This was originally going to be an interview with the international best-selling author Steven Pressfield about his historical thriller, Killing Rommel. Steven is a master storyteller. His works, such as The Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great, and The Afghan Campaign, and many others are legendary among military aficionados. His book, Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae, is required reading at West Point.
While talking with Steven about Killing Rommel, we wandered off the beaten path a bit to discuss the power of story – in business and life – to move people to higher grounds. The kind of power that can inspire people to perform great feats of selflessness and humanity. But, we didn’t stop there – we derailed onto troublesome questions of morality, character and ethics.
Great Stories are Questions
Really great historical stories make you a part of the past. You’re there. You smell the smells. Hear the sounds. Taste the foods. Trod the paths. But most importantly, they make you think – force you to question the very tenets and precepts of life you may have previously taken for granted … or not even thought of at all.
Questions that allow you to commune with the past, in the present, about the future. But, much as Heraclitus says …
You can not step twice into the same river; for other waters are ever flowing on to you. – Heraclitus
You may also feel great loss when the story ends. Killing Rommel does that. It raises questions that transcend the story itself.
The Setting
Autumn, 1942. Hitler’s legions have swept across Europe. France has fallen. Churchill and the English are isolated on their island. In North Africa, Rommel and his Panzers have routed the British Eighth Army and stand poised to overrun Egypt, the Suez, and the oilfields of the Middle East. With the outcome of the war hanging in the balance, the British hatch a desperate plan – send a small, highly mobile, and heavily armed force behind German lines to strike a blow that will stop the Afrika Korps in its tracks.
Killing Rommel – 10 Minute Mini-Docu
Narrated from the point-of-view of a young lieutenant, Killing Rommel brings to life the flair, agility, and daring of this extraordinary secret unit – the Long Range Desert Group.
Non Vi Sed Arte
Stealthy and lethal as the scorpion that serves as their insignia, they live by the motto — Non Vi Sed Arte (Not by Strength, by Guile) – as they gather intelligence, set up ambushes, and execute raids.
KILLING ROMMEL: A splendid tour de force, one that brings to life the heroism, sacrifice, tragedy, frustration, fear and — yes — thrill of war. It should not be missed by anyone who wants a moving reminder of the bravery, ingenuity and sacrifice that ordinary men are capable of when given a cause they believe in.” – Washington Post
Enter Steven Pressfield
Steve Kayser: What led you to this story, Killing Rommel, this man, this time, this war?
Steven Pressfield: I was researching Alexander the Great’s cavalry tactics for a couple of earlier books. That led me to Frederick the Great, to Napoleon, and to other more contemporary cavalry commanders. Then, I came across Rommel. He used tanks with the same dash and aggressiveness as Alexander used cavalry. Even though I thought of writing a story strictly about Rommel nothing was clicking. Finally I stumbled upon the British Long Range Desert Group. Something about them grabbed me. I just had to tell the story of these guys – and Rommel.
Steve Kayser: Grabbed you?
Steven Pressfield: Yes. They were a bunch of ordinary, (but special) guys, out in the desert, no roads, no GPS, no CNN or Fox News, no ammo, just some old Chevrolet trucks, and a couple of machine guns … 500 miles behind enemy lines.
Steve Kayser: No Jeeps?
Steven Pressfield: Just Chevrolet trucks. They bought them at a civilian dealership in Cairo.
Steve Kayser: Those are not ordinary guys. I know. I read the posting for the job.
“Only men who do not mind a hard life, with scanty food, little water and lots of discomfort, men who possess stamina and initiative, need apply.”
Steven Pressfield: Ordinary guys in extraordinary circumstances. That posting you refer to was a quote was from the initial British Army Circular, summer 1940, seeking volunteers for what would become the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG).
Steve Kayser: They teamed up with an exceptional unit, the SAS?
Steven Pressfield: Yes. The SAS is the British equivalent of our American Special Forces. SAS stands for Special Air Service. Full of some amazing swashbuckling characters –Paddy Mayne, the most decorated British soldier of WWII, Jock Lewes, George Jellicoe, Sandy Scratchley; Randolph Churchill, son of Prime Minister Winston Churchill and others.
The original conception of the SAS was that they would be a parachute-borne commando outfit. But after one debacle in which men were dropped into a sandstorm and many were lost, the whole concept looked like it would flop horribly. It so happened though that David Stirling (founder of the SAS) was talking with a young LRDG officer who suggested that the SAS forget parachuting (too dangerous) and let the Long Range Desert Group deliver them like a taxi service to their raids. Thus was born a partnership that gave Rommel more headaches than anyone could have imagined.
Steve Kayser: Their mission?
Steven Pressfield: In the darkest hour of the North African war (summer 1942) – when Rommel’s panzers were poised 60 miles from Alexandria and the British in Cairo were burning their code books waiting to be overrun at any moment – the LRDG and the SAS are dispatched on a desperate mission. Their instructions are to use the deep desert routes known only to them, get in the rear of the Afrika Korps and penetrate its formations in the field. From there, they are to locate Rommel and go in after him.
“The peril of the hour moved the British to tremendous exertions, just as always in a moment of extreme danger things can be done which had previously been thought impossible. Mortal danger is an effective antidote for fixed ideas.”– Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
Steve Kayser: Why was Rommel so important? He was just one man.
“We have a very daring and skillful opponent against us, and,may I say across the havoc of war, a great general.” – Winston Churchill
Steven Pressfield: Rommel had gained the world’s respect for his military genius. He was a legend.
“There exists a real danger that our friend Rommel is becoming a kind of magical or bogey-man to our troops, who are talking far too much about him. He is by no means a superman, although he is undoubtedly very energetic and able. Even if he were a superman, it would still be highly undesirable that our men should credit him with supernatural powers.” – British General Claude Auchinleck
Steven Pressfield: At the same time, Rommel was reminiscent of the more romantic, chivalrous days of old – and was a genuinely humane military officer. Rommel was Germany’s best General. You have to remember all of Europe was in Nazi hands at the time. The Americans hadn’t entered the war yet. Russia was being attacked by 166 Nazi divisions. Things were grim. And Rommel, the greatest desert fighting general of all time, and his Africa Korps, were kicking the British’s butt, pushing them back to Cairo. It became a case where the war might have been lost right there.
