Perspectives

After a year of blogging on the old site, I was shocked to get a message from Yahoo that they’ve decided to shut down their blog site. I pride myself in being just technically saavy enough to get in trouble, so this switch was a tremendous challenge for me. (why, I just started twittering a few months ago, and figured that no one really cared what I did, so I stopped).

Yahoo had provided all sorts of tools for me to copy the content of the prior site so that I could “transport” it to the new site. I did that “transporting” 3 times, and I still couldn’t figure out what happened to the 2 MB worth of blogs. At least, Yahoo promises that the old blog-site will still be up, even though I couldn’t post their any longer.

I got all sorts of traffic data on the old site, and I will need to figure out how to do the same on this new one. You can teach an old dog new tricks, but usually, only once.

Speaking of old dogs and new tricks, I was almost moved to tears watching Tom Watson airmail that putt from behind the green on the 18th hole at Turnberry. At 59, he gave us all hope. But the dream was not to be. His post-melt-down news conference, however, was surprising for me. Instead of the “I did all I can, and if someone told me I’d be in second place on Thursday, I’d be happy” comment, he was brutally honest about how disappointed he was. “Hurt to the gut” I think, was what he said, or something to that effect. “I had it in my grasp, and let it go.” Now that’s the sign of a winner. Even at 59, his competitive juices flowed.

Tom Watson is a champion because he can feel that way. But more important, he is a class act because he managed to go through this disappointment without cussing (at least, not in public), without slamming a golf club (something for Tiger to learn), without feeling sorry for himself, and without telling anyone that being #2 was ok. It wasn’t.

If everyone in America or the world behaved like Tom Watson, this world will be a pretty special place. Tom wanted to be remembered by people as, “hey, that Tom Watson guy was one heck of a golfer.” Well, he’s one heck of a human being.

But I still hate Yahoo.

July 7th is called Tanabata in Japan. It is a romantic day, falling on the seventh day of the seventh month (used to be lunar months) when two lovers in heaven, Orihime and Hikoboshi, separated by a river (the Milky Way), are given a chance to meet once every year. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanabata)
We’ve watched so many stars pass away this past month, starting with the amazing Farrah Fawcett. Her presence was felt so strongly that until I read she was in Charlie’s Angels for only one season, I thought she left after four or five seasons. And within hours of her death, we heard that Michael Jackson was carried into a hospital with cardiac arrest. News of his death seemed so surreal.
I grew up with these stars, but I wonder what makes us want to spend a whole week in front of the TV for one star, while another one is forgotten so quickly. Do we remember those that we choose to, or are we force fed to remember by CNN? Michael Jackson was certainly great, but was he Princess Diana great? Did his moonwalk surpass the deeds of Mother Teresa? Did he change the musical world more than the Beatles? Or is this weeklong mourning a fabrication because the 24-hour news channels had nothing better to do?
Who are we to know that his death might have also caused the demise of the next Iranian Revolution, the precious media minutes now sucked up by the Hoover-powered vacuum cleaner of his star power? Why is it that the greed of Joe Jackson and Michael’s lawyers and relatives is so much more important than the coup in the Honduras, the unrest in Iran, the violence in China, the nuclear arms pact with Russia, the survival of GM, and the health care of 60 million uninsured Americans?
We celebrate his music, but I haven’t heard a single person tell us that he or she would want to become “like Michael Jackson.” There’s a Japanese saying that the genius and idiot are separated only by the thickness of paper. The genius of Michael Jackson resided neither in his music nor his dancing, but in his ability to “shock” us. This same trait scared us, for who else will dare dangle a baby from a balcony window or carve up his true face with the knives of deception.
On the week-end of the tragedy of Farrah, who’s inner beauty and strength matched the forever image of her pinup poster, and of Michael, who’s inner talent was never a match of his eccentric exterior, the stars of the sports world aligned with Roger Federer laying claim to the title—best tennis player ever—and Tiger Woods winning his 68th tourney. But the lingering image of the day was Tiger Woods signing and handing over the winning golf ball to a veteran who’d lost his limbs dedicating his life to make everyone a little bit safer.
And if there ever were to be a Requiem for Stars, perhaps it should be given to those who made a difference, those whose influence on society was so positive that we will remember July 7th not only as a romantic day for people living in Japan, but for everyone in the world wishing to be inspired.
Now, let me set my DVR for tomorrow’s Michael Jackson Memorial Service.

Joseph Lee is an independent consultant and executive coach. He is also an Adjunct Professor at both the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management and Pepperdine’s Graziadio School of Business and Management where he teaches second-year MBA courses in Management Consulting. In addition, Mr. Lee is also an author, writing International Business Thrillers, including his debut novel The Sky Burns Red (赤く燃える空) which was published in Japan. A sequel is scheduled to be released fall, 2009.