YouandTheTarot

Many businesspeople, like myself, had been in awe of the strategic genius of Roger Ailes at Fox.  In network broadcast/cable, an industry that crowed about awards, he told staff not to chase them. Forgot all that. His focus was on boosting ratings. He thumbed his nose at America's Puritan ethos, featuring lots of female long legs on air.  There were no apologies for the strong opinions that became Fox's signature. Also, he had as his personal PR representative Bob Dilenschneider, himself an iconoclast.  Yet, today, the 30th anniversary of Fox, which kicked off on October 7, 1996, Ailes wasn't celebrated.  In the summer of 2016, Ailes came crashing down. In the Tarot that kind of catastrophic downfall is depicted by the Tower card. On July 6th of that year former Fox executive Gretchen Carlson filed a lawsuit alleging sexual harassment and wrongful termination. The interesting feature of that initial complaint, which caught the attention of media, was that the defenda...

Those in academia too long or in old-line corporations get shoe-horned into the cult of excellence. That is, perfectionism. Good enough is unthinkable.  Yet, experience and research prove out that it's often those focused on good enough who get to the top and stay there.   Remember the adage: The "C" students (who handed in the good-enough papers) become the leaders and the bosses of the "A" students (who chased the "A" for the over-the-top paper). A slouch at a number of his presidential duties and before that only a "B" actor Ronald Reagan surpassed so many of the grinds in access to life's goodies.  And, Boomers might recall that in the early 1950s children's medical doctor and psychologist Donald Winnicott saved us from helicopter moms. He presented the data that the good-enough mother turned out more balanced, grounded in reality, problem-solving children than the supposed perfect mother.  Both mom and the kid escaped the pressu...

"If I wanted to go into business, I would have worked on Wall Street." That was a reply a psychotherapist gave me when I asked how was business for their private practice. No, it wasn't a non-profit. But that it's-a-business concept also applies to not-for-profit higher education. BTW, its market value is more than $738 billion. And, of course, there's journalism with the noble purpose of providing truth. More of the content is behind a paywall. As it should be. After all, it is a business. But, that's just the tip of the iceberg. So many other services consumers pay for, including psychic readings, have to operate like businesses. Therefore, consumer beware. Approach the buyer's journey with the alert mindset that, despite the lofty branding and the seeming purity of motive, that this is a commercial transaction. Fortunately, that Ah-Ha is occurring among youth and their parents in career planning. Is enrolling in the university, once a revered instituti...

Before I learned to think critically (BA, MA, PhD, 1L at Harvard Law School) I was a very effective human being. Happy too. Like Caveman , I lived by my wits. I went out there from the tenement apartment in the early 1950s to the mean streets of pre-gentrified Jersey City, New Jersey and functioned splendidly. In fact, I was way ahead of my times. For instance, at age 11, I operated a Wallace Brown solopreneurship peddling greeting cards and religious icons. More importantly, I was free of clinical depression, imposter syndrome and self-hate. Those arrived during my MA studies.  You know the story. Our Boomer generation was the first in America to matriculate en masse in higher education. By then, the university have mutated from being the trade school the Puritans had established in 1636 to train ministers into a freak institution pursuing pure thought. In Freshman year drilled into us was the Scientific Method. Ah, the supremacy of reason. And there it was: We were separated from...

  "When I get 'that' age, I'll just rob a bank. That will get me three hots and a cot in a prison." Yes, it's come to this for those generations following us Baby Boomers. We have pensions. Social Security was there and as soon as age 62. Medicare kicked in at 65. We earned enough to be able to invest. An added asset probably is a house.  From middle-agers on through Generation Z most envision no way to stop working. That is, if they can continue to get work. There may no longer be the concept of retirement. Homelessness could take over their lives before that. So, at a local community meeting recently that kind of gallows humor should have been predictable. When a man put it out there, others indicated that might not be a bad idea. Universally those working hated their jobs. Those not working couldn't even land gig stuff.  Already, some might have arranged that solution for the necessities of human existence. The Prison Policy Institute reports: State pr...

The new kind of client for my tarot reading services is over-65, socially isolated and unemployed but needing work.  Fortunately for them, the obstacle blocking what they need is easily identifiable It's their health problems. That is, talking about them. Right in the first session and they only need one, I instruct: Stop talking about your health stuff. Do that and the world opens up to abundance. Everything from a social life with deep connections to access to jobs and contract assignments. Talking about your health problems has always been a social turn-off. But in this era of overwhelm, as The Atlantic documents, all kinds of negatives have become unwelcome in conversation. No longer is confiding your troubles, including glucose fluctuations, a bonding mechanism. On the New York Post, a 70-something complains about those in their orbit who share those medical details. In addition, broadcasting negative health data can knock you out the box for work. Of course, there is the A...