identity and engaging with the people who pay the bills. ... Your competitors have never paid your bills and they never will."—Howard Mann, Your Business Brickyard: Getting Back to the Basics to Make Your Business More Fun to Run*

*Mr Mann also quotes Mike McCue, former VP/Technology at Netscape: "At Netscape the competition with Microsoft was so severe, we'd wake up in the morning thinking about how we were going to deal with them instead of how we would build something great for our customers. What I realize now is that you can never, ever take your eye off the customer. Even in the face of massive competition, don't think about the competition. Literally don't think about them."

Tom Peters posted this on 06/24.
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100 Ways to Succeed #129:

Language Patrol!

Don't let the "enemy" rule your life. Try your damnedest to follow the exact advice of Mr McCue above: "Literally don't think about them."

Easier said than done, no doubt, but awareness is a start. That is, direct conversations away from "What is Microsoft doing?" ("What is the accountancy across the road doing?") And focus instead on, What new and cool things are we doing for our customers? (And, perhaps, see above, send a few good customers flowers today to thank 'em for their biz.)

Tom Peters posted this on 06/24.
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In Memory of George

We lost a giant in the entertainment industry this week with the passing of George Carlin, the brilliant countercultural comedian and social critic. His iconoclastic genius was well known, if not always appreciated. (His "seven dirty words" comedy routine became the focus of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on obscenity 30 years ago.) But not as well known was his generosity to friends in need, as I witnessed 34 years ago.

In 1974 I was performing with a Los Angeles honky-tonk & boogie band, Uncle Crusty and the Venice Canaligators, which featured Hook McGuire—a grizzly one-armed singer/harmonica player (who lost his hook in prison)—and a colorful cadre of musically talented misfits. One night after opening for Freddie King at the Starwood Club in Hollywood, someone in the band packed the guitar amplifiers too close to the rear door of our Econoline van, which jiggled the rear door handle open as our driver/guitarist Butch Mudbone sped home to Venice, oblivious to the trail of musical equipment spilling onto the streets of West L.A. behind him. Once Butch reached home and saw the open door and the missing Fender amplifiers he hastily retraced his route, but it was too late. The band's capital goods were apparently redistributed to aspiring musicians along Venice Boulevard.

So what can a poor band do? Well, as every innovative business team knows, it pays to have a sponsor. And we had a generous one in George Carlin, who years earlier had become a Canaligator booster after seeing the band perform for tips on the Venice boardwalk. So the next day the band members were at George's Pacific Palisades doorstep, tin cup in hand. Because I was meeting George for the first time (I had only recently joined the band), I was a tad intimidated. It didn't help that the mat outside his front door read "Go Away" instead of "Welcome." But it turned out that George and his wife Brenda were completely delighted to see us. For the next several hours we were treated to an impromptu show, with George at his wackiest and most improvisational as he impersonated some of his favorite musicians at double-time speed. Afterwards he magnanimously wrote us a check for what we needed to restock our equipment truck, and sent us merrily on our way. It seemed as if he had paid us to watch him perform.

Thanks for your wit, wisdom, AND generosity, George.

[Read more by John O'Leary at his blog, Rock and Roll Lessons.—CM]

John O'Leary posted this on 06/24.
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Happy Summer

We neglected to mention this last Friday, but in honor of summer's arrival, we did post a new banner at tompeters.com. In case you hadn't noticed, somewhere along the line we decided to usher in each new season with a new image/images at the top of our homepage. We've been working with Joy Stauber, who we met through our friends at 800-CEO-READ. She's responsible for the home page banner and all the sub page banners as well. Joy is smart, fun to work with, and she really gets Tom.

We put a lot of thought and time into selecting what we post at the top of this page. Our goal is to create a sense of the season and even a sense of moving through that season. In the current incarnation of the banner, we've got a morning image of a dock jutting out into the water (Tom says it reminds him of him of growing up in Severna Park, Maryland, on the Severn River). The lobster buoys are the requisite technicolor component and the lobster is there because we eat lobster in summer here in New England but also because it is red, Tom Peters red. Initially we had a cherry pie, but for some reason our team wasn't all that keen on cherry pie. We've even worked in a small image of Tom hiking in New Zealand. The lilacs replaced the multi-colored tulips, which were too spring-like. (I'm telling you, these are pretty complicated decisions we make about these images, after much discussion.) Now the lilacs are somewhat reminiscent of spring as well, but we liked their color and I guess we all smell them when we see the image, so they powered their way into the banner that way. And at the end, at sunset, a young woman splashes into a lake. End of the day, end of the season. Yes, we look ahead to the end of summer, but we savor every moment in between.

We wish you all a happy and sun-filled season. For those of you in the other hemisphere, we hope your winter is just as fabulous. (The ski season in Portillo, Chile opened this past Saturday.)

Erik Hansen posted this on 06/23.
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