The following post has been re-printed with the permission of the author.  The original article can also be found here.

Sometimes, when I leave the ballpark with a bad taste in my mouth, I take the long way home. Come the next day, if that taste still is there, I take the long way back to the spoon that fed it to me.

Pitching isn’t easy. I’ve never said it is, not even in the arrogance of my youth. Baseball simply won’t allow it to be. No matter how good a pitcher is, he must wind and let go of the ball. In that instant, when the little white dot flies from his hand, anything can, and often does, happen.

This unpredictable nature of baseball is what leads the men who play it to create such fanciful routines, rituals and superstitions — including buckets of chicken, compulsive tooth brushing and the occasional wearing of women’s underwear. Do these things really impact the sport or are they done simply to soothe a player’s mind?

I pray. I’d like to think my invocations are more than superstition, but during times such as these, when I wander to the ballpark, when no amount of compulsive tooth brushing cleanses the disgust, when my supplication becomes frustration about the absence of a changeup, communing with the Almighty seems less than divine.

Maybe it’s how we talk, angrily calling God into the office of my mind during aimless walks around town. Telling Him He needs to shape up, because I have a life and a career and plans He’s supposed to fulfill. I offer to go halfway, but He’s always silent during negotiation, which leads me to grumbling. Come the end, when I’ve dumped it all out, I tell Him I’m tired of meeting under these circumstances.

At the end of my most recent walk/performance evaluation with God, a sound of joy interrupted our talk, pulling my attention from the destination of the locker doors to the patch of four-base-agony I was on last night.

There, on field, were dozens of happy children.

Plastic bases marked miniature diamonds in left, right and center field, populated by parents pitching soft, foamy balls to the long, loopy swings of bat-sized kids. The players were special-needs children. Some played positions in wheelchairs, others from behind braces.

Still others stood, under the pull of autism or Down syndrome.

God and I watched the scene.

When a long swing struck a ball into play, the children let loose with shouts, chasing after the white bauble like freshly lit firecrackers. Once caught, they clamored at the opportunity to throw their prize. To whom or where seemed irrelevant. Just throwing it was fun enough.

Besides, where the ball went didn’t matter. No outs were being collected. The drama was an illusion, but a pleasant one.

The kids reset. A new hitter strode to the plate, a young girl roughly 6 years old with dark hair, a darling smile and no arms. The fabric of her sleeves hung from her shoulders like a flag without wind. Her father came to her side and held a bat with a handle wrapped in a towel. The girl pinched the padded handle between her shoulder and chin. Bat secured, she dug in.

The pitch. The swing. Grounder to everyone!

Down the line ran the girl as the fielders gave chase. She hit first base, promptly ran to second, then to third. The ball was thrown straight up, then chased again. Rounding third, heading home, the slide … safe!

A home run on an infield single, and everyone was happy.

Father met his daughter at home plate, dropped to his knees and hugged her. Despite the absence of arms, she hugged him back, firm and tight. I stood taking it all in. God, I’m sure, smiled.

I couldn’t help but wonder, what did that father and his daughter pray? Was it superstition or sincerity? Were they angry when they called on God? Did they grumble about a lack of fingers to fold while praying, how it wasn’t part of their plan, how they’re tired of meeting under such circumstances?

Or were they grateful to a God that makes hugs and home runs possible, even without arms?

Dirk Hayhurst is a 1999 Canton South High School graduate and a former Mid-American Conference Pitcher of the Year at Kent State University. The 28-year-old right-hander currently is a member of the Toronto Blue Jays, and his book, The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor-League Veteran is available for order at Amazon.com.  You can find Dirk on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TheGarfoose

London, England is an amazing city to say the least. Last summer I had a chance to catch a Blue Jays game at the old Yankee Stadium in New York City. At the time I thought New York was THE city that never sleeps. Boy, was I wrong! London is right up there with New York.

