Movember week 1

Ok so the moustache is taking shape and I am trying to adjust to the little peach fuzz on my lip. I found this as another great opportunity to involve my kids and bring them awareness on how its important to support social causes. The first reaction of the girls is that Dad you are going to look silly! Once they learned however that I was making a small sacrifice of "looking silly" to support prostate cancer research, their focus changed. I truly feel that we need to involve our kids more in these types of activities if we are to create the next generation of society.
This spring I had the opportunity to listen to a child choir from Africa that did tours to raise awareness on the struggles of children in Africa. http://www.watoto.com/home The Watoto organization invited participants who listened to the group to consider sponsoring a child each month to assist them with education and housing. My girls were immediately interested in having Dad sponsor a child and support this important cause. I asked them if they were interested in donating $5 a month each to the cause, and if they were I would pay the difference. They were very receptive to the idea and each month now they bring me their financial contribution. I would hope its through these lessons that they develop into responsible adults that care for the world and others. I have already seen evidence of their good will this summer when they assisted a store owner whose store was broken into.
We all have a part to play, and whether it is done locally or internationally it makes no difference. The important part is that we somehow leave our mark on a social cause that we can be proud of as an individual.

My Moustache for Movember, look out Tom Selleck

Movember

Well I did not expect one of my co-workers to challenge me to get involved in Movember, but hey, who can turn down a challenge! Movember is a very interesting campaign to raise funds for prostate cancer. The challenge is to not shave your moustache for the full month of November hence Movember. The campaign has become very popular and is creating a significant awareness about the impacts of prostate cancer. I have printed the Movember Style Guide and asked the staff here at the corporate office to do a vote and select my moustache style. It should be interesting to see what they select! The site if you're interested in supporting this cause and my fundraising efforts is http://mobro.co/corymunden
Follow my moustache growing progress at the above link:)

Attention

Hello blog readers! I wanted to quickly comment on this photo that I took in Ireland while visiting there this summer.
There are two ladies standing in a busy downtown corridor and they obviously are selling strawberries. What is unique is the baby carriage they are using to transport the strawberries. It caught my attention right away, and although I had no intention on purchasing strawberries, one could not help notice the vivid color of the berries in the carriage.
The point here is that to draw attention you must do something different. I once had attended a seminar and the speaker of the day advised if you try the same old thing expect the same old results. If you are looking for different results try something different. Obviously these ladies found a unique way to market something so simple as strawberries. From a personal perspective if you are considering a new venture, a change at work, or simply planning an event, forget the predictable. Try something unique and different. We all have seen the Dyson vacuum cleaner commercials. An inventor looks at the common vacuum that we have been using for the last 50 years and says hey lets try something different. The whole marketing flaunt of what he offers is that this product is different, and solves all those pesky problems we had with our old vacuum. Oh, by the way, he is pointing out the problems for us, as many of us never even realized that a pivot on a vacuum head would solve all our problems :).

Today in a world of competition that expands well beyond the local level to the global level, we need to be different. What is your unique perspective?
Take care and just some food for thought for today!