HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

May you all have a great Christmas and amazing New Year! I'm pumped for 2005! But my diet is shot and my gym doesn't recognize me anymore...huhuhu....hahaha! Bring on the food and the merry-making!

In Search of Soul

Had coffee with DJ Benjo today. Gained a lot of insight regarding the club and rave scene. Had him give me a little history lesson on the music.

Two main families for music in the club scene. New York is where "Garage" music came from which has its roots in disco...the Jersey garage sound. Then some key guys from New York brought the grooves to Chicago, the home of the blues! They opened a place called The Warehouse which is where we derive "house" music from.

This all started because people felt that music was too commercialized. They wanted freedom...from commercialism and freedom to express themselves the way they wanted to.

What strikes me is that this music, as with all true music and musicians, comes out of a specific philosophy of life and particular ideals.

And this started me thinking...

There are so few true musicians out there! Most people are technicians not artists! They work so hard to sound like a certain musician or a certain band. They're so busy trying to sound like someone else that they never find their own sound. But its more than finding your own sound. Coz music is about expressing a personal philosophy of life; passionately fleshing out your particular ideals!

It's about a journey to discovering and expressing your own soul!!!

Too many "musicians" never embark on this journey. They never seek out their souls. They may play good licks and develop cool sounds and may even have some smooth vibes.

But only true artists play from the soul!

1CUBED Air Date

Looks like our guesting will be aired on the first and second Fridays of 2005. That's January 7 and 14. Check it out!

The episode features Jagged, Still (Carlos Choi & Co. from Cebu), Gabriel Valenciano, and Robin Nievera. Yes, the last two names are who you think they are....

1CUBED Guesting at Alabang New Life

Did a guesting for 1CUBED last night with the new band, Jagged. Was questioning Beth if we're not getting too old for these gigs! :-) I figured that as long as they keep inviting, we'll keep showing up. This was the first real gig for the guys. I hope they had a good time. There must have been about 1000 plus people in the live audience last night. Check it out when it airs.

One world. One music. One hope.

Firefox has arrived!

Download the amazing new browser from mozilla at www.getfirefox.com. You'll be glad you did!

Lessons from Starbucks (part 5)

"Whatever you do, don't play it safe. Don't do things the way they've always been done. Don't try to fit the system. If you do what's expected of you, you'll never accomplish more than others expect."

Great thoughts, Howard!

Lessons from Starbucks (part 4)

A recurring theme with Schultz (see posts below) is how Starbucks has become America's Third Place. A place that is neither work nor home. A place to be refreshed. A place to rest from work-related pressure and domestic stress. A place to be inspired.

Sounds like what the Church is supposed to be. The Church's greatest competition is NOT other religions or other churches. It is places like Starbucks, Shoe Mart, Festival Mall etc...which have become the main gathering places for people to be recharged.

Lessons from Starbucks (part 3)

"We built the Starbucks brand first with our people, not with consumers...Because we believed the best way to meet and exceed the expectations of customers was to hire and train great people, we invested in employees who were zealous about good coffee. Their passion and commitment made our retail partners our best ambassadors for the coffee and for the brand. Their knowledge and fervor created a buzz among consumers and inspired them to come back. That's the secret of the power of the Starbucks brand: the personal attachment our partners feel and the connection they make with our customers."

Howard Schultz, Pour Your Heart Into It (p. 245)

What I see here is that we have got to take care of our own people first. The customer/consumer is not king and does not come first! Our own people do. Because they are the ones who represent us. They are the ones who directly touch our customers. They are our first constituency. Treat them well!

Lessons from Starbucks (part 2)

Howard Schultz shares about how he had to reinvent himslef 3 times as Starbucks grew into the Billion dollar industry it is today. He started off as a dreamer. He was the entrepreneur who had the dream to change the way the world looked at coffee. Then he had to learn new skills and become a professional manager as they began opening a store every business day. When Starbucks grew even bigger, Schultz had to reinvent himself as leader. Yesterday I found out that he reinvented himself yet again since the printing of his book. He now functions as the Chief Global Strategist for Starbucks!

They sure don't teach you how to reinvent yourself in college or in business school! If you're gonna grow your organization, you have to grow with it. Listen and learn!!!

Lessons from Starbucks (part 1)

The first thing that strikes me about the Starbucks story (see previous post below) is the passion that Schultz and his team have for coffee. He believed in the coffee experience so much that he left a $75,000 a year job to join this small coffee company that only sold coffee beans (they didn't sell beverages yet)! He was captivated by the romance of coffee from the time he stepped into his first store to the time he spent in Italy and its many espresso coffee shops.

They didn't just want to make money. They wanted to share a lifestyle! A coffee experience. THE coffee experience! And throughout their journey, they held unswervingly to their ideals and core values...even if it cost them money (LOTS OF IT TOO)!!!

To say that they have a passion for coffee is an understatement. They have people who can tell the difference between different coffee grinds just from the taste or smell! They are ever-learning and pursuing deeper understanding of their product. They are obsessed.

How many of us can say that about what we do?

It's this kind of passion that will set any organization apart from the rest. How rare this truly is!

Go Out and Get This! Read and Digest! Savor it!

If you haven't already, you have got to read Howard Schultz' "Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time!" At the time of writing, Schultz was the Chairman and CEO of Starbucks. Found out last night that he is now Chief Global Strategist for Starbucks. That makes the number of times he reinvented himself up to 4 from the 3 times he writes about in the book. Just picked it up 2 days ago and I'm already 3/4 of the way to the end.

Here's the title page from the Prologue:

Care more than others think wise.

Risk more than others think safe.

Dream more than others think practical.

Expect more than others think possible.

That's got to be enough to make you go out and buy the book....Do it NOW!

DepEd NDY

Just got back from Cebu where I did a workshop on Interactive Learning with about 60 teachers. It was part of the National Youth Day Conference sponsored by the Department of Education. Arrived a day early and ended up on a panel discussing the power of media to youth.

A comment by one of the teachers has me worried. She talked about how powerless we really are because the 1st world (USA) really has control over what we teach our students here in RP. There was such a resigned expression to her voice and to her face! How can we impart hope to the emerging generation with a mindset like that?!?!

It was great, though, to spend time outside the religious setting and hear from "real" people.

I got to use my new presentation remote control. It rocks!

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog. I hope you are provoked by some of the thoughts that I post here. Feel free to shoot me an email or post a comment whether you agree or not to anything here. If you agree with something be passionate about it. If you disagree, be equally passionate. I believe that if we're not annoying someone then we're not really making much of a difference.