"I don't deserve this award, but I have arthritis and I don't deserve that either."
- Jack Benny

"When you're young you believe it when people tell you how good you are. And that's the danger, you inhale. Everyone will tell you you're a genius, which you are not. And you learn that you're never as good as they say you are when they say you're good, but you're never as bad as they say you are when they say you're bad. And if you understand that, you win." - George Clooney

These two quotes strike me as interesting and telling. Life is unfair and sometimes it is a right-way unfairness and sometimes a wrong-way unfairness. You can't rely on people's opinions, comments, or accolades as an accurate indicator of your performance. You know what you deserve. Chances are, no matter how hard you work or how talented you are, when you really think about it, you are really lucky!

After the day I had, I could not resist this quote from Peter Drucker.

"So much of what we call 'management' consists in making it difficult for people to work."

How true!

On a recent flight to Europe, I saw a WorldShop catalog full of duty-free items that can be purchased on the plane. They advertised everything from jewelry to toys, from luggage to candy. This ad caught my eye. In the States, the warnings on cigarettes are big, but they fill the square with lots of fine print. In this catalog however, the messages were not subtle.

Two words.

Smoking kills.

It reminded me that sometimes there is no time for subtly. Sometimes you have to be direct. Give a clear directive.

So, next time you think about delivering a marketing message, talking to employees, or pitching a new investor...be direct.

So, "The Next Great American Band" is on reality TV featuring groups with names like Dot, Dot, Dot, The Clark Brothers, and Sixwire (the former being the least favorite, I must admit, and the latter being my favorite). In this case, I am not sure the names matter, but they certainly can hurt (perhaps when the boys in "Light of Doom" grow up, they will find a better band name).

Meanwhile, businesses all over the world are struggling with naming their products and services. How to pick something meaningful? How to pick something clever? How to make sure it can be spelled correctly? Is the URL taken?

I have written about this before and offered some online automatic name generation solutions. If you are still lacking inspiration however, I have a new suggestion...think about your product or service like you are naming a band.

I know this might not be a new approach. Afterall, we all know companies like Yahoo!, StumbleUpon, Apple, and others that probably started off as the names of rock bands. To get you started check out this list of great band names posted by one of my favorite humorists, Dave Barry. Maybe one of these would be perfect for your next product launch!

"Rodent Passion" might be perfect for your pest control product or I could imagine the empire you could build around "The Foliage Eaters." The possibilities are endless!

P.S. Dave Barry celebrated his 60th birthday this past July. Happy belated birthday, Dave.

P.P.S. This is just the kind of thing I might have written about at the Creative Outlet Labs' blog had I known. I am doing a series called SomeoneYouKnow.isRemarkable.com. If you know of someone who is remarkable (whether or not they are famous enough to have their own page on Wikipedia or not) and celebrating a once-in-a-lifetime or everyday event, please email someone@creativeoutletlabs.com to recommend them for a feature.

We have all heard that laughter is the best medicine, but it is also the best business. According to a study by Goleman and the Hay Group referenced in a Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind, found that "within organizations, the most effective leaders were funny (that is funny ha-ha, not funny strange). These leaders had their charges laughting three times more often than their managerial counterparts."


Here is what they said about my sense of humor:

STYLE: The Prankster
CLEAN COMPLEX LIGHT
Your humor has an intellectual, even conceptual slant to it. You're not pretentious, but you're not into what some would call 'low humor' either. You'll laugh at a good dirty joke, but you definitely prefer something clever to something moist.You probably like well-thought-out pranks and/or spoofs and it's highly likely you've tried one of these things yourself. In a lot of ways, yours is the most entertaining type of humor because it's smart without being mean-spirited.

If everything that we really needed to know, we learned in kindergarten then it is true that we should share. If you have documents to give to others, then you know what a pain attachments can be and how hard it is to post anything but pictures and text onto sites like blogs. Now, you have a few additional options:

Adobe has launched a beta of a new application they appropriately call "Share." With an Adobe ID, you can post files (up to 1GB) on their servers for free, allowing you to embed them in webpages,k access, them anywhere, and share them with whomever you want. Not only that their sign-in interface is really clean and straightforward.

For users of Microsoft products, you can store up to 1,000 documents and access them anywhere with Microsoft's new Live Workspace. People criticize it for a lack of editing features (like Google Apps or others), but that isn't the point really. Thousands of documents are created each second in Microsoft applications, so sharing these might cover most of the things you want to share and now you can do it for free.

Enjoy!

Ditch the gift cards (which Seth Godin says are a rip-off anyway). Toss the fruit cake. This season give personalized t-shirts for Christmas!

Here are a few options:

• Zazzle: They are the best choice if you want a shirt with a text message on it or if you want to vary the text that accompanies a photo or image. I am a customer of Zazzle. I have made one for my toddler son (see image below). I have set up a storefront here for Little Masters by Rebecca Hull. Enter code SURVEYBR1107 until November 30th to get free ground shipping! The quality and service has been excellent! They offer a wide variety of products besides shirts, including postage, stationary, mugs, and stickers.



• CafePress: They are the best choice if you want to design lots of products with the same design. I am using them for HSVGear.com, which is a collection of apparel and gifts celebrating the lifestyle of Hot Springs Village, Arkansas. They do have a nice collection of women's items (not just smaller-sized men's clothes) and more than just clothes. Only company to offer things like license plate covers, yard signs, and other unique items.



• Threadless: Not really sure how the personalization works on this site, but they have a whole host of unique products to buy that you are sure not to find at the mall and the prices are good.



• GoodStorm: The prices here are the lowest I have seen for shirts (base prices as low as $5.95) and the storekeeper profits are much higher.



• Etsy: If you are looking for something a little more "out there," check out the collection at Etsy. This site is all handmade items. Some of the t-shirt designs (under the clothing category) are really whimsical and the prices vary widely. Most are hand-stiched or silkscreened.