Tuesday Edition

Go to Garrison Keillor's Cool Friends interview

On a trip away from Lake Wobegon, Garrison Keillor took time to talk to us at tompeters.com. He and Erik had a great conversation about his latest book, A Christmas Blizzard, and many other topics, including a note from Julie Christie. We know you'll enjoy reading his Cool Friends interview.

View our Archives for past interviews.

Blog Roll

The 26th Story
800-CEO-Read
Ageless Marketing
andHow To Reach Women
Katya Andresen
Tom Asacker
Asiabizblog
Jordan Ayan
Martha Barletta
Dave Barry
Ed Batista
Becker-Posner
The Big Picture
The Bing Blog
Blog Critics
John Bogle
BoingBoing
Boomer411
Brand Autopsy
Chris Brogan
BusinessPundit
BW Brand New Day
BW Management IQ
BW The Tech Beat
Cali and Jody
Ben Casnocha
Change This
Church of the Customer
Clear Path International
Conversation Agent
Cooking for Engineers
Copy Blogger
Core77
Coudal Partners
Mark Cuban
Aubrey Daniels
Design Gazette, jkr.co.uk
design*sponge
Jory Des Jardins
Betsy Devine
Don the Idea Guy
Dooce
Down the Avenue
Daniel W. Drezner
Esther Dyson
eHub
Frank Eliason
Judith Ellis
English Cut
Enterprise Media
Evhead
Steve Farber
Fast Company
Fast Lane
Brad Feld
The Fischbowl
Richard Florida
Ze Frank
Freakonomics
Free Business Tips
Gil Friend
gapingvoid
Dan Gillmor
Global Neighborhoods
Seth Godin
Good Experience
Gothamist
Great Leadership
Alan Gregerman
Health Affairs
Health Beat
The Health Care Blog
Dick Heller
Hyperthinker
IDEO Eyes Open
iinnovate
Influx Insights
Innovate on Purpose
In Pursuit of Elegance
Instapundit
The Intuitive Life
Isenblog
Joi Ito
Rich Karlgaard/Forbes
Josh Kaufman
Guy Kawasaki
Leading Blog
Learned on Women
Jonah Lehrer
Martin Lindstrom
Chris Locke
The Long Tail
Made to Stick
John Maeda
Management by Baseball
MarketingProfs:DailyFix
Marketing to Boomer Women
Mavericks at Work
The Messaging Times
Metacool
Nick Morgan
Name Wire
Mike Neiss
Netwoman
No Bullet Points
The Nudge Blog
Nuts about Southwest
John O'Leary
Persistence Unlimited
Personal Branding
Dan Pink
Pink Slip
Play the Game of Life
Pollster
John Porcaro
Portfolio Careers
Virginia Postrel
Power Line
Presentation Zen
PSFK
Pyromarketing
Mitch Ratcliffe
Fred Reichheld
ResearchBuzz
Retailer Blog
Jennifer Rice
Dan Roam
Kevin Roberts
Scott Rosenberg
Rules of Thumb
Samizdata
Ian Sanders
Tim Sanders
Todd Sattersten
Mary Schmidt
Robert Scoble
Scripting News
Doc Searls
Andy Sernovitz
Rajesh Setty
Stephen Shapiro
Signal vs. Noise
Slashdot
Simplicity
Smart Mobs
Sorted Books
Springwise
Halley Suitt
Andrew Sullivan
Sustainable Work
Bob Sutton
The Talent Code
TechCrunch
The Technium
Third Age
Trend Hunter
Trend Watching
Trump University
Penelope Trunk
Trusted Advisor
Twist Image
Web Worker Daily
David Weinberger
What's Next
Susan Willett Bird
The Wisdom of Improv
WonderBranding
Wooster Collective
Steve Yastrow
Your White Room

dispatches from the new world of work

Thirty Years. 1976-2006. Sell. Sell. Sell.

La Scala Opera House

I'm a Robert Louis Stevenson kinda guy: "Everyone lives by selling something." I've been a traveling idea salesman for 30 years, since the foreshadowing of the Peters-Waterman "excellence thing" at McKinsey/San Francisco in 1976. That's a lot of miles. But Zig Ziglar would approve: I love the "product." I am compelled to sell. (I'm in Milano on a sales call as I write—at 4 a.m.) A lot of miles ... because I think these ideas matter. They represent a more liberating way to work-live than is the norm. And they are the most likely path-to-profit. To figure out why I'm still on the road, 10 days before my 64th birthday, I made a list, in no particular order, of the "products" in my salesman's bag:

* "Hard is soft. Soft is hard." Social stuff, Emotional stuff = Good stuff.
* Mess = Normal = Reality. Rationality = Delusional. Non-linearity = Life 101. (Design accordingly!)
* Failure = Normal = Good. ("Reward excellent failure. Punish mediocre success." "Fail faster. Succeed sooner." "Fail. Forward. Fast.")
* If "they" agree with you—then you're on the wrong path.
* Do > Think. Act > Talk. Action bias!! EXPERIMENT!! R.F.A./Ready. Fire. Aim.
* Decentralization = Holy writ = More independent tries.
* Implementation-Execution-the "Missing 98%."
* Strategic planning, limits thereto. Severe.
* Pitiful performance of Huge Companies. Need C.D.O./Chief Destruction Officer.
* Severe limits to scale advantage. Mega-mergers = Bad = Stupid.
* "Built to last." Why??? Instead: Built to change the world.
* People first! People Power!
* Best "roster" wins! HR (should) rule!
* WOMEN'S WORLD!!!!!!! (MARKET. WEALTH. LEADERSHIP.)
* Aesthetics! Beauty! Grace! (Design primacy.)
* EXCELLENCE. ALWAYS.
* MBWA!!!!!!! (Managing By Wandering Around.)
* Don't over-complicate. (MBWA, Product, People, Action ...)
* Educate for Risk-taking, Creativity, Independence.
* B.Schools suck. Teach all ... except what's important. D.School = Cool.
* Healthcare's Big Three: Quality. Prevention. Wellness.
* R > C. (Adding Revenue > Cutting cost.) C.R.O./Chief Revenue Officer. Sell! Sell! Sell!
* Free markets work! Free trade works! Rise of India-China = Good thing. Fight back with Excellent Performance: Add "insane" amounts of value! Become a "Lovemark"!!
* Brand You. Self-reliance!! Mastery!! Liberation!!
* Survival = PSF/Professional Service Firm "mindset." Goal #1: Enable clients to become successful beyond their dreams!
* Fun! ("Cool" is Cool.)
* Service-obsessed!/Experience-obsessed! (Object: "Raving fans.")
* Passion-Exuberance-Enthusiasm. "Hot" Language! WOW! Insanely great!
* The "right thing" is the profitable thing.