To end of this blog series from London, here are my 10 favourite things about London:

1. Size. Size is everything. London is a huge city. If you travelled from the north end of London to the south on the M25 (the circular motor/highway that encompasses London) it would take you almost an hour and a half at a speed of 100km/hr. Why do I like this? It means that there is more to see and experience: Neighbourhoods, shopping, restaurants, etc.
2. Nandos. Is there a Nandos restaurant where you live? Maybe there is one in the city you live in. In London, Nandos is everywhere! It’s as prevelant as Swiss Chalet is in Toronto. The only difference is the tender chicken, amazing variety of Peri Peri sauces and the endless supply of Coke Zero!
3. Charity Shops. I understand there is Variety Village and Goodwill stores in Canada. But really, would you brag about shopping at these places? In London, charity shops can be found in your local trendy shopping district. And the clothes and bargains to be found are plenty. I purchased a Zara brand suede jacket for under 4 British Pounds (that’s less than $10 Cdn!).
4. Roundabouts. In the city where the traffic light was invented, it is hard to believe that roundabouts still exist. However, it keeps the traffic flowing. Anyone from Toronto would love that!
5. Museums. And not just the world renowned Natural Museum with the dinasour bones. There are plenty of museums and art gallery’s in this city. And the museums are FREE. That’s right, no charge. I think Chris Anderson would like that.
6. Public Transit. London is a city where one can literally travel anywhere, and I mean anywhere, by public transit. Public transit in London includes bus, train and underground. There are various zones and times and prices to match. For example, one could travel all night long on the famous London buses for under 5 British pounds! Or, you could use all the different options and travel with your family for up to 24 hours for under 50 British pounds. Not only is the pricing outstanding, but so is the coverage. Anywhere in London is accessible to everywhere at all times.
7. No urban sprawl. This does not mean there are no “big” homes or green spaces. It means that London takes it’s space serious and does not waste it. For a city as huge, dense and populated as London, it’s incredible that it’s basically void of highrises.
8. Cobblestone. There is that “something” about roads and sidewalks make of rock and stone isn’t there?
9. Weather. London gets it’s fair share of rain and overcast days. As a Torontonian, I would swap a week of sub-zero temperatures and blowing snow for a month of rain and drizzle. It is impossible to play golf year round in Toronto. In London? Fore!
10. People. What would a city be without it’s people? I am fortunate that I could travel to London at anytime and have a place to stay. With lots of family and friends, London easily tops my list as one of the best cities that I have ever travelled to.

LTD, or Leadership Team Development is a training and mentorship team that equips and empowers the entrepreneur through a business system of duplication and more importantly, includes education and mentoring from leaders in the industry. This weekend, they are holding a conference and recognition event in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Want to follow a few LTD independent business owners this weekend?

Then check out the #Summit09 twitter feed.

Have a great weekend folks!

Last night I had the opportunity to study the Jonas Brothers with 56,000 raving fans at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. That’s right. Study them. Contrary to popular belief, I am not a fan of their music. Although, I must confess, they did put on one heck of a show on Sunday night.

Which brings me to the focus of this post. There were more people there than the last concert I went to at the Rogers Centre: Coldplay. Granted, at least 15% in attendance last night were parents or older siblings chaperoning the young ones. But I digress.

What I witnessed Sunday night was astounding. A band that held the audience in the palm of their hands for almost 2 hours. A band that provoked screams of delight from every word they sang or spoke. A band that prompted many fans to pay upwards of $400 for a floor seat, gift bag and a special meet and greet and sound check 5 hours before the brothers took stage.

What made this concert a sell-out? Why are the Jonas Brothers a success?

