Comments

Tom, thanks, I needed this today - precisely this today. Your offering helped crystalize a few things and get me back into action.

Posted by Lisa Haneberg at February 1, 2005 4:11 PM

good rant.. eh ?? nope.. a rumble !!

Posted by /pd at February 1, 2005 4:15 PM

Today was one of those days with the highs and lows that are inevitably present in a speakers world. Last night, I developed flu like symptoms where I literally shivered myself to sleep. I only give 6-8 speeches a year and wouldn’t you know it, today was one of those days. The speech was delivered like a trooper and hopefully we changed a few minds around the world of SOA. Lows? Right after the last person came up for conversations and the flu symptoms came back. I couldn’t agree more, when you have the opportunity to create a “LUM” (Sorry, I had to do it before TP does :-} - Let Us March) moments, take advantage of it now, irregardless of the circumstances.

Posted by RTodd at February 1, 2005 4:39 PM

Let Us March moments ("LUM"s-thank you RTodd) extend beyond the scope of speaking and beyond the world of work. Most of us can recall teachers, parents, coaches, our own students and children who have expended personal energy to set people marching. It's a matter of choice. Sadly, many people believe that it is just too much work. It is exhilarating and exhausting to engage people to see things anew, to see new things, and to set the stage so they want to power up to do something about their new world view. (Heck, it's exhausting to open my own lens and mind and make the changes and initiate actions that produce my desired results.) Still, the dull lows of inertia and mediocrity are lifeless.
Next time I see a huddled figure on a late night flight, I will wonder how many people the frequent flyer may have set off marching.

Posted by Pam Brill at February 2, 2005 12:07 AM

WOW... Brilliant.

Yes we all have audiences. It's all about audiences and smashing performance that sets people in motion. That is exactly what I am trying to accomplish with this great programme of workshops for start-ups that an incubator asked me to create. So, yep...

Let Us March!!!!!

Posted by Alex at February 2, 2005 4:55 AM

Inspiring! But, spare a thought for all those depressed economists at this time of the year: Seasonally Adjusted Disorder.

Posted by Matt at February 2, 2005 9:07 AM

The book end to "Let Us March!" is another great Adlai E. Stevenson quote:

"Every age needs men who will redeem the time by living with a vision of the things that are to be."
Adlai E. Stevenson

Let us be those men and women and Let Us March!

Well done Tom.

Posted by Tom Carroll at February 2, 2005 11:13 PM

Marching orders. A military term meaning "The act of marching; a regular, measured step, as of a body of troops; a movement, as of soldiers, from one place to another". Can we truly battle the system so long as we march to our own drummers. It took a depression and WWII to change from the Capitalist to the Free-Market system. What must be done to overthrow the management class and attain a more democratic WOW! system embrasing the client as Queen?

Posted by Steve Robert at February 2, 2005 11:20 PM

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

- George Bernard Shaw

When one sees change that needs to happen, two simple questions come to mind:

If not me, then who?
If not now, then when?

Let us march

Posted by Paul McManus at February 3, 2005 4:54 PM