"a guy walks into a bar..."

Life's Greatest Catalyst Is Death

Why does it take death, or the threat of death, to create necessary change in our lives?

Sick people wait until they've been diagnosed with cancer before they make changes to their lifestyle. And healthy people wait until someone they love dies before they start telling those still living that they love them. Why do we wait so long before we take action?

When did death become a catalyst for living?



I waited until my Grandmother turned 90 before I started calling and visiting her on a regular basis. When she turned 90, it scared me. And like a much needed slap to the head, it woke me up. She will turn 92 in a few weeks and I feel more frightened than I did 2 years ago. It took the reality of her death being near for me to create change.

I waited until I was faced with an impending layoff at my first real job out of college to give myself the extra push I needed to start my own company. Ever since I was a kid I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. But for whatever reason, I waited. I waited until it was physically impossible for me to wait anymore. It took the death of my first real job for me to create change.

I waited until I was in a near fatal motorcycle accident (police even prematurely announced me "dead on the scene") until I got up the balls to break up with my then girlfriend. I knew she was selfish and cared more for herself than me. But I needed that final punch to the gut. The timing of my accident wasn't convenient for her. It interrupted plans for a vacation I had promised to take her on. I needed to witness her lack of compassion and understanding. I needed to witness her thinking of only herself so I could do what was best for myself, which was to move on. It took the death of that relationship for me to create change.

Last week Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, announced he was resigning due to his declining health. Since then, countless news articles have been written about his resignation that read less like a corporate restructuring plan and more like a Steve Jobs obituary column! Steve Jobs is NOT dead! However, many are predicting the worse will happen sooner rather than later.

So today I leave you with some words on Life, Death, and most importantly Change...

2005 Stanford University Commencement
by: Steve Jobs

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Here's to naked living.

Today The New York Times. Tomorrow...???

We interrupt our latest very long posts (below) for this very short post:

we got our pictures in The New York Times (the online version). Click here to see our latest brush with fame.



And now back to the week's blog.

Visalia, garbled memories of comfort & love mixed with semi-unencombered periods of relaxation...St. Tropez of the Central San Juaquin Valley"

                 My girlfriend Daisy with some guy in a white truck.

                                I think I'm having a white dream.

                                             vintage Rock

Five ways Apple will never be the same without Jobs as CEO

As Steve Jobs permanently steps down as CEO, Apple is on top of the world. It has redefined the smartphone and the tablet in an era when those two devices are destined to dominate the next stage of computing. It has become the most valuable and most profitable technology company in world and one of the planet’s most powerful and recognizable brands. For a brief time when the stock market was going through its recent gyrations, Apple even passed Exxon Mobile to become the most valuable company in the world.

But, for those of us who have been around the tech industry for the past three decades, the most eye-popping thing Apple has accomplished in the past 14 years since Jobs returned to Apple was to turn the tables on its old rival Microsoft. Apple used to argue that it made higher quality products and out-innovated Microsoft, even if Microsoft made a lot more money by selling tasteless products to the masses, according to Jobs. In 2011, Apple now makes even more money than Microsoft (which still makes a lot in its own right).

But, Steve Jobs stepping down as CEO will inevitably put Apple’s future at risk. You’re going to read a lot of articles in the coming days where people are going to tell you all of the reasons that Apple is going to be fine and that the legacy of Steve Jobs will be enough to sustain the company for decades, and that Apple will be like Disney after Walt Disney’s departure. Here’s the bottom line — there’s simply no scenario in which Apple can be better without Steve Jobs as CEO than they were with him there.

Sure, Jobs will still be around as Chairman, but that’s a lot different than being in the trenches with engineers and designers every day. Few tech CEOs have ever been as hands-on as Jobs, and without him in the mix there’s going to be a gaping hole in Apple’s company culture and collective psyche.

Here are five big questions that Apple will have to face without Jobs involved in the day-to-day operations of the company. None of them have good answers, and that’s why Apple will be hard-pressed to continue its unbroken run of successes as Jobs exits the front of the stage.

5. Who will ignore what the public wants?

A few years ago, Jobs said, ”You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give it to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.” That was his approach to product development throughout his career. He never tried to keep up with what the masses wanted, but tried to give them something new to fall in love with. Very few people in history have been as good as Jobs at judging what large numbers of people will want before they know they want it. Even fewer have ever had the guts to place big bets on those things. It’s unlikely Apple will ever find another leader who can do that like Jobs, and that more than anything else has been the key to Apple’s recent success.

