Left to right: Bo Dollis, Big Chief of the Wild Magnolias (lead singer of what may be the funkiest funk band of all time); rhythm and blues artist Al “Carnival Time” Johnson; singer Michelle Davis; poet Chuck Perkins; composer and arranger Wardell Quezergue (seated); Ken McCarthy

This past Sunday I was at the 80th birthday party for Wardell Quezergue “the Creole Beethoven,” a musical genius who applied his gifts behind-the-scenes to countless hits over the last fifty plus years.

A party like this is bound to bring out some interesting folks and it did: musicians, publishers, music writers, radio DJs. It was a “Who’s Who” of the New Orleans music scene.

It was a very happy occasion, but also a sobering one.

It’s fourth and long…

The three year emergency federal grant that kept the New Orleans Musicians Clinic open after the post-Katrina failure of the US Army Corps of Engineers levee system ends August 1, 2010.

What this means is that hundreds of New Orleans musicians and their families including many who are still struggling to deal with the personally catastrophic impact of the flooding – the second biggest engineering failure in human history – will be without medical care.

No success without a plan

We’ve worked up a plan for the Clinic to permanently replace this funding with funding from individual donors.

How?

As with all things Internet-related, it all boils down to THE LIST.

That being said, I was horrified to learn that this pillar of the New Orleans (and world) music community has only collected a grand total of 800 or so e-mail addresses over its 12 year history. (That amounts to 5.5 new names per month.)

How many people on this planet love the music that comes out of New Orleans and would be willing to lend their moral support?

Millions.

I trust you see the opportunity.

It’s just arithmetic

How big a list of supporters could be created?

The number 1 million comes to me, a big number to be sure, but in the near term – as in the next four months – I think 100,000 to 200,000 is an attainable goal.

What do we need?

List owners willing to do solo mailings on behalf of the clinic. Two to four million e-mails to reasonably well-targeted lists should be enough to generate a six figure opt-in list. Then, of course, we work the list.

Having generated many millions of dollars over the years from much, much, much smaller lists, I know what’s possible.

The challenge: The client is mired in the “we don’t like to send e-mail” mindset.

Let’s hope necessity is the mother of evolution. This one is winnable. All we need to do is suit up and get on the playing field.

Got a list? Let’s talk…Post the details (size and composition) below.

Meanwhile, hit play and listen to some of the music these great men created.

Thanks.

- Ken McCarthy

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You can’t control the outcome of anything 100%.

But what you can control 100% is to have heart. And dedication. And loyalty. And that sums up New Orleans people to a “t.”

Four and a half years ago, their city was nearly obliterated by the biggest engineering failure in American history. Scorned by the ignorant and bigoted, they were blamed for their own misfortune.

Media pundits and Congressmen alike had the gall to suggest the city be bulldozed. Government promises of help didn’t come when they were needed and all this time later, few have been fulfilled.

But New Orleans people came back and amidst frightening, gut-churning wreckage rebuilt their homes and neighborhoods and businesses one nail at a time.

You can’t always control the outcome of things, but you can control what you do.

Finish strong.

As long as you’re alive, there is always hope.

Go Saints! Go New Orleans!

And God bless all the brave people in this world who fight to the end against all odds.

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Three years and a few days ago, Gary Halbert and I were speakers at an Agora event in Baltimore.

The last day of the seminar, we were all following the news of a hurricane heading towards New Orleans, but it seemed Gary and I were the only ones there who were aware of what it would mean if the levees were topped.

Gary made a point of mentioning the situation as part of his talk and encouraged people to be prepared to pitch in and help.

This year, I spent several months in New Orleans advising various groups there and learned a lot about what the city needs to recover.

There is a tremendous amount of misinformation about New Orleans and you can actually help the city a lot by educating yourself and others. It’s a great town with great people and it deserves a lot better than its gotten.

How you can help

One of the things New Orleans needs is for people to understand what really happened there and how it could have been prevented.

Two of the groups I work with there just launched this short video on YouTube. When we were working on it, we had no idea another hurricane would be heading towards the city just days after we released it.

I encourage you to watch it and share it with others who you think might be interested. Thanks.

You can click through to the video on YouTube here and comment and rate it too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wln_iq5bc8k

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Howie Jacobson and I did a one day master session for marketers to raise money for a New Orleans rebuilding project.

Every attendee got their money’s worth (it was $1,000 a head for the day.) At least one guy got advice that I know when he executes on it – and he will – will be at worth 1,000 times his investment.

Life’s not always a straight line. Not everyone gets dealt the same hand.

The purpose of entrepreneurship is to strengthen your own position and lend a hand where a hand is needed.

This small church which has lost 80% of its members still manages to provide material help to church members and neighbors alike; runs an after school homework center; and a home for teenage mothers and their children, so the mothers can get job training while their kids are cared for during the day.

I think that individuals like Bruce Davenport who is keeping this community going are the most impressive entrepreneurs there are.

Some home movies of what we saw:

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Thanksgiving is, hands down, my favorite holiday.

It doesn’t compel frantic gift giving (like the commercialized version of Christmas).

