AWARDS
We’re pleased to be the recipient of two highly-regarded awards.
 
One is the Kay Herman Legacy Award, which is the highest award given by the Georgia Chapter of the National Speakers Association.  The criteria for this award include:  “Has actively participated at the national level; stands as a positive role model within the chapter and NSA, and has unselfishly spent time helping other speakers grow; uses ethical practices in business; continuously pursues a higher level of professionalism.”  With these criteria, you can see why I am grateful to receive this recognition from my peers.

The second is for my CD “Lessons From Legends” which won “best educational album” in the JPF annual award competition--the largest music awards program in the world.   This year JPF received 350,000 songs and over 25,000 albums in 70 genres from over 100 countries.   According to JPF, the sole criterion for the judges was, “Does it move you?”

“Lessons From Legends” is a recording before a live audience of several thousand people in which I tell stories from my exclusive interviews with celebrities.  If you’d like to obtain multiple copies of this CD, contact us directly for a quantity price.  The best way to obtain a single copy of the CD is from CD Baby.  You can hear an excerpt on-line before ordering. http://cdbaby.com/found?artist=griessman&soundlike=&album=lessons+from+legends&style=

QUOTABLE QUOTES

***PROMISES
“We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot.”
--Abraham Lincoln

***FAVORS
“He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another than he whom you yourself have obliged.”
--Benjamin Franklin

***CONSCIENCE
“I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions.”
--Lillian Hellman

***FEAR
“There is no terror in a bang, only in the anticipation of it.”
--Alfred Hitchcock

***FOLLY
“The best way to convince a fool that he is wrong is to let him have his own way.”
--Traditional saying

***SCIENCE
“Science commits suicide when it adopts a creed.”
--Thomas H. Huxley

***FAMILY SUPPORT
“I can’t stand the sight of dwarfs…I predict nobody’ll ever pay a dime to see a dwarf picture.”
--Lillian Disney, wife of Walt Disney, about “Snow White”
 
LEADERSHIP LESSONS

The Darkness Before Dawn

Many readers told me that chapter three of THE ACHIEVEMENT FACTORS, entitled “Persistence”, has meant the most to them.  That chapter describes the little-known early struggles of individuals whose names later became synonymous with success.  Celebrities spoke candidly with me about poverty, closed doors, unreturned phone calls, years of rejection and the anguish and despondency that they felt.   Their stories dispelled any notion I might ever have harbored that success is easy.

Since writing that book I have continued to collect true stories that illustrate the achievement factors.   Here’s one—about Steven Spielberg—that I’d like to share with you.   According to Vanity Fair, Spielberg had directed a few films but he had never had a box-office hit when he was given a budget of $3.5 million to do “Jaws.”   From the first day, “Jaws” was plagued with problems.  The actors and director quarreled, the fake sharks wouldn’t function properly, and one sank.   The crew began to call the movie “Flaws” behind Spielberg’s back.

If you think Spielberg dealt with all these setbacks serenely, confidently with infectious optimism, you’re wrong.   Spielberg thought his career was over.  Here’s what he told Vanity Fair about his final night after wrapping the shoot and flying back to LA: “That night I had a full-blown anxiety attack.   I thought I was going crazy.  I was lying in bed alone, sweating, heart palpitations.   If I got out of bed, I’d pass out.  I was a complete wreck.”

Now comes a powerful part of the story.  “Jaws” was sneak-previewed in Dallas in March of 1975.  Spielberg stood in the back watching the audience.  When the boy on the raft was killed, Spielberg watched in horror as a man on the front row got up and began to run toward the exit.  The man reached the lobby and vomited all over the carpet, went to the bathroom, and returned to his seat. 

Spielberg recalls, “That’s when I knew we had a hit.”

“Jaws” grossed almost $8 million its first weekend and went on to gross $470 million worldwide. 

I wrote on the margin of the page in Vanity Fair,   “He deserves his success.”

To conclude, here are three quotations from my own interviews from Chapter Three of THE ACHIEVEMENT FACTORS:   

“I was not an overnight success, even after I sold the strip.  “Peanuts” did not take the world by storm immediately.  It was a long grind.  It took “Peanuts” about four years to attract nationwide attention, but it took ten years to become really entrenched.”
--Charles Schulz

“There is no success without failure.”
--Malcolm Forbes

“I was always willing to undergo hardship or whatever it took to be able to stay with my work.  I could have quit many times—given up, because it’s no great art in life to be poor and hungry, and that’s what I was.”
--Erskine Caldwell  (For a few years Caldwell’s best-known books TOBACCO ROAD and GOD’S LITTLE ACRE sold at a brisker pace than the Bible.  Both were adapted into Broadway plays and films.)

