Tom’s Monthly Cheese

Today’s Cheese Factor:

Not too bad today, cheesiness only about a 3! I wanted to say I just handed out our President’s Cup award this past Friday to one of our senior engineers, Rob Marshall. The cup symbolizes achievement in excellence and other well-known clichés, but it’s more about someone who’s not afraid to go against the grain, without fear of conflict and lead our company towards the next level of success.

Watch out folks… DEFCON 4 on the cheese factor today.

Today’s Cheese Factor:

You’ve heard that showing up is half the battle.
I didn’t give this statement much merit in my younger days. Now that I’m older and well… older, I find this statement to be true. Perhaps even more so in personal matters. I’m a big Ken Blanchard fan and he has some great points on this subject. Ken asks us to think about the people in our life who “show up” when tougher times hit. Who’s the friend that gives you a call when everyone else seems to be running the other direction?

Today’s Cheese Factor: DEFCON 5

Today’s edition of Tom’s Monthly Cheese is rated at DEFCON 5… hold on tight!

What makes you angry?

Did you know this is a great way to determine your own values, to establish a personal vision?

In Christmas Vacation you get to know, truly know, who Clark Griswold is. Clark is angry. More than that, though – He is the last true family man. He’ll go to any length to preserve the sacred family traditions.

Clark knows who he is. He is true to himself and I argue that when you are true to yourself, you are capable of amazing things.

Prepare yourselves…DEFCON 4 on the cheese-o-meter today.

THE STORY

HE EMERGED FROM THE METRO AT THE L’ENFANT PLAZA STATION AND POSITIONED HIMSELF AGAINST A WALL BESIDE A TRASH BASKET. By most measures, he was nondescript: a young white guy in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington Nationals baseball cap. From a small case, he removed a violin.

Placing the open case at his feet, he threw in a few dollars and pocket change as seed money, swiveled it to face pedestrian traffic, and began to play.

It was 7:51 a.m. on Friday, January 12, the middle of the morning rush hour. In the next 43 minutes, as the violinist performed several pieces, 1,097 people passed by.

The behavior of one passing demographic remained absolutely consistent. Every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted their child away in a hurry away from this “strange man.”

But the amazing part of this story is that this “strange man” was Joshua Bell, the most famous and talented violinist in the world.  Just two days earlier Joshua Bell had played his $3 million violin to a sold out crowd in Boston for $100+ per seat. Joshua Bell averages about $1,000/ minute for playing in front of kings, royalty and Popes.  Now, two days later he stood in a subway station in Washington D.C. without receiving hardly a second glance.

Joshua Bell’s own account is fairly humorous, “I started to appreciate any acknowledgment, even a slight glance up. I was oddly grateful when someone threw in a dollar instead of change.”

Why was he playing at the D.C. Metro Station?  It was a study to see if people would recognize genius with no context or familiarity of the normal surroundings of this incredible artist.