It doesn’t promote excessive alcohol consumption and forced gaiety (like New Year’s Day).

In fact Thanksgiving is so laid back, it doesn’t even require that folks exchange cards.

Instead, Thanksgiving celebrates the basics: food, family, and friends and the deep fun that accompanies taking the time to enjoy life’s simple pleasures.

As icing on the cake, Thanksgiving encourages us – in its characteristically quiet and understated way – to take note of the things in our lives that are positive.

— Gratitude is power

It’s easy for entrepreneurs to fall into the trap of feeling that life is a never-ending struggle, where letting your guard down for a moment can mean ruin and every day is another day that the ever-growing “Must Do” list fails to get done.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you are a very fortunate person indeed, but I have a feeling you may know a little about the outlook I’m describing.

How do we get ourselves out of this particular no-win’ trap?

— Thanksgiving is the answer.

Robert Emmons, a professor at the University of California, Davis, demonstrated through an elegant set of experiments not long ago that if you want to sleep better, feel better, and motivate yourself to take better care of your health, regular Thanksgiving’ sessions work magic.

Once a month, once a week, once a day

Right now we celebrate Thanksgiving once a year and, truth be told; it can be somewhat of a production’ and actually be a bit stressful for some people.

But what if we had a Thanksgiving Day once a month?

And what if we defined “Thanksgiving Day” to mean spending a whole day with the people you really want to be with just living: eating, talking, playing, resting, and being militantly free from worries (and ambition) of any kind.

One day per month.

Is there anyone so busy that they can’t arrange at least one day per month for Thanksgiving?

Notice, by the way, that I said “arrange” not “find the time for” In my experience, trying to “find the time” rarely works. In contrast, arranging life to make the time for things has a nearly 100% success rate.

If it’s a good idea to have Thanksgiving once a month, why not have it once a week?

I’m talking about consistently carving out one day each week where you avoid the “busyness” of life and sit back to enjoy a good meal and revel in the pleasure of spending time with people you love the most.

That’s what weekends used to be for. Remember?

Finally, if Thanksgiving makes sense once a week, why not once a day? A good meal, good company, peace and quiet, and attention not on the things that aren’t working, that need to be improved, that are still undone, but dedicated to enjoying and appreciating the many things good in our lives.

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Ken McCarthy

Excerpt from the book “The System Club Letters” to be published in 2008

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Here’s a little known story about Warren Buffett, the world’s second richest man and most successful investor about the importance of…sleep.

In the early 1990s, Buffett personally stepped in to straighten out a huge mess at Salomon Brothers, a major investment bank that had seriously lost its way and was about to get shut down.

Buffett stepped off the plane from Omaha and headed straight to the company’s New York City offices for his first face-to-face meeting with its board members.

When he arrived took one look around the room and said… (more…)

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I lived in San Francisco from 1990 to late 1998. Pre-Internet, early Internet, and in the heart of dotcom madness.

It was quite a ride, but to be honest, I’ve been so busy in the last nine years, I’ve rarely looked back and have only visited a few times since.

This video reminds me of what a unique and admirable bunch of people live in San Francisco. There really is no place like it and it’s no accident that San Francisco was the first city in the world to “get” the Internet. Enjoy!

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The world wants peace.

My brief video interview with Scott Ritter was the #2 Most Top Rated Video on YouTube today.

You can watch the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOMfMq5BM9o

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A great American Henry David Thoreau once said: “What is the point of a fine house if you don’t have a tolerable planet to put it on.”

What is the future of our great country?

It matters because it’s where most of us are going to spend the rest of our lives and where our children and grandchildren and their children will spend theirs.

Now is the time for all good men and women of good will to come to the aid of their country.

Online sources for “Waging Peace” by Scott Ritter:

Buy “Waging Peace” at Amazon

Buy “Waging Peace” at Barnes and Noble

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What is “poverty?”

For some people it might mean going without the deluxe cable TV package.

For most of the world, it means going without the basics of life: food, water, shelter, clothing.

What’s the root of this kind of poverty?

Sometimes it’s injustice. For instance, in cases all over the world self-supporting peasant farmers haven been taken off their land at gunpoint so it can be turned over to commodity export farmers with political connections. For example, in Latin America, the rural poor are actually less well nourished than they were in the 1950s because now they work on plantations instead of operating their own modest, but productive farms.

But where things like injustice is not a cause, poverty is often not so much the result of lack of resources, it’s the result of lack of access to them.

Take a simple thing like water. One of the problems with water is it’s heavy – very, very heavy. And if you lack the expensive infrastucture to move water, then you’re stuck with carrying it. A shockingly large portion of humanity deals with this problem every day. Carrying heavy water over long distances, day in and day out, just to survive.

Can anything be done to help? Yes.

Here’s a fascinating video about designers who are specifically targeting the needs of the world’s most poor. When you see the simplicity of some of these solutions, you’ll wonder why it took so long for someone to think of them. Hey, better late than never.

Frankly, I find this stuff more way inspiring that the latest Internet gizmo:

New York Times Science Section video

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