LINCOLN'S LOG

A valuable new book by historian Debby Applegate tells the story of the times in which Lincoln lived through the biography of one of its most prominent individuals.  The book is entitled THE MOST FAMOUS MAN IN AMERICA: THE BIOGRAPHY OF HENRY WARD BEECHER and tells the story of a famous and eventually infamous preacher. In his prime, Beecher preached to audiences of thousands, and his writing was read by millions.  Beecher’s story is a painful account of America’s growth pangs, its soul-searching over slavery, and the wrenching internal struggles that took place during Lincoln’s lifetime.

Beecher was born in 1813, one year after Lincoln’s birth. He was pastor of two churches in Indiana during the 1830s and 1840s (Lincoln moved to Illinois from Indiana in 1830 having lived there 14 years.)  It is startling to read how primitive life was in Indiana during that time.  Lawrenceville, Indiana—his first pastorate—was a “makeshift jumble of shops, taverns, and warehouses clustered around the wharf, and rangy, long-legged hogs roamed the muddy streets.” 

Beecher became famous in New York City where he was pastor of the Plymouth Church in Brooklyn Heights, one of the nation’s first mega-churches.  As a parenthetical note, in 1859 Lincoln was invited to deliver a lecture at Beecher’s Church. At the last minute the venue was moved to The Cooper Union (Located in Cooper Square in NYC, it now is known as The Cooper Union For The Advancement Of Science And Art). The Cooper Union speech, which was a sensation, made Lincoln a national figure. 

When Beecher came of age, most ministers, northern and southern alike, preached that slavery was a divinely sanctioned institution.  A reverend doctor by the name of Leonard Woods of Andover Seminary launched a drive to persuade fellow ministers to stamp out antislavery agitation, and Woods was not alone.  After all, the Bible stated: “Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land; and they shall be your possession.” (Leviticus 24:45)  This Biblical passage was but one of many that could be cited to show that God approved of slavery.  

Had God changed his mind since that revealed message?  Apparently not, most American ministers thought.  Even the Apostle Paul had returned a slave—Philemon—to his owner, which seemed to be divine instruction about what people in free states should do with runaway slaves.

On balance, here and there were ministers who preached against slavery.  They were stigmatized as liberals, fired, physically dragged from their pulpits, and a few paid with their lives.  Beecher became a fierce opponent of slavery, actively assisted runaway slaves, and worked assiduously to convert fellow ministers and lay leaders to his point of view.

The business world almost unanimously took sides against the abolitionists.  Merchants in New York City, for example, fearing the loss of Southern business, created a blacklist of the city’s antislavery merchants.  

And in Congress, passions ran so high that members of Congress took to taking weapons with them on the floor.   In one incident, when a member accidentally discharged his pistol, within moments 40 to 50 pistols were drawn.

In 1829 a Boston printer named William Lloyd Garrison called on Lyman Beecher, Henry’s father and a famous preacher himself, to tell him that as a result of Beecher’s sermons, he had become convinced that slavery was a heinous sin. Christians should demand that slaveholders immediately repent and free their slaves.  Garrison appealed to Beecher to help him awaken America’s conscience.

Lyman Beecher put Garrison off saying that he had too many irons in the fire.

Undeterred, Garrison went to every Boston church and got the same response.   Garrison decided to go it alone.  In 1831 he published the first issue of the “Liberator”, and on its masthead were these words:  “I do not wish to think, or speak, or write, with moderation… I am in earnest—I will not equivocate—I will not excuse—I will not retreat a single inch—and I will be heard.” 

Lyman Beecher’s daughter, and Henry Ward Beecher’s sister, wrote the novel that roused the nation to action:  UNCLE TOM’S CABIN.  Read by hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions worldwide, passions were aroused on both sides.  When Lincoln met Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1862, the President is said to have remarked:  “So you’re the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.”

Lincoln greatly admired Beecher.  His wife Mary subscribed to Beecher’s publication, the INDEPENDENT, his law partner William Herndon was a passionate supporter of Beecher’s, and Lincoln personally attended Plymouth Church to hear Beecher preach.  Lincoln told his portrait painter Francis B. Carpenter “there was not upon record, in ancient or modern biography so productive a mind as had been exhibited in the career of Henry Ward Beecher.”   
 
This book helps us understand what Beecher, Lincoln, or anyone for that matter, experience when they take on entrenched social institutions.  How hard it must have been to join the anti-slavery movement when virtually everybody and everything—ministers, politicians, business leaders, customs, prejudices, and the laws themselves—supported and protected the institution of human bondage!  This book also demonstrates that those who have the courage to do it, and prevail, as Beecher and Lincoln did, come to be known as heroes.