Steve Kayser: Chivalrous in war? Can you give an example?
Steven Pressfield: When Rommel’s panzers overran a British field hospital where the staff had elected not to flee but to stay with their patients (who were German and Italian as well as British and Commonwealth), Rommel visited the site at once, shook the hand of every doctor and nurse and thanked them personally. He asked them to stay on until he could bring up his own Afrika Korps medical personnel (the British readily agreed), then made it a point of honor not to make them prisoners of war but to have them repatriated through neutral Switzerland. Can you imagine something like that happening today?
Steve Kayser: No. Today they’d be sent back without their heads. If they were sent back at all. You mentioned that the battle in North Africa was marked by an astonishing amount of self-restraint among combatants.
Steven Pressfield: Yes. Rommel himself wrote an account of his experiences in North Africa. He titled it Krieg Ohne Hass, “War Without Hate.” Deliberate self-restraint was a fact on the ground in the North Africa campaign of ’40 to ’43. Machine gunners on both sides routinely held their fire when crewmen bailed out of shot-up tanks, stretcher-bearers were permitted to dash into the open to collect the wounded. In dressing stations and field hospitals, it was not uncommon for soldiers of the Axis and Allies to be treated side-by-side – often by German and British doctors working shoulder to shoulder.
Steve Kayser: War without hate. Deliberate self-restraint. Allowed enemy soldiers to be treated by his doctors. That took a lot of courage on his part.
Steven Pressfield: More than you know. He was ordered several times by Hitler to “Stand and Die.” To fight to the last bullet, the last man. To execute and torture prisoners. He defied those orders.
Steve Kayser: You tell the story through a young lieutenant who was not a professional soldier. In fact, far from it. He was an average guy in college then … the war came.
Steven Pressfield: Yes. I wanted to examine the actions of ordinary men under extraordinary circumstances. To ask the question if, in the end, their very ordinariness wasn’t what saved them and brought them ultimately to victory.
Steve Kayser: Was there actually a real mission to kill Rommel?
Steven Pressfield: Yes. It was on one of Rommel’s camps called Beda Litoria, which was an Italian town. The Brits thought Rommel was there and they attacked at night with special forces. But he wasn’t there. They killed a bunch of Afrika Korps soldiers, then they were killed themselves. The interesting part was that Rommel had the British soldiers buried with honor, alongside his defenders.
Steve Kayser: To me, Killing Rommel is a story layered with morals, courage and questions. Lots of questions. What question or issue were you trying to shine the most light on?
Steven Pressfield: The issue of morality in warfare. Not just in theoretical terms but from the point-of-view of the individual soldier on the ground. Today, in the era of suicide bombers and global terrorism and the response to terrorism, (which is a moral question equally as important), I wanted to shine a light on another time and a different way of fighting a war. And not a wimpy war, but the most devastating, all-out conflict in the history of humankind.
Is it possible for men to retain their humanity while fighting for the very survival of civilization? What part do ethics, chivalry and self-restraint play in modern armed conflict? Are these some quaint holdovers from a vanished past? Or, can the honorable actions of officers and men actually help produce victory?
LAST QUESTION:
Steve Kayser: Could people like General Rommel or General Patton make it today, or even exist – with all the constraints of Western political correctness? Realistically? Take General Patton, for example. Charming, yet mean as a snake. Dyslexic, yet brilliant. His temper and rash acts made people question his intelligence. He could be vicious and violent, yet a gentleman. He was a history buff that seemed to live life outside his own time – almost as if he had lived before. Kind-hearted and callous, he prayed on his knees but cussed like a sailor. He was stone-faced in battle, but cried like a baby for his fallen soldiers. His men called him “Old Blood and Guts.” If you ever read his poem“Through a Glass Darkly,”you will be touched, astounded or shocked at the depth of his vision and intelligence. But could Patton make it today? I say no.
Steven Pressfield: Good question. They were very different – yet very much alike. Noble warriors. But it is men and women of moral strength and character like them that have to surface when you’re facing an implacable foe. Especially when you’re fighting for the very survival of your civilization. Leaders with Character, Chivalry and Courage – Relics of the Past? What do you think?
And what about yourself?
Have you faced difficult moments in your life where you chose the tough road, the politically incorrect but right path, and paid the price – by way of money, job, relationships or self-respect? What did you learn?
Would you do anything different?
Let me know.
Please keep answers to 100 words. Email me with the subject line GREAT LEADERS at [email protected].
Best 10 reponses will win a copy of KILLING ROMMEL.
End
About Steve Pressfield:
Since this is a different kind of story, I decided to to do an Animotorized bio-pictorial “About Steven Pressfield.” Why is it different? Because it is. It’s the world’s first.
I see a lot of business presentations. Some are great. Some are good. And …
THE FETID SIDE OF FLUTTERING FLATULENCE
Some are on the fetid side of a fluttering gust of 4,000 year-old Egyptian Mummy flatulence.
MY OWN STINKEROOS
Yes, I stink too. I’ve done a lot of damage over the years with some seriously pungent presentation stinkeroos.
I never, ever, ever-never ask to do a presentation. It’s forced on me. Like taxes. But, I’m constantly invited to them for business reasons unknown to me. Over the last couple years I’ve noticed business presentations now almost always follow the same format. The company (and presenter) is great … everyone says so. Everyone loves them. The industry analysts. The customers. The press. And, if you don’t buy from them, you’re stupid (by inference). The presentation is all about them – at least the first 60-180 PPT. slides are. Right around business closing time they get around to asking you “What keeps you up at night? “What problem are you trying to solve?”
DEEP THINKER
Now I’m a pretty deep thinker. I swim in intellectual seas deep as most parking lot puddles, but this approach always perplexes me. What keeps me up at night? Besides having to sit through another business presentation you mean? Because that’s what I’m thinking by then. Just once I’d like to attend a business presentation where they start with a question … about the problem or issues that need to be solved. Whatever they may be.
