Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Passion Party #506 - Ethics Vs. Values

You can round up all the investment bankers, all the C-Suite executives
 and all the Wharton and Harvard MBA Students
and teach them Ethics
and it will make no difference.
What makes a difference is the person's Values.
 
Ethics is a defined as a philosophy of systematizing and recommending concepts of right and wrong.
 
Values are what you deem important to your life,
the actions you are willing to take because they gives meaning to your life.
Just knowing right from wrong does not solve the problem;
sometimes people discover doing the wrong thing is best if their values are selfish or greedy.

The US Army has core values:
loyalty - duty - selfless service - integrity
Our constitution has core values:
life - liberty - the pursuit of happiness
My business has core values:
integrity - professionalism - caring - teamwork - stewardship
 
Find your core values, and the ethics will follow.
 

Monday, March 10, 2014

Passion Party #505: Not-So-Dumb Phone

I live in a prehistoric age
when there wasn't an "app" for that,
there was a nap for that.
 
I have an old-fashioned "flip phone",
one of those clam-shell jobs
that doesn't break when I drop it on the ground.
 
I can call people.
They can call me.
They can even text me now (I finally agreed to spend $5 a month so I can connect with modern people that type into their phones instead of using their voice.)
I even text back - one or two words usually.
 
People get mad at me if I don't respond when they email me while I am in a car, or in the elevator, or at night.
They just have to wait a little bit.
Patience, they say, is a virtue.
 
Now we are learning the downside of
always being connected.
There is an aphorism: "When something online is free, you’re not the customer, you’re the product."
The GPS on your smart phone not only tells you where the nearest pizza place is,
it tells data brokers that you like to eat pizza.
It tells Google and Facebook to push pizza ads your way.
If you choose, your phone will now know
when you sleep, how you sleep, when you wake up, where you are, what you are doing.
 
It may all be harmless
but it sounds a bit too much like "1984".
Do you remember that?
It is something they used to call a "book" by George Orwell.
 
Right now I am happy to have a phone
that is just a "dumb phone".

Monday, March 3, 2014

A real live Passion Party this Friday!

Once or twice a year I get to play my own music with musicians that pull me up to a whole 'nother level.  This Friday is one of those rare nights.

This Friday on Hollywood I get to play with my favorite band:
Alex Acuna on drums
Lyman Medeiros on Bass
Bobby Rodriguez on trumpet
Larry Klimas on Sax
and my very special guest, my wife Diana Zaslove on vocals

for an evening of beautiful heartfelt music and inspiring improvisation

at the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood

Tickets are $25 each
Music starts at 8:30.  We'll probably only play until 10:30, so don't be too late! 

it will be a night to remember...

reserve tickets here
or call 323-466-2210. reservations are essential!