With over 5,000 articles written today on the web about Mr. Spitzer’s rapid fall from as the power the governor of New York, the media frenzy isdeafening. But I believe that his recent troubles should not dictate the end to his public life. We need to remember that most of our careers are not linear. We all screw up sometimes and bad things happen. It is fine to grieve failures, even wallow in it for awhile, but Spitzer did the wise thing- he made the decision to quickly resign so he could move on with his life and career. His articulation that he will continue on as a public servant in some way is what the bounce process is all about. He now can get on a new path so he can seek another success opportunity in his life.

What do you think?

I have found that documentaries are a great way to learn. I wish I would have know about Donald Crowhurst when I was writing Bounce!

In the documentary, Deep Water, Crowhurst, the owner of a less than successful manufacturing business for electrical components. He enters the first Golden Globe competition in 1968 to sail from London single handedly around the world against 8 other competitors. His boat was financed by an English entrepreneur, Stanley Best who used Crowhurst’s only asset, is house as collateral. According to the terms of his agreement, if Crowhurst failed to complete the voyage or quit early in the competition, his family would be homeless and bankrupt.

Although his boat was not ready, Crowhurst launches it by the contest’s October 31st deadline. Only two weeks into his journey (of almost an expected year), his boat begins to leak. If he gives up now, he loses everything. If he goes on to the treacherous Southern Ocean, his boat will sink. Crowhurst struggles to decides what to do.

Crowhurst decides on a third option (WARNING: MOVIE SPOILER ALERT).

He decides that he will lie about where he is. Forty years ago, without the GPS of today, he describes the progress he is making by radio and keeps a fake log book. He continues to fake is location through a series of intermittant broadcasts showing incredible progress and speed. Meanwhile, he is waiting for the other competitors to come around the world and then he will fall in behind him on their way back to London. His plan fails when all the other competitors (except one) sink on their journey and he is expected to be in England with the fastest time. Unable to sail into a hero’s welcome because of his lies, he abandons his boat and drowns himself.

There are so many themes here that I discuss all the time. Why could he not come back from his failure? Why did he see the only alternative as suicide? Was there too much pressure where we bet everything on this one trip? Do we crave that fame and fortune too much and will do anything to achieve it? Do we live in the kind of society that we live in where a man has no choice?

What would you have done? Turn around? Given up? Gone on to certain death?

I met Michael Port last year and I have excited about how he has helped thousands of small business professionals all over the country. In his first book, Book Yourself Solid, Michael shows a proven lead generation and marketing system for service professionals. His new book, Beyond Book Yourself Solid, which just came out he talks about how you can build your business in “the service of others”.

Today, I was featured on a conference call with 250 of Michael’s students to talk about Bounce! We discussed strategies that service professionals need to use to bounce and build true business confidence.

Listen to the Podcast on Michael’s site.

I am becoming more of a documentary fan. Recently, I watched Seth Gordon’s King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. It is about people that try to set records of old style video games that I grew up on. Once upon a time, these games only appeared in bars, restaurants and arcades as stand alone machines. This 80 minute film focuses on the record set by Billy Mitchell for the highest score in Donkey Kong that has stood for over 20 years. The challenger, Bill Wiebe, who sees himself as a loser, sets out to set a new record, first on his machine in his garage and then later at public tournament. What is most interesting about the film

1. It shows that people will compete to be the best at anything. We will do almost anything to get fame and how important fame is in our culture. We can get our respect and self esteem by being successful at anything. It can give us that bounce! that can carry us to success in other things or enable us to let go of our failures.

2. Most competitive processes there is politics and room for corruption. Billy, the current champion is the favorite of the ruling body who judges these things. In fact, one of the original taglines to the movie was to be: ” The highest form of corruption at the lowest levels.”

3. Some people like Steve see themselves as losers when they come in second place. Don’t get me wrong, I think we should try to win and that we usually don’t remember who came in second…but being second, does not mean we are branded a loser.

Watch the movie. You will enjoy it!

I am Jonathan’s newest fan. I met him at the Small Business Tech Conference in New York on Monday. As his blog, Awake at the Wheel says: “Wake up your mind (he is a yoga guy too) - this ain’t your mamma’s self help blog- not that we have anything against your mamma.” Check out his blog. His avatar looks just like him.

In his latest video post, he takes issue with the fact that I think that failure just sometimes sucks.

For most of our lives, we’ve been told to look at failure as just another opportunity for learning, an event that gets you one step closer to success. I’ve believed and shared this opinion many times. Because the alternative is a tough pill to swallow.

I met Jim when my first book, You Need To Be A Little Crazy came out in 2003. He is a huge supporter of small businesses. Here, Jim talks about the new book, Bounce! during today’s interview. He is most interested in the link between the cycle of success and failure. Give it a listen.

I watched a wonderful documentary last night recommended by Susan Landa in Portland, OR who I met at a Capital One event. The Real Dirt on Farmer John is about John Peterson’s rollercoaster ride trying to work and hold on to the land that has been in his family for generations. I admire him because through all of his failures and successes, he was constantly pulled back to the farm where he grew up and the connection to the land. After decades of “Bouncing”, he was finally able to make it work with a cooperative organic farm. Turns out, my wife also went to school with the director, Taggart Siegel and remembers “the farm” with her days at Beloit College in Wisconsin.

Scott Allen interviewd me over IM a few days ago about the new book, Bounce! It was my first time I had done this type of interactive interview which was not by phone. I enjoyed it because while it gave me more time to think, but it still was very spontaneous. Read it here!

Scott asks some interesting questions:

• What’s the “867-5309” of the entrepreneurial world?
• But you also say in the book that you only need one great success to be remembered — that they remember you for your success, not your failures.
• You say a few things in the book that flaunt conventional wisdom, for example, “Having too much will make you stupid.”
• The book is an obvious must-read for someone who’s recently experienced a business failure. Why should someone riding the wave of success read it?

I know there can be alot of pressure around this time of year, but I actually love these last few weeks. In keeping with the spirit of “lists” this time of year, here are my top reasons.

1. We slow down. There is an ending date by which people want to do business every year. Today it is the weekend before Christmas. Next week, we all get a free pass.No one calls. No one emails. It feels like August in Europe. We don’t have to accomplish anything. For at least, one week we are guilt free.

2. We take time off to be with their family. I do not believe that life/work balance really exists. This week belongs to your family and friends. See #1.

3. We stop to reflect on their year. We look back on our celebrations, our accomplishments and our failures. We stop and say thanks to those who have been on the journey with us.

4. We make resolutions. I am not a big fan of making resolutions but the intention is in the right place. If we strive for minimal acheivement and make just one, we have more of a chance to achieve it. We have a chance for the change to stick.

5. We give each other gifts. We think about our clients, friends, and families and shop for something they might like or something they might need. Having an excuse to give someone a gift is alot of fun.

6. We greet each other with a smile. We say “Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year”. This beats “hey, how you doing?” or “bye”.

Why do you love/ hate this time of year?

Technology always adds new words to our dictionary. Consider this new word from Wired Magazine:

Faceslam
v. To ignore or deny a friendship request on Facebook or any other social networking site. While faceslamming is an effective way to keep so-called trophy friendships in check, the related practice of defriending — removing somebody from an established list of acquaintances — is the ultimate snub.

Have you been faceslammed?