Three days of peace, love, music, beads, rain, mud, and lots and lots of different people who just managed to get a long because they wanted too.

For me, it was a transformation of a new understanding of the human condition, and how a simple smile is universal language that broke down barriers, and kindness toward each other was a common occurrence.

We endured terrible traffic and stranded the car on the side of the road to walk for miles. I was enormously grateful for the decent shoes, the apples, the water and the Oreo cookies too. Oh those Oreo cookies!!!

We endured torrential rains and through it all, we were still smiling and laughing. I remember being near enough to the stage to see Janice Joplin, but the sound was so bad, it sounded like someone was strangling a farm animal. I briefly met Max Yasgur, thanked him for his hospitality, but he so looked dazed and amazed, he had a look on his face of sheer surprise, shock and WTF!  All I remember him saying was “Thanks, can you stick around and help clean up?”

The sheer enormity and diversity of the audience and the whole scene that seemed to constantly evolve was more like a cosmic wonderland. I missed Jimi Hendrix, enjoyed The Who, slept through Joe Cocker, danced to Santana and Jefferson Airplane, and loved Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Don’t remember much else about the music, but the expereince changed our world.

Would I do it again? Absolutely. It was a part of our history, and part of our culture, and set me on the path to think really big, and believe I could get along with everyone. It was a great lesson in acceptance and survivla for a young man, and besides, it will always be thrill to say, “Yeah, I was at Woodstock.” I am part of that faternity!

In my post event memories, I the thing I liked most was a long, hot shower in a motel room in Pennsylvania, on the way back to Ohio, and a big turkey club sandwich and a couple  Cokes on the way home.

Frank Candy

It Changed The World

To be able to think fast, you need to “understand the primary drivers of change management” and work at staying plugged into relevant research, and constantly search for new combinations, and work on developing a sense of heightened perception of reality.

I have solved most problems by 1) Not calling them “problems” instead I call them “challenges” at I just do things that allow my mind to “percolate” like long bike rides or showers. Fishing, boat rides, driving a tractor, gardening and golf works too. I don’t know what would work for you, but one thing is for sure – “THE ANSWEAR LIES WITHIN YOU.”

This is also a long time favorite, from our good friend, Mark. “Life is short! Forgive quickly! Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably… And never regret anything that made you smile.”

Managing Adversity and Change: If you’re looking to book a good program (speech or seminar) that is relevant in these changing times, check out this link.
http://www.speakersbureau.com/frank-candy-speeches/frank-candy-overcoming-adversity.htm

Organizational Tip: Make a master list of the things you would take on a business trip and make a master list of things you would take on a short vacation and a long vacation. Here is a sample of the one I use. http://www.frankcandy.com/suitcase.htm Plus here is a Master Travel Check List on our web site: http://www.speakersbureau.com/travel_checklist.htm

Good “Make as much as you can. Save as much as you can. Spend wisely on quality, it will last a long time, if you want to double your money quick, fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.”

]]> http://www.frankcandy.net/news/wise-advice-on-investing-from-1968/feed 2 http://www.frankcandy.net/news/innovation-inspiration-and-creativity-making-it-happen http://www.frankcandy.net/news/innovation-inspiration-and-creativity-making-it-happen#comments Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:12:27 +0000 frankcan http://www.frankcandy.net/uncategorized/innovation-inspiration-and-creativity-making-it-happen Research is important for every professional speaker, author, trainer and consultant. You canno be inspired to get creative and let make the innovation pipeline flow by reading hte old standard news papers and magazines like WSJ, Forbes and Business Week. They need to shake things up, or blow them up, and create a new and better franchise! It’s not print that’s dead, or even print about business that’s dead. It’s old and tired franchises that are dull and boring, franchises that have run out of gas, vision, purpose and energy. They need new leadership, a better vision of what’s valuable and to get in touch with reality for the readers. I have been a subscriber and avid reader for years, and now I find far more reality and value in Fast Company, Inc, Business 2.0, and Wired, but even they are in need of a wake up and shake up from time to time. How about YOU?

