The Godfather Principle

I'm amazed that I need to say this out loud to grown folks.

“Never get angry. Never make a threat. Reason with people.”
- Don Vito Corleone


Social media. Let's look at that term for just a moment.  SOCIAL MEDIA. That is not the same thing as  "private communication".  Social media is just that. Social. Everyone is involved, everyone can see.  Guess what, even if your profile is "private", it's not really private.  It is not only able to be viewed by any 3rd grader with a talent for hacking, but it's also viewable by LAW ENFORCEMENT and ADMISSIBLE IN COURT.  So, when you go onto SocMed and "vent" by making threats of violence, however thinly veiled they may be, you are  (to quote Ice Cube) giving up your transcripts.  You're confessing to premeditation to whatever you do that follows.  You also make yourself prime suspect number 1.  This is why it is more criminal the threaten the POTUS, than it is to assassinate him/her. If you just do it, "temporary insanity", "crime of passion" etc.  If you threaten first, then do it, you remove your entire defense.

There are a series of books that I call my "Annual 5.  I love to read and read from many different genres.  However, I make sure that I read these 5 at least once per year.

"The Art of War" - Sun Tzu
"The Prince" - Niccolo Machiavelli
"The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive" - Patrick Lencioni
"The Perfect Kill: 21 Laws For Assassins" - Robert Baer
"The Godfather" - Mario Puzo

You'll find me quoting Don Corleone often, as his wisdom in life and business is astounding, and his principles are unbending and without reproach.  Granted, I recognize that he is a fictional character, and that i'm in fact quoting Mario Puzo.  But, Tomato Tomahto.  The Don never threatened, he reasoned.  Take when he sent Tom Hagen to speak to the movie producer.  He asked for a favor, and then advised as to the ways that granting a favor could garner favors in return and prevent future misfortunes. He was clear that he made a much better ally than enemy.  You see, The Don never threatened, BUT he payed close attention to threats made against him.  In fact, the book shows us that he "weighed such threats for merit.  If they were considerable and valid, he would respond accordingly, and if they weren't, he never said anything. He brushed them off, and looked at the person making the threat, with a lowered esteem".  

When you begin to swagger, threaten, raise your voice, you're merely telling your opponent "I have no self-discipline and i'm losing/have lost control".  When you do that on SocMed, you're telling EVERYONE this about yourself.  If the people you are wanting to do business with see your behavior in such a light, they don't respect it or you.  They begin to see you in a lower esteem, and cease taking you as serious as you may wish. In fact, you really shouldn't even confide such threats in someone you trust.  There is an old saying, "Three people can keep a secret, if two of them are dead".

"Never hate your enemies. It clouds your judgement"
- Don Michael Corleone

Let's take that a step further.  Stop posting your relationship troubles on SocMed as well.  The only thing you're saying to others is "my situation is unstable", "I don't know how to handle my own business", "I want attention"...but most importantly, you're telling snakes "Come on in! The water's fine!!".  This doesn't mean you can't speak to your confidants about your troubles. We all need to vent, and have the one friend that will be there for you to vent to.  Hopefully, you have friends like mine, that will let me vent and will give me comfort OR tell me i'm full of shit, whichever is needed.  But everyone you "friend" isn't your friend.  In fact, FB lets you "follow" someone without being their "friend".  So, believe me, haters are watching you too, and plotting. Stop giving them fodder, and stop giving them a way to be a wedge in your life.  Stop playing checkers in life, and only thinking about the moment.  Begin playing chess. Plan your moves while considering the future.  And plan those moves quietly.

I'll end all of this with this final thought from Don Corleone.

“A friend should always underestimate your virtues and an enemy overestimate your faults”

 

Let's all play life a little smarter.  

That's just NOT ME!

This began as a text to a friend.  But I wanted to just share it and see who else feels this way.

I was walking through a department store and I saw other guys my age that are just every day shmoes.  Frumpy with their bowl-haircuts, in their work-a-day lives, wearing the polo shirt  their wives bought them, merely plodding along.

The thought then occurred to me....stick with me, kids....

I was NEVER meant to be "average".  I wasn't designed to be content with a 40 hr week, 9-5 timeclock-punching bullshit existence.

It just wasn't me, and that die was cast from a VERY young age.  I began singing in church at the age of 6. I could belt out "Amazing Grace" like no one's business.  I didn't have to be PUSHED into it...I did it on my own. I REQUESTED to be able to sing a "special".  I began learning to play guitar at the age of 8, with only a guitar and a chord chart.  My father gave me the only music lesson I ever had in my entire life.  He said "IF you want to learn, you'll learn".  Simple.  I now play 16 (UPDATE 3/16/24: That has now turned into 18) instruments, I thought myself every single one of them, I have never taken a lesson, and I don 't read a lick of music. I play by ear, and always have.  I started singing in local bands from about the age of 13, and covered everything from The Temptations, to Cameo, to Full Force, to Earth Wind & Fire, to Iron Maiden, to Coheed and Cambria.  I do anything from classic Italian ballads, to Rob Zombie. I am a dynamic, charismatic individual. A leader, a learner, a teacher, a master, and a pupil.  I've driven every tank from the M48A5 up to the M1A1, i've road marched AND ran Misery, Agony, and Heartbreak (anyone who went through Ft. Knox knows what i'm talking about).  I've jumped out of perfectly good aircraft, and can put a bullet up a flea's ass at 1600 meters.

What i'm saying, is not to be as bragadocious as it sounds.  I'm trying to illustrate my point.  I'm not an "average" cat. I never have been.  I wasn't designed to be.  I've been fortunate enough to have wonderful children, and now grandchildren.....but even THEY will tell you, i'm not the average Dad.  They have a dad who introduces them to rockstars and hip hop gods, a dad who they have seen onstage, rocking a crowd for an hour straight, then coming home and having fresh homemade canolis ready for breakfast the next morning.

Fuck it.  Call me cocky, arrogant, asshole, too big for my own britches...tell me i'm smellin myself..

But don't even TRY to tell me I'm "Average".  I'm anything BUT.  And I was NEVER MEANT to be anything short of....

EXTRAORDINARY.