…see over fifty eagles on display and they bring me such happy memories.
Fifty Eagles
Years ago, singer Connie Francis had a hit song with the above title and it was a sad song about a broken heart. Today as I sit at my computer I can swing around in my fine chair and see over fifty eagles on display and they bring me such happy memories. My office is crammed full of wonderful souvenirs and glorious memories. One of the book cases has four shelves of the books I’ve written and a stack of the CD’s containing all of the songs I have written. There is a wall full of plaques and medals and other paraphernalia including a diplomat signed by Dr. Scholl certifying that I was qualified to fit his foot appliances. At one time in my career as a speaker I was known as “Mr. Lucky of the American Platform.” Sometimes I tend to forget just how lucky I have been in my life and how extremely lucky I am today to live in America and enjoy the good life of growing older here in North Carolina.
Sometimes it is a temptation to see a glass of water as half empty instead of half full. We are sometimes tempted to look for the things we have lost instead of those we have gained. I think I will dedicate one day a week as “Count your blessings day.” I will set out to enjoy all that is good and plentiful in my life..the comfort of a warm bed at night, a hot meal, the joy of family and good neighbors and friends…and oh, that blessed joy of souvenirs and memories.
Art Fettig’s Monday Morning Memo March 16, 2009
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In This Issue o Among My Souvenirs
o Say Something Good
o Visit Our Website
o Points To Ponder
o A Little Humor
o Quote of the Week
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…see over fifty eagles on display and they bring me such happy memories.
Among My Souvenirs Years ago, singer Connie Franncis had a hit song with the above title and it was a sad song about a broken heart. Today as I sit at my computer I can swing around in my fine chair and see over fifty eagles on display and they bring me such happy memories. My office is crammed full of wonderful souvenirs and glorious memories. One of the book cases has four shelves of the books I’ve written and a stack of the CD’s containing all of the songs I have written. There is a wall full of plaques and medals and other paraphernalia including a diplomat signed by Dr. Scholl certifying that I was qualified to fit his foot appliances. At one time in my career as a speaker I was known as “Mr. Lucky of the American Platform.” Sometimes I tend to forget just how lucky I have been in my life and how extremely lucky I am today to live in America and enjoy the good life of growing older here in North Carolina.
Sometimes it is a temptation to see a glass of water as half empty instead of half full. We are sometimes tempted to look for the things we have lost instead of those we have gained. I think I will dedicate one day a week as “Count your blessings day.” I will set out to enjoy all that is good and plentiful in my life..the comfort of a warm bed at night, a hot meal, the joy of family and good neighbors and friends…and oh, that blessed joy of souvenirs and memories.
Say Something Good Basketball. Yes, it is that week end again when all the talk around here is the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament. I’m sure that wherever you live there is some such critter. At the NCAA Selection Show tomorrow some 65 teams will be picked from around the nation for the NCCA battles. What is so amazing is how many of these games can come down to the last five or ten or fifteen seconds and SWISH…the lead changes and a team comes out victorious. In other words, some team might snatch defeat from the jaws of victory or some such thing in the flash of an eye. In the Virginia Tech-Carolina game Friday we watched it get down to the final seconds and I could feel it in my bones that Carolina might lose. Carolina was leading by one point but Virginia Tech had the ball and was threatening. Then somehow #50 Tyler Hansbrough tied up the ball, it was Carolina’s possession in the rotation, and they managed to run out the clock for the few seconds remaining to win by ONE POINT. Neither my wife nor I could understand that play it happened so fast, and we had to wait for a game summary later to find out what happened. The Virginia Tech coach was so upset by the call that he ranted and he raved, he waved his arms and then he took off his coat and threw it on the bench and it was a beautiful sight to behold in this wonderful town of Hillsborough, North Carolina just a few miles from Chapel Hill, the home of the UNC Tar Heels. May God bless America and keep the fans, together with our troops from harm.
