Daniel Lubetzky

I am often struck at how some of the best people at the best companies make big mistakes just because of lack of attention to detail.  Some wonderful ideas or initiatives can get in trouble because of bad execution.

Small example: I was forwarded by a team member a very cool and innovative program from CHASE to donate $5 million dollars to charities chosen by the community.  Beyond being generous, it also was designed to build the CHASE brand and goodwill by encouraging Facebook users to vote for their favorite charities – nothing wrong with that in my book.

You’d think that when you are donating FIVE MILLION DOLLARS you’d be very careful with how you phrase things and execute.  Yet the home page of the campaign had the following image describing the program:

Can you spot the problem?

They commit to donate $5mm yet their plan only adds up to $4mm!!! ($2.5mm made up of $25k to 100, plus $1mm big gift, plus $500k made up of 5 grants of 100k).

I couldn’t believe it.  I spent a lot of time trying to figure it out and deeply-buried in the site’s legalise was an innocent answer – they had failed to include another step through which they are going to give out $1mm more.

The eligible charity receiving the most votes will be awarded $1 million, the top five runners-up will receive $100,000 each and the 100 finalists, including the top winners, will be awarded $25,000 each. Additionally, a special Advisory Board led by prominent national philanthropists will allocate $1 million to the nominated charities of its choice. [emphasis added]

But countless users will be suspicious of CHASE’s generous plan just because of a silly lack of attention to detail.

I may be cheesy, fine, I admit it.  But I really liked this email forward:

Written 
By Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio
"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is 
the most-requested column I’ve ever written. My odometer rolled over to 90 
in August, so here is the column once more:"
1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.
8. It’s OK to get angry with God.. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all
about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.
16.. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save 
it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
24. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
25. Frame every so-called disaster with these words ”In five years, will this matter?".
26. Always choose life.
27. Forgive everyone everything.
28. What other people think of you is none of your business.
29. Time heals almost everything.. Give time, time.
30. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
31. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
32. Believe in miracles.
33. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.
34. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
35. Growing old beats the alternative — dying young.
36. Your children get only one childhood.
37. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
38.Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
39. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.
40. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
41. The best is yet to come.
42. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
43. Yield.
44. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.

Natasha Singer wrote a very compelling piece here about the way the pharmaceutical industry aims to turn all of our ordinary weaknesses and human frailties into pathologies in need of a pharmacological cure. 

“PE” or premature ejaculation may be a rite for passage for young people who discover their passion for someone, yet for the drug companies this too can be fixed – for a price. 

The biggest danger, though, beyond trying to turn us all into robots who are sedated and desensitized, is that pop culture and humor would also die with a “cure” for PE.  How else will the next generation otherwise be able to enjoy such risqué gems as this one from Saturday Night Live’s mock video of Boy Bands?

Interesting UC Berkeley study on human compassion…

[Read more →]

Following on a great tradition for visually impactful, stylistically creative and unforgettable holiday ads, GAP just released this very sweet commercial for GAP Sweaters for kids.

Some of my favorite GAP predecessors:

• Among the funniest is this one 
• Beyonce’s dance
• Will Kemp’s ad – makes you want to dance
• Khaki Swing

And of course the all-time best – Audrey Gap in Black:

really nice stuff…

I was really touched by Maureen Dowd’s eulogy column about Abe Pollin.

He follows the tradition of frugal leaders like David Ben-Gurion, and characters from Isaac Bashevis-Singer’s shtetl stories, whose Judaism was about helping those in need.

This fascinating article doesn’t directly address global governance. But the increasing uses of information and technology at the municipal level portend positively for models for global governance for the 21st century. And at all levels, this trend hints at the sweeping changes that will come in how we leverage data.

Here is an interesting article that scientifically confirms one of the underlying assumptions of the KINDED Movement and the KIND philosophy: that doing good onto others actually feels good and benefits the one doing the KINDING as much as the person being KINDED.

According to this provocative study, children from the very beginning are predisposed to help others – we are wired to be KIND to others.