Could a Renewed Focus on Energy Drive our Economy?

With the New Year upon us, and President Obama entering his second term, it got me thinking about our economy and what the next four years will bring.

One of my clients is the Tennessee Valley Authority and I have been learning a lot about energy, nuclear power and overall renewable energy such as wind, solar and clean coal. The company is the only public power company in the US and is a quasi- government agency. It was started in 1933 by President FDR to bring affordable energy to areas in the Tennessee Valley that had been hardest hit by the Great Depression. (As a history buff, I love working with these kids of clients!) Its mission is as clear today as it was 80-years ago, to bring clean and affordable energy to all!

We have definitely seen that in the past, energy has been a way to alleviate poverty in our own country like in areas of the Tennessee Valley, but also more recently in developing countries like Haiti.

Former President Clinton has stated that distributed solar generation could help farmers and other impoverished people avoid high electricity rates and lack of grid access. Others have said that a focus on renewable energy is the surest way to create jobs, cut the trade deficit by up to 50 percent, and fight global warming. America has enormous capacity to generate energy from clean sources and, now more than ever, to take advantage of the large number of entrepreneurs, innovators, and financiers committed to a clean-energy future.

I read in other research findings that every billion dollars invested in a new coal-fired plant yields 870 new jobs. The same amount invested in solar creates 1,900 jobs; in wind, 3,300 jobs (if the turbines and blades are made in the country where they're put up); in big building retrofits, 7,000 in home retrofits, up to 8,000 jobs.

Here in my home city NYC, the Empire State Building completed a comprehensive energy overhaul. The project put 275 people to work, doing things like changing the heating and air-conditioning system, putting new, more efficient glass in the windows; and installing new lighting.

I hope that we can get it together and realize the impact that this can have on our environment, our workforce, our economy and our people. 

"Why Dr. King is a Hero" By Liam Talbot

Last week, my first grader, Liam, brought home his Thursday night homework writing assignment. The assignment was to write about “why Martin Luther King Jr. is a hero.”

We sat down at the table; Liam fidgeted in his chair, broke two tips off of the many pencils he had in front of him and said, “I just don’t know where to start.”

He said he had read a few books in school about MLK Jr. but he didn’t know what to write about him. Liam is not unlike other six-year olds of today and watches his fair share of YouTube videos—funny skits by other kids, the Gangnum Style, Psy video and anything that involves Skylanders.

So I suggested we watch a few videos of MLK Jr. and the speeches he gave as well as find some videos that might be produced for children. We watched the “I have a dream,” speech and various others.  I don’t know what happened, but I started to feel my eyes well up with tears as we were watching the videos, and I tried to hide my emotional state from him.

“Why are you crying,” he asked me.  (Darn it, he caught me!) I didn’t know at first and then, I sat quietly watching the rest of the videos with him.

I had to ask myself too, “Why are you crying?”

I guess I was emotional because I will really never know the extent of what the world was like when Dr. King was alive, and what bravery and strength it took for him to give those speeches in Alabama, Georgia and Washington, DC. I don’t ever want any of us to know. I don’t what to see that sort of human behavior in the world, and the kind of hate and fear that comes with it. 

My sons go to school with children of various races, colors and cultures – and that warms my heart; it is one of the many reasons I love New York City.  Many of Liam’s friends are “brown skinned” (as he likes to say), and he thinks nothing of the fact that people look or speak differently.

So, I answered his question and said to him, “You are lucky to live in a time and place that Martin Luther King Jr. only dreamed about.”

Sure we have a long way to go, but new generations will hopefully start to be the change that Dr. King wanted to see, but never lived to see. We will teach our children about the content of character and not the color of skin.

Liam eventually did his homework. And, what he wrote was a wonderful and moving tribute about Martin Luther King Jr.  I cried again when I read it.

 “Why Martin Luther King Jr is a hero.” Liam Talbot.

Martin Luther King Jr. changed the world. Black skins can go to the same places as white skins. He made all kinds of speeches. His famous speech was I had a dream. He believed in love not fighting. People were scared of him so they decided to kill him. His real name was Michael, but he changed it to Martin. He was married and had children. He lived in Georgia. He was born on January 15, 1929. His family traveled to Europe. He was six when he went there. At the age of 15 he graduated from high school. He moved to Boston. He made speeches for equal rights for all people.

Good-bye to Dan Edelman, a Dad

I was sitting in a client’s conference room on Tuesday when I read the news from a former Edelman colleague on her Facebook page that Dan Edelman, founder of the firm that bears his name had passed away at age 92. 

