Political Rallies and Sales Kickoffs

After attending a Sales Kickoff in Orlando, FL, listening to Jesse Jackson at a Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, listening to Al Gore live giving his latest edition of An Inconvenient Truth and attending the Boise State Fiesta Bowl celebration, I am a bit overwhelmed with thoughts of how people attempt to get others to jump on their bandwagon.

I have been to a few sales kickoffs and all of them had some great training, but there is always some type of excitement and hype built up about the company. The Sales Kickoff I attended for a door-to-door sales company was always full of giveaways and excitement. The company took care of us but always made me feel a little childish. I guess they did get me to the conference so they could get all of my paperwork filled out. The corporation I work for now does a much better job giving insight into our products, the competitive environment and the company situation. Corporations will always try to get people to believe in their product, I am just happy to work for one that I actually do believe in.

Listening to Jesse Jackson was a treat. I am amazed with how prolific he pontificates the prolonging pragmatic problems that face these United of States. If there is anyone that can rhyme words in a way that makes you want to yell amen, Jesse Jackson is that man. Mr. Jackson did a good job at first telling us of the struggles that faced Martin Luther King Jr. and the people that he represented. Then Jackson started to explain to the audience the detriment that is the Bush Administration. The reverend catered to the audience the was composed of mainly democratic liberals, and told those that would listen of the atrocities that those in Washington were committing on the world. I liked the first half of his speech and Jackson made some good points about equality, but the second half was too much "Bush Bashing" and not enough telling me how I could help. (I will add that the many 'amens', 'you tell it', 'thank you brother', etc were worth attending the event. I really enjoy the way Rev. Jackson speaks)

Two days after a packed house, 10,000 in attendance in Taco Bell Arena sat through a Boise State basketball game during a day of celebration in Idaho for the Undefeated, Fiesta Bowl winning Boise State Broncos Football Team for the presentation of the Fiesta Bowl trophy (sorry I digress), another 10,000 people gathered to listen to Al Gore present An Inconvenient Truth to Idaho. My first observations were the difference between the two audiences. I believe there was a small percent of people that attended both the basketball game and the Al Gore speech. Myself, my wife and brother-in-law were three of those that attended both. I was a different atmosphere for sure. Al Gore has some good things to say, but he didn't give me enough ideas of how I could make a difference. I also wonder what he did while he was in the White House for 8 years? Today it was announced that he is up for a Nobel Peace prize. Go figure. My thoughts coming out of the speech were, "Didn't I see and hear all of this in that movie I watched starring him?"

I really enjoy living in the Treasure Valley of Idaho. The population is exploding and too many people are finding out that Boise is a great place to live. People complain about the diversity, but I can attest there are many different people with plenty of different ideas. I may not like all of them, but I respect them. I also realize that people try to get you to jump into their agendas. Do your own research and find out what you think. Don't just "Damn the Man" or "Blame Big Brother" before you look into the facts yourself.