My Inner Tom Hagen

One of the things I think I do awfully well (besides coaching and competitive dressing and oh yes, keeping friends for life) is talking to myself about everything. Over the years I've become my own Tom Hagen, The Godfather's consigliere (understatedly played by Robert Duvall) who sat by his side, offered sage counsel and then executed anyone who crossed the Corleone's.

I ruminate on everything and anything that piques my interest. While I don't always agree with myself I must admit that my inner conversations are energizing and hopefully illuminating.

Here's a conversation I had yesterday: Why do people slur their name and the purpose of the call when leaving a voicemail message? Am I the only one who is forced to listen not twice but three times in order to glean the purpose and content of the message? People, you know who you are that drove me to pay a service (Phone Tag) to convert the garble into text-messaged pidgin English. But tell me, why do people make the call and then dash off before creating a message that delights and moves me to action?

And lately I've been shaking my head and asking myself, "Why don't people respond to emails that are clearly time-sensitive?" People, this is huge. Huge! No wonder people say they can't get anything done -- they're not doing anything to push the can down the road. Toni M. says it's about "closing the loop" and I can't agree more. Stop multi-tasking and finish something.

As I was driving home from work last night along Boulevard Millburn, I asked myself, "Is clueless the new black?" Holy moly, why would a brand new store place a sign in the window that's hanging by only one piece of tape? Does anyone care? Is anyone there? We only get one shot (and less than four seconds) to create an impression.

Can any of us afford to put anything less than a well-shined shoe or a crisp and legible sign forward?