STEVE’S A HATER!
Do I sound like a hater? I’m not. Do I hate all business presentations? No. There aren’t many things I rather do than sit through a business presentation. Except for maybe being boiled in oil. Or, being buried alive. Or maybe straddling and sliding down a 200-ft razor blade into a pool of rubbing alcohol.
GLUTEUS-MAXIMUS SALES 2.OH-NO VOMITUS ERUPTUS
Below is an Animotorized Cartoon-torial of a standard corporate business presentation, AKA … Gluteus-Maximus Sales 2.-Oh-No Vomitus Eruptus, as seen through the eyes of the victim (audience).
A nightmare every parent prays will never happen. A mad rush to the hospital. An anxious eternity. You finally arrive and burst through the doors. A doctor comes out, maybe two. Their faces tell you what you don’t want to know.
It’s over.
Your child has passed. Gone. Grief forever sears the moment in your memory. Overwhelming sadness drags your heart into, and then below, a bottomless pit. A primordial scream forms.
But the medical people are speaking to you.
Your son, your baby, your beloved gift from God, is gone; but these people continue talking. Can’t they stop? They force you to listen.
They tell you your son was an organ donor.
Timing is critical. Organ donor? You didn’t know. That’s how Vickie Jackson, a Cincom employee that works with me, found out. Her son Brandon Jackson, recently returned from the Iraq war, in his quiet dignity, had registered to be an organ donor. The medical people asked for her permission to begin the organ donation process.
The primordial scream turns into a “No! No! No!” Not my baby. Her mind went back in time. Where had this precious life gone? So fleeting. Where had the little boy in the blue suit gone?
So unpredictable. So quickly gone.
“There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present grief.” – Aeschylus
Brandon had grown into a loving, fun, strong, handsome young man.
Reliable. Dedicated. He served his country in Iraq.
He often did good deeds, but never mentioned them to his mom. Later, people would tell her stories about how Brandon many times had gone out of his way to help them. “He would just do something kind, and it was between him, the other person and God,” remembered his mom, Vickie.
“It is not length of life, but depth of life.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Life.
Fleeting.
Precious.
Unpredictable.
The medical people were still there. Still talking. Asking for her permission to start the organ donation process. Time was critical. Brandon kept secrets. Like all children. Like all children that grow into adults.
“If you want to confide in someone who will never tell your business, tell it to Brandon,” his grandmother used to say. This secret, revealed at this time, in this way, was almost too much for any person to take. Yet it demanded immediate action on her part. But it was her baby they were asking about. And … he had never told her he was an organ donor.
” In three words I can sum up everything
I’ve learned about life. It goes on.”
– Robert Frost
Life. So fleeting. So precious. So quickly gone. Little things, seemingly minor at the time, so meaningful now. Handwritten special notes of love.
Even if they were on a paper plate. The flowers. The flowers—just to let you know he loved you. The thanks.
“The first step in the acquisition of wisdom is silence, the second listening,
the third memory,the fourth practice, the fifth teaching others.
– Solomon Ibn Gabriol
The thought and the timing of the organ donation process were horrific. In one of those brief interludes of silence, when lucidity temporarily overwhelms tragedy and pushes back personal grief, Vickie Jackson made the decision. She listened to her memories. Brandon had wanted it; she would follow his wishes. She would honor his memory.
Vicki Jackson would respect his choice. And in doing so – she passed life on.
“In my heart and mind, Brandon is a noble testimony of giving—still living, breathing and enjoying life somewhere. Can you imagine being in four or five places at the same time enjoying life? That’s how I imagine Brandon. I may not be able to touch him right now, or hear his voice, but I know he is all over the country within some blessed recipient.” – Vickie Jackson, Mother of Brandon Jackson, organ donor.
Life. Pass it On. Brandon did.
Did You Know?
Did you know more that 98,000 people are in need of an organ transplant in the United States right now?
Did you know that each day about 77 people get the organ transplant that gives them a second chance, but 17 to 19 others die because they did not receive an organ transplant?
Did you know as a registered donor you can make a positive impact on the lives of many, and save the lives of 8 people?
Did you know that April is National Donate Life Month in the United States?
Vickie Jackson works for Cincom Systems in Cincinnati, Ohio. Because of her experience she is now a spokesperson and advocate for the Life Center Organ Donor Network. Vickie can be reached by email at [email protected]
For more information: www.lifepassiton.org
In Ohio: http://donatelifeohio.org/ohiodonorregistry/index.aspx
In Kentucky: https://www.donatelifeky.org/NewRegistration.aspx
In the United States: http://www.donatelife.net
Throughout the World: Contact your physician or your organ-donation advocate organization for more information on registration.
There are 1,000,000,000,000 + (one trillion plus) unique URL’s in Google’s search index.
Do you have one? If so, you’re lucky.
FACT 2:
Each day there are approximately 2,000,000,000 (two billion) Google searches by people trying to find information, ideas and insights to help solve their problems.
Do you or your business have good answers to offer for some of these problems? Answers that can help create new sales, customers and a hopeful future in these challenging economic times?
If so, you’re lucky.
The Problem
But how can you or your business stand out in a world with one trillion unique URLs and two billion daily Google searches? How can you or your business be discovered and break through in an exploding online world that includes 14 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute? With over one billion views per day? And all of these other weird and wacky Web 2.0 ways to communicate?
How Can You Break Through?
The Answer
Easy.
How?
Think Like a Publisher
Fight daily on the battleground of content. Publish great ideas, information and insights via New Media applications. Publish content that is helpful, educational, unique, specific, credible and –
written in a storytelling way. Content that affects the way the reader (prospect, customer, employee, etc.) does their job―for the better.
The End of PR and Marketing
The latest-greatest buzz calls this concept “Content Marketing.”
