Name Change

A heartfelt thank you to the readership of Baseball, God and Business for indulging me in my three passions and areas of knowledge. The positive feedback and response received has been a pleasant surprise to me. When I started to write the brief articles it was with the intention of doing as I please and not writing to any particular market segment or demographic. Kind of like that Baltimore radio station that takes no requests and states over and over again, “We play what we want.” However, I have had a change of heart based on several, what I would call, “awakenings” regarding the title of these articles. The first awakening is easy – baseball season is over. The second – I was watching television and some advertisement came on for a religious themed show and the word God was used. They have their definition of God and I have mine, but the use of the word God just didn’t sit right with me. It seems to be limiting. I originally wrote my definition of God as, “All That Is” which is not based in religion. I come from more of a metaphysical, quantum physics kind of place. I don’t have anything against religion per se, it just doesn’t float my boat. Actually, that is not entirely true. I do have a problem with anything that is fear based and many religions are fear based and do not believe in an all loving God, but in a God that punishes. Even the popular use of the word Karma is punishment based and therefore religionist at its core. Love is critical to any relationship businesswise or otherwise. Let me remind everyone what Vince Lombardi (Super Bowl trophy named after him) said:

“Mental toughness is humility, simplicity, spartanism, and one other . . . love. I don’t necessarily have to like my associates but as a man, I must love them. Love is loyalty; love is teamwork. Love respects the dignity of the individual.”

Finally, the third awakening came when doing research in preparation for a new client who asked me to attend a meeting with a manufacturer who was changing their retail packaging. While I have an extensive background in graphic design and business-to-business advertising, I know little to nothing about consumerism and retail packaging. So I called a longtime friend of mine with twenty years of experience in that area to see if she was available for consulting work and to give me some questions to ask in this initial meeting. She was asking me what category and sub category they were in and I didn’t know for sure what she was talking about. She explained “the category” as the signage at the grocery store above the aisles. And she went on from there. That conversation got me thinking about Baseball, God and Business and what category it would fall into. If this were a book, where would it appear in a bookstore? How would it be classified? It wouldn’t make it in the baseball section, I sure as hell wouldn’t want it in religion, there are not quite enough life strategies to make it in the self-development section, and that leaves business.

Anyone who has worked with me knows that I approach business holistically. What affects one area, affects another. If you don’t have your financial act together, then your foundation is weak and you will eventually crumble when a big storm arises (and they always do either internally or externally). If you are not developing new business, then by attrition, you’re going to start going backwards. And so on and so on. And most importantly if you are not together personally, then your business will eventually suffer. It’s all connected. If I have a person who is not handling a life problem well, then how will that not affect how they do business?

I knew at the end of the day, that what I was offering was Business and Life Strategies with a Spiritual bent. So if you are able to extract something from these articles that helps move you along in your life and/or your business, then I feel like it is “Mission Accomplished”. And since I have received a considerable amount of positive feedback, then I know some folks are benefitting and that works for me.

I will continue to use analogies when and where appropriate and since pure unadulterated spirituality is the ultimate science, I will present those concepts as well. There truly is a spiritual solution for every problem; we just can’t always see it.

I still have not solved the category problem of where these articles would appear if it were a book, but what the hell, I’m not trying to sell anything here.