4. Who will shame people into greatness?

The Steve Jobs management style is not normal in corporate America. He was notoriously abrasive, confrontational, and borderline-inappropriate. He got in people’s faces. He called them names. He demeaned their humanity. And yet, plenty of Apple employees will say that he pushed them to create the greatest work of their careers. As a people manager, he was the Bobby Knight of tech. From the outside, a lot of people were appalled by the stories of Jobs’ behavior toward his employees, but insiders will tell you that he could also be extremely generous, enthusiastic, and charming. And, when he praised an employee, it was like they just hit a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth. Jobs could get away with this behavior — which gets most CEOs despised or fired — because he was Steve Jobs. Apple probably won’t ever have another leader with this decidedly old school management approach — much more in the Vince Lombardi tradition than the modern Ken Blanchard mode. But, the main reason Apple’s products are so polished is a result of Jobs’ ferocious perfectionism.

3. Who will take the big risks?

It’s easy to forget that when Apple first announced the iPhone, there were a lot of people in the technology industry who scoffed or snickered. CIOs called it a “toy.” Research in Motion openly mocked the iPhone for a couple years and completely dismissed it as a competitor to the BlackBerry (we see how well that worked out for them). Most of the telecom carriers even ignored the iPhone for years before they weren’t willing to deal with Apple’s demands. The point is that Apple had a lot to overcome to create a successful mobile phone. It took years. It took a lot of money. It took a lot of relationship-building. And, there was never any guarantee of success. In fact, in 2007 when Apple first launched the iPhone, it was probably more likely that the carriers would find a way to lock out the iPhone or cripple it. The whole thing could have turned into a major distraction and a money pit. Instead, because the public loved the device, it pushed the entire smartphone industry in a different direction. It was a huge risk, but when it was successful, it came with a huge reward. Jobs took a similar risk with the iPad three years later, and got a similar result. Will new CEO Tim Cook be willing to take those kinds of risks? Or, more importantly, will he be smart enough to take the right kinds of huge risks? It’s hard to imagine anyone doing it better than Jobs has done over the past decade — even Jobs himself would have had a hard time emulating his success over the next decade.

2. Who will say “No”?

Jobs once said, ”I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things [we] have done. Innovation is saying ‘no’ to a 1,000 things.” I recently wrote an entire piece about this topic: White iPhone debacle shows why Apple is winning. That article is about the fact that Apple promised a white version of the iPhone 4, but had to delay it multiple times (after several more “coming soon” promises). The product wasn’t right and Apple refused to release a White iPhone 4 to the public until it was right. Most companies would have just released it earlier. Trust me. I see a ton of tech products come across my desk every month that still need to be finished and should have never been released. This is another example of where Jobs’ relentless perfectionism has powered Apple’s string of successes. Saying “no” is hard. It disappoints people. It can make your company look bad in the short term. It can put a lot of heat on you. Most companies say “yes” way too often. Apple will have to institutionalize and internalize the kind of discipline that Jobs repeatedly demonstrated. That’s a tall order.

1. Who will conjure the “magic”?

Lots of leaders use hyperbole to promote their products, but only Steve Jobs can actually get a lot of people to believe it. I’ve been puzzling over this for years. Why do so many of the same people who turn cynical when most CEOs go into their sales pitches perk up when Jobs unleashes his bold claims about Apple products? Is it because Jobs has led so many successful projects in the past? Is it because he’s more persuasive? Is it because he has a great team that has repeatedly delivered quality products? It’s probably a little bit of all those things, but more than anything else, it has to do with Jobs’ charisma and communication style (which aren’t easily emulated). Jobs is generally pretty low-key and subtle, but then all of the sudden he’ll fire off a big hyperbole or an enthusiastic flare. The contrast of the two styles seems to have the effect of making people say to themselves, “Whoa, if he thinks it’s big and is getting excited about it, then it must be important.” That’s why people fall for it when Jobs dubs a tablet computer as a “magical and revolutionary” thing. It’s not just Job’s discipline and knack for taking the right risks that has made Apple successful, it’s his own ability to promote Apple’s products and get millions of people excited about them. That’s worth more than millions of dollars of marketing, and it’s the one thing that is almost completely irreplaceable.

Men in Hats / The Hurricane Made Us Do It

So much to say this week!



First, since we didn't have any pictures of NOUS [plural of MOI] last week, we thought it best to be sure to put up a picture this week so you remember who we are.



Second, Jean had her very own personal hurricane-driven adventures this week, and has them on her very own post. Be sure to scroll down below this post to see it.







And now to the business at hand. Since the hurricane kept us from planning anything outdoorsy, this blog posting, a celebration of the rare men who know how to wear hats, was done entirely indoors by MOI [singular of NOUS] at a computer while the rain pounded the entire east coast, just inches away from me.



