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from JPT Group   |   July 2024   |   Vol. 17 No. 7

A Fresh Set of Eyes

    It’s in everyone’s best interest for everyone working on a project to be focused on their work, to bear down and pay the closest attention to what they’re doing. It’s how things get done. It’s how people, companies and organizations excel at whatever it is that they’re trying to do. And that’s a good thing.

    When you’re not dedicated to your work, when you allow even the slightest distraction, that’s when things go haywire. That’s when mistakes happen. To invoke a sports analogy, bad things happen when you take your eyes off the ball.

    Sports. Work. Individual pursuits. They all require attention to detail. But as everyone knows, no one is perfect. Things can and do go wrong. It’s often referred to as Murphy’s Law: whatever can go wrong will, and usually at the worst possible time.

    That’s why, depending on the circumstances, it’s important to bring in an outsider. An independent, objective third party to review and inspect what’s going on. There are those who refer to it as bringing in a fresh set of eyes. It’s not a sign of weakness. It’s not a sign of incompetence. It doesn’t mean that you don’t trust or have confidence in your work or your abilities.

    In some cases, the more you concentrate on something, the more likely you are to get too close to it. Fresh sets of eyes can see the forest for the trees. Those eyes can see things that you and your team take for granted. It’s not a foible. It’s human nature.

Feldman

“Ninety percent of this game is half mental.”

— Yogi Berra, an American   

professional baseball player, manager and coach   

BUSINESS UPDATE

According to the McKinsey Mobility Consumer Pulse presentation released last month, 46 percent of electric vehicle owners in the U.S. are ‘very’ likely to switch back to gas-powered vehicles for their next purchases. These results are consistent with a study from the University of Chicago done in April, 2023.

EV

We’re All Out of Those

    One unmistakable fact about our consumer-driven economy is that products come and products go. Some more notable than others. The Edsel – Ford Motor Company’s classic bust of the late 1950s immediately comes to mind. But who remembers Diet Beer? After a disastrous rollout, it was later relaunched by Miller Brewing as “Lite Beer.” Then there was the “boom box” and the Walkman. How many of us grew up starring in home movies – that were actual movies and not video tape or digital recordings? The list goes on. 

    But what about classics that may now be considered “support” items? Things we needed to go along with other products and services that have since past into history. Former staples such as the cigarette machine and the ash tray. The phone booth. Telephone directories. Road maps. The Dewey Decimal System. Sheesh!

    Then there are the hard-to-find, but still around items such as typewriters and photographic film. They are still around… if you know where to look.

Source: laughingsquid.com

Edsel2

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”

 — Winston Churchill, British statesman, soldier and writer

Woof!

A pet food study of 2,000 U.S. dog owners who are also in a relationship published in the New York Post found that 43 percent of those Americans would rather watch a movie with their dog than with their partner. Why? Apparently their dogs are better movie companions because they don’t interrupt (44 percent), don’t ask questions (42 percent) and are better cuddlers (35 percent).

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Bootleg pics? An online black & white image of men under a sign that says “Al Capone’s soup kitchen” was generated using AI and is not authentic.

— Reuters   

Cashing out.  The winner of the Monopoly World Championship receives $20,580 — the same amount of Monopoly money that comes with the game. 

— uselessdaily.com   

They’re full of it. A new museum, The Poozeum, along Route 66 in northern Arizona features the fossilized feces of prehistoric animals.

— Associated Press   

Boning up won’t help. An Australian study found that large rooms with high ceilings seem to produce lower test scores among students.

— newser.com   

How does your garden glow?   Pharmaceutical research has produced petunias that glow in the dark.

— NPR   

For those who can’t diet.  People weigh less if they stand at the equator than if they stand at either the North or South poles. 

— factretriever.com   

Standing tall. At 5-feet, 7- inches, Napoleon Bonaparte was above average height for a Frenchman of his time.

— Common Myth Conceptions   

The leaning tower of… The Eiffel Tower leans slightly toward the shade on sunny days.

Mental Floss   

Up in smoke. There are approximately 16,000 fireworks displays in the U.S. as part of its July 4th holiday – not counting personal fireworks.

— oddee.com   

Move it! Some estimates say that there are more than 500 million intermodal shipping containers in service throughout the world today.

— The History Guy   

The Month of July

Month of the Month

    Let’s be brief. July is bikini month.

    Today, July 15, on the other hand, is Be A Dork Day.

Question of the Month

    Why is it called Canadian Bacon?

    A real conundrum, eh?

Quote of the Month

    “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” 

    — Warren Buffett, an American businessman, investor and philanthropist 
 

Buffett
COVER - Getting Started with Your Newsletter

Get a Headstart

If you have ever thought about including a newsletter in your marketing communications toolkit, before you begin, download our free digital booklet – Getting Started with Your Newsletter – to get some basic questions answered as well as a little inspiration to nudge you forward. Be sure to check out “Something Special” at the end. Download your copy.

A Gridiron MBA?  
Maybe that’s not possible, but there is much you can learn about business from football in the book, Hard Hitting Lessons.  The subtitle says it all, “Some not-so-obvious business lessons learned from playing football.”

 

Get your copy here!

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