A free people walks and talks to whomever they choose

Individual human rights and freedoms are not negotiable anymore.

Former franchisees are a distinct people: different but equal.

Everybody knows: Even the most confidence-shaken, when they look in their partner’s eyes.

My friends, we’re not alone

Lasting peace is achieved through the exercise of power, in concert with legitimate authority.

What will be your last contribution?

Roger Hodgson performs it here. Worth the 10:40 watch with some one you trust.

Fool’s Overture from the the 1977 Supertramp album called Even in the Quietest Moments

History recalls how great the fall can be
While everybody’s sleeping, the boat’s put out to sea
Borne on the wings of time
It seemed the answers were so easy to find
“Too late,” the prophets cry
The island’s sinking, let’s take to the sky

Called the man a fool, stripped Him of his pride
Everyone was laughing up until the day He died
And although the wound went deep
Still He’s calling us out of our sleep
My friends, we’re not alone
He waits in silence to lead us all home

So you tell me that you find it hard to grow
Well I know, I know, I know
And you tell me that you’ve many seeds to sow
Well I know, I know, I know

Can you hear what I’m saying
Can you see the parts that I’m playing
“HOLY MAN, ROCKER MAN, COME ON QUEENIE
JOKER MAN, SPIDER MAN, BLUE-EYED MEANIE”
So you found your solution
What will be your last contribution?
“LIVE IT UP, RIP IT UP, WHY SO LAZY?
GIVE IT OUT, DISH IT OUT, LET’S GO CRAZY,YEAH!”

Bullshit is worse than lies

On Bullshit is an essay by philosopher  Harry Frankfurt.  …was republished as a separate volume in 2005 and became a nonfiction bestseller, spending twenty-seven weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list.

In the essay, Frankfurt defines a theory of bullshit, defining the concept and analyzing its applications. In particular, Frankfurt distinguishes bullshitting from lying: while the liar deliberately makes false claims, the bullshitter is simply uninterested in the truth. Bullshitters aim primarily to impress and persuade their audiences. While liars need to know the truth to better conceal it, bullshitters, interested solely in advancing their own agendas, have no use for the truth.

Thus, Frankfurt claims, “bullshit is a greater enemy of the truth than lies are.”

Don’t trust me. Trust Wikipedia.

– On Bullshit, Dr. Harry Frankfurt

Endless consultation and fact-finding, No action

One of the ways you control what people think is by creating the illusion that there’s a debate going on, but making sure that that debate stays within very narrow margins. Namely, you have to make sure that both sides in the debate accept certain assumptions, and those assumptions turn out to be the propaganda system.

As long as everyone accepts the propaganda system, then you can have a debate.

– Chronicles of Dissent, Noam Chomsky

Trust yourself and don’t believe in anymore lies

Trust Yourself, Blue Rodeo

Someday soon and I don’t know when
Your little world will come crashing in
Don’t think twice I’ll be around
Turn your back someone’s gonna let you down

You know that it’s true nobody led you on
They left that to you now you’ll be alone
When the sun comes up with your tattered little dreams
and a broken cup

Then you’ll have to trust yourself
And don’t believe in anymore lies

You waste your time think too much
Really make a mess of the things you touch
Poor little bird with a broken wing
Better look around now you know you’re losing everything

It’s just a game thought you had it all lined up
But somehow that’s changed now you’ll have to run
And not get caught and you’ll have to hide
if you like it or not

Then you’ll have to trust yourself
And don’t believe in anymore lies

Someday soon and it won’t be long
You’ll ring the bell but they’ll all be gone
They took your jewels and your statues too
Left you with a pile of things you never learned how to use

Well here it comes again you showed us where it all began
Well here’s where it ends
And you’ll be alone when the sun comes up
Tattered little dreams and a broken cup

Then you’ll have to trust yourself and don’t believe in anymore
trust yourself and don’t believe in anymore
trust yourself and don’t believe in anymore lies

Yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah

Advisory councils help process franchisees

Cows are stunned in slaughterhouses before they are killed.

Meat quality is retained and there is “less fuss”.

Don’t trust me: Trust yourself.

You can look it up.

Loose lips, Sink any chance for remedy

Ethics never trumps cash flow in the real world.

Since 95% of the cash flow that supports attorneys, consultants, salespeople, etc. comes from the franchisor…

Assume the guts you’re spilling is going directly to your franchisor.

PS: Similarities to franchisees, living an dead, is entirely intentional.

You know who you are.

Attorneys steer this Ship of Fools

What kind of professional would intentionally provide a creditor’s wife a faulty chair to sit in?

Would you trust that person?

Would you trust his landlord?

If you knew what I know, What would you call them both?

Good answer.

Go ahead and choose your executioner: call a franchise expert

Rules of franchise groups:

1. A dead association is worth more than an alive one.

2. The owner of the logo pays someone else if they cannot execute themselves. The hooded one is either the charming outsider or the loud insider.

3. Franchise lawyering insists on a quick kill rather than a future, recurring cash flow/life cycle.

4. As an association executive, you’ll go along with the game or become a defendant.

5. A token truth added, infinitely strengthens the Big Lie.

6. 99.5% of visible U.S. independent franchisee associations are Potemkin villages (valuable to the status quo as franchisee false hope, example: FranchiseeAssociationManagement.com).

7. Leaders act as a doctor would because franchisees are in a type of daydream. Democracy is a noble concept but achievable only when debtors break their chains.

8. There is a narrow path but it requires patience, self-reliance, trust and one franchisee.

Call for a meeting.

Lizard in the morning, lizard in the evening…

Stuffing down lizard, early and later this am.

Again.

Godin’s up to no good.

Again.

Be Attentive:

The lizard is a physical part of your brain, the pre-historic lump near the brain stem that is responsible for fear and rage and reproductive drive. Why did the chicken cross the road? Because her lizard brain told her to.

Want to know why so many companies can’t keep up with Apple? It’s because they compromise, have meetings, work to fit in, fear the critics and generally work to appease the lizard. Meetings are just one symptom of an organization run by the lizard brain. Late launches, middle of the road products and the rationalization that goes with them are others.

Don’t just do something,  stand there.

The amygdala isn’t going away. Your lizard brain is here to stay, and your job is to figure out how to quiet it and ignore it. This is so important, I wanted to put it on the cover of my new book. We realized, though, that the lizard brain is freaked out by a picture of itself, and if you want to sell books to someone struggling with the resistance (that would be all of us) best to keep it a little more on the down low.

Now you’ve seen the icon and you know its name. What are you going to do about it?

Take a holiday.