Dealing with potential enemies

Think of being thousands of miles from home.
Native Filipinos tell you there’s trouble brewing.
The communists are coming to interrogate you.
You are physically defenseless against them.

Peace Corps volunteer Karin Muller faced such a test.
She gathered all the coffee and sugar she could find.
When the Communists arrived, she invited them in.
“Thank God you’re here,” she said. “I’ve waited all day.
“Have some coffee. Leave your guns at the door.”
The puzzled leader took off his guns and sat down for coffee.
This way she avoided interrogation - or worse.
You can’t interrogate someone you’re having coffee with.
Who dares think women are the weaker sex?

Some time ago, I took one of our elected officials to task.
He was making a mistake and I said so in a roomful of his peers.
He did not speak to me for five years. Actually shunned me.
I thought it was humorous. But the acid was eating at him.
Finally a mutual friend arranged for us to clear the air.
He spent an hour at our kitchen table justifying his actions.
Over coffee, I patiently listened and did not argue with him.
But neither did I agree that he was right and I was wrong.

He was diagnosed with cancer a few months later.
We talked on the phone several times as he underwent chemo.
He’s the hero of this story. He initiated the meeting.
He welcomed the continuing dialogue. Then cancer took him.
I had the last word - and made it a good one.
We published a tribute to him and his achievements.
A little coffee and empathy can go a long way.

Guy Kawasaki tells Karin Muller’s story in his new book.
It’s entitled “Enchantment”. You will want to read it.
For a copy go to Amazon.com and type in Enchantment.
It’s well worth a few dollars and your time to read it.
More on his book later in my Million Dollar Ideas newsletter.

Winners and losers

Hollie Dunaway greeted me with a big hug.
Hollie is all of five feet tall and 120 pounds.
Beside me she is petite - and beautiful.
My mug makes most women look beautiful.

Hollie may be tiny but she is fierce.
Hollie is a four-time world champion boxer.
She has won more than 30 boxing matches.
She was at Billy Stanick's gym helping him.
One of his boxers is preparing for a big bout.
We sat down to talk about her life story.

Hollie grew up on a farm in Arkansas.
No sports. Farm chores came first.
Few boys. First date when she was 18.
Then she met trainer Brian Jones.
He convinced her to enter the ring.
Two weeks later she lost her first boxing match.
“No one taught me to block punches,” she said.

Did that first loss discourage her? No way.
“It just made me hate losing,” she said.
Do you hate losing? Do you love winning?
They’re two sides of the same coin.
My questions for you this morning are:
• What did you do the last time you lost?
• Did you want to quit? To just give up?
• Did you decide you would do what it takes to win?

Life is a constant and unending struggle.
What’s important is how we handle it.
It’s a privilege to interview winners like Hollie Dunaway.
She so inspired me I drove 20 miles to our newspaper.
I sat down in an empty office and wrote about our interview.
I wanted to get it down while it was fresh in my mind.
If you want to read it, it will be on our web site Thursday.
Just go to www.LexingtonChronicle.com
Click on “Rockin’ on the Front Porch”

Love what you do

Like me, you may have never heard of John Calley.
But I’ll bet you’ve seen many of his movies.
“The Exorcist”. “Deliverance”. Blazing Saddles”.
“Chariots of Fire”. “All the President’s Men”.
“GoldenEye”. “Spider-Man”. “The Da Vinci Code”.
Calley was a highly successful movie producer.
Unless you’re a credit watcher, his name means little.
His close friends were names you might know.
Mike Nichols, Clint Eastwood, Stanley Kubrick.

He started in the NBC mailroom and worked his way up.
He retired after making 120 movies at Warner.
He manned his own sailboat across the Atlantic.
He bought a farm and became a gentleman farmer.
MGM lured him out of retirement.
Sony lured him away from MGM.
He lead an exciting and adventurous life.

Here is what’s unusual about John Calley.
He was a film mogul but did not act like one.
No private Gulfstream jets or fancy titles.
No Saville Row custom-fitted suits.
None of the trappings of millionaire moguldom.

Calley loved the work. Loved a good story.
Was passionate about making award-winning films.
Think about that and the fancy title on your office door.
Think about your company-paid golf club membership.
Think about your private aircraft and parking spot.
Are you working for the trappings of success?
Or do you work at what you’re passionate about?

My mother influenced my decision to become a writer.
She read to me as a child. She fired my imagination.
She taught me the alphabet so I could write to my father.
I fell in love with storytelling and writing.
Not the idea of “being” a writer. It was the act itself.
The craft of the work. The endless writing and rewriting.
The editing of others’ work to hone my own.
That became one of my purposes in life.

I hope you’ve found your great purpose, too.

To respond, click on Post a Comment below.

The value of a sense of humor

Our friend Bill West sent this along.
It says a lot about our falling expectations.
It says more about our ability to laugh.

The economy, Bill writes, is so bad that:
• He got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.
• CEOs are now playing miniature golf.

• The First Couple are staying in Washington.
• Exxon-Mobil laid off 25 Congressmen.
• Angelina Jolie adopted a child from America.
• Motel Six won’t leave the light on anymore.
• A picture is now only worth only 200 words.
• They renamed Wall Street “Wal-Mart Street”

Bill called the Suicide Hotline the other night.
He reached a call center in Pakistan.
When he told them he was suicidal, they got excited.
They asked if he could drive a truck.

Americans can laugh in the face of disaster.
It increases our determination to succeed.
And it reminds us that things could be worse.
Most of us learn to laugh early in life.
Don’t lose your child-like ability to laugh.
Particularly at yourself and your foibles.

Keep laughing, my friends. It helps.

To share your own humor, click on Post a Comment.

Is reconciliation possible?

Mike Henderson has returned from Africa.
It is his 19th mission to the Dark Continent.
Mike is a former chemical engineer.
Today he is a Methodist minister.

During apartheid, Mike was smuggled into Soweto.
That was a black area South Africa set up.
Blacks and whites were separated by law.
Mike was illegally in Soweto.
He met inmates from Robben Island Prison.
They had been incarcerated with Nelson Mandela.
A former inmate said he knew they would be freed.
He just did not know how long it would take.
In prison, he committed to reconciliation.
He wouldn’t do to others what was done to him.
That takes a strong faith to take such a pledge.
Particularly after generations of apartheid.

I asked Mike his thoughts on reconciliation today.
Is it possible to reconcile ourselves with jihadists?
With people who envy, hate and would kill us?
Who believe it is Allah’s will that they destroy us?
Or to drag us back into the 17th Century with them?
These are questions for us in the wake of 9-11.
We have had 10 years to think about 9-11’s meaning.
I don’t know what you’ve learned but I’m interested.
Please comment at Post a Comment below.