The Graythorn Group Admires One Good Deed

One Good Deed chronicles Erin McHugh's adventures while she's performing ONE GOOD DEED a day for one year in preparation for writing a book about her experiences. (She'll only be posting a couple of deeds per week on the blog so you have something to look forward to in the book.)

Bravo, Erin. Bravo! We can all do ONE GOOD DEED per day.

Graythorn Group Admires the Sunshine Initiative

One of the most important parts of our vision is people really enjoying themselves through their work. Patrick Saleeby at The Sunshine Initiative also believes that we should be empowered to enjoy our jobs.

If you are stuck in a job that’s grinding you down, you are not trapped; you only think you are. Oh, and don’t kid yourself. It’s not just a job. I hate it when people say that. It’s your life, where you spend the bulk of your hours and days. If you’re miserable, and I was, then there’s really only one thing to do. Yep, you guessed it: change.

Go check out The Sunshine Initiative and remember how to breathe again.

Graythorn Group Likes Purple, Rock, Scissors

Do you need a new media approach? Purple, Rock, Scissors looks to be an amazing firm - and fun, too.

Purple, Rock, Scissors
On Twitter
On Facebook

Cometh the Corporatocracy?

"The Supreme Court today ruled in a five votes to four decision that corporations can now spend as much as they want on political campaigns. In other words, if Exxon or Dow wants to support a candidate, they can give him or her as much money as they want... The court ruled that corporations should be given the same right to free speech as people, which is — I mean, corporations are not people, and if they were people, they’d be real jerks." –Jimmy Kimmel

The Graythorn Group Admires: SparkPeople

SparkPeople only has one tiny little goal. To improve the health and fitness of everyone, everywhere. Nothing major, right? Based on the statistics that they track it looks like they are doing a good job of it (they've counted over 6 billion calories burned and over 8 million pounds lost). So what is it they think they're doing?

At SparkPeople, our mission is to SPARK millions of PEOPLE to reach their goals and lead healthier lives. We offer nutrition, health, and fitness tools, support, and resources that are 100% free... About Spark People

Now that is truly awesome.

The Graythorn Group Admires: Devinder Sharma

There isn't anything we can say that will illustrate why we admire Devinder Sharma better than quoting his "About Me" section on his blog:

Think two decades back, think today, and think two decades ahead. Is this the direction the world should follow? Why can't we make an effort to change the popular discourse, the mainline economic thinking that has only added to global problems? This is what made me begin on a journey in search for the abandoned path to equity, justice and sustainability. My journey begins with the fundamentals -- food, agriculture and hunger. My dream takes me to a vision beyond, in the spirit of gaia and towards a gross happiness index. I too have a dream. And I know we can together change this script. A long journey always begins with the first step. Come, join me.

Kindred spirits.

The Graythorn Group Enjoys Curious Cat

Today while doing other things (which is when most good things happen), we came across the Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog. Since today's top story was a criticism of outrageous executive pay we knew we had found a kindred spirit. Curious Cat, you make us purr.

Creating Magic

Walt Disney himself once said, "Why be a governor or senator when you can be king of Disneyland?" It seems like Lee Cockerell might agree with him. The former Executive Vice President of Operations for the Walt Disney World Resort enjoyed his tenure with the Mouse, and has written up the leadership methodology that he implemented in his new book Creating Magic.

As you may know, the Walt Disney Company is famous for their training program for Cast Members (i.e., employees). But that level of training apparently didn't extend to leadership skills. So Cockerell instituted a new leadership program. Can you imagine that?

You can check out Lee's website at www.leecockerell.com. To get a feel for his philosophy read his most popular blog post, "The Soft Stuff and The Hard Stuff." You can also buy Lee's book in our Graythorn Group Amazon Store.

The Graythorn Group Admires: Life is Good

Certainly you are familiar with the fun and funky designs from "Life is Good." If you don't know about the company itself, go read their story. They have parlayed their gentle enthusiasm for life into a world of good, including millions of dollars for kids facing unfair challenges.

I was on their website because after years of coveting their designs I finally bought a t-shirt today at lunch (Happy Hour). I was curious what else I might find on the web and the good news is that it's more of the same.

Congratulations to Life is Good for sticking to their dreams and making something good come of their efforts. Good on ya.

The Graythorn Group Supports Project 10 to the 100th

Project 10¹⁰⁰ is a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible. - Google's Project 10 the 100th

Make sure to add your ideas to help the world.

Smart People. Big Ideas.

