This is borne out by the fact last week Rolling Stone magazine published its top 100 Beatles songs to coincide with the release of a special collectors issue titled, “The Beatles: 100 Greatest Songs,” which also marks the 40th anniversary of their final studio album, “Let It Be,” released in 1970. The top 10 are listed below. I guess for anyone who holds any fondness at all for Beatles tracks you will agree with some and disagree with others:

1. “A Day in the Life”
2. “I Want to Hold Your Hand”
3. “Strawberry Fields Forever”
4. “Yesterday”
5. “In My Life”
6. “Something”
7. “Hey Jude”
8. “Let It Be”
9. “Come Together”
10. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”

So there they are!! The top 10 and the number one Beatles song of all time is reputed to be, “A Day in the Life.” I know many would disagree with that, but that’s how it came out. It’s a strange song in many ways. Written and performed in the second half of their career – in 1967 in fact. For all you Beatles fans out there, I would love to get your thoughts on just what, if anything, the song is all about! Y’all can find the words at lyrics.com.

This ability to communicate has never been more available to us as it is now in this, the digital age with social media web sites and blogs popping up on our monitor screens with increasing regularity. It’s blogs like this one that enhance our ability to learn. Not just by reading my weekly thoughts, which you may or may not agree with, but by interacting. By sending back through the “comments” bar an alternative view or opinion.

We, none of us, have the ability to be right all of the time. In fact, some of us struggle to be right for only some of the time, but one thing is sure, we all have opinions!!!! The problem is, if you keep these opinions to yourself, it interrupts the learning chain and we are not taking advantage of the gift of communicating that is available to us. It’s that interaction that enhances our views and wisdom.

Through the analytics that we evaluate weekly regarding our web site usage, we know hundreds of people read this blog. This never ceases to amaze me but gives me a feeling of anticipation that I will be sharing with others, their views on the subjects and opinions that appear in the blog. However the comments back each week can be counted on one hand. What this effectively does is to deprive me and others who read the blog of the opportunity to widen my view, learn more and become wiser as the weeks go by.

The analytics also tell us that the blog is read in 10 to 15 countries which, again is very exciting as the comments coming back, if they were to come back would have more of an international perspective rather than a local view on the subjects and opinions contained in the blog. It’s all about feedback. One-way communication is OK – but with feedback it’s much, much more than OK. It’s really, really great. Stimulating. Mind broadening. Educating. Exciting. Satisfying and rewarding.

So, come on guys, let’s get to it. I know that I’m not right all the time. But as you have found out if you regularly read the blog, I do have opinions. Just as you all have opinions. We need to share them, we need to have the debate. So next time you get to the bottom of the page after reading the blog, look for the orange bar with “Add a comment” typed across it. Click on it and let your fingers do the talking. Let’s share our thoughts, ideas and opinions. It’s one of our greatest gifts, being able to communicate so let’s do it!!

P.S. To those who represent the few from the many, a big thank you for the comments and feedback that you have given to date.

John Kenneth Galbraith, an eminent Canadian American economist, said, “Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof!”  Spot on Ken!  I’ve seen it time and time again.  People trying to justify why they don’t need to change rather than opening the mind and searching for innovative change.  It’s been recognized as the most dynamic and sometimes only way to make step improvements.  

Even going back in time Nehru said, “The wheel of change moves on and those who were down go up and those who were up go down”, and even Darwin said, “It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” 

So, why is change something people feel so difficult to embrace?  Is it fear?  Is it arrogance?  Certainly one of the doctrines I preach to anyone coming in to my team is that being able to accept change is simply not enough.  They have to have an insatiable appetite for change.  Sometimes the response to the need to change is amazing.  Woodrow Wilson said, “If you want to make enemies, try to change something.”  Think about it, isn’t that the truest statement ITHOE! 

Not someone I agree with on a regular basis, but on this quote I make an exception, Barrack Obama said, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time.  We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.  We are the change that we seek.” 

Even Andy Warhol (not sure that he had much in common with the President?) said, “They say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.”  Yes that means you, me and us!!  It’s time not to just read this philosophical stuff, it’s time to get up and act.  The problem usually lies with people who find it difficult to admit that they need to change.  Unless that admission is forthcoming, change will not take place and the future will stagnate. 

