Culture: The Secret Ingredient to Good Business Practice

A great company has a well-articulated purpose and a culture of respect and empowerment. Good leaders believe in themselves and their capabilities but focus on the needs of other people. Consumers no longer want to have more, but they want to be more, and companies need to concentrate on these needs. Consumers want to live their true purpose of life and that goes for good business practice as well.

 

HotDogue Culture has a passionate appetite, and that is to help you live a significant life by offering bits of content with a twist and thought-provoking quotes. We aim to feed the inspiration and nurture the human spirit to make unlike-minded, innovative connections. Our hope is for everyone to find their passion and true purpose in life. Geez, and I thought our greatest significance was the secret ingredient that is found in our hot dog sauce, stupid me, but I’m only a cute canine named Frank.

 

Winston Churchill said, “We shape our culture and thereafter it shapes us.” Leaders need to create cultures rooted in trust, compassion, and authenticity, that is, companies must live out their true purpose, which is to be more rather than sell more. Dang, I was hoping for a Gucci collar with rhinestones for my next birthday.

 

With lovingkindness,

 

 

Hollywood is Screwing up our Chance for Real Love

So you’ve watched a lot of romantic comedies and have the impression that couples go through life holding hands and gazing into each other’s eyes for hours without looking away?  In Hollywood movies the romantic comedy is based on the concept of boy meets girl, boy loses girl and boy gets girl back. In these films, the couple lives happily ever after, which means everything is wonderful between boy and girl. 

 

I must say I am a sucker for a great romantic comedy and have enjoyed films like Pretty Women, Sleepless in Seattle, and Something’s Gotta Give. These films have provided escape, as well as desire for a romantic kind of love in my canine relationships. Ironically, the only thing stories have in common with real life is that our bodies change when we listen to a story, much like when we are “in-love” infused by a chemical cocktail.

 

From childhood, we are sold a particular idea about what love should be. We believe in love at first sight and happily ever after. Little girls are taught by society that they will grow up and meet prince charming, get married and have children. Hollywood portrays the central theme of marriage in television and movies. Advertisers promise “a diamond is forever.” The media have done us a great disservice by promoting a reality that isn’t obtainable.

 

People get confused about love and infatuation because they see how this is played out in television and films – people meet and have a strong physical attraction. Unfortunately, this is called love in television and films, but we should not base our relationships on such images. I hate to tell you this, but there’s no such thing as “love at first sight.” People may have witnessed “infatuation at first sight” which with some luck could lead to love.

 

With lovingkindness,

 

 

 

 

Identity Crisis: From Branded-Breasts to Botox for Dogs

You can’t please everyone all the time, so why even try? Just like a brand cannot be all things to all people, humans cannot connect deeply with all individuals. We are all drawn to brands who express self-confidence and our relationships with people are no different. Great brands know if you try to be all things to all people, you won’t connect deeply with anyone. I think this is a great lesson for humans.

 

I often over...hear people talk about their looks, fashion, Botox, fillers, breast implants, etc. Regardless of whether you live in Hollywood or a Greek village, people all over the world are pressured by the media industry. What the media dictates influences both male and female perspective. There’s not one branded-breast for all people just like there is not one brand-centric company for all individuals. It‘s overwhelming how insecure people can be, but it’s not surprising. The media and its messages are overpowering, but we need to remember we are more than our looks. We are spirit.

 

I recommend we start inside and work on our internal identity. It’s important to develop a strong core and inner self just like brand-centric organizations do. Your behavior, image and communication will flow from that. A strong brand identity will attract the ideal customer much like strong personal identity will attract the right people in your life. Great brands challenge trends. Great people should do the same. Stay strong and be your best self! Dogtox, anyone? I know, it’s a dog-eat-dog world!

 

With lovingkindness,

 

 

Happiness Improves with Age

We need to consider growing older from a different perspective. If we consider growing older as growth without the negative connotation of old, we’ll look at growing older more positively. Growing older means a loss for many people, and I believe this is a wrong way to view growing older. Growing older focuses on the loss of our youth and looks, but there’s a better way to look at growing older such as growing complete. While younger people may feel their chronological age, older people feel younger than they are, which may be an indication that they are becoming happier.

Growing older provides us with more self-esteem, well being, emotional stability, self-appreciation, acceptance and seeing more of the good in people. Our priorities are much clearer, and our perspective is much wiser with growing older. We also deal with social conflicts more effectively. In a study conducted in 2010, researchers at Stony Brook University found that people over 50 were happier, and their anger declined steadily from the 20s through the 70s. Additionally, stress was reduced after 50. It seems that managing emotions is a skill that takes decades to master. The University of Illinois conducted a study that revealed that the mind gets sharper at a number of vitally important activities, despite some short-term memory loss.