Visit Our Website Check out our website at www.artfettig.com Learn about our sensational new 101 Kit that allows you to save thousands on speaker and travel fees and implement our fantastic employee positive interaction 101 program yourself. It is an instant behavior modification commitment program that gets everyone in your organization involved in safety. Remember, you have a ten day money back guarantee too. Act now. Go directly to www.artfettig.com And get your safety program cranked up to a whole new level of performance. If you have questions just call me at 800 441 7676 or e-mail me at artfettig@aol.com.
Points To Ponder The power which resides in man is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried. Ralph Waldo Emerson
A Little Humor Vocabulary word for the day Liquidity. Liquidity: When you look at your investments and wet your pants.
Quote of the Week The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. Eleanor Roosevelt
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o Climbing An Icy Hill
o Say Something Good
o Visit Our Website
o Points To Ponder
o A Little Humor
o Quote of the Week
o To Subscribe
Climbing an Icy Hill
Sunday we drove over to a beautiful little mountain village named Cashiers, in the Blue Ridge Mountains discovered the Laurelwood Mountain Inn. Heavy snow was predicted and so we parked down the big hill adjacent to the highway. After breakfast, I tried driving up that hill three times without success and so I pulled back down and reparked near the street. Jean walked on up ahead of me and as I walked uphill I noticed that the blacktop was nice and rough and gave good footing and when I was about 2/3’s of the way up the road became smooth and as I took another step uphill suddenly I lost it and both of my feet began to slide. I managed to turn back down hill and I started running on the ice faster and faster and I finally stayed on my feet and made it over to the side of the drive onto the snow and came to a stop near the bottom of the hill. I haven’t run since I had both knees replaced. I don’t even jog but at that challenging instant as I came downhill all of a sudden I ran full speed. Carefully I went back up that hill and things were fine until I again hit that same spot and it was as if nature, gravity, the laws of weights and measurements and stupidity all came together and again I went into that same slide, swung around and made that same four minute mile run down hill finishing up on my feet on the side near the bottom of the hill standing in the snow. Now I’m not going to tell you that I did the very same thing the third time. I won’t tell you that because I know that Einstein said that anyone who does the same thing, the same way, again and again expecting a different result is a fool. So, after my three times downhill near death experiences I went over to the far side of the drive and walked uphill in the snow there and with great care I made it all the way. When I tell that story to relatives on the phone they stop me on the second trip up the hill and say, “You fell and broke your hip,” or maybe, “What hospital are you in?”
These are challenging times now in America. We have witnessed a number of downhill slides, in our investments, in employment, in almost every way you measure our progress in America but please, do not sell America short and don’t sell yourself short in the process. We might witness more slips and more slides but we have always been a nation that survives great challenges and comes out a winner. So look for the snow on the side of the road and go up gently but keep on going up and watch your character grow.
Paul Harvey
Say Something Good
Paul Harvey Someone who has held the American people in the hallow of his hand since 1933 on radio is a gentleman named Paul Harvey who just recently passed away. Several decades ago I was driving to a Lion’s Club meeting where I was to speak and I turned on the radio and I heard Paul Harvey mention my name and then go on and read my Growth verse. I was stunned. My coworker had sent it to him and I had forgotten about it. Imagine, Paul Harvey reading my verse to some twelve million people. After the meeting I rushed to the radio station and met a wonderful young lady broadcaster named Roberta Jasena who was able to make me a tape of that broadcast. I still treasure it. You can hear it at our website www.artfettig.com May God bless this America that Paul Harvey loved so and keep our troops from harm.
Check out our website at www.artfettig.com Learn about our sensational new 101 Kit that allows you to save thousands on speaker and travel fees and implement our fantastic employee positive interaction 101 program yourself. It is an instant behavior modification commitment program that gets everyone in your organization involved in safety. Remember, you have a ten day money back guarantee too. Act now. Go directly to www.artfettig.com And get your safety program cranked up to a whole new level of performance. If you have questions just call me at 800 441 7676 or e-mail me at artfettig@aol.com.