As Epictetus, the Greek philosopher said, “It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows!”  Ohhhwaahh!!  Brutally honest again, huh?  Cuts to the quick doesn’t it?  But it’s oh so true.  We’ve all seen and heard this one over and over.  Felix Adler, who was a social reformer and lecturer in ethical culture made a very simple but very relevant statement to the construction materials industry.  “We cannot adopt a way of being that was satisfactory a hundred years ago.  The world in which we live has changed, and we must change with it.”  Very simple, you may say obvious, but needs to be said again and again because it is so often ignored. 

Some great people, past and present, have been quoting on the issue of change forever, pleading, ordering, persuading and advising.  So why is it that so many of us ignore the advice of people who we all recognize as great?  John F. Kennedy said, “Change is the law of life.  And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” 

Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote the best seller, “The Power of Positive Thinking,” said, “If you want things to be different, perhaps the answer is to become different yourself.” 

Pearl S. Buck, the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature said, which is just painfully true in most I come into contact with, “You can judge your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come in contact with a new idea.” 

Finally a quote my sister-in-law Sue emailed me from across the pond, Sue you could have posted a comment on the blog instead of sending an email.  It was a quote by Mahatma Gandhi which, if anyone has read this far, is the quote that you should stick on your windshields, on your desk or wherever you will see it most, “YOU MUST BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE IN THE WORLD.”

 You’ve probably realized change is something I’m really passionate about and just like a daily safety inspection in a facility, a daily “change” hour is something I always try to do.  Because of the nature of the people and world around us, this can be a very frustrating pastime so the change quotation that I try to live by is this, “God grant me the strength to accept what I cannot change, the courage to change what I can and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Being at the helm of a manufacturing company is no exception and tough decisions have to be made daily to keep the company on the right track, satisfy the shareholders and protect the people who make up our great company ~ Hanson Building Products. It is no easy task in this environment.  I know it brings stress and anxiety to everyone who is part of the organization and at times I know we all feel unmotivated and just down right miserable.  Well you know what?  There is one thing we can all do at any time, through it all, to make things seem brighter.  It is easy.  It is free.  It takes no time at all …

SMILE

A smile is a facial expression formed by flexing those muscles most notably near both ends of the mouth.  A good smile can normally be detected around the eyes as well.  Smiling, it is said, has no language barrier and is a means of communicating emotions across the entire human race.  Biologists think the smile originated some 30 million years ago as a sign of fear (incidentally monkeys and apes still do this) but in humans it has evolved over the millennia as an emotional communicator of love, happiness, pride and pleasure.

Come on guys and girls let’s all do it. 

Smiling, doctors say will actually improve your health, stress level and your attractiveness.  It can also change your mood. If you are feeling down, try putting on a smile or two, chances are your mood will change for the better.  It is also contagious; when someone is smiling they lighten up the room, change the mood of others and generally create a happier atmosphere.  It is a fact also that smiling will boost your immune system as well as help lower your blood pressure.  Smiling is also a natural drug.  When you smile it releases endorphins, natural pain killers and serotonin, but perhaps more importantly, it lifts the face and makes a person appear younger and I am all for that (my birthday is just around the corner …).  It also makes people appear more confident, more approachable and more positive.  So come on guys and girls let’s all give it a try, right now.

SMILE

There have been some great SMILE quotes over the years:

Today, give a stranger one of your smiles.  It might be the only sunshine he sees all day.  H. Jackson Brown Jr.

A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.  Phyllis Diller

Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.  Mark Twain

If you smile at someone, they usually smile back.  Andy Rooney

Life is like a mirror, we get the best results when we smile at it.  Unknown

Wear a smile and have friends, wear a scowl and have wrinkles.  George Eliot

The shortest distance between two people is a smile.  Unknown

A smile is the universal welcome.  Max Eastman

All the statistics in the world can’t measure the warmth of a smile.  Chris Hart

Smile.  It increases your face value.  Unknown

Most smiles are started by another smile.  Unknown

So there have been many quotes about this easy, free, emotional expression and the above are just a few of my favorites.  From now on each morning see if you can greet the first five people you meet with the biggest smile, the blues will disappear and the sun will shine.

I want to leave you with my most favorite SMILE quote ever ITHOE:

A smile is the light in your window that tells others that there is a caring sharing person inside.  Denis Waitley