But I keep come back to Townes who has a simple, earthy directness to his music.

One of the songs is called “Poncho and Lefty”. The song tells the tale of a bandit named Poncho and his blues singing sidekick, Lefty.  Poncho is gunned down by the authorities in a Mexico desert and Lefty leaves for Ohio with a trail of suspicon that he might have tipped the Federales off for money.

When I first started listening to it, I thought it was a nice ballad. Later I thought that the story would make for a good “buddy” movie ala Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”.

But over the past month, I’ve been thinking that the song is not about two separate people, but two sides of the same person: the adventurous/creative side versus the pragmatic survivor.  The song talks about how many of us are the Judas to our own dreams and passions in return for what we believe to be a life of  security and conformity.

I think about the misalignment of our dreams and actions often, because I do believe that it leads more to chronic stress than anything else. I also believe that it makes it that much more difficult for an organization to align its purpose with the individual. The more an organization can involve employees in ways which inspire their individual passions, then everyone wins.

Of course, work needs to get done.  And not every task may seem to inspire passion in you, but if the bulk of what you are doing seems pointless and lifeless, then why are you doing it? That may not mean that you quit and pursue your dreams elsewhere (although it might) but it might mean thinking real hard about what it is you love to do and see if you can’t craft your job to do more of that – you’d be surprised at easy it might be to pull off; your boss is thirsting for employees who demonstrate initiative.

Townes’ song ends with Lefty growing old in a cheap hotel. But that is not how it needs to end for any of us.  We have the ability to redeem ourselves from ourselves every day, if we choose to.

That’s worth singing about.

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According to Hyde, Duchamp wrote that “The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors” was a “delay in glass”.  The Bride still retains an infinite number of possiblities for her life, standing on the hinge between desire and fulfillment.  Fulfillment has its advantages, to be sure, but it also has it’s drawbacks; fulfillment weds us to a choice, and choices both define and place limitations on the future.  Duchamp is not necessarily stating, “never chose”; as Hyde states, “a ‘delay’ both suspends but not suspends activity.”  The action will continue, the choice will be made.  However, Duchamp shares this moment with the viewer as if to say, “we are all brides sitting on the hinge of possibility.”  Regardless of choices we have made, or how we view ourselves — or how others view us — right now, at this moment, we still have infinite possibilities in front of us.

I find that those times I feel at my lowest is when I feel I have no choice, or that something is totally out of my control.  And yet, even during those times, if I take a moment, I do see that I have choices and there are possibilities (even if most of those possibilities simply involve changing how I feel about the situation).  When I sit, like that bride, on the hinge of possibility, eyes not filled with dreamy stars but clear and bright, my fear subsides and I make a decision with calm and confidence.

Every New Year is a time for both reflection and resolution.  Whether you are making resolutions for yourself or for your business, recognize that possibilities before you are perhaps greater than you might initially realize.  Be that bride on a hinge, stay suspended there for a moment and take wonder in the possibilities that are actually available to you.

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It feels good to give.  And yet, for me, there’s that nagging sensation of “how long will it last”?  When does the sweater get placed neatly in Aunt Minnie’s dresser rarely to be seen again and when does the “new” Wii game get shuffled to the back of the deck of Wii games?

One thing I’m also trying to give during this season as well as strive to do more of next year is to give the ability to receive; give those I care about — whether my family, friends or business relationships — the time to connect with them, to really hear what they have to say, to engage with them at their level, to set aside the multi-tasking jumble that my brain usually becomes and receive their ideas, passions or idle thoughts.  Even if it’s nothing more than a few minutes a day, it’s at least something.

Because, just perhaps, in these days where we are frantically trying to “stay connected” via e-mail, twitter, facebook, and voice mail, the greatest gift we can give is to push all that aside, empty our minds, reach out to someone and let them become connected to us.

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But, as we approach the end of this year and the beginning of another, it pays us to be hungry.  Being hungry forces you to be alert, to be dissatisfied with the way things are and to search for ways to reach your goals.  Hunger feeds desire and its energy fuels innovation.

If we remain stuffed and satisfied with ourselves and the way things are, we run the risk of losing to a faster, more agile and hungrier competition, who will be chewing our legs out from under us before we have a chance to get off the sofa.

So, pat yourself on the back for your accomplishments and be grateful for all that has been given to you.  Then, step back from the table, pause,  and think about your goals that you have yet to achieve.  Let the hunger for those goals begin to gnaw at you and you will have a new sense of awareness of how to achieve them and the commitment to actually get things done.

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We learn to share in day one of kindergarten (if not long before). Of course, what we learn to “share” are things, like toys.  Then we learn to share friends.  We learn to share time.  When we fall in love we learn to share our dreams and desires.  Sharing is a basic social contruct — in fact, societies could never survive without it.

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In the early 1970’s, Pepsi asked Dr. Moskowitz to determine which percentage of Aspartame it should put into Diet Pepsi to give it the right sweetness.  Dr. Moskowitz conducted a survey of consumers drinking Pepsi with anywhere from 8% to 12% Aspartame.  When the results came back inconclusive, Dr. Moskowitz was stunned: he had expected a traditional bell curve with preferences hovering around 10% or at very least a cluster of preferences hovering around a single percentage.  Instead, there was no single cluster; the data appeared random.