Points To Ponder
There is no greater disease than the loss of hope. Rabbi Yisroel Salanter
A Little Humor
Bumper Sticker “If you don’t like my driving stay off the sidewalk.”
Quote of the Week
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. Leo F. Buscaglia
I sat next to an account manager for Coca Cola on a plane ride to Phoenix who shared an interesting story with me. She had been trying for many years to get the soft drink syrup account for one of the larger convenience store chains in Phoenix. The problem, however, was that the competition had a “lock” on the business. Rather than give up, this woman continued to call on the convenience store chain. But every year, the competition continued to be awarded the business.
One day her window of opportunity opened. On the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, the competition’s dispensing machine broke down in one of the chain’s larger stores. One of the managers of this chain phoned her competition and asked them to come out and fix their machine. The competition’s response was, “We’ll have someone out there on Tuesday” which was the next business day. This store stood to lose a lot of sales if this machine wasn’t fixed. And since both Coca Cola and its competition used the same machine, this manager decided to call this woman at her home and ask if she would come in and fix her competition’s dispensing machine.
Seizing the opportunity, this woman was on the scene in very quick order to fix the competition’s machine. When finished, she told everyone in the store to have a nice day. Several months later, when the current contract expired, she was awarded the business and was not the lowest price. The reason she got the business was that the local management of the convenience store chain knew they could count on her.
So, when a particular situation looks hopeless, don’t give up. Be patient and wait for your window of opportunity to open–knowing full well that sooner or later it will. And, when it does, don’t hesitate; go for it![1]
I have my cars fixed by an establishment called Don’s Repair. Although this place was a little out of the way for me, Don’s prices were good and when Don fixed something, it stayed fixed. So I started referring some of my friends to Don. They were also impressed with the quality of Don’s service and began referring their friends. As a result, Don’s business began to grow rather nicely.
One day, I was driving around town when my car started making a chugging sound and began to lose power. Gently, I nursed my car over to Don’s Repair. It was a very busy day and I could see when I arrived that he had a lot of work backed up. However, when Don saw me get out of my car, he immediately dropped what he was doing and came over to see what I needed. I raised the hood and started the car so Don could hear the chugging noise. After listening for about fifteen seconds, Don informed me that I had a disconnected hose and that my carburetor was sucking air. He reached down and reconnected the hose to the carburetor. Sure enough, the chugging noise went away. Don, however, burned his hand slightly on my hot engine during the process. Then he put a clamp on the hose so it wouldn’t pull off again in the future.
The whole process took about ten minutes of Don’s time. As he slammed down my hood, I pulled out my checkbook and asked Don what the charge was. Don told me that as I was a regular customer, and it really hadn’t taken him very long, there would be no charge. I argued that his time and inconvenience had to be worth something and reminded him that he did put one of his clamps m my hose. At this point Don looked up at me and said, “You don’t understand, do you?” Being somewhat puzzled, I said, “Understand what?” Don answered, “You are the cheapest advertising I can buy. I know what you are going to do when you leave here—you’re going to tell your friends, and that’s what makes my business grow!”
Don was right. To this day, I carry around a stack of Don’s business cards in my briefcase. And when anyone asks me if I know a good place where they can get their car repaired, the first thing I do is hand them one of Don’s business cards. Then I spend a few minutes telling them how great it is to do business with Don. I am one of Don’s best salespeople and I don’t cost him one cent!
I get the feeling that I’m not the only unpaid salesperson working for Don. During the last three years, Don’s business has grown 600 percent and he has never advertised. It’s strictly word of mouth on the part of excited and satisfied customers. – Ross Reck
I sat next to an account manager for Coca Cola on a plane ride to Phoenix who shared an interesting story with me. She had been trying for many years to get the soft drink syrup account for one of the larger convenience store chains in Phoenix. The problem, however, was that the competition had a “lock” on the business. Rather than give up, this woman continued to call on the convenience store chain. But every year, the competition continued to be awarded the business.
Getting Customers To Sell For You