“Content marketing is an umbrella term encompassing all marketing formats that involve the creation or sharing of content for the purpose of engaging current and potential consumer bases. In contrast to traditional marketing methods that aim to increase sales or awareness through interruption techniques, content marketing subscribes to the notion that delivering high-quality, relevant and valuable information to prospects and customers drives profitable consumer action.” Wikipedia
It’s not really “content marketing.” It’s not PR. It’s not marketing. It’s survival―for you and your business. That, by necessity, means a successful collaborative communication effort between Customer Service, Sales, PR and Marketing to create and support new business. That’s what it’s all about; creating, supporting and growing new sales.
Good News!
The good news is that there has never been a better time with more creative, cost-effective ways using New Media applications to do that. You don’t need a $100 million marketing and advertising budget. Real companies are doing it successfully – right now.
Bad News?
It requires successful collaborative communication efforts between disparate business groups. It requires breaking down the secretive silos in businesses that so often strangle breakout success. That smother fresh ideas and disdain approaches by “outsiders” of the business group – even though they’re in the same company. That seeds and sows a reclusive, restrictive, “us against them” mentality.
Collaborative means playing well with others. Successful collaboration means doing it so well that the customer is served, problems are solved and the business makes money. Siloed domain expertise egos need to back off, back up, back out or just get out of the way. Who isn’t tired of hearing “They (insert the favorite hate group of the day – Marketing, PR, Sales, Service, Product Managers, etc.) Just Don’t Get It!”
Times are tough. Hate to go all “Three Musketeers” on you but …
“Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno”
“One for all, all for one“
– should be every company’s motto right now.
Jump in
Below are some of the New Media Web 2.0 (for lack of a better term) capabilities and applications available to support the sales and service I’m talking about. Examples of how real companies are using New Media to help grow their businesses are included. Try them out. Plant your flag in some or all of these new territories if they fit your business needs. But to succeed, know this: They need active, authentic, honest participation to help grow and create new business.
For an Experimental SlideRocket Tour of New Media
For a quick visual introduction to some of these New Media tools, view the SlideRocket presentation below, or come back to it later. It’s best viewed in full-screen mode with audio on.
Also, I have personally used or experimented with all of the New Media apps below―some with great results, others not so good. So, if you have any questions, just e-mail me and I’ll get back with you. I’m not an expert, but I am a prolific experimenter, which means I’ve made way more mistakes than the experts who are focused on one little niche. I’m a multitasking mistake-maker.
BOOKMARKING
Companies use bookmarking sites like Delicious.com and StumbleUpon.com to create interesting and helpful resource and information libraries for customers―and to attract new prospects.
StumbleUpon is also a social bookmarking site. It allows you to vote, rank and recommend interesting websites. You’ll find some spectacular hidden treasures there if you care to take a peak. Though not the darling of the media like Twitter, StumbleUpon’s popularity is undeniable. They have over 7 million members.
The idea behind a YouTube (or other video-sharing site) channel is to create a video learning lab for products and solutions. Short video clips to help educate, entertain and inform customers and prospects.
Cincom: Http://www.youtube.com/Cincomvideo (the company I work for)
Cincom Smalltalk – an application development programming language. The product manager uses it for “how-to” videos. http://www.youtube.com/user/jarober
Quick tip―one thing I learned. Save the video under names of which people are likely to search for. I named my first 25 videos something like DSC145735. Then I wondered why no one was viewing them―well, no one except the people that searched for DSC145735.
Twitter
“Twitter is a free social messaging utility that allows users to send and read other users’ updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.” – Wikipedia.
Twitter is a low-/no-cost way to engage customers and prospects with short, headline-like chunks of content. Twitter, to be most effective, needs a lot of participation, especially from product managers, customer service, sales, PR, marketing and others―real, authentic, helpful and non-salesy or promotional fluff.
Twitter is my favorite. It’s amazing to watch ideas and information explode and ripple through the Twitterverse. For a recent example read, “Tesla on Twitter – Twitter on Tesla.” Take heed though, it’s a challenge to write something meaningful, clear, concise and compelling in 140 characters or less. That’s 15-20 words. Don’t believe me? Try it yourself.
Are there companies using Twitter for business? Yes. Are there sales being generated via Twitter and sites like it? Yes. Dell attributed $1,000,000 in sales last year to its Twitter sites.
Though sort of old hat, blogs are simply the best and most powerful sources of dynamic content to help customers and … your business. Blogs are a way to showcase your thought leadership. To share your information, insights, ideas. See if they resonate. Test the waters. For business examples check out GE and IBM’ers blogs. They have thousands of them. That’s right, I said thousands.
If you want to do some in-depth research, check out Guy Kawasaki’s “All the Top Blogging News.” It’s a one-stop shop of information and resources on blogging.
WARNING! Blogs Can Be Big Trouble
Blogs can be troublesome though. Big trouble. Especially if some employee or blogger goes wacky-wild-west off-the-deep-end on an upside-down triple-gainer-rant of a blog post. Below is my favorite example of an out-of-control blogger. He ought to be fired because …
He simply has too much fun. No one should be able to do cartoon-torials, yuck it up, muck it up, enjoy blogging and keep a job. I mean all seriousness aside … what’s the deal?
WIDGETS
Widgets are embeddable pieces of codethat can be installed and displayed on a website. They’re reusable. It’s a great way to let others promote your website or content, and they will, if … you provide them useful widgets.
Try it out yourself. Create a widget. I use Widgetbox, but Wowzio is excellent too. Watch out though – they’re addicting.
Blidgets
What’s a blidget? A Blog widget. Pretty simple. It captures a blog in colorful, adjustable frames and displays multiple blog post headlines.
The blog post titles are live. Each blog headline is an opportunity to attract people to your blog. Each time a headline is clicked it takes the reader right to your blog. Test it for yourself. I’m a big fan of blidgets. The one above has received 20,510 views in three weeks. (That was a shameless self-promotion. I have to out myself on that one.)
Twidgets
Yes, you guessed it. You can even make a widget out of a Twitter feed.
