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Lessons learned from Pinky and The Brain

noreply@blogger.com (Rob E. Smith) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 23:32:00 +0000

Pinky: “Gee, Brain, what do you want to do tonight?”

Brain: “The same thing we do every night Pinky— try to take over the WORLD.”

World domination is a lofty goal for any human, let alone two genetically altered lab mice. In life, just like Pinky and the Brain, there have been many goals we have failed to achieve, but we keep trying. Although Pinky and the Brain failed every time and engaged in many illegal activities ranging from committing workers’ compensation fraud to making up a fictitious country to try to dupe the U.S State Department out of $14 billion and 59 cents, they were creative and persistent in trying to conquer the world. Though it’s wrong to participate in illegal activities there are three valuable lessons we can learn from Pinky and the Brain.

Never Give Up
As children we were taught to keep trying even after we fail. Nobody displayed that more than Pinky and The Brain. Whether it was a Pinky mishap or the Brain making a miscalculation in his devious plot to make humans his followers, they never threw themselves a self-pity party. They did just like the Aaliyah song—they dusted themselves off and tried it again.

As Communication and PR pros we have goals that are hard to obtain, whether it is getting a new client coverage in the front page paper in the local newspaper. But does that mean we quit and never try again? No.

Being on the same page
Brain: “Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering?”

Pinky: “I think so Brain, but if you replace the P with an O, my name would be Oinky, wouldn't it?”

This is not the communication you want with co-workers when trying to achieve world domination. This is a huge reason why Pinky and the Brain failed. Brain’s sole mission was to become Earth’s leader, while Pinky was more concern with— well anything else that did not pertain to conquering the world.

In the workplace, two employees may team up to come up with an online marketing campaign for a client. Both people do not need to agree on everything: but it is a huge bonus when the employees are on the same page and focused on the task at hand. It’s not good if one employee is putting together the presentation while the other is more concerned with getting the high score on Pac-Man.

It’s Good to have Friends
As a job seeker, it sucks to receive countless rejection letters, but it’s always good to have a support system when times get tough. All Brain wanted was recognition for his superior intellect but the world just seemed to ignore him, except for his best friend, Pinky. Even though Pinky had his fair share of weaknesses, he was Brain’s full-time cheerleader always telling him that he was smart and would accomplish his goal one day of being Earth’s leader.

Pinky and the Brain have been called many things, but these two lab mice will never be called quitters. We can learn and relate to their mistakes. When working as a team, make sure you both are pondering the same things. If you fail tonight in whatever goal you set, don’t fret because you can try the same thing tomorrow night.

What school did you go to?

noreply@blogger.com (Rob E. Smith) — Sat, 29 May 2010 18:42:00 +0000

When people hear Michigan, Norte Dame, or Duke they know the city and state that university is in. There is a sense of pride when you start of conversation with a stranger at a coffee shop about your famous alma mater. That person already knows the school’s nickname and team colors before you say another word.

That was the case when I went to graduate school at the University of Louisville and started to get to know my classmates, one of the typical questions was “Where did you do your undergrad?” People would proudly say Ohio State, LSU, and Texas. When it was my turn, I would quietly say “Eastern Mennonite University(EMU).” “Eastern Menno-what? Where is that” was the typical response I received.

It wasn’t that I was ashamed of EMU, my four years there was great, the classes were small, had good friends, and I could walk from one end of campus to the other in about five minutes. But it sucked almost having to bring out a map and give detail directions to people unfamiliar about my alma mater. I’ll admit one of the reasons I attended Louisville because it was more nationally well-known than Eastern Mennonite.

For those who don’t know Eastern Mennonite University is a small private school with no more than 1,000 students in Harrisonburg, VA. Go Royals!

Are you a college graduate that went to a small unknown university and encounter a similar situation? I would love to hear you stories.

48 Game NFL Season

noreply@blogger.com (Rob E. Smith) — Wed, 19 May 2010 19:01:00 +0000

During the NFL season whenever my New England Patriots lost,the six days until the next game seem to drag on forever. Do you feel the same way for your team? The media, blogs and fans dissect what went wrong and suggest advice on how the team can improve for next week. During the NFL offseason, our hunger for football doesn’t stop. We follow teams to find out about the latest acquisitions and current injuries. The NFL season always seems to go by quickly every year, making each of those regular season games precious.

This got me thinking. Could NFL fans ever get too much football? What would happen if the NFL tripled its regular season to 48 games? Of course this is crazy and it would never happen, because all the players would be in hospital beds before the season ended.

You can’t ignore injuries. It is part of the game and the reason why the season so short. Sure you want your star players on the field, but do fans really care who is on the field? In 2008, after Tom Brady went down with a knee injury, Patriots fans might have been upset and lost hope with Matt Cassel leading the way, but fans still showed up for Patriot home games.

If NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell extended the regular season to 48 games today, with teams playing at least three times a week. Could an absurd 48 game regular season make fans lose any interest, resulting in lower attendance and television ratings?

I think one of the reasons why the NFL is so popular is because of its short regular season. Each game is important, if a NFL team starts a season 0-3, their chances of making the playoffs are slim. Whereas in the other three major sports a team can begin 0-3 and have many more opportunities to right the ship.

Each NFL game matters and almost a majority of teams sell out their homes games. Well, except in Jacksonville. The college basketball regular season is watered down and fans don’t seem to be interested until the calendar hits March. In MLB, attendance seems to take a plunge for a few squads after the home opener.

Yeah, I know this is a wild scenario, but football is king in the U.S, stadiums are always full, ratings are high and NFL news even in May usually makes it on the front page. Do injuries really matter, would the NFL suffer in at all with a 48 game season, even if starters didn’t play half the games? Or is love for football too strong for fans to ever lose any interest in the regular season. What are your thoughts?

SCOOBY DOO AND MYSTERY INC, POOR BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

noreply@blogger.com (Rob E. Smith) — Fri, 07 May 2010 12:43:00 +0000

Scooby Doo, Shaggy, Velma, Fred, and Daffney also known as Mystery Inc have been entertaining fans for over 40 years. The gang started small, unmasking criminals wearing pirate and gorilla suits, to squaring off against real ghost and aliens from other planets. Even though, this curious group of teenagers had fun solving mysteries, their organizational structure had a few kinks. They could have solved more crimes and made a profit if they knew how to run a business more effectively. Here are some reasons why I believe Mystery Inc was not a success.

FRED WAS A POOR MANAGER
As a leader it’s beneficial to know your team weaknesses and strengths. Fred always insisted on splitting up the gang and most times leaving Scooby and Shaggy to fend for themselves, even though they were scared of their own shadow. When the hungry duo was offered assistance in finding clues, Fred usually sent Velma to help them out. Velma was very smart and can find clues with the best of them, but her productivity plummeted whenever she lost her glasses. Fred should have had her wear contacts or goggles.

It’s fair to question Fred’s commitment to solving crimes. Did he ever find any clues? If Mystery Inc recorded crime solving stats Fred would be in last place. He seemed to be more concerned with hooking up with Daffney. It’s never really a good idea to mix business with pleasure.

NEVER TOOK ADVANGTAGE OF THEIR RESOURCES
Mystery Inc was primarily a local business, but on occasion they solved crimes out of town with high profile celebrities such as the Harlem Globetrotters, Cher, the Three Stooges, and Batman. Just like any business Scooby Doo’s crew had slow days waiting for their next crime. The gang missed a huge business opportunity to partner with the Harlem Globetrotters, who have a very large fan base and traveled all over the world. Mystery Inc could’ve have promoted their business at halftime during games. The fans would have been amazed to see a talking dog.

NOBODY KNEW WHO THEY WERE. NO PROMOTION“I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids.”
Even after the Gang starting gaining experience in unmasking bad guys they were always referred to as the “meddling kids” and never Mystery Inc. Just like any business starting up you need some publicity, so people know who you are and what you do. Scooby’s crew was lacking in that area. If the gang had a good PR guy, they could have at least got local media coverage and become the popular kids at High School.

EXPENSES OUTWEIGHED REVENUE
Never charging for their services was one of their problems for Mystery Inc. They were never given any reward for doing the police’s job except for a pat on the back. The expenses piled up over the years. Mystery Inc traveled a lot, which resulted in tons of money being spent towards gas and auto repairs for the Mystery Machine. Let’s not forget the biggest expense of all, feeding Shaggy and Scooby. These guys had pretty big appetites and food was their only motivation for solving crimes. Mystery Inc had to make frequent trips to the grocery store to stock up on Scooby Snacks.

Although Mystery Inc displayed phenomenal crime solving skills, they were lousy as businessmen. Scooby Doo and the crew missed numerous opportunities to help their company, they worked for free, failed to use their celebrity connections, solid leadership was non-existent, and add in poor money management skills that’s recipe for failure. But there is a bright side, Mystery Inc is run by teenagers and if they can learn from these mistakes there is a possibility Mystery Inc will be a successful business in the future.

Audio Commentaries

noreply@blogger.com (Rob E. Smith) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:21:00 +0000

Today when television shows and movies are put on DVD, they are chalked full of special features ranging from sit down interviews, behind the scenes stuff, gag reels, and even some interactive games. However, there is one special feature I am a fan and a critic of and that is audio commentaries on DVD. Now it might be just the shows I have been watching but Hollywood needs to step up their audio commentary game.

To start off with, I prefer watching 23-minute television show commentaries compared to a 2 hour movie. I did that one time for Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay and that was brutal.

