"A man's accomplishments in life are the cumulative effect of his attention to detail." John Foster Dulles

"You know what charm is: a way of getting the answer yes without having asked any clear question." Camus

"Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you." Aldous Huxley

Today's image: the sine by PETERFOTO. Beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

Each day seems to bring another wave of email that includes links to negative rants about broadcast. The DTV transition is a train wreck, HD Radio is a failure, the Radio 2020 campaign is a non-starter, broadcast journalism has become a joke, the NAB is worthless, TvB and RAB are increasingly irrelevant. Broadcast conventions are no longer worth attending. Sales are off and things are not going to get better anytime soon. Arbitron's PPM is junk science. Nielsen's C3 rankings are worthless. The thirty second TV spot is no longer effective. There's nobody out there, the talent pool has become the talent puddle. Gen Y not only doesn't listen to radio or watch TV, they have no interest in a career in broadcast. There's no leadership in broadcasting, we have become an industry without heroes. The thrill is gone, working in broadcast is no longer fun. The bean counters and suits have destroyed our once great business. Pure and simple the broadcast trade we knew and loved is dead.

It would be one thing to start one of these arguments and present some possible solutions, get a serious and honest discussion going, after all these are important topics. The trend seems to be against any such discussion. Most of what's out there are rants by the anonymous and in the few cases of those with the courage to put their name on their opinions too many are being just plain rude. Too many fronting an all or nothing attitude "if you're not with me then you're against me, you're wrong, you're stupid and don't get it." Discourse devoid of civility. Which brings to mind the words of Eric Hoffer "Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength."

Readers of this blog are familiar with my pov. There has never been a time of greater opportunity than today. We are living in an age where the quality, quantity and diversity of audio and video is reaching new, unprecedented levels. There's a lot of really good stuff happening out there, folks playing at the top of their game producing truly remarkable work. Yes, we live in disruptive times. Yes, the rule sets are changing. No, the business as usual of today is not producing the results of yesterday. We can complain, scream at the rising tide, get involved in rants bashing how things are without suggesting alternatives or we can get involved. We can stay engaged in the futile efforts of getting better at playing defense or we can get different, get proactive and serious about game-changing innovation. Gordon R. Sullivan wrote "If you are not attacking, you are defending; while there can sometimes be good reasons to defend, in the end you will win only by seizing the initiative and attacking." The former Army Chief of Staff was right when he taught "Hope is not a method." Let me add one more thought. This from George S. Patton, Jr. who said "One does not plan and then try to make circumstances fit those plans. One tries to make plans fit the circumstances." Get involved. Make something happen. Focus on results. Remember and learn from what used to be, dream about and work on creating what could be. Forget getting better, get on with getting different.

Congrats & cheers: Charlie Rose on his simply wonderful conversation with retailing genius Mickey Drexler (posting the video here when available). Brian Lamb and team C-SPAN on bringing us the brilliant Professor Stephen Hawking on "Why we should go into space."

Bonus: Kevin Kelly writes about the making money in the long tail...

"A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living."

The entire post here, follow-on post here. Kudos, Kevin. Interesting thesis, fine presentation. My sense is (and he'll no doubt correct me should I be in error) Seth Godin has already done this, already created the proof for Kevin's thesis. Seth not only has more than 1,000 true fans but has done an exemplary job of leading that fan base. If any person could make a living with 1,000 true fans my bet would be Seth could. Sorry Seth, my choice of words is not what it should be here, meaning no disrespect to you nor your fans in using the verb "leading." Leading your fans would be a good thing, no?