FriendFeed is a social media content aggregator. What’s that mean? Basically all content, images, video, and audio files published by contributors on any of the 49 social media sites it accesses is aggregated into a live feed. Like a Wall Street Stock Ticker–without the associated pain. It is an exceptional place to discover new content from multiple sources and formats. Robert Scoble is big on FriendFeed Vs. Twitter for many reasons. I’d agree with him.
Example?
How Companies Can Use Friendfeed – by Forrester Analyst Jeremiah Owyang. As an aside – Jeremiah, in my opinion is absolutely one of the best, if not THE best, social and New Media analyst around. Class act. If you want to keep up with everything that’s going on in the social computing interactive marketing world, check out his blog or Twitter account – http://twitter.com/jowyang
FACEBOOK
Facebook and other similar social networking sites such as MySpace are powerful opportunities for businesses – if, once again, approached with a helpful attitude. Why? It’s where a lot of the world online population is now. Facebook has more than 150,000,000 (million) active users and is growing at the rate of approximately 450,000 new users per day.
Those kinds of statistics tend to blow the mind. But there are reasons people are flocking there. I like it because it’s pure opt-in. No one can stalk or spam you. A lot of people have found me on Facebook that I hadn’t heard of for years. Of the two, Facebook and MySpace, I’ll give you the best explanation of demographics that I heard from a soon-to-be 16-year-old girl and her brothers in college: “MySpace is for music, Facebook is for friends and business.” That’s concise, clear and short enough to use as a Tweet.
NETWORKING
Linkedin is an online network consisting of more than 30 million professionals globally representing 150 industries (from their website.) It’s a way to find and be found―for jobs, old friends and groups. It’s also a way to investigate a company or potential job. I use it, but am not a “power user.”
Plaxo is also a similar online network of people. They have more than 40 million hosted address books.
ADDITIONAL WEB 2.0 SALES SUPPORT TOOLS:
Featured on the cover of Entrepreneur Magazine, January 2009, Animoto is a video creation platform. I wrote a story with “The Boys of Animoto” in October of 2007 – and have been using their product every since. If you are doing a presentation of any kind that needs spruced up, or might benefit by the use of a “movie-like trailer” to help banish the boring – you need to ANIMOTORIZE.
SlideRocket is a Web 2.0 application, built on Adobe Flex that allows you to create, manage, measure and share secure, online presentations. You can import PowerPoint presentations from offline to online. And, you can export presentations from online to offline. Key? You can create, edit and access your presentations from anywhere in the world. No need to email or carry round a flash drive. SlideRocket has some visually stunning effects.
Examples:
Check them out in full-screen mode. Simply click the screen to advance slides.
Use the new media applications and capabilities to share great ideas, helpful information and insights to connect with and help your customers. Jump in. Test them. Experiment. Find which new media capabilities might be right for you and your business.
They work … but only if you think anew, act anew, and disregard the stultifying and stiflingly destructive “Us Against Them” siloed business mentality.
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning.
We will remember them.”
“For the Fallen” by Laurence Binyon
A Memory Bouquet 2008
At the end of each year, major media outlets run feature stories listing notables and celebrities that have passed away during the year; stories that recount highlights of the person’s life.
Through the Dark Recesses
Sometimes memories connect through space and time linked to your own remembrances of the person. Memories of what you were doing at a certain time in your life, at a certain place.
Special memories randomly emerge from the dark recesses of time. You feel heaviness, a sense of loss, not only for the “notable person” or “celebrity” that you probably never met, but also for yourself. For the loss of time.
That time.
Your time.
The List
Well, here’s my feature story.
My list.
It’s a little bit longer than the major media outlets would publish. Names of people like Troy, Coleman, Ben, Joshua, John, Christopher, Thomas, Stephen, Solomon, Miguel, Christian, Aaron, Armondo, Adam, Stacy, Daniel, Randy, Tavarus, David, Michael, Janelle, Jordan, Jorge, Michael, Brian, Jorge, Andre, Mark, Joshua.
The Loved and Lost
… and on … and on … and horribly on.
Fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, wives, husbands, cousins, nephews, nieces, all.
Not by Accident
They passed on not by accident, not by bodily deterioration brought on by the mean ravages of time, but because they had a special job.
A job that ended a too-brief sojourn on this blue-green magical wonder called earth.
A job they chose.
So Costly a Sacrifice
They were American soldiers.
A step ahead.
A step behind.
A look left, instead of right.
Right, instead of left.
Up instead of down.
Down instead of up.
A blink of the eye at the wrong time.
And … it was over.
What is Life?
“It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.
It is the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.”
– Crowfoot, Native American Blackfoot warrior and orator
The fleeting flash of a firefly in the night … gone.
But not.
Their Undiminishable Light …
… echoes eternally throughout the music of the spheres like heavenly bagpipes playing Amazing Grace … across the unfathomable unknowable on their way toThe Last Post.
Who Were These Fireflies in the Night?
Who were these shadows that ran across the grass riding a Sonata of Moonlighton an Ode to Joy – to living, giving and life?
Who Were These Fireflies in the Night?
Who were these shadows that ran across the grass into the arms of an …
THE POWER AND POTENTIAL OF SOCIAL MEDIA SITES LIKE TWITTER
Several weeks ago I published an article called “An Inconvenient Genius: The Timeless Legacy of an Untimely Man,” about Nikola Tesla. It featured an interview with Marc Seifer, Ph.D., the author of “Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla.” Marc is an internationally recognized expert on Nikola Tesla, and his book has been highly praised by such diverse sources as the New York Times, M.I.T Technology Review and the American Academy for the Advancement of Science.
Weeks after the article was posted, a fascinating thing happened. An influential and highly respected leader in the technology media industry “Tweeted” (highlighted with a short text message and link) the article on Twitter.com.
Questions
Within minutes of this Tweet, I began noticing a marked increase in blog traffic. I also started receiving emails regarding the article, the book, and the man himself, as well as some questions and pointed accusations.
Answers
Marc Seifer responds to those questions in this article (I deftly handle the accusations). He and his creative partner, Tim Eaton, have also shared some historical footage and short videos for a feature film project on Tesla they’re working on to help illuminate the answers. The video below includes a rare tribute to Tesla by the legendary New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia; the audio was recorded within days of Tesla’s death.
