Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Connecticut - Metro-North commuter train, symbol of success, crashes

The Metro-North commuter train from Westport, Connecticut to Grand Central Station in Manhattan is a symbol of success in that iconic novel "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit."  Today, it has joined the other tragic events in the state as being associated with tragedy. 

THE NEW YORK TIMES reports that yesterday during the evening rush hour the train heading back to Connecticut crashed with another Metro-North train.  About 60 were injured, 5 critically.  Those tracks which carry the Masters of the Universe from their suburban homes to the money pits are damaged. Never again will anyone board that train, start working on their laptops, and assume they will arrive at their destination safely.

Step, Life Logging, Connecting the Dots: Breakthrough in DIY professional coaching

Step, the life logging app for the iPhone developed by South Korean company WePlanet, could put professional coaches out of business.

As Catherine Shu explains on TECH CRUNCH, it records where we have been and what we have been doing.  I wish I had had this app 18 months ago.  Instead I had to consult with an executive coach to figure out what I was doing wrong in my business.  He fingered that I was in glutted fields and get out, which I did.  He also picked up that I wasn't adequately screening leads before I jumped into my car or on Metro North to present myself in person.  That was wasting time, money, and hope.

If we have the ability to see patterns in our activities and assess if they are helping or hurting our business, then Step could eliminate the high cost of professional coaching.

 

H7N9: Will this be it?

We survived Sandy and Nemo and weren't in Boston at the time of the Marathon.  Now, some of us are wondering if the H7N9 flu will be "it," that is what does us in, at least here along the Northeast Corridor where so much traveling is done. The World Health Organization classifies it as one of the most lethal strains of bird flu.

There I could be on #4 subway rolling along  to lower Manhattan and the man or woman next to me coughs.  That person has just returned from China.  A few days later I am too tired to finish an article I am ghostwriting.  Within several hours I am in the Emergency Room at Yale Hospital.  Before I die I have exposed many doctors, nurses, and staff to H7N9.  This could make all the tragedies of 2012 and so far in 2013 seem like warm-up acts for the big one.

Facebook: Will it make college reunions obsolete?

Face it, transportation costs keep skyrocketing.  For me to drive or fly from Connecticut to my alma mater Seton Hill in Greensburg, Pennsylvania for a reunion would set me back.  And in these days of the new frugality, being set back on my budget is unacceptable.

Also, Facebook keeps me up-to-date with all my classmates who matter to me.  What purpose would it serve to return to the scene of my adolescent suffering?  In addition, there is the expectation, isn't there, of making a donation.  By this stage in my life I have so many other competing causes like animal rescue and supporting the New Haven Zen Center.

Colleges might have to orchestrate reunions over Skype.

Martin Richard, 8 Years Old: Symbol of fear of taking your children to large public gatherings

In the fall, parents will think two, three, four times about bringing their children to the iconic Thanksgiving Day's parade in Manhattan.  Likely, they will persuade their children to watch all the giant balloon characters on television. 

Etched in parents' collective memory bank is the "murder" of Martin Richard, 8 years old, at the Boston Marathon.  He was one of the three who died and he's not coming back, just like the 20 children at Sandy Hook Elementary School are not coming back.

The nature of risk has changed forever. Parents might decided to attend large public events such as a football game but not dare bring their children.  Too risky. The figure they can "take care of themselves" in the kinds of emergencies triggered by disturbed human beings but, as the world bore witness at the Boston Marathon, they can't guarantee that they can protect their children.

The new normal will be shield children from crowds.

Boston Marathon: A different version of Newtown, CT

Again, a spirit of celebration turns to sorrow in New England.  We in the region all know someone who practiced continuously and then traveled to participate in the Boston Marathon. 

Then, at its finish line, at THE WALL STREET JOURNAL reports, two powerful bomb explosions killed two and injured about 100.  This is Boston's version of Newtown, Connecticut.  In that town excited first and second graders as well as their parents were getting ready for the Christmas holidays. Then for 20 of those children and as well as their parents joy abruptly turned into what will remain in American history an iconic tragedy.

We in CT have been through this. Our thoughts are with the survivors and their families in the Boston area.

Working in the Big Time: It was never just about the money and status

With the economy so volatile, more professionals are getting the opportunity to be in the Big Time and then be tossed out of it as everything keeps changing. 

In his bestseller "Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder," financial markets expert Nassim Nicholas Taleb provides advice on how to navigate that roller coaster.  And in his book "Necessary Endings," executive coach Henry Cloud zeroes in on the need to let go of the past, both good and bad.

The reality, though, is that those who had been in the Big Time frequently remain haunted.  Their memory is of a heady time that they can never again replicate. 

