Road Improvements  

The Invisible Man
By Mark Matteson

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I flunked High School English my sophomore year. When you have 36 absences in one quarter, it’s tough to ever get caught up. Besides, I didn’t like the teacher. It was spring quarter, I was 14 years old. Did I mention the weather was amazing that year? Need I say more?

In between the 8-10 business books and 4-5 self-help tomes I pour over each month, I squeeze in an Elmore Leonard novel whenever I can. (Perhaps you have seen “Get Shorty” with Danny Devito and John Travolta as Chili Palmer, now you know Elmore’s style & tone.) He has taken the number one author spot on my recreational reading from Steven King. (King does have a book entitled “On Writing” which is a must read for any aspiring writer and listed on my website here.

A few years ago, I read an article in the Sunday Edition of the NY Times written by Mr. Leonard. I tore it out and put in my journal. Last year, for my 50th birthday, my oldest son, Colin, sent me the little book “Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing” Illustrated by Joe Ciardiello. It was the exact same article I read but expanded with cool drawings. (As with Children’s books, a good illustrator can make or break the book’s effectiveness. Joe is a gifted illustrator and the book is worth the cover price just for his drawings!)

I can hear some of the readers say, “What do I care about writing a novel? I am a Marketing Manager for a big corporation!” Bear with me....

Mr. Leonard begins with the advice:

“Remain invisible. Show, don’t tell, what is taking place.”

Then he hits us with his Rules:

1. Never open the book with the weather. (It was a dark and stormy night!)

2. Avoid Prologues. You can add back-story anytime later in the book. Furthermore, avoid describing what a guy looks like. Let the reader figure that out from the way he talks and what he is thinking.

3. In a line of dialogue, said is all I need (not “grumbled, gasped or exclaimed)

4. No adverbs (he grumbled sadly)

5. Avoid exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

6. Never say suddenly, ever.

7. Avoid regional dialects (to git er dun)

8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters; rather know them by their tones of voice.

9. Avoid great detail describing places and things.

10. Leave out the parts readers tend to skip. Thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them. Break it up.”

AS he brings this little gem to a close (89 pages) he suggests “If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.”

He goes on to say, “If proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. Don’t allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of narrative.”

He concludes by saying “Concentrate on the voices of the characters telling you who they are and how they feel and how they feel about what they see and what is going on.”

Mr. Leonard does that with such ease, he is invisible, in all his books.

Being invisible is a skill, like active listening. Anyone can learn it with practice, patience and constancy of purpose. Like listening, that one skill can transform how you are perceived, whether you get promoted, how much you earn.

What #1 skill will transform your value to the marketplace?

To your organization?

If you are writing novels and want to become a best seller, Invisible is right up there!

As edit my third book (for a 2008 Christmas release he said hopefully ;-), A Simple Choice, I am working hard at following Mr. Leonard’s’ 10 Rules. Stay tuned, it should be thought provoking little story, once I make some of these changes, invisibly speaking.

I never learned THAT in English....maybe that’s why I skipped so many times. Nah, it was the weather and an obvious case of 14 year old spring fever.

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  On Innovation

Business Week Magazine this month ran a survey by the Boston Consulting Group on the top 25 most Innovative Companies in America. Apple heads the list, no big surprise. Amazon, Toyota, Nintendo, Sony, Nokia, IBM, BMW, Disney, 3M, Google, HP, GE, Microsoft, (even newcomer Facebook) are on this impressive list. It’s worth a read.

The interview with Jeff Bezos is fascinating. He suggests: “In the end, scarcity can be pretty good at prompting new ideas. Constraints, drive innovation. He goes on to say, One of the ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out. We created our affiliates revenue sharing program and one-click shopping out of thought-fullness and focusing on the customer.

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google said, Strong companies understand this, and during a recession, they invest in R&D. (You will be criticized for this strategy)

I am reminded of the following story: A father was driving his precocious seven year old son through the New England countryside on a beautiful fall day. They came across an unusual scene. A single axle truck, about 30 feet long, and 20 feet high was stuck in one the little town’s historic monuments, its bridge house. Engineers, fireman, police, even the National Guard, had all been called out to assist in solving this dilemma. After several hours, not one of these educated professionals could solve the mystery of how to get the truck unstuck without damaging the bridge house further. The little boy approached the scene, surveyed for a minute or so and then said to the Policeman in charge, ‘Hey mister, how come they don’t just let the air out of the tires?’ As it turns out, they took the clever little guy’s advice and saved the historic monument.