Quick Backstory
“An Inconvenient Genius” was a short tribute and reflection on Tesla’s life work, now mainly lost, stolen or obscured in the history books. The article posed a couple of simple question: Where does someone like Tesla fit in? How can we nurture, enable and protect such people for the betterment of humankind?
Pretty simple stuff. I try not to aim too high.
Planter of Seeds
Tesla, considered himself “a planter of seeds.” He let others raise the crops. From Tesla’s point of view, he was a creator of new principles. Contrast that with a rival of his at the time, Thomas Edison, who was able to take the ideas of others and construct the first practical machines. Edison was all business. Tesla was a noble visionary – and it cost him dearly.
Dies Penniless
Because of his less-than-proficient abilities at business, Tesla died essentially penniless on January 7th, 1943 at the age of 87. By all rights – he should have been a billionaire. That’s the backstory.
Let’s Start With the Tweet
I started receiving a lot of emails and web traffic several weeks after the article was posted. It seemed odd since it’d been out for a couple of weeks. One comment said, “Oreilly Tweeted your article.”
HOLY @ CRAP!
I ran to the window to see if O’Reilly’s annoying TV producer was going to sneak up and shove a camera and microphone in my face. I was afraid they were going to say “You said you’re a writer – isn’t that over the top? Overstating it? You a quack?” It was a stressful moment. But when I looked out, there was no one there. Then I remembered – Bill O’Reilly wasn’t even on Fox News on Sunday. So I re-read the email, it said “@timoreilly tweeted your article.”
Clueless
I was clueless until I vaguely remembered I’d seen a fellow named Tim O’Reilly speak once at an E-Content Magazine conference. I looked it up. Sure enough, same guy. He’s the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, which according to the website, “spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, research, and conferences.” Tim O’Reilly is also credited with coining the term “Web 2.0.”
The Fascinating Part
So I e-moseyed over to his place on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/timoreilly) and there was a nice little Tweet-blurb from him.
O’Reilly had 18,429 followers (at that time ) on Twitter (he must have the patience of a Saint). So, that made sense, why the traffic to the article increased so much.
IF YOU HAVE THIN SKIN, DON’T COME IN
But as I scrolled up through the tweets on his site, I noticed a few of his followers called the article “over the top,” “out there,” “quackery,” and O’Reilly agreed to some degree. Then the final message I saw from one of his readers called it “a clever deceit.” That did it for me.
NEVER IN MY LIFE …
… have I been called clever. It called for immediate intervention and response.
Anyone that has published anything online knows that you take the good with the bad. If you have thin skin, you’ll quickly get eviscerated, flayed, slung down (in straddle position) a 200-foot razor blade slide – into a pool of rubbing alcohol. That nicety aside, one of the beauties of social network sites like Twitter is, if you’re dealing with knowledgeable and professional people that truly want to learn, to get the facts, you can go directly to the source, correct any mistakes or publicly declare your obvious infallibility – and do it near the speed of light.
TWITTER ON TESLA – 4 QUESTIONS
So I messaged @timoreilly and asked him to clarify any questions or objections to the article. He responded quickly – like in a couple of minutes, with a total of four questions. Not being an internationally recognized expert on Tesla like author Marc Seifer, I contacted him. Marc graciously and quickly responded. Below are questions “Tweeted” from Tim O’Reilly (@timoreilly) and answers from Marc Seifer.
A Point of Respect First
I do want to point out, before the Q & A, that I have a great respect for all the people I’ve interviewed and written with. It’s always fun. I try to learn from their experiences and share that information. I don’t vigorously attack each point they make. They’re the experts, not me. When I wrote a couple articles with Al Ries, I didn’t question his expertise about PR or “positioning;” or Steven Pressfield, when he told me he structured “The Legend of Bagger Vance” after the Bhagavad-Gita; or Dr. David Abshire, President of The Center for the Study of the Presidency, about his inner White House office dealings with President Ronald Reagan over the Iran Contra affair; or Robert McKee, the screenwriting guru about his knowledge of STORY (I mean he wrote the book); or Dr. Paul Pearsall, a licensed clinical neuropsychologist and an international bestselling author on how he thought the act and concept of “synchronicity” helped him understand and survive his “terminal” disease (which he did – three times). I could go on and on. But now, with sites like Twitter, a whole new panorama of possibilities has opened up. If I make a mistake, omit something, or don’t communicate something properly, I’m immediately alerted (some would say “called out” or “Punk’d”). It makes me better. It makes idea and information sharing better, and it can make you better – if you tap into it.
QUESTIONS and ANSWERS from the TWITTERVERSE
These questions are directly from Twitter, so they are limited to 140 characters. Clear. Concise. It’s a beautiful thing.
Steve: Let me start with the speed of light stuff at the end of the original article, before Marc answers. That reference was actually good. It meant Tim had read the LONG article through to the end. Problem was the speed of light stuff he mentions was a prologue to the next story I’m doing with Marc. I guess you could call it a teaser. I haven’t finished it yet. Nonetheless, Marc answers the question below, although the complete explanation will be in an upcoming article.
Marc Seifer: The speed of light stuff? As George Gamow points out in his book, “Thirty Years That Shook Physics,”
and I point out in my book “Transcending the Speed of Light: Consciousness, Quantum Physics and the Fifth Dimension,” electrons spin at speeds in excess of the speed of light. I explain it more in-depth in my book, but here’s a brief explanation. Gamow discusses the case of Goudsmit and Uhlenbeck in his book. They measured the ortho-rotational speed of the electron and found that it was spinning at 1.37 times the speed of light (Sommerfeld’s number). Gamow says outright that this violated nothing in quantum physics.
What it did violate was Einstein’s theory of relativity.
Paul Dirac, a British theoretical physicist, wanted to reconcile this dilemma so as to combine relativity with quantum physics, so he ascribed the imaginary number “i” to the spinning electron (the square root of negative one) and this got around the problem of violating relativity and won him a Nobel Prize in the process.