Here are FIVE things I took away from the concert:

1. Be emotional. During the show, one of the brothers (the one who plays guitar, piano and drums) spoke about his diabetes diagnosis and how he was determined never to let that stop him from pursuing his dream. I mean, the guy is younger than 30 and he spoke about how us “kids” should never quit. Pursue your dream. Well, his audience ate it up. And it’s a good message too. What emotions does your audience have? Are they excited for you? Or do they want to pull their hair out after you’ve spoken to them?
2. Know your audience. The brother’s know who their audience is. It’s not people who like Coldplay or U2 or even Neil Young. It’s not the Y generation. And because they know their audience they play to them. They put out movies and TV shows to sell to their demographic – girls under 15. Who is your audience? Do you know or are you just throwing mud against the wall to see what sticks?
3. Thank those who pay. I doubt any 14 year old girl or boy has $400 to shell out for a concert. But their parents do. And so the Jonas Brothers thanked the parents by playing a Neil Diamond song and thanking the parents for bringing their kids. Don’t forget to thank those who help pay your bills. You may even want to sing them a song.
4. Invite others to participate. Please don’t ask me to name the groups or why don’t I remember the names of the other performers because I don’t know. What I do know, however, is that the Jonas Brothers had 3 opening acts. Another boy band and a couple of other girl fronted groups. During the main set though, various members of these groups played with the Jonas Brothers. And it seemed to raise the decibel level of the stadium to even greater heights. Wow. In business, I think it’s very important to encourage clients, partners and other stake holders to participate. It can be as simple as asking your clients their opinion of your work.
5. Dream. This is important. The Rogers Centre call fit 50,000+ people in it. And the boy band of the moment filled it. I wonder if the Blue Jays heard about this…

These are 5 take aways that I know every business, organization, institution, family and club can use to help them “rock their audience.” What are you doing to “rock” yours?

I’ve had a chance to attend three weddings so far this summer. My wife and I have another one to attend later this year.

There is something about getting married that is inspirational.

My last friends to get married, A and H, come from a background where people don’t usually get married. They come from the “bad side” of town. They come from a generation where getting married means the guy must have gotten the girl in trouble with an unplanned kid on the way.

So, to defy the odds and get married because of love and commitment is something to raise a glass to.

Which is what I did when I offered the bride and groom a toast.

May all of the newlyweds this year live a life of prosperity, love, laughter and fun…together.

I just finished the book FREE by Chris Anderson of Wired. I also attended* the Coldplay concert in Toronto Thursday night.

It should come to no surprise to anyone who has read Chris’ s latest book that FREE and the Coldplay concert are related. If you are under 30 years old you have probably participated in a decade old “shift” of the music recording industry (not just a shift in the music industry).

Quick Analysis:

As a result of consumers downloading and sharing their music digitally, recording studios have seen a steady, if not rapid, decline in their sales. As a result, bands and musicians have sought out varying ways of 1.) recouping “lost” revenues, and 2.) selling to their fans (who became such through digital file-sharing).

Now we have bands such as Coldplay marching through 18+ months of touring. In fact, Thursday night’s concert was their third in Toronto since the release of their latest album (They last visited exactly one year ago). But what does this have to do with free and FREE? Was their concert free? No.

After the concert, each attendee was given a free cd (titled: Left Right Left Right Left) with 9 selected songs from the Coldplay library. Don’t worry. If you didn’t attend you can still download the album from their website. Free of course.

FREE, the boook:

Which brings me to the book, FREE. To understand more of the reasonings and thought process of Coldplay’s free music give away, I suggest you read (you’ll have to buy or borrow it) or listen (FREE is free on iTunes) to FREE. More than understanding digital downloading in the music industry, the book is a great study on the future of business. Can you imagine making money by giving away your product(s) for free? Do you understand why Google is the world’s largest company and you’ve never purchased anything from them?

FREE will open your eyes to the possibilities that exist from giving it all away.

Have you read FREE? What are your thoughts? Have you read any interesting books on business? What do you recommend?

Karim Kanji asked me to write a blog post about, well in his words via twitter “I was thinking abt various places u’ve worked (cities) & the great things abt them for u?” for his blog. It’s a topic I’ve thought about, I wrote a bit of a critical post about Monocle magazine’s top 25 places to live a couple of weeks ago. So this blog post appears on both Karim’s site and my own blog.