For example, on Abovethelaw.com, a lawyer who never made partner at a major law firm recounts wistfully those days when he worked with very smart, committed people on fascinating merger-and-acquisition deals. The money was great but that isn't what his soul pines for. He did go on to start his own law practice which has been successful.  His personal life seems satisfying with a wife and child.

On a very micro level I have also had my Big Times, including ghostwriting and speechwriting during the Chrysler turnaround during the 1980s.  Brains, guts, and glamour intersected.  Harvard Business School interviewed the players for a case study.  No, I could never replicate that experience.

And, isn't that what we keep hungering for: the next Big Time where the tasks are complex, colleagues brilliant, and the world watching us? I will let you know if I bump into it again.  I may have a shot covering how the smartphone is upending the global financial system.

Tsunami, Fire, No Money, After So Much of It: Grief that keeps us stuck

Sonali Deraniyagala joins the ranks of those whose grief may never heal and the best that we can expect is a period of inner serenity, now and then.

As Cheryl Strayed's review in THE NEW YORK TIMES of Deraniyalala's book "Wave" recounts, this economist lost her husband, two sons, and parents when the 2004 tsunami entered their Sri Lankan hotel room.  As yet, there has been no closure. 

Her story mirrors that of former advertising executive Madonna Badger who on a Christmas morning fire in Stamford, Connecticut in 2011 lost her three young daughters and her parents.  Her grief drove her to settle out west to receive intensive counseling.  Last Christmas season, she journeyed overseas to give children at an orphanage presents.  But when the actual day came, she simply couldn't pull it together to leave her hotel. 

Insecure from a Dickensian childhood - my mother was the cleaning lady at my high school - I accumulated material trophies such as a Victorian house on the Gold Coast of Connecticut and a cottage at the Jersey Shore.  By 2003, I had lost everything ( Download Geezerguts ).  Initially I was capable of the magical thinking that, with my new-found strength and wisdom, I would do much better financially than before.  It hasn't happened.  Meanwhile my four-legged soulmates canine Molly Mittens and felines Carlotta, Point Pleasant, Callie, and Sarah have died. Nothing I have devoured on pet grief has helped. 

Perhaps America better back off all the positive thinking about the ennobling power of grief.  Maybe we don't get what we need.  Maybe we just get what we get.

 

Seton Hill University Fatal Bus Crash: For Whom The Bell Tolls

The Seton Hill University (Greensburg, Pennsylvania) Lacrosse team was traveling to a game this morning on a bus via the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  FOX NEWS reports that as yet the authorities don't know why but the bus went off the Turnpike and hit a tree. 

The head coach Kristina Quigley, 30 and six-months pregnant, died as did the baby she was carrying.  This was her second year in that job. Also dead was the bus driver.  Two other passengers were air-lifted to special hospitals and others were transported to hospitals near the site of the crash.

The sadness felt in the university community of Seton Hill extends to all us graduates.  At the time many of us could not afford cars and we hopped on the leased buses to attend social events off campus where we hoped to find our soulmates.  In those days, there was no concept of "networking" for professional ambitions.  We could have been on that bus.  Late afternoon my roommate from junior year Charlotte Toal sent me the news clip. 

When Charlotte and I were taking Freshman Composition at Seton Hill, our professor Joanne Boyle, now president of the university, introduced us to the poetry of John Donne.  One of those classic poems was about our common humanity.  The lines so often quoted are that we shouldn't ask for whom the bell tolls when there is funeral in town, we should embrace that it tolls for each of us.

I extend my wishes for healing in such grief to all the members of the Seton Hill community.

Caught Myself a Nice-sized Fish: The bait was my legal blog

Blogging is a mature medium.  As long form it takes time versus short form like Twitter. The space is glutted.  And the big brandnames like Gawker and Business Insider dominate.

We know all that.  But we also know that a well-done sustained blog can be an effective and cost-efficient branding tool.  In addition, the research and original thinking it requires forces us to become more proficient in the subject matter.

I am convinced that my legal blog Law and More played a major role in my hooking a nice-sized fish.  Monday I start a job developing content for a legal ecommerce firm.  Unlike Yahoo, this operation allows telecommuting so I will be in Manhattan only about once a week. 

In existence since 2006, the legal blog demonstrated the ability to stick with something that was demanding.  It was also about legal matters.  By posting several times a day for seven years I had to keep up with legal developments and to keep audiences interested I had to come up with unique angles on material everyone else had access to.  As I told my new employer during the interview, blogging made me both a better thinker and a better marketer. 

Of course, there are many other ways to enhance our ability to attract work.  Blogging is just one.  But for those able to make a commitment to this medium, there's no telling what competitive advantages could develop.  For the position I start Monday I was up against professionals in their late 20s and early 30s.  I wonder how many of them had been investing themselves in blogging.