A long-time journalism friend, John Callahan, just published his first novel. But don’t look for Gettysburg Passage in any bookstores. At least, not yet. John has taken a novel approach to publishing his work.

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I have encountered during my lifetime a handful of young people I realized possess a great deal of talent. One of those individuals is Matt Walsh, the son of a friend who is completing his degree in journalism at the University of Florida. Matt’s creativity flows through his camera. He has the true eye of an artist and that sixth sense that enables him to be in the right place at the right time to capture the one-in-a-million shot.

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Fear. Along with joy, sadness, and anger, it’s one of the primary emotions that affect our behavior. It was a boon for our ancestors in that it pumped enough adrenaline into their bodies to allow them to outrun the animals intent on eating them. But as we evolved from the cave to the cubicle, fear largely began to work against us.

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Ever wonder why your Sunday paper is so much thicker than any weekday edition? Could it be there is more news to report on the weekends? Hardly. It shouldn’t surprise you that the advertising department determines how large tomorrow’s edition will be. The newsroom is then invited to fill in whatever space is left. On average, the ratio runs about 60 percent advertising to 40 percent editorial, although I think that’s a conservative estimate.

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It will be a long time before we are able to write the complete case study on how BP has handled the oil disaster in the Gulf. But what can we learn from how they’ve handled their message through this crisis?

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As you may have heard, Apple’s new iPhone 4 went on sale last Thursday (6/24/10) all over the world. And, as usual whenever Jobs & Company introduces a new product, their manic fans went nuts. According to CNNMoney, more than 600 people lined up outside the flagship Apple store in New York City to buy what many were calling the “Jesus Phone.” It was chaos inside our Orlando, Florida malls. The story made headline news on all the major networks. Apple reported selling 1.7 million of the new phones in the first three days.

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How do you picture today’s college student? Straight out of high school, living in a dorm, and graduating in four years? Better think again. The traditional student today is non-traditional.

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Although our board rooms and meeting spaces differ in size and style, I’m sure almost every one of them, including yours, contains a pachyderm lurking somewhere near the conversation. Regardless of the topic or the intent, every one in the room is careful not to draw attention to the elephant.

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Many of you who know me well are aware of my admiration for Mark Twain. I have always considered him my mentor. Ernest Hemingway believed, and I agree, that all great American writing evolved from his pen. And fortunately, he left behind a great body of work, including some tips on good writing. For example, he shared this observation in his autobiography:  “I made the great discovery that when the tank runs dry you’ve only to leave it alone and it will fill up again in time, while you are asleep – also while you are at work on other things and are quite unaware that this unconscious and profitable cerebration is going on. ” Here are a few of my other favorites:

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At SunGard Higher Education’s recent annual user’s conference, we spent the week covering the event on social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and CrowdVine. Many of the 6,000+ attendees followed these reports; questions and comments were almost immediate. For an old timer like me, it was proof positive that social media is more than a fad.

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Here’s an interesting fact: the state of Hawaii continues to get so many requests for verification of President Barack Obama’s birth, the state legislature has approved a measure exempting it from the public records law. It made me realize that despite the proof, and long after the legacy of our 44^th president will have passed into the history books, this birther myth will continue to flourish.

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I just returned from spending the week at SunGard Higher Education’s Summit 2010 in San Francisco. There were lots of informative presentations and I left with a notebook full of ideas to implement. I also enjoyed some chance encounters, three of which I’d like to share with you:

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I enjoyed some conversations recently about technology in higher education with the chief information officers of a couple prestigious American universities. I’ve been mulling over their observations and thought I would share a couple:

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Great advice from the Renaissance writer and philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli: “Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.”

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A company recently was granted permission to pump up to 170 million gallons of fresh water a year out of the aquifer near where I live. People will be glad to pay more than a dollar a bottle to drink the same water I drink for practically nothing. Why is that?

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According to a study conducted by the Global Information Center, the average American in 2008 consumed an average 12 hours per day, or more than 100,000 words, of information. Not surprisingly, about 60 percent of that information was consumed through radio and television. And the hours of information consumed grew at a rate of 2.6 percent per year from 1980 until 2008.

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How much of our working lives are spent in meetings? And how much of that time would you classify as unproductive and wasteful?

A friend of mine, David Goad, regularly posts blogs that are both insightful and informative. He posted one recently on how to make those mandatory meetings more engaging and effective: http://davidgoad.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/dead-air-dynamics/. I think the article offers up some good suggestions on how to keep things lively. I encourage you to check it out.

I have found that we marketeers tend to fall into one of two categories: some of us are visionary, conceptual dreamers while the rest are executioners. The idealistic thinkers spend much of their time with their heads in the clouds, coming up with grandiose plans. The operations types, meanwhile, have their proverbial noses to the grindstone, making sure the projects are accomplished on time and under budget.

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“We’ve heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare,” says author Robert Wilensky. “Now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true.”

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Has life dealt you any setbacks along your journey? Here’s some advice from two guys who have shared your experience:

Lee Iacocca went to work for the Ford Motor Company in 1946 as an engineer, but it was in sales that he distinguished himself. He quickly rose through the ranks and in 1964, at age 40, was named president of the Ford Division. He is credited with helping to design many of Ford’s more popular cars, including the legendary Mustang. He eventually ascended to the top of the pyramid and was named president of the Ford Motor Company. But clashes with Henry Ford II led to his eventual firing in 1978, the very year the company posted a $2 billion profit.

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