Targeting the Prize

A recent episode of The Office reminded me of a corporate leadership conference I had to attend several years ago – you know, the kind where various gurus take the stage and give the be-all-you-can-be spiels meant to motivate and “maximize potential” and such. 

In starting things off, the keynote guru defined the most important step to achieving career goals: “Targeting the PRIZE”.  Or in other words, to “succeed”, we need to openly declare where we want to end up.  Sorta like Covey’s ‘begin with the end in mind’, except this particular guru was quite sure he invented the idea from scratch.  Nice.

And so, with his whiter-than-white Fortune-100 smile, he cajoled each member of the audience into stating his or her most sought-after title, position, or role.  Then one-by-one, the obvious answers came out with way too much enthusiasm: “CEO!”, “Company President!”, “Chairman of the Board!”, “Chief Counsel!”, Woohoo!”, etc, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah.

Though stated with much less fanfare, I felt my answer was also obvious: “Dad”. 

Top Ten Signs You May Be A False Prophet???

First, read this: Utah ‘prophet’ predicts disaster will prevent Obama from taking office…

As one who enjoys (purely for entertainment purposes) accounts of various ‘prophets-with-a-small-p’, I seized upon the above headline on Drudge the other day.  All things considered, I thought the LA Times article was actually quite kind to Leeland F. Freeborn of Parowan, UT – it even conjured a few feelings of compassion in me (more on that later, after I’m done with the mockery part).  

But as I said, I find self-proclaimed prophets fascinating.  And so, in “honor” of Mr. Freeborn, a.k.a. the Parowan prophet, I thought I would post my top-ten signs you may be a false prophet:

NY Times Ad Defends Mormons

Based on my reading of the New York Times over the years, I firmly believe that finding a pro-Mormon message in their Op-Ed section would be like finding Frosty the Snowman in Yuma, AZ in August.  But as profit is still the motive (if not the reality) over there at Times Square, they’ll print anything if the right amount of cashola is on the table.  

And thank goodness – at least in this case.  Regardless of their motives, I really appreciated this message on full display last week - particularly as the ad was paid for entirely by non-LDS donors.  You can read more at http://nomobveto.org/.

I don’t know much about the Becket Fund, and I’m not a big fan of some of the signers of the ad, but the message is spot on, and I’m very glad they ran it.  The last line is a bit over the top, but tame compared to much of the anti-8 mud-fest.

The Worth of Souls is Great, Except in Long Island, NY

In Long Island, NY, apparently the worth of souls is approximately 20 bucks.  At least that’s my impression after reading this news story of a Wal-Mart worker getting trampled to death on Black-Friday morning by a crazed mob of “bargain” hunters.

Oh, and FYI, some of the headline bargains attracting these mobsters included “a $798 Samsung 50-inch Plasma HDTV, a Bissel Compact Upright Vacuum for $28 and Men’s Wrangler Tough Jeans for $8.”

Wow.  I can think of no more tragic sign of the consumer times than people trampling each other to death for an $8 pair of Wrangler Tough Jeans.  

Even more maddening, some of the mobsters were actually upset because they were asked to leave the store for a couple of minutes while they tidied up the dead and the injured: ”When [the shoppers] were [told] they had to leave [because] an employee got killed, people were yelling, ‘No way, I’ve been on line since Friday morning!’ [and] they kept on shopping.”

Words fail when it comes to describing this low point in humanity.   But, one employee/witness summed it up pretty well: “I looked at [their] faces and I kept thinking one of them could have [been the one who] stepped on him . . . How could you take a man’s life to save $20 on a TV?”

Indeed.

Oh, and PS: I thought one of the comments added at the bottom of the news story was pretty funny.  Funksoul6 noted astutely, ”This whole mess would never had started if it wernt for BUSH.” 

So there ya have it folks, it’s official: there isn’t one single thing on Earth that isn’t GWB’s fault.  LOL.