Dr. Moskowitz did not believe the data was random.  After considerable thought.  He hit on it.  The answer was that people did not prefer Pepsi.  They preferred Pepsis.

Moskowitz demonstrated this when he worked with Prego in the mid to late 70’s. At the time, Ragu held the dominant market share and Prego asked Moskowitz to come up with the right type of sauce to unseat its rival.  Moskowitz asked Prego’s kitchens to come up with a multitude of varieties of sauces and then conducted tests; what he found was that people did not prefer one specific sauce, but that they tended to cluster around 3 different sauce types:  plain, spicy and extra chunky.  Ragu and Prego both had plain and spicy.  Neither had extra chunky.  Moskowitz recommended Prego introduce extra chunky and all of a sudden its market share sky rocketed.  Walk down any grocery aisle of spaghetti sauces and you will most like see 30 to 40 varieties, within the same brand.

As Gladwell states, we owe Moskowitz three key ideas: 1) the importance of horizontal segmentation (we should not segment products by least complex or expensive to most complex or expensive, rather we should segment according to the variety of attributes it may possess); 2) the fact that he democratized taste, which was based on the fact that; 3) variability is key in gaining marketshare as opposed to coming up with the “perfect” product.

In one real sense, Moskowitz proved that individuals cannot be categorized into one platonic product category; rather they have different tastes, needs and desires.  As such, companies who want to gain marketshare need to consider variety and choice in their product offering.  They cannot just offer Pepsi.  They have to offer Pepsis.

This has important implications for any business.  Instead of just focusing the the “perfect”  or “cheapest”, Moskowitz/Gladewell tells us to focus on providing an array of different product flavors based upon consumer or business preferences.  If you want to maintain or grow share, you need to offer choice which gives the product selection back to the customer where it belongs.

What are you waiting for?  Pop your favorite beverage and get to it!

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I know I live in an IPod (or should I now say ‘IPhone’) world. We have so many ways that make it easy to be connected anywhere at anytime.  But I also wonder if the ease of connection sacrifices the quality of that connection.  How often have we dashed off a rash e-mail only to wish seconds later that we could reach into the computer to take it back?  Or have we had a flare-up during a phone call when someone happened to push one of our buttons? Or how often do we decline to say something to someone, because we don’t have the time to really explain what we’re feeling or to really listen to what they’re saying because we have a hundred other things to get to that day?

Now, we can’t go back to the “turntable times” of business and type memos on typewriters or fumble through “While you were out” messages.  But we can focus more on the quality of our interactions.  It’s extremely hard, but it can be done.  If we treat each interaction we have like we’re listening to a record, really listening to what’s being said, really making sure that we are understood, we can be effective and successful.

Imagine that every meeting you’re in, every e-mail you’re reading, every phone call you make, is being done in the living room of your own home.  It is twilight and there’s a soft breeze coming in off the porch. You’ve just turned on a lamp and the light flows into the shadows.  The person (or persons) with whom you are speaking is like an old jazz album which you’ve just placed on the stereo.  Listen to what’s being said, listen to how you’re feeling as the conversation grows, listen to the hisses and pops of that other person’s history and experience and also the hisses and pops of your own history and experience. Pay attention to nothing else.

The average track is 2 minutes and 57 seconds and in that time, the best music can stir our souls, create love, cure heartbreak or change our lives.  Just think what you can do in business if you treat each interaction you have in the same way.

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It was, as the cliche goes, a random act of kindness, without strings. And it made me think, that’s what a stick of gum is for.  To share.  When people pull out a pack of gum, it triggers some primitive urge to reach out to someone.  The gum doesn’t cost much and the act of sharing doesn’t come saddled with commitments. Yet the small gesture makes both parties grateful, a small ritual of acceptance and recognition that we are human and somehow connected. And it’s all wrapped in minty freshness.

What if we consciously turned every interaction we made into that ritual?  If every time we met someone, or spoke to them on the phone, or sent something in the mail or posted something on the web for them to see, we made them feel like we had offered them a stick of gum, that we said, “I know you”, “I’m just like you” and “You are special.”

I barely spoke to the woman on the plane.  I will never see her again.  Yet, for that one small moment, we shared something and it made me feel good and I won’t long forget it.

I think I’ll carry a pack of gum with me, from now on.

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I think that we all feel like we are skimming the surface of our lives, that we’d love to dip below the surface, but that there’s so much to see and so much to do.  Instead, we’re content to find the “top 10″ this and the “favorite” that and make choices as if all of life were in a zagat guide.

If we ever gave ourselves pause to think, we might realize that life’s richness requires us to get engaged, and that engagement requires time, focus and attention.  Ironically, time, focus and attention are becoming scare in the internet-dominated world where we can communicate with anyone and be anywhere we want.

On your way to work, think about what you are really passionate about.  Determine to be an expert in that subject. Find people who are equally engaged in what you love.  Try to do it all off the grid.

Grab a pencil, grab a sketchbook.  The rest is up to you.

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