A few ground rules for the celebration:



1. No gimme caps. Gimme caps are to hats what ketchup is to vegetables.



















2. Just because you're wearing it, doesn't mean it's your hat. We have a good looking president, and he's wearing a good looking hat here, but odds are he did not buy it or choose it. This posting will only feature hats that we're reasonably certain the wearer chose personally.

































3. No silly hats, even if they DO belong to the wearer. (Jean interjects: Don't you just love Elton in his pre-knighthood era?)









































4. Humphrey Bogart, Fred Astaire and Clark Gable wore their hats very well, but repesent a bygone era. This post will show contemporary role models to promote the wearing of men's hats today.



































Let's put Johnny Depp first, because he was declared Hat Person of the Year by The Headwear Association. Indisputably great hat, indisputably great photo. Depp seems to specialize in fedoras, and should be encouraged to broaden his horizons because he clearly has a gift for knowing what works for him. We'd show you photos of other styles he wears if we could find them. (Sorry, not showing pirate hats.)







































If Depp modeled Jack Sparrow after Keith Richards, was Richards also his millinery muse?









































Keeping the one-time Glitter Twins in close proximity, here's Mick Jagger wearing a fabulous hat circa 1970. Jagger seems to have worn a variety of hats with great panache, although more in the past than in the present.







































Bob Dylan has had a lifelong interest in hats. Here are six, all of which he seems comfortable in. Several of his album covers have included hats.





























































































David Bowie is a natural hat wearer. Here are three dark hats, worn to completely different effect: showing half the forehead, showing the whole forehead, and showing none of the forehead. In the first and last photos, the hat can be removed at will. In the middle photo, if the hat is moved one micron the hair will have to be redone, so there's nothing casual about this very casual look. The first photo is a trifecta, showing not only Bowie in his hat, but Malcolm McDowell in his Clockwork Orange hat (on his shirt) and William Burroughs in his hat.





















































The artist currently known as Prince is known to occasionally wear hats despite his luxurious head of hair. Here are three pictures of Prince in hats. The last photo, in which he's wearing a matching purple suit and hat, shows a man who goes so far as to preplan his hats.

















































Here are two photos of Edward James Olmos in character - first in Zoot Suit, then in Blade Runner. These two photos don't follow the rules, since all the hats are supposed to be real hats worn by real people on real occasions (to the best of our knowledge). But Olmos looks like he's inhabiting these characters, and might easily wear any of these clothes.





























Since fashion and style are so individual, it's understandable that not every man wants to wear a hat. Hardly any good pictures of Sting in a hat, so perhaps he's not a hat man. But by the looks of his head outlined here by his sweatshirt, he could give any hat wearer a run for his money. In addition to Sting, there were few or no good hat photos of such luminaries as Danny Aiello, Antonio Banderas, Richard Belzer, Eric Clapton, George Clooney, Anderson Cooper, Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman, Michael Gambon, James Gandolfini, John Goodman, Danny Glover, James Earl Jones, Spike Lee, Ian McKellan, Viggo Mortenson, Peter O'Toole and Rufus Wainwright, all of whom one would suspect would be naturals for wonderful hats. Of course, this might just mean they're camera shy. Also, if you look at photos of celebrities in hats, it's disheartening how often the best part of the hat is cropped away. The hat wearer may make his statement, but the photo editor gets the final word.







































Author Tom Wolfe, shown here on the cover of Time magazine, has dressed in white forEVER. Note the black band around the brim of his white hat, almost certainly a custom job.







































Elton John is better known for over-the-top fantasy hats, but here he is wearing three different hats that look great on him, and would look great in the next issue of GQ.



















































Van Morrison simplifies things by matching his hat to his suit, for a don't-mess-with-me look.

































Here are four completely different hat styles for Andre Leon Talley, as befits a contributing editor at Vogue magazine.



















































But for sheer mastery of hats and singular ability to coordinate, we've saved perennial Bill Cunningham favorite Patrick McDonald for last. Patrick must have a hat for every day of the year, and sometimes has a suit to match. And did we mention hair color? Additionally, there's always a great pair of shoes AND a wonderful pocket square or boutonniere to complete the outfit. Here are just three examples, but they say it all.









































Interesting parenthetical: Ever notice how few politicians wear hats? Churchill and FDR, men of outsized personalities, wore notable hats, but few politicians since then have worn any memorable hats. Could it be cocklaphobia - fear of hats?



To tie the hurricane and the nattily dressed men together in a neat little bow, we'd like to close with Men Without Hats singing The Safety Dance.



Men Without Hats – The Safety Dance