I worked at Edelman for two years (2006 and 2008) and before joining the firm, I was a client (2004-2006). I have always had great respect for the family, the culture, the clients and the work (which is why I hired them and then joined them!)

On that rainy Tuesday morning, I was overcome with sadness upon hearing the news. I was sad for an industry that will no longer have Dan’s spirit and guidance; I was sad thinking of the life he lived and all who had been impacted by him (personally and professionally) and the young PR professionals that will never know him; and, then, I was sad for my friend, Renee.

The communications world lost a pioneer and an icon, but Renee lost her dad. I never met her father. In addition to being a larger than life PR genius and one of the great communicators, Dan Edelman was just my friend’s father. Sure he was a leader, an inspiration, he spearheaded an industry with his legendary Toni Twins media tour, and he impacted so many careers. But, he was still just Renee’s dad.

There were many conversations Renee and I had about her father and mother, the trips to Chicago, the family outings, and her dad's 92nd birthday party in July. I would share stories about my trips back home to the Boston area to see my mom and dad, sister and brothers. We poured over family issues, my kids, life in general, and careers at countless breakfast and lunch excursions.

I mourn for an industry, but also for my friend who carries on in this world without her dad.  His life and death may be marked and documented by Facebook posts, articles in the New York Times, the Washington Post and many other places, but it doesn’t change the fact that for her, that he is no longer here.

For my friend Renee, I am so sorry you lost your Dad. He lived an amazing 92 years, a full life, leaves an incredible legacy, changed an industry and impacted an entire communications culture. And, to you he is all of those things, but most importantly, he is just your dad.

Channeling Stuart Smalley

I am probably not alone when I say that I use the New Year as a barometer to assess where I am in my personal and professional life. What did I accomplish this year? Was it what I set out to do or did I fall short? Did I accomplish way more than I ever imagined?

I like to remind myself of what I want to focus on in the year ahead, so I often write little affirmations on the inside of my medicine cabinet door. Last year, my older son (five at the time) sat down with some crayons and paper and we wrote several affirmations with brightly colored crayons and then we cut them out and taped them to the inside of the cabinet. It was a fun grade school project that I really enjoyed and it demonstration to him the importance of being grateful and thinking positively – not just in January—but also throughout the entire year.

Sure it was a bit of Stuart Smally from Saturday Night Live, http://www.hulu.com/watch/272735

(Remember, “I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!: Daily Affirmations With Stuart) But, it was a great exercise on what is important.

Last week, I reflected again on those simple affirmations that are in that medicine cabinet from 2012 and I can honestly say that they drove a great deal of my attitude and my thinking on many days, including the last day of the year and certainly during the past few days while I was on a business trip in Orlando, FL.

They reminded me that if I wasn’t the one getting a call on New Year’s Eve at 5:30 p.m. from one of my best clients—then someone else was! And, that was the last thing I would ever want for me and for business. So, it was not a negative thing to have to work at that time on a holiday—but a positive thing that I was indeed getting the call. A slight shift in my thinking, and a reminder of what was important. I think the affirmation I reflected back on that day was, “I love my work, the flexibility and I am lucky for amazing clients.”

It is time for my sons and me to sit down and write our brightly colored, Stuart Smalley affirmations again and hang them in the cabinet. What will I write? What will you write?

Wright, Right, Write and Rite Now

When I first started the website and created the blog, I wanted to call it something pithy. I thought about naming it “Right Now,” after Van Halen’s song released in 1992. The song is as poignant today as it was 21 years ago, and I figured, like the video and the song, I could capitalize on some of the thought provoking issues of today that are happening “Right Now.”

(Remember the video, and the lyrics… brilliant.) 
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/v/van+halen/right+now_20142896.html

But the play on words, “Write Now” seemed even more creative, and I changed it to reflect the word write -- because after all, that is what I was planning to do.

It seemed sort of trite though. I figured it was not unique and that others had certainly come before me and thought of the idea. (I was correct in my assumption.) So I searched, and it seemed an even better word came to the forefront – the word Wright.

When I thought about the word Wright, the first thing that came to mind was the Wright Brothers in North Carolina—First in Flight and Kitty Hawk and all those things we learned about in grade school.

But, here is the actual definition of the word. “The word wright is from an Old English word meaning worker or maker. A wheelwright makes wheels. A shipwright makes ships or boats. The word is more common now in a literary sense. One who writes plays is a playwright."

So I changed it to "Wright Now." That is who I am. I am a worker -- making, creating, building and implementing.

It was the right move to embark on a rite of passage by writing my blog “Wright Now.”