Helloo0O Ladies
and Gentlemen!
Welcome back to
Graceland Ontario for another week learning the success
lessons of Elvis Presley in bettering YOUR life. Today, we’ll be talking about the
importance of soul. And the way we do it will be a nice way to usher in
October, month of Halloween (in fact, I love Halloween SOOO much all the posts
in October will have some Halloween link, so if you’re like me and crave jack-o’-lanterns
and things that go bump in the night, this is your month).
I’ve had a BBC couple weeks, with last weeks post of
Dr Russell Dohner and his spirit and now this week’s post − check out this BBC video. It’s only 3 minutes, but it is a
little disturbing.
In it, Ginger Strand talks about her book Killer on the Road, an explanation of why the U.S.’s interstate highways are the lairs of
so many killers. She feels the main reason stems from the interstate’s soullessness.
To paraphrase her, she says people use the highways to get places but can’t
connect with them like they can with more local roads, like Route 66 − there’s
no human connection making them the perfect place to commit inhumane acts…
murder.
This rang my Elvis bell. When people talk about Elvis’s singing style,
they often regard him as soulful. Soul is equated with humanity and so we are
able to connect with him. And, contrary to the interstate, his style is
associated with peace, happiness, joy - the opposite of violence.
So, what does
this mean for you? We need to aim for soul in this world of large corporations
and dissociation from whom we listen to in music and deal with in business.
More and more, people and society as a whole are going the way of the
interstate, they accomplish a purpose but lack humanity. And the less human
people feel about you and whatever your job or purpose is, the less likely they’ll
use human values with you. The more mechanical, computerized, synthetic,
soulless life becomes, the more mechanical, computerized, synthetic, soulless
people become. And man, as a human with a soul, that’s bad news. Given the
violence brought about on the interstate because of it, soullessness could
bring violence into your life, and I think most of us would agree we don’t need
that.
On the
contrary, following Elvis’s approach, the traditional approach, the Route 66
approach will stimulate those feelings of peace, friendship and humanity that
are being lost. Talking to your customers, attempting to honestly care about
their problems, listening, doing a favour for someone you barely know all go
under humanity. The more human you are, the more you get the peace humanity
brings. “What you dish out you get back,” says the Universe and doing the
opposite, being inhuman, will only bring more inhumanity. And when you’re going
through a tough time, you need all the humanity you can get.
There’s another
benefit: being human gives you an edge on all the big corporations, the big
musicians, the big politicians. They all use technology to run their lives for
them. They rarely see their customers, or stores, let alone meet them.
When you take the time to get to know those who support you, as Elvis did,
people feel they know you, you become their friend and they want to support you
(watch Elvis in That’s the Way It Is
during “Love Me Tender”; he jumps off the stage and starts kissing people and
shaking their hands. You can’t get much more human than that − and people loved
him for it).
This world is starving of humanity. It sucks because, guess what?
We’re all human. And we need humanity more than ever. When you provide it,
it gives you an edge. And we all want on edge on the competition, especially
when they’re 1, 000, 000% our size.
I hope this improves you day and week and I look forward to seeing you
again next week for the continuation of our Halloween series!
Elvis’s Lessons:
Ginger Strand wrote a book called Killer
on the Road about the violence on the U.S.’s interstate highways. She blames it on
the soullessness of the roads. Elvis, on the other hand, had soul and
coincidentally created the opposite of violence − peace. By aiming to create
soul and humanity in your work by getting to know people you gain an edge
corporations can’t match. They're too big to get to know all those customers, but you're not. And an edge can be the difference between success and
fading away. Keep it in mind.
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P.S. Remember to leave a comment − I’d be glad to hear from ya.
P.P.S. If you’d like to see Elvis showing humanity, here he is in a Youtube video singing “Love Me Tender” from his 1970 documentary That’s the Way It Is. Worth a watch.
P.P.P.S. If this post interests you, so might these other FREE Graceland Ontario posts ;
P.P.P.S. If this post interests you, so might these other FREE Graceland Ontario posts ;
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