I’ve got a lot more on that, the ramifications, which involve resurrecting ether theory and a new view of what gravity is, which we’ll cover in the next article. Some of it involves CERN and the so-called Higgs Boson (God particle), which is not what they think it is because physicists have forgotten that electrons spin at 1.37c. Why have they forgotten that? Because they are so mesmerized by Einstein’s theory of relativity. In other words, there is nothing in quantum physics that places “c” as the upper limit for velocity in certain instances. It suggests that elementary particles interface dimensions, our so-called “physical” dimension with a primordial “etheric” one. The bottom line is, take this fact at its face value.
Electrons spin at speeds in excess of the speed of light.
Steve: What about the differences between Einstein and Tesla on this issue?
Marc: Einstein used the Michelson-Morley experiment assumption that the substance called “ether” did not exist, or if it did, could not be detected, and because of that the speed of light would always be constant. Nothing could travel faster than the speed of light.
“If Michelson-Morley is wrong, then relativity is wrong.” – Albert Einstein
Yet Einstein later lectured on the ether at Leiden University where Lorentz had taught. Einstein sent Lorentz a letter agreeing that the ether did indeed exist. However, throughout the 20th century the generally accepted premise is that there is no ether in outer space even though everyone knows that there must be some medium for light to be transmitted in. The particle theory in a sense did away with the need for an all pervasive medium because light could travel like bullets.
Tesla disagreed and said of course the ether existed and the whole idea that space was curved around planets and stars was a nutty idea. How could nothing (space) be curved? After some digging, I uncovered Tesla’s theory of gravity which is essentially that the all pervasive ether is absorbed by planets and that’s what gravity is.
From that I extrapolated and came to the conclusion (after investigating other ether theories in line, all listed in the book) that all elementary particles are constantly absorbing ether so that they can maintain their spin (electrons, protons). I also propose that photons have mass which pairs with Einstein’s statement that photons have energy because energy and mass are equivalent (E-MC2).
So … Einstein saw a relationship between gravity and acceleration, that’s what a G-force is, the faster you go, the more you weigh. What I’m suggesting is that the reason there is a G-force is because the faster you go, the more ether is absorbed. So, we, planets, stars, everything, are constantly absorbing ether all the time. But planets absorb a lot more ether than people. It’s a constant influx of energy which is transmitted into the electromagnetic energy, seen as the north and south poles on the earth and em fields around all atoms, molecules.
When you jump up, the reason you fall to the ground is because you are in the way of this influx. That’s what gravity is.
The problem Einstein had was that if he accepted this kind of ether theory, he would have had to reject relativity (because he said if the ether can be detected, then his theory was wrong). Well, the ether is easily detected. If you are in a car and stop short, the G-force you experience is the influx of more ether.
Question Two:
Marc Seifer: Concerning free energy, you (@timoreilly) asked the key question. It’s not easy to answer.
In 1901, Tesla wanted to transmit electrical power from station to station by means of wireless and then distribute it in a variety of ways. His big mistake was putting the tower on Long Island. He should have put it at Niagara Falls, near the power source. But he didn’t want to live so far from the Waldorf and the high life in NYC. His plan involved creating a receiving tower in England, or anyplace else on the planet restricted to nodal points from the source tower.
Tesla had constructed a small planet earth and figured out where each receiving tower could be placed. Then he could distribute electricity by conventional means, that is, by wires, and also by wireless, particularly for cell phones. He’s the inventor of the ability to create an unlimited number of wireless channels (he multiplied/combined frequencies). Marconi was only sending Morse code. Tesla frequencies are the basis for radio and TV transmission. They are continuous waves.
Later Tesla talked of “free energy.” The question is whether or not he tapped into the etheric field that gives rise to the spinning electrons.
The technology of the times (early 1900’s) was such that it would have been unlikely for him to know how many wireless phone calls would be made and in that sense, the energy was free. But he knew that he would make the money in a different way, such as in the sale of equipment. Also, we never paid for radio or TV, yet RCA, NBC, CBS, etc. made enormous amounts of money.
It was a different model for a revenue stream and J.P. Morgan couldn’t understand that.
Question Three & Four
@Timoreilly: Overstated “he invented particle beam weapons,” Also aircraft never built. Like saying Leonardo invented airplane.
Marc: The particle beam weapon was actually based on the principle of the pop gun – a toy gun Tesla used as a child to take down crows. It uses a repulsive force to pop out the cork. Tesla thought about how to transmit a ray with a destructive force. The problem he realized was that the ray spread out.
Tesla Thinking
Now this is complicated because Tesla also is probably the inventor (in the early 1890’s) of the ruby laser. He talks about a pencil-thin line of light created when he bombarded a ruby in his globe. That’s how a laser works. One way or another, he did not totally realize the importance of the pencil thin line of light. However about 1918, he was bouncing beams off the moon, perhaps to measure the distance to the earth, so he may have still been using some type of laser-like apparatus. I learned this from Czito’s daughter-in-law who I interviewed in Washington. D.C. circa 1984. Czito was Tesla’s assistant and trusted friend.
Tesla realized that a “ray gun” would not work, so he gave it a bit more thought and realized that if he could shoot single pellets, they would never disperse, thus the particle-beam weapon. The way the gun worked (and it was meant to be the size of a Wardenclyffe tower) was to create a belt of charged ions of say a negative charge. As these ran around a circle, they would pass by the cannon. And at that point, small pellets of tungsten electrified with the same charge as the belt would be placed in the path of this ion belt. When the particle hit the belt, it would be repelled with terrific force out the length of the cannon.
Illustration by Paul Frank from Science and Invention Magazine, 1922
Tesla’s idea was to use this “star wars” weapon to take down incoming planes. Since the weapon was so effective, it was Tesla’s hope that if all countries had such a weapon war would be made obsolete. It would make no sense to invade a country because the border would now be impregnable.
