Times Do Change
When I saw this video of 50 firemen and a helicopter rescuing a German Sheppard from the Los Angeles River, memories flooded back. As a boy growing up in Downey, not too far from the City of Vernon, I remember it as “slaughter town.” Twenty-seven slaughterhouses lined Vernon Avenue from Soto Street to Downey Road. You could hear animals screaming and the morning death stench flowed all of the way to the freeway going into LA.

Gotcha!
When I saw fireman Joe St. Georges finally reach the dog and grab him, my eyes teared up. The dog was viciously biting him as he fought to save its life. It’s hard to think that this was happening in that same town where animal life was so abused on a daily basis. As a curious pre-teenager I ventured into one of those slaughter houses one day, and saw awful things I will never forget. These were not people who would go out of their way, let alone risk their own lives to save the life of a dog they didn’t know.
We have come a long way, baby!

Great Name
The dog was nicknamed Vernon, and he is recovering nicely in a Downey Shelter. Joe too is recovering after a trip to the hospital with serious bites on his hand and arm. He was unable to both muzzle and save Vernon, He opted for the latter. I understand there are 20 people lined up to adopt Vernon should his rightful owner not show up. If I lived there I would be in that line. I would also go visit Joe with a bottle of fine wine. I hope the other 20 do.

It’s like Shorthand Information
I became enticed into joining Twitter about a year ago. I have elected to “follow” people that post things I can benefit from. I rarely hear anything on the news that I haven’t already seen on Twitter. I’m more up to date on the world’s happenings than ever before. I peek at “Trending Topics” to see what people are talking about, and if it’s something interesting to me, I click on it to see what they are saying.

Celebrity Attention
Unfortunately there are more people talking about Tiger Woods and his wife today than the war, economy, the holidays or health care. Tomorrow (or later today) it will be something (or someone) else. Of course the same is true of TV News.

Followers
Somehow several hundred people have found me on Twitter and decided to “follow me” meaning that they presumably read my short “Tweets.” I don’t know who the vast majority of these people are, and really don’t care if they follow me or not; I’m just tossing out my thoughts in less than 140 characters, which can be challenging at times.
I know that they don’t care what time I went to bed or what I had for breakfast, so I attempt to say things that are either informative, interesting or funny; we all need a laugh now and then.

No More Please!
When Mr. Obama announced “his” decision to send another 30,000 troops into harm’s way I couldn’t hold back. I have a hard time understanding the sanity of it all. We have had close to 40,000 Americans die in our efforts to retaliate for the loss of 3,000 people 9/11. To me there’s something wrong with this picture. Apparently not everyone agrees with my assessment here. I have posted 2,499 “Tweets” to date, and my list of follwers has grown considerably. But when I expressed my thoughts about our president (who I supported) deciding to “step the war up,” I saw follower drop out like never before. I really don’t care if anyone follows me on Twitter or not, but I do care about American lives; any lives for that matter.

Island Air Terminal
Several records were set during my recent trip to Maui. The first was the number of people at the sleepy little inter-island terminal. One of the reasons I like to fly out of this terminal is the small amount of traffic, making for easy, and hassle free checking in. Not this time. I have been flying in and out of this terminal for 28 years now and have NEVER seen it like this. My thought was, “What recession?”

Kaanapali Morning
One of the enjoyable things about Maui is waking up in Kaanapali. I normally stay at the Westin Maui, but this time it was overbooked and I could not get a room. I took this picture from my room at the Sheraton just down the beach. They were at near capacity, but I got in. My thought was, “What recession?”

Whalers Village Shopping Center
I have been doing Success Rallies for the merchants at Whalers Village for 18 years now. We meet at Leilani’s on the Beach. During that time I have seen attendance as low as 10 people, and as high as 50 or 60.

7:45 AM
The rally starts at 8 AM. I often joke that you have to get there early to get a back row seat. As you can see that was the case today.

7:50 AM
Five minutes later they are lining up to get in. The coffee is hot and the pastries are tasty.

7:55 AM
Besides hearing me talk and getting coffee and sugar, the attendees also get free parking stickers. Signing up for that usually creates a bottle neck getting in the restaurant.

8 AM - Showtime
By 8 AM the place is packed and it’s time to learn something. My topic today was “befriending” your customers in a way that makes them want to return to your store to buy more as well as referring you to those they know and meet. One suggestion was having your customers pose with their purchase and promise them that you will post their photo on line to share wiith their friends back home.

It’s a Record
Before leaving this morning I congratulated them on a record turnout and asked them to pose for this photo promising that it would be on my blog for them to see in the morning.

Another Record
One last record set this morning was in coffee and pastry consumption. Mahalo Whalers Village for 18 years of success; I’ll see you soon.
 