We must honor and value the experience that comes with our age, and if we fearlessly face it ourselves, everyone else will too. Giving into physical benefits for the emotional ones isn’t a bad trade-off. Instead of thinking of growing older as a decline, I believe we should consider how life gets better as we become complete. I believe the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. We must have the courage to be ourselves because our real value and worth has to do with our soul and not how we look or what we do for a living. I’ve always enjoyed being around older female canines. :)

With lovingkindness,

 

 

Exercise has a Profound Impact on Creativity

A large body of research now connects exercise to improvements in mood, creativity and productivity. Research also proves that vigorous exercise increases creativity and even moderate exercise yields a significant increase. Professor McKenna from Leeds Metropolitan University revealed that on the day employees exercise, their mood and work performance were substantially improved. What’s more, daily aerobic exercise can actually grow new brain cells according to Kramer, a psychologist at the University of Illinois.

 

The key is to make exercise fun and cultivate a daily practice. Get off the treadmill, steppers, cyclers and rowers and find activities you love doing and do them. For entrepreneurs and creators, exercise is a powerful tool that will transform fear and anxiety into creative fuel. Dr. Ratey noted in his book Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain that exercise has a profound effect on the brain. The brain literally rewires itself with exercise. He states that exercise affects our ability to think, create, solve, as well as our ability to lean into uncertainty, risk and judgment.

 

So, why do people resist exercise? We are trained to group people into various categories such as artists, jocks etc., but it’s those artists who need exercise the most to create their masterpieces. Thus, we should approach movement as creative inspiration and shift our mindset away from the look and feel better perspective associated with exercise. We have known for a long time that exercise relieves stress and anxiety, but this new research shows us that a life with no exercise is not an option. I think I’ll go play some flyball right now!

With lovingkindness,

 

Uncertainty is the only Certainty

We have a new reality and it’s called uncertainty. Global financial collapse, relocation of industries, emerging markets, technological disruption and political unrest has forced everyone into a world of change and unpredictability. Uncertainty has risen to a scale that has never been seen before. Each era has had its issues of uncertainty, as history has taught us, but today our perceptions and feelings of uncertainty are different due to technology. The more interconnected we are, the more uncertainty.

 

The 2008 economic crisis demonstrated how events that were previously thought to be unconnected are connected. There are few indicators of what's to come with financial markets so volatile and companies cutting back to prepare themselves for the unknown. It's a stressful time, where long-term planning is becoming difficult. It's impossible to predict whether your clients will be able to afford your services in the future or whether you'll have a job next month. The career you have now might not exist in 2020. Sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein said:

 

Uncertainty is wondrous, and… certainty, were it to be real, would be moral death. If we were certain of the future, there could be no moral compulsion to do anything. We would be free to indulge every passion and pursue every egoism, since all actions fall within the certainty that has been ordained. If everything is uncertain, then the future is open to creativity, not merely human creativity but the creativity of all nature. It is open to possibility, and therefore, to a better world.

 

In the uncertain environment, it’s important to be open to new opportunities or create your own. One great strategy is to make a list of what you want to accomplish during your lifetime.  Think about your passions: what you want to do and the impact you want to have. Write down your goals and prioritize them based on the current market forces. The good news is economic downturns favor innovation because they present problems that need to be solved. We need to be open, agile, humble and curious to allow new ideas to emerge or we simply won’t adapt or progress. We need to be confident and clear about our values, disciplined, as well as have the courage to acknowledge that we don’t know everything. It is important to remember the things you take for granted today might be completely different tomorrow.

 

With lovingkindness,

 

 

 

Minority talks, Beavis and Butt-head walks

Beavis and Butt-head, a ground-breaking animated cartoon series on American television that originally aired on MTV is taking a walk, that is, their ideologies are being replaced by minority storytelling. Digital media provides a platform for all kinds of people with all kinds of stories, and these converging stories tend to represent their values and beliefs. Too often, in the past, stories about minorities have been expressed negatively, which leads to the dominant society’s lack of understanding of the minority culture. However, there is a strong possibility that this will change as minority groups migrate online and form communities, and their voices will become more powerful.

 

The television age specialized in a single narrative that was dominated by Western ideologies; the future holds an emergent global narrative, made possible by social media. Social media is an affordable alternative that supports many voices, and therefore, a superb method for delivering a global story. This type of storytelling can move civilization from a globalized monoculture to one of polycultural clusters, where minority groups can eventually be heard. It is very likely that narratives will move societies from the era of Disneyization to differenziation as well as online groupization.

 

In their book, Global Culture Industry, Lash and Lury contend that “in a global culture industry, production and consumption are process of the consumption of difference.” Lash and Lury compare classical culture industry and global culture industry: “Classical culture industry occupied the space of the symbolic: global culture industry the space of the real. Culture industry is Hollywood’s dream-machine, global culture industry brute reality.” Hence, the global culture industry is likely to provide authentic stories through diverse voices. The good news is every dog will have its day!

 

With lovingkindness,