"I respect smart people with big ideas who have the guts to put them out in the world, no matter whether I agree or disagree."

"...building a business that is an expression of who is it you most want to be in this world ... a business that actually makes a difference ... that, to me, is truly something to celebrate."
~ Michael Cage, What I hate about the 4-hour work week

Check out Michael's website, Entrepreneurs Life for some great advice on entrepreneurship.

Honoring Our Creative Impulse

"For when you come to think of it, the only way to love a person is not, as the stereotyped Christian notion is, to coddle them and bring them soup when they are sick, but by listening to them and seeing and believing in the god, in the poet, in them. For by doing this, you keep the god and the poet alive and make it flourish."
~ Barbara Ueland, If You Want to Write: A Book About Art, Independence and Spirit

Graythorn Vision

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today about six billion people woke up and started their day. Some are rich but most are poor. Some are educated but more are not. Some are full but more are hungry. Some believe that tomorrow will be better but many have given up hope. From a biological standpoint, the human race is thriving. On a more individual basis we are surprisingly unsuccessful at using our knowledge and technology to create an improved life.

Meanwhile we continue to raid the Earth’s bounty at an alarming rate. The rain forests are disappearing. The oceans are being emptied. Rare animals are being hunted to extinction. To the best of our knowledge this little blue spinning jewel is the only life-supporting planet in a million miles. What are we doing?

Sitting here on the leading edge of our millennium we have greater technologies than our grandparents could have dreamed about. We are poised to make significant changes in how we live our lives and affect our planet. But first we have to understand that if we keep doing what we’ve done, we’ll keep getting what we’ve got.

At this point you may be thinking, “What does the state of the world have to do with creating a business?” Well, everything. The word business dates back to the 14th century and its original meaning was “purposeful activity.” What is the purpose of your activity? The best business people realize that they are part of a community first. They realize that their profits are dependent on the health and wealth of those around them. They realize that there is a reason economics and ecology share the same root word. A business is part of a greater whole, an interactive part of the social and economic environment that it both moves and is moved by. And because it is a method of wielding great power, that power must be used carefully and gently.

What would we do if we won the lottery?

by sue@graythorn.com

What would we do if we won the lottery? (Let's assume $25 million, it's a nice number.)

First, we would make sure that we had a financial manager in place to invest those funds, ensuring our long-term stability and ability to support our core mission areas of public health and nutrition, education, ethical business practices, and the environment. We would continue with our initial goal of focusing first on public health and nutrition through the creation and expansion of our healthy fast food restaurant concept. We would expand through franchising since franchise ownership spreads the wealth.

We would take the following actions immediately:
- Hire a nutritionist to finalize the menu
- Hire a tech to finalize our systems design (we have cool stuff planned like SMStext ordering and online diet/nutrition tracking)
- Select our first location

Within the following six months we would:
- Have construction of the first location well underway
- Hire a full-time operations manager
- Hire central staff to develop franchisee operational documentation
- Begin scheduling franchise expo appearances for the following year

Within one year we would:
- Have our first location operating
- Begin tracking our benchmarks
- Begin to promote franchise opportunities

Then what? Work on the next Graythorn project, of course. Next stop: education.

Good to Great

If you aren't familiar with Jim Collin's work, check out www.jimcollins.com. His focus on ethics and purpose being the difference between good businesses and great businesses really strikes a chord with us.

Walt: The Man Behind the Myth

While we were at Walt Disney World a couple of weeks ago my husband decided to indulge my love of Walt by sneaking a copy of this documentary into our gift purchases. Now Walt and I go way back, at least in my mind, but this film gave me fresh information and perspectives.

One of the reasons that Walt is so fascinating to me is because of the scope of his dreams. And the fact that he was able to achieve so much, and inspire so much more. Granted, I think that in many ways Walt would be sad with what The Walt Disney Company has become. It is such a business. And EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) certainly didn't come out the way he had dreamed. And yet... every day thousands of people ask themselves "What would Walt do?" That is an amazing amount of impact.

If you are also a fan of Walt Disney, whether it is because of his business acumen, animation and filmmaking innovation, or the legacy of his dreams, then this documentary is a must-see.

sue@graythorn.com

What Every Good Marketer Knows (or Not)

I just read something very powerful over at Seth Godin's blog, something he considers a basic of marketing.

"Marketers are responsible for the side effects their products cause."

This idea is very close to our hearts because we feel that too often businesses act as though this is NOT true. It's a big reason why we think it is so important to start Sparky's Good To Go (Fuel For Your Extraordinary Life).