Did he ever build one? My guess is that he built small prototypes, probably in the 1920’s and 30’s. He had a patent application for it that was hidden for 50 years until Andrija Puharich unveiled the paper at the 1984 Colorado Springs Tesla conference that I also happened to be speaking at.
Last Question:
Marc: Concerning aircraft, I don’t think Tesla ever built his flivver plane that took off like a helicopter and then flipped into an airplane position. But the Osprey helicopter is a direct outcropping of that device.
Tesla’s “flying flivver,” U.S. patent number 6,555,114
However, I think he probably built a reactive jet dirigible, which was, essentially a flying wing, that evolved into such aircraft as the Stealth and a new shuttle they have yet to unveil.
Tesla on Twitter … Twitter on Tesla
So there you have it. Tesla has been on Twitter and Twitter has weighed in on Tesla.
The Power
The power of social sites like Twitter is the ability to connect and share knowledge, research, experiences and get immediate feedback from a bubbling primordial froth of a “collective conscious.” Sites like Twitter generate a real-time stream of ideas and thoughts that are immediately analyzed, dissected, commented upon and then spit out – for better or worse. It has no fealty to the staus quo. Rich, poor or famous, errors are quickly identified, exposed, corrected and clarified.
The Potential
Is to connect and meet people you probably, in the normal course of things, would never have met – to reach across geographies, demographics, time zones and social strata. You can go directly to the source of anything that interests you – if they’re hooked in to the network.
Authenticity
I have found in my limited time on Twitter, that the authentic voices of this “collective conscious,” social mental membrane or whatever you want to call it – the people that really do have new and valuable information, ideas, and insights – are also the most responsive.
They actually do what they advocate.
They’re open to engagement. They’re not high-flautin intelligentsia with no idea as to what goes on in the real-world. People like Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang), Guy Kawasaki (@guykawasaki), David Meerman Scott (@dmscott), and Tim O’Reilly (my complete list here), actually are very open and sharing of their time and knowledge.
Another “Speed of Light” Teaser?
This is an amazing topic – with multi-dimensional, supraluminal legs. While tracking down the facts for this story, I asked Dr. Michio Kaku about the Dirac equation and the speed of the spinning electron. For those of you that might not know, Dr. Kaku is a world famous theoretical physicist, best-selling author, and “popularizer of science.” He’s the co-founder of string field theory (a branch of string theory), and “continues Einstein’s search to unite the four fundamental forces of nature into one unified theory.” (What’s cooler than that? I think we use the same WordPress theme.)
Dr. Kaku is an absolutely mesmerizing storyteller. Anyway, I asked him. Never thought he’d answer but … he did.
However, I’m not going to tell you what he answered in this article for two reasons. One, because he also pointed me to the math for the answer – which means I have to do more homework. And two, I want you to come back for the rest of the story.
End – and a Couple of Thanks
Thanks to Marc Seifer for taking the time to answer the questions from the Twitterverse. We have another article coming up about his latest book, “Transcending the Speed of Light: Consciousness, Quantum Physics and the Fifth Dimension.” The article will also include updates on the Tesla film project, “The Lost Wizard” which envisions Tesla’s life story as a big screen biopic — “a cross between The Aviator and A Beautiful Mind,” with his creative partner Tim Eaton. Tim put the Rabbit in”Roger Rabbit,” the twist in “Twister,” sank the “Titanic” and oh … another film you might not have heard of, he was the visual effects editor in “Forrest Gump.” Tim Eaton’s latest work is on “A Christmas Carol” (2009) with Jim Carrey.
Nikola Tesla, “The Lost Wizard”
Courtesy of Marc Seifer & Tim Eaton
Second Thanks
A special thanks to Tim O’Reilly for the Tweet on “An Inconvenient Genius,” and his ready willingness to engage, respond and follow-up. Never met him. Probably never will. Have no idea how he stumbled upon the article, but that’s also an indication of the power of social networks sharing ideas and information. And REALLY – I have no idea how he does it. When I started writing this article he had 18, 429 followers. Now he has 19,376. 19,377, 19,388, 19389 … quick breath … 19,700 …
P.S. The speed of the original Tweet and the back and forth Q & A was really quick. However, I am really slow. So that’s why it took me so long to do this follow-up post.
P.S.S. I think I’m gonna “Tweet” this and get some more feedback.
This was originally going to be an interview with the international best-selling author Steven Pressfield about his historical thriller, Killing Rommel. Steven is a master storyteller. His works, such as The Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great, and The Afghan Campaign, and many others are legendary among military aficionados. His book, Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae, is required reading at West Point.
Steve Kayser: Grabbed you?
Steven Pressfield: Ordinary guys in extraordinary circumstances. That posting you refer to was a quote was from the initial British Army Circular, summer 1940, seeking volunteers for what would become the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG).
The original conception of the SAS was that they would be a parachute-borne commando outfit. But after one debacle in which men were dropped into a sandstorm and many were lost, the whole concept looked like it would flop horribly. It so happened though that David Stirling (founder of the SAS) was talking with a young LRDG officer who suggested that the SAS forget parachuting (too dangerous) and let the Long Range Desert Group deliver them like a taxi service to their raids. Thus was born a partnership that gave Rommel more headaches than anyone could have imagined.
Steve Kayser: War without hate. Deliberate self-restraint. Allowed enemy soldiers to be treated by his doctors. That took a lot of courage on his part.
What do you think?
So unpredictable. So quickly gone.
Reliable. Dedicated. He served his country in Iraq.
“If you want to confide in someone who will never tell your business, tell it to Brandon,” his grandmother used to say. This secret, revealed at this time, in this way, was almost too much for any person to take. Yet it demanded immediate action on her part. But it was her baby they were asking about. And … he had never told her he was an organ donor.
In 1901, Tesla wanted to transmit electrical power from station to station by means of wireless and then distribute it in a variety of ways. His big mistake was putting the tower on Long Island. He should have put it at Niagara Falls, near the power source. But he didn’t want to live so far from the Waldorf and the high life in NYC. His plan involved creating a receiving tower in England, or anyplace else on the planet restricted to nodal points from the source tower.
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