One of the ways to shake things up is to take a long break or a sabbatical. Everyone has their own version for doing this, for some, it is a trip around the world, for others it’s a long drive in a camper, car or motorcycle. A hike in the mountains or a sailboat or houseboat and the beach works well too. So does the front and back porch. I call it ‘Porchville’ I have done all of them, so here is my advice: The answer to what works lies within you. Figure out what is going to clear our your head, shake things up and go do IT.

]]> http://www.frankcandy.net/news/innovation-inspiration-and-creativity-making-it-happen/feed 0 http://www.frankcandy.net/news/15 http://www.frankcandy.net/news/15#comments Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:44:44 +0000 frankcan http://www.frankcandy.net/?p=15 Space shuttle Endeavour blasted off today on the sixth launch attempt, after a month of delays caused first by a hydrogen leak and on-going bad weather delays. We watched the STS-127 Space Shuttle Endeavour Launch from my back yard. We are always awestruck by the innovation, size, power and speed the Space Shuttle in launch mode from Kennedy Space Center on the east coast of Florida . It was a great experience to watch Endeavour launch today, shortly after 6 p.m. EDT as scheduled. The seven-member crew of the Endeavour is slated to deliver a “front porch” for the station’s $1 billion Japanese Kibo complex. The word Kibo means “hope” in Japanese. The orbiter is scheduled to dock at the station on Friday, and return to Earth on July 31. It is one of the ultimate innovative global collabrotives of our time.

]]> http://www.frankcandy.net/news/15/feed 1 http://www.frankcandy.net/winning-with-innovation/winning-with-innovation http://www.frankcandy.net/winning-with-innovation/winning-with-innovation#comments Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:42:19 +0000 frankcan http://frankcandy.net/?p=9 Winning with Innovation is for people who want to succeed with innovation. It is not easy; it’s a hard race to win.

For every one thousand ideas – under 100 may earn a process to evaluate it, under a dozen will have commercial promise to be the merit funding for testing and of those only will a couple will be successful.

If your ideas can inspire investors, confuse competitors, and charm customers, you may be successful, however, you must generate tons of ideas to make it work, and you need the tools, processes and good people to succeed in the long term.

Collecting ideas can be like herding cats, it can make a normal day pretty difficult. There are many high-tech and low-tech processes for collecting ideas like brain storming and storyboarding. (Disclaimer if you are a cat lover, please don’t send us email, we like all animals – it’s a cliché)

]]> http://www.frankcandy.net/winning-with-innovation/winning-with-innovation/feed 3 http://www.frankcandy.net/thinking-outside-the-box/thinking-outside-the-box http://www.frankcandy.net/thinking-outside-the-box/thinking-outside-the-box#comments Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:41:48 +0000 frankcan http://frankcandy.net/?p=8 Thinking Outside Of The Box Doesn’t Work Anymore . . . You need effective innovation that really works!

Thinking outside the box is an international cliché or catchphrase started in the sixties in the Disney Organization.  In Disney’s company, it demonstrated a management trend of cubicals similar to the one that has been parodied in the comic strip Dilbert and refered to looking at a problem from a new perspective without preconceptions, sometimes called a process of lateral thought. This catchphrase has become widely used in business environments, governments, colleges and by consultants, to a point of being worn out like a set of bald tires, like old tv reruns, and like a dull knife.  In today’s level business world, you must have a better way see the global view, and a mindset to dominate the minds in the marketplace.

Since the 1980’s when I was working as a consultant for large corporations, the government and NASA, I learned a better way of thinking about and seeing things. Back then it was see the world from the space shuttle; 170 miles above the earth, traveling at over 17,000 miles per hour, rotating around the globe every 90 minutes.  Then in the 1990’s the space station became a reality and again we changed the view to longer terms, global views that asked better questions based on solid, proven facts and long term best practices for business.  Now the mind-set is think global, green and great! 

Get out of your comport zone and to give deeper consideration to all the change around us and the possibilities it offers. Because our world is very complex and changing rapidly, we need leaders who will take risks and innovate effectively.   Thinking outside the box is never easy, nor is it merely a reflection of mental brightness. To leave your psychological comfort zone and explore solutions in the unknown world on the outside requires large measures of mental dexterity. 

Challenging assumptions means questioning the everyday things you take for granted. “The best assumption to have is that any commonly held belief is wrong,”

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