FEEDBACK
***“I think we hit a homerun yesterday.   I am particularly pleased that you were able to stay for the day’s final reflection. As I listened to you chatting with my long-time friend, State Senator Balfour about TEAM OF RIVALS, I was struck by his excitement at re-discovering how timely Lincoln’s experiences are to us today.   I am hopeful that yesterday’s presentation yields further speaking business for you.  It’s a privilege for me to consider you a longtime friend.”   Dave Williams    (Dave Williams is chief executive of Southtrac Inc., an active member of Leadership Gwinnett, and one of my former students at Georgia Tech.)

*** “Thanks for your newsletter (No. 44), particularly about going first-class.   May I give you George Washington quotes?  1. To John Hancock:  ‘No person wishes more to save money to the public than I do…but there are some cases in which parsimony may be ill placed.’  2. To Robert Morris, financier of the revolution. ‘We may spin the thread of economy till it breaks.’  3. To Phillip Marsteller  ‘It is not the lowest priced goods that are always the cheapest—the quality is, or ought to be, as much an object with the purchaser as the price.’   Washington agrees with you.    Best, Jim aka George Washington  (Jim Hodges gives inspirational presentations and seminars as George Washington.   He bears a striking resemblance to our first President.   Go look for yourself at his website  http://www.leadershipbygeorge.com/

*** “Abe…really, really enjoyed TAD.   May I be put on your regular list?   Good readin’!  Best to you, Gene, tytytyty  (Ty Boyd is a much-loved, much-honored media personality and professional speaker.   His website is http://www.tyboyd.com/home.html

*** “The Rural Development Council of Michigan, along with other sponsoring organizations had the privilege of hosting Mr. Gene Griessman as he presented ‘Abraham Lincoln’ at the Ultimate Farmland Preservation Tour Banquet.  Mr. Griessman did a phenomenal job of articulating the importance of leadership principles and performed it in a manner unique only to Abe.  Mr. Griessman was asked to tailor his presentations and relate them to land use issues occurring in the Mid-West in an effort to give the audience a better understanding of the leadership component assigned with it.  Not only did Mr. Griessman grasp and deliver difficult concepts, he executed them with the ease of a professional, as if he had spoken on the topic a hundred times before.  His presentation was entertaining as well as educational.”  David Skjaerlund, Executive Director 

TRAVEL NOTES FROM A ROAD WARRIOR
TED’S MONTANA GRILL
The latest creation of Ted Turner, these restaurants feel like up-scale saloons with wood floors, mahogany paneling, high-backed booths, jewel colored ceramic tiles, and pressed-tin ceilings.   Everything I’ve tried has been delicious, and I’ve tried the burgers, the blue-plate specials, the fish, and the bison pot roast. Speaking of bison, Turner is the world’s biggest bison farmer.  The blue plate specials are a favorite of mine.  Depending on the day of the week, the offerings include meat loaf, fish sandwiches, and turkey and dressing.  As for the burgers, there are some 20 varieties.  The meat is ground on the premises.  Everything is fresh.  Nothing is frozen.  A local manager told me his restaurant doesn’t own a microwave and the only freezer they own is for ice cream.  Menus are printed on recycled paper and the drinks are served in recyclable bottles.  Prices are moderate.  For a list of locations, go to www.tedsmontanagrill.com 
 
IF YOU ARE INVOLVED IN PLANNING AN UPCOMING MEETING, SALES CONFERENCE, CUSTOMER-APPRECIATION EVENT OR SEMINAR, PLEASE TYPE "YES" BESIDE THE ITEM/S BELOW AND RETURN THIS EMAIL IN ORDER TO RECEIVE MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE FOLLOWING PROGRAMS:
___Lincoln-Leadership
___Personal Productivity-Time Management
___Macroforces and Trends in American Society
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YOU MAY ALSO CONTACT US BY CALLING 800-749-4625 OR CLICKING HERE: www.theamericans.us/ContactGene.html
Click here to watch excerpts from the Lincoln presentation in streaming video.
www.presidentlincoln.com/1.html

VALUABLE RESOURCES
***THE WORDS LINCOLN LIVED BY www.achievementdigest.com/thewordslincolnlivedby.html

***TIME TACTICS OF VERY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE www.achievementdigest.com/timetacticsofverysuccessfulpeople.html

***99 WAYS TO GET MORE OUT OF EVERY DAY: www.achievementdigest.com/99waystogetmorecd.html

***"AN EVENING WITH ABRAHAM LINCOLN" VIDEO www.achievementdigest.com/aneveningwithabraham.html

***"LESSONS FROM LEGENDS" CD AUDIOBOOK www.achievementdigest.com/ProductOrderForm.html

***"LINCOLN ON COMMUNICATION" DVD-CD www.achievementdigest.com/lincoln%20on%20communication.html

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