Leadership Mojo

Secretariat + Social Network: Wondering What's Real

Last week, I watched two films based on "true" stories about two extraordinary historical events (where opportunities for leadership abound). One is about a horse and a woman. One is about a young male and his brain. One story is finished. The other is just beginning. Of course, I'm talking about Secretariat and Social Network.

The Ghost Map

    A peculiar phenomenon follows me when I walk into a book store: Books speak to me. I'm not schizo. I don't literally hear words such as, "You hoo, here I am." On the other hand, I might as well, since the end result is the same: I buy them. Could you resist a book that spoke to you?
     I am magnetically drawn to certain volumes and can't explain why. When this happens, I simply know to buy. Such was the case recently at one of my favorite independent bookstores, Warwick's while I was in La Jolla, California. For synergistic reasons that became clear to me later, The Ghost Map, a book I'd never heard of nor expected to have any interest in, was the one that yelped at me. The choice was oddly prescient considering current events as well as an unexpected encounter on the plane to Southern California.
     You see, The Ghost Map is all about the great cholera epidemic of London in 1854, and the day I bought it was the day Swine Flu jumped across the border into the United States and declared a pandemic - only when I handed my credit card to the clerk, I didn't know any of that news.
      

Shakespeare on Risk: Anything New Under the Sun?

            "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures. "
                                                                    William Shakespeare From Julius Caesar

           And you thought this economic crises was personal? Since Shakespeare spoke about similar challenges as those we face today 500 years ago, no less grand and world changing than today's financial crises, the eternal nature of difficult times gives us some perspective.
            The greatest challenge we face is in recognizing the signs and then is being flexible enough to adapt and react without creating tragedies. (By the way, Julius Caesar is a tragedy. That's something we want to avoid, right?....) When working with clients at LodeStar Universal, my role is to make sure that people things clearly, choosing courses of action that prevent tragedy.
            Shakespeare, through his plays, presents timeless issues. Here he tells  us that timing, free

Who Really Is The Visitor?

Movie fare has been slim pickings so far this year, with nothing to touch my soul until this last Friday when I saw The Visitor. Oh sure, for fun,  I made it to both Sex and the City and Raiders. So what? So what is that I was almost lulled into avoiding movies altogether, based on those two. Thank goodness I didn't stop there. Don't you stop either, go see The Visitor.

In spite of its apparently simple premise, is a big film, rich in layers of meaning-starting with the title, who is the visitor?

Like a lovely wine, this is a film whre every rich scene can be savored. From the producer of Sideways, starring superb character actor Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under) and four other perfectly cast performers, it is both intimate and sweeping

The story line follows an emotionally dead economics professor who finds his soul in a Syrian drummer and his Senegalese girlfriend during a business trip to New York. You see, the couple "rented" his apartment. Only he didn't know anything about it and stumbles in on them. Part of the film's magic is that it is both humorous and poignant.

The story takes on a deeper meaning when the happy, optimistic Tariq, drummer and film's heartbeat, is accidentally arrested. Days after watching it, it lingers in my thoughts and inspired me to learn more about filmmaker  Tom McCarthy. One of my favorite scenes happens on the Staten Island Ferry where Tariq's girlfriend describes the simple joy and pleasures of life. See what you think....After poking around on the film's website, I also joined a site called  TakePart.