It’s the Right Thing to Do
Today’s telephone answering devices and call identifyers have caused some people to develop bad telephone etiquette. Few things are as annoying as leaving a message and having it not returned. It says more about you than you might intend to. The thing to do is answer the phone if you are there, and if not, return the call as soon as possible. It’s the polite thing to do, even if it is to say, “No thank you.”
I have taken to not leaving messages as it removes control as I await the return call.

“Maui Hotel Numbers Low Again”
The sub Headline said, “64% Occupancy, $238 Average Room Rate.” If you read further down into the article (most won’t) you see that “statewide occupancy” was more like 70%. When I see those percentages I always think, “% of how many rooms?”
I checked into The Westin Maui on Wednesday afternoon (9/9) and told the front desk clerk that I prefer the Beach Tower. She said, “They may all be gone, I’ll check.” Upon checking, she told me that room 470 was the last available room in that tower. I took it. I then asked her what the hotel occupancy rate is, and she said, “The high 90’s.” On my flight back to Oahu today I sat next to Michael Troy, Director of Advertising and Promotions for Starwood Hotels & Resorts. He confirmed that The Westin Maui is 98% full. I asked him how many rooms in the hotel and he said, “700 plus.” That adds up to 630 full rooms, and I can assure you they are a lot more than $238.
The media would be doing everyone in Hawaii a big favor if they would make the good news the headlines.

Life and Death
This moving article in The Daily Beast describes Ted Kennedy’s final days. I hope that I too will be able to get out of bed on my last day here on earth.
I clearly remember the emotion surrounding the death of both JFK and RFK. Neither of them had the opportunity to live out their last days as Teddy did.

They All Have Families Too
The first three pages of today’s Honolulu Advertiser were filled with “Teddy Tales.” We were able to read a lot about his mourning family. I too mourn his death.
At the bottom of the 3rd page was this article. It talks about an American solier being killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan yesterday. The article said, “The death brought to 44 the number of U.S. troops who have died in Afghanistan this month with four days left in August.” I wonder how many mourning family members that represents, along with close to 5,000 other Americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. ALL of those deaths could have been avoided. How important were these lives to those that sent them over there?

It’s Enough to Make One Scream
Almost everyone I talk to, and definately those I work with, are seeing a recovery from past months, and are beginning to feel optimistic. Then along comes Pacific Business News with this latest fear mongering headline: “Recession to continue in Hawaii through ‘09″
As usual, you need to read down into the story to see how meaningless the headline is. In this case the 2nd paragraph say’s, “The Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism said in its report released Monday that it expects a 1.1 percent decline in the state’s 2009 gross domestic product and a 3 percent decline in the average job count for the year.”
Isn’t “98.9% stable” enough to warrant an encouraging headline?

Heidi Kraus
While dining alone at the Westin Maui recently I watched the flower girl go from table to table, being rejected at every one. I began thinking that her job was tougher than any retail salesperson I know of. Mine was the last table she came to. I asked her how she’s holding up with the rejection and she said, “Are you going to reject me too.” 
I said, “I’m alone this evening, but I was given a beautful lei this morning where I spoke, and in the Hawaiian tradition I passed it on to my waitress at lunch today.” She asked me where I spoke and I said, ” At 
Windward Unity Church.” I went on to say that church isn’t where I usually speak. She asked me what I speak about, and I said, “I teach salespeople to handle rejection.” She starred at me and asked my name. 
When I told her she teared up and told me that she grew up hearing about me from her mother, Anita Bell, and that she has read my books.
Anita worked for me for several years. Heidi went on to day that Anita died in April of Breast Cancer. She started crying, and said that she hasn’t gotten over it yet. I asked her to take a seat and we talked about Anita, my parents, rejection, life and success. She left smiling. I told her to say “Aloha” to Anita for me when she appears. 
My regret upon her departure was that I didn’t buy lei from her.

I really miss my father.

He worked 7 days a week to feed his family.

He loved his mother.

He loved my mother.

He loved his kids.

He loved his music.

He loved life.

“When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around.  But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.” 
-Mark Twain

It’s Free and Easy
Masae and I learned a very valuable lesson walking down Kalakaua Avenue after dinner the other night. We were with Pamela and Hamo Alualu. Kalakaua Avenue is lined with “flyer people” handing out all sorts of leaflets and advertising. I have over the years developed a pretty good “waive-off” motion as they reach out to me. As we passed one of them, Hamo accepted his hand-out, and as we walked away Pamela asked him, “Why did you take that?” His answer had impact. He casually said, “Just to be nice.” Wow! Think about that. Masae and I found ourselves talking about that the rest of the evening. “Flyer folks” take a lot of rejection and hear some pretty abusive comments. After all, they are just doing their job, and the pay isn’t that great, what’s wrong with being nice? You can just as easily throw the ad flyer away once you are out of site, but in the process you made someone feel successful, even if it’s for a moment. 
Mahalo Hamo for the lesson. I will be much nicer from here on.