In the golden days of radio the great symphony orchestras of the world broadcast over short and long wave bands, creating pockets of listeners all over the globe. In isolated Japan in the 1940s the young composer Toru Takemitsu learned the ways of Western music from the Armed Forces radio network. In Maine, Charles Ives listened to the premiere of his 2nd Symphony, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, over the radio.

When FM came in after the Second World War, sound quality improved, but the since the range of FM is limited to line-of-sight, those millions of listeners lucky enough to get an ionosphere bounce from New York to Vermont or Chicago to Colorado were left in silence. The advent of the long-playing record took the thrill and necessity away from live broadcasts, and radio audiences shrank. Read more…

Isn’t it great that our kids are stuck with us for a fairly lengthy period of time? If we screw up and say something that perhaps wasn’t the best possible parenting expression, they’re going to be around tomorrow, too. We’re going to get another chance to do better.

This is extremely important in the realm of parenting. Most of us have absorbed the wisdom that our kids will perceive negative comments about themselves so powerfully that it will take from 10 to 20 times the number of positive remarks to create a perception of balance. That’s why we need to hesitate when we tell our kid that maybe they could have tried a little harder on that quiz. Have we already told them on 10 different occasions how great they’ve done something?

I’m feeling the same way about customer service at the moment. Take great care of me (basically just do a good job) and I’ll keep using you. But screw up, especially if it makes me look bad, and it will take a long, long time before I trust you again. Read more…

Good morning Mr. Henderson —

Big day for you, no question. My best wishes go out to you on Day One running the new General Motors. Clean slate, pretty much, except for those legacy issues that might hold you back. A culture of poor vision, poor design, poor assembly, poor service. That’s a lot to change all at once, but you’ll need to do it. At your press conference you said the new GM would be bringing to the market, among other things, great design. That really struck me. I wondered what your process would be for inspiring, creating and recognizing great design. And how could a passion for great design be inculcated into the culture on a permanent basis? Read more…

Google rang me up this morning and told me I was showing up on Say Keng Lee’s blog at http://optimumperformancetechnologies.blogspot.com. I tried to find a way to contact him on his blog but either I’ve developed a blind-spot for contact info or Say Keng is policing his inbox. I was pleased he found me since he said he’s looking forward to Think Like a Genius. If he or anyone for that matter would like a taste, I’ve got a free offer for you. Just ask and I’ll send you a PDF of the intro and Chapter One, which is the first of the Endleofon eleven steps: “1. Distinctions — Yes, There Is No Vanilla. A Genius Thinker looks at what everyone else has looked at and sees something new.”

There it is: A free sample chapter of a new book: The Genius Machine — The 11 Steps That Turn Raw Ideas Into Brilliance, which will be published by New World Library in March, 2009.

Just email me at gsindell@thoughtleadersintl.com and I’ll be more than pleased to send the first chapter. Who knows, I might even share more!

Should Everyone Be a Thought Leader?

Twenty years ago when Thought Leaders Intl. started working full time helping business leaders get published successfully, the notion of thought leadership as a competitive advantage was just getting going. People who were identified as thought leaders, at that time, were considered to be the best and the brightest, and were recognized as people who actually were ahead of the game in whatever professional arena they called their own. Read more…