A little bit about me, for those who don’t know me or haven’t come across my blog before, I’ve been living/working in Switzerland for the last year, before that I spent about 8 years in the UK, working in London. I’m Canadian by birth, but haven’t lived there for almost 10 years. I’ve worked for big brands, small brands, the public sector, start ups, and now I’ve been working for Yahoo! for the last few years.

Ok, so here’s my theory on choosing a place to live where you’ll be happy. I believe there are five major categories to picking a place for work/life. In no particular order these include; professional, social/cultural, personal, financial and functional. All of these have different levels and at different times in your life may take differing heights of importance.

“Professional” is the job you’re in and the ability to find jobs that you’ll love. I came to Switzerland because I enjoyed the job I was in and wanted to stay in it. I went to London because the Brits were more willing to hire a web developer with a Kinesiology degree then the Canadians were.

“Social” is the people and the activities that you can participate in. You might enjoy the British Pub culture, or the outdoors life, swimming, hiking, skiing or snowboarding etc, or you might enjoy a place with culture, many museums (easy to access) or the opera or other social/cultural events or happenings. This criterion can also include the places nearby, being able to travel, explore and have adventure at your doorstep.

“Personal” is about your personal status and life, if you’re young and single, being in a place where you might meet someone is pretty important, when you’re older with children being in a place near your family might be more important.

“Financial” is about how much you can earn and how far your money will go. You could live in a place where you’re earning a lot, or you could be in a place where it doesn’t matter if you earn a lot because living there is not very expensive.

“Functional” it might be important for you to be able to drive everywhere, or to not have to drive anywhere. It might important for you to find a takeaway Chinese meal or a pizza. Or it might not.

Knowing how important the different criteria are to you and how well a place meets the criteria that are most important to you is a good way to figuring out whether or not you’ll be happy working and living in a place. Switzerland wasn’t our choice, but it met some of our criteria and we’re glad we took the chance. So as important as it is to set criteria and know how a place measures up, being open to new experiences and allowing your self to give new places a shot is pretty important too.

At least once per month I will highlight a business, life or even funny lesson here. My purpose is not to teach nor preach but to share some of the crumbs I’ve gathered from other people’s tables.

At my workplace and business I’ve come to learn that one of the best ways to attract business is to paint as positive a picture of myself, my service/product and my company as I possibly can. What I used to do was tear down my competition as if they were some sort of alien enemy hell bent on my destruction. In fact, what I do today is heap praise on my competitors when their name or brand is brought up by my clients.

Why?

Lesson – You attract what you project. If I project positiveness and goodwill this is what I will attract. Therefore, if I’m negative (towards myself or others) THIS is what I will get in return. If I’m positive, I will reap positive returns.

This is why the following article confused me. Kill Your Competition. I believe if we all want more business we should focus on uncovering our clients or prospects needs and fill that need. Bashing the other guy doesn’t bring anyone any business.

And I think we can say the same thing in regards to our relations with people. Small people talk about other people. Successful (in life) people talk about concepts and ideas.

What are your thoughts? What approach do you take in life/business? Do you spend time tearing down or building up? I’d love to read your thoughts and ideas.

With July just a few days away, I thought I’d let you know what you can expect from this blog over the next few months.

Once a month I’ll highlight and maybe discuss a lesson I’ve learned. It may be a life lesson or just an interesting life observation. I enjoy reading, so maybe I’ll share something from my books.

Twice a month, I’ll introduce you to a specific person who I’ve learned from. Some people prefer to remain anonymous so instead of names you may just get a description of their character and why they have inspired me.

I hope you enjoy this new “series” as much as I enjoy bringing it to you.

To start us off visit my good friend, Sameer Vasta’s, blog at itellstories.org. You’ll find my first take on an inspirational person.

Have fun!

Is there someone who you’d like to highlight here? Maybe someone famous or a good friend of yours? Or maybe a life lesson you’ve just learned? If so, just email me your story at karim_kanji [at] hotmail [dot] com.