Audio commentaries on some shows such as Reba are above par when the actors and writers give In-depth details of what was it takes to put an episode together. They might comment and why something was left out, add that someone was real sick shooting this episode or they were very pregnant and they had to find a way to cover the actresses belly. When commentaries adds insight I feel I get my money’s worth.

On the other side, if you have three or more people doing commentary and their not speaking for three plus minutes, what is the point of watching. Now I’m not saying the actors have to speak during the entire duration of the 22 minute show, but say something more than I’m not very good at doing audio commentaries would be helpful. Alyson Hannigan, who is a great actress was guilty of this a couple of times during a How I Met Your Mother commentary session. It doesn’t have to be completely scripted, I don’t mind some spontaneity but maybe the actors and writers should watch the episode prior to heading in the booth and have some stats and facts ready just in case there significant amount of silence going on.

True it is not easy doing audio commentaries everybody wants something different and it has to be difficult to do it on shows that ended ten plus years ago such as Seinfeld. Even though the show was very popular it has to be hard for Jason Alexander and Julia Louis-Dreyfus to remember what happened in one specific episode when they did over 180 of them. So I let them and cast members from Family Matters and Quantum Leap slide when it comes to commentary quality. But my expectations will be much higher when Scrubs season 8 DVD is released. Zach Braff, Donald Faison, and Sarah Chalke you’ll better bring it.

Eleven Years Late

noreply@blogger.com (Rob E. Smith) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:37:00 +0000

Okay it took over a year but I finally completed watching all nine seasons of Seinfeld. Yes I’m eleven years late since the last Seinfeld episode aired, but I must say I now understand all the hoopla around the show. It was funny, unique, and it revolved around four distinct characters.

A lot of people want to brag that the show was about nothing. I disagree, I thought one the main things Seinfeld revolved around was relationships, getting in relationships, and trying to get out of relationships( I believe that was said in The Seinfeld Chronicles episode) whether it be because a woman had man hands or ate one pea at a time.

George was my favorite character. He was the lovable jerk and could be very shallow and stupid at times like the one time he tried to hook up with actress, Marrissa Tomei while he was still dating Susan.

Why didn’t you watch Seinfeld when it air over decade ago is the question I get asked many times. Watching a show while it’s currently on is just not my style. There are very few shows I watch that are currently on today, it’s just too much work to remember if my schedule is clear every week to watch the Office at 9p.m every Thursday on NBC. There might be something else on I want to watch on television-maybe a game, movie, or I simply forget. On DVD, I can pause the show whenever I please, rewind and not be worry about the interruption of commercials. There were occasions when shows would air reruns or there would be a presidential address and that extended my wait to two or three weeks.

Last year, I made the mistake of not to waiting for How I Met Your Mother to run its course then bring in the real cash off syndication. I foolishly decided to see why the show got so much attention. So I halted watching Seinfeld for a while and decided to watch the first three seasons of HIMYM. When season 4 rolled along in September I had to watch it. Even though season 4 wasn’t as good as the first three seasons I forgot about watching the season 4 finale and had to read the recap. When all I had to do was wait ten years when How I Met Your Mother eventually would get cancelled instead of waiting four months to find out what happens between seasons. It a lot easier and less time to go to Blockbuster or Best Buy the next day and get the next season on DVD after the previous one was concluded.

So when people start discussing what happen on Lost on Monday around the water cooler at work just wait eight years and I’ll be ready to share my opinion with you.

4 Major Sports championships are not wrestling/boxing titles

noreply@blogger.com (Rob E. Smith) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:21:00 +0000

One of my pet peeves I have in is when people discuss how a team that wins a championship the previous season heading into next season are defending champions. How is that? I have never seen any team from the four major sports win a championship then defend it the next year. Can they repeat as champions? Yes. Defend? No.

Take for example the 2008 NFL season. Media and fans discussed how the New York "Football" Giants were the team to beat heading into the season because they won Super Bowl XLII. ESPN analyst, Tom Jackson said whoever won Super Bowl 43 had to beat the Giants to get there. Well Philly defeated the G-men but they weren’t playing in Tampa for the Lombardi trophy.

My point is winning an NBA Finals is not like winning a boxing or wrestling championship. In boxing or wrestling if you defend your title and lose, you are now the former champ. Not the case in football or any other major sport that have yearly champions. Because look at the Super Bowl XLIII champions Pittsburgh Steelers, if they go 0-16 and do not reach the playoffs or lose in the conference finals they will still be Super Bowl 43 Champions and no one can take that away from them. If they win Super Bowl 44 they will still be Super Bowl 43 champions.

In conclusion, it’s a nice topic for debate at a bar or for sports talk radio. But there is no such thing as “defending” champions in at least the four major sports.