Sometimes the newest person in the organization (the college intern, the parts driver) has the freshest perspective and lots of good ideas. What if you committed to three months of “Lunch and Learns” or “Breakfast Brainstorms” once a week for 90-days, gathering up your employees in teams to Innovate, Ideate and Generate new ways to “Raise the Bar” in Customer Service, Marketing and Sales.

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  Positive People Profile
(on service and innovation)

Below is an excerpt from my newest book, “A Simple Choice” due out Christmas of 2008:

“Elisha Graves Otis was born in 1811 and worked his way to a job in a machine shop in Yonkers, NY. In the early 1850’s, he set about to increase the safety of steam driven hoists that relied on ropes and pulleys which were prone to breaking. Otis attached a spring between the hoist car and the rope. If the rope broke, the spring would activate brake shoes that lodged in the notches cut into the rails that framed the hoist shaft.

Otis had an opportunity to demonstrate his new invention at the 1853 New York World’s Fair. With the assistance of master salesman P.T. Barnum, once an hour he would step onto the hoist platform. When it rose up the shaft at the rate of 12 feet per minute, he brandished a sword and slashed the rope. It was quite a show. Needless to say, the marketplace responded. Otis sold and installed three elevators for $300. An industry was born.
With the help of his two sons, they installed the first-high rise elevator in 1871. By 1881, Otis Elevators carried some 50 million people—without one incident. In 1887, it sold 568 elevators. The company won the contract to install the elevator in the famous Eiffel Tower in France. By 1898, Otis emerged as a consolidator and bought up rival companies, went public, and was poised to take advantage of Edison’s new invention, electricity.”

Franklin was on a roll. His eyes were lit up like a Christmas tree. He ran his hand through his hair. I smiled and he saw my interest and smiled. Taking a breath, he continued.

“Otis Elevator was in the right place at the right time. At a time of unprecedented growth and expansion, the company grew with the advent of steel and high rises. Then, the Great Depression hit. At the time, Otis employed 19,500 people. Half were laid off. New sales fell to a trickle.
To find an alternative choice, Otis took a strategic move that many other large companies have since copied. For nearly 80 years, Otis considered transactions complete with installation of a new elevator. There were, of course, occasional sales of spare parts and inspections of elevators that contributed to company revenues. But in the midst of the Depression, Otis was forced to look hard at its business. As a result, the company began to focus more energy on service and maintenance. Between 1929 and 1936, as the economy stagnated, maintenance contracts rose 30%. During the 1930’s, services brought in more revenue than new sales; by 1955, they accounted for 43% of total sales! In 1975, when revenue reached one billion dollars, the company was purchased by United Technologies.”

“The same company that owns the Carrier Corporation,” Ron exclaimed.

“Exactly,” Franklin said. “In 1999, Otis had revenues of $5.6 Billion with 66,000 employees.”

He smiled, content with the impact of the story.

“What a great story, Franklin.” He had done it again with a story. So many points, but I thought I understood the main one. “SERVICE is the key. It’s the secret weapon to steady profits. Cash in lean times and being able to offer a no furlough policy to employees,” I said in a confident tone.
 

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  One For The Road

This month it's Deborah Norville and Mark Demoss:

Thank You Power: Making the Science of Gratitude Work for You

The Little Red Book of Wisdom

 

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  Quotes to Consider

I cannot give you the formula for success. I can however give you the formula for failure...trying to please everyone.
Bill Cosby

In order to make a man or boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to obtain.
Mark Twain

In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these.
Paul Harvey

The passion to get ahead is sometimes born of the fear lest we be left behind.
Eric Hoffer

A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small parcel.
John Ruskin

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  Watch "The Road" Buddy!

Matteson Avenue has an archive of all the ezines of past.

Launch new goals this year

Laugh more this year.

Check out my movie list to make you Laugh, Cry and Think

Learn more this year by reading a book a month on the Reading List

Leave a legacy this year - Freedom From Fear Forever has a great message!

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