e.e. cummings, bonnie ampersand clyde, & walk away power

Best Experienced With:   Delta Spirit;       Bushwick Blues

 

(Please right click on the link below to open the suggested background song in a new browser window.   That’s a heck of a song.   I think my cousin Bo Koster helped Delta Sprit out on this tune.   My cousin Bo is an immensely talented musician.  Was blessed with one heck of a family and one heck of an appetite for malt beverages)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgPJdr6dBoI

 

The Bonnie & Clyde litter:  June 24 to August 28, 2010.   Started with quite a few, some got adopted by God very early on….ended up with a great pair.    They are available for adoption as of 4:40 p.m. today at the PetSmart in Point Loma, California.   Take them as a pair and they’ll make you laugh like a hyena all day long.   Scout’s honor.

 

 

 (adopted by God early on…and playing with catnip mice in heaven)

 

 

somewhere i have never travelled

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the colour of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

                                                                            e. e. cummings (1894-1962)

 

love is more thicker than forget

love is more thicker than forget

more thinner than recall

more seldom than a wave is wet

more frequent than to fail

it is more mad and moonly

and less it shall unbe

than all the sea which only

is deeper than the sea

love is less always than to win

less never than alive

less bigger than the least begin

less littler than forgive

it is most sane and sunly

and more it cannot die

than all the sky which only

is higher than the sky

                                      e. e. cummings (1894-1962)

 

 

 

 

 

 

may my heart always be open to little

may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old

may my mind stroll about hungry
and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it’s sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not young

and may myself do nothing usefully
and love yourself so more than truly
there’s never been quite such a fool who could fail
pulling all the sky over him with one smile

                                e. e. cummings (1894-1962)

 

 

 

 

 

Bonus Sales & Marketing Negotiating Lesson:     Was going to carry this to the grave, yet am feeling magnanimous this evening.  Going to share this tonight and not take it to the grave.   You are welcome.   There is a well known and much written about concept in negotiating strategy called “walk away power”.  If you are in sales or marketing, you have the full accountability and responsibility for negotiating for your company.  

Taken as a given, you should always negotiate from a position of strength.  If you are not negotiating from a position of strength you will most certainly make a bad deal for your company and will not enhance shareholder value.  As a sales and marketing professional, your job is not to get orders.   A monkey can get orders and a monkey is far less expensive than you.   Your job as a sales and marketing professional is to get the  right orders:  the orders that enhance shareholder value.  Anyone can say “yes” to everything, it takes a business professional to use the power of a positive “no” to make the right deals and increase company value for your shareholders.

Walk away power is the ability to stand up during any negotiation, politely thank the other party and confidently say “I am sorry that we cannot agree on __________ and I am choosing to end this discussion.   Thank you for the opportunity to meet with you and I wish you the best of luck in everything you do.”    Then, just shut up and leave.     When you lose your walk away power, you have effectively lost objectivity and your ability to balance the needs of your company.   Furthermore, whatever negotiation choices you make will be bad ones.  Your choices and your concessions will not enhance shareholder value.    Best choice is to leave.

Here’s what I was going to take to the grave.   I have never lost my walk away power in any negotiation and have left the room many times over the years.   90% of the time, have been called back to the table the next day because the other party will respect you far more if you make good business decisions during the the course of the negotiations.   Standing up and politely leaving will get you far more respect than stammering “but, but, but, but” and then dropping your price for the thirteenth time.  I can hire a slew of trained monkeys to make price concessions each time a purchasing person states “that’s too expensive” and, as mentioned earlier, monkeys are low cost alternatives to a professional sales team. 

I have not fostered litters of kitten for fourteen years because I am an animalitarian.   I have fostered litters of kittens for fourteen years because they make me laugh like a hyena and dropping them off at the adoption center on the last day makes me the strongest negotiator you will ever meet.  If you bottle feed one week old kittens through to twelve weeks and are able to turn your back on the picture directly below this and walk out without looking back, you will never have trouble standing up in a negotiation and saying:   “I am sorry that we cannot agree on __________ and I am choosing to end this discussion.   Thank you for the opportunity to meet with you and I wish you the best of luck in everything you do.”    Have never had trouble walking away from a deal and have negotiated very few poor deals from a position of non-strength.

That’s the offense, sales and marketing professionals.   Go get yourself hooked up with a local rescue group Monday morning and find yourself some puppies or kittens to foster for ten to twelve weeks.  Start honing your negotiating skills and building up your walk away power.  You have my word that each time you drop off a litter your walk away power skills will grow exponentially.   Thanks for visiting tonight and enjoy your animal rescue adventures and negotiating adventures in the future.

(Friends of County Animal Shelters (FOCAS) adoption center…August 28, 2010.  Bonnie & Clyde moving on up..)