Mike Seidle ...notes from the road

Short term success should never be confused with excellence. It's easy to prop something up and win quickly. It's much harder to build for a sustained long term winning effort.

Last year in Indiana sports provides some insight:

On Friday my friend Erik Deckers posted about how Cumberland Pointe Apartments was abusing the flag. Erik's post really hit a nerve: I wish people would get a brain about the flag.

Ever wonder why the news cycle keeps getting more and more fear-centric?  Why do political special interest groups spend so much on creating alarm?  It's pretty simple:

Marketers, the media and politicians are hacking your brain.

Before you get out the tinfoil hat, let's discuss the security hole they are exploiting:

Your built-in capacity for all-or-nothing responses to fears and pre-wiring to overreact to threats.

It takes a year or more to get results.
Building up the relationships you need takes a lot of time. Most people buy into a social media program thinking it's going to happen by tomorow morning. It will not. Profiles and pages on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter take time to grow (especially Twitter.com since it's now rate limited). Blog audiences take time to develop.  Facebook pages, LinkedIn groups also take time to develop.

Blogs are the center of the universe when it comes to social campaigns

There's a reason things are a mess in Washington, and it's not necessarily the White House.  Finally, the American People are on to the source of the odor: the Congress. 57% of Americans would like to dump every last member and start over according to this Rasmussen poll.  Here are some gems from the survey indicating that we the people have figured out what ails our nation:

In case you've never seen it, this is what actual democracy looks like. It's ugly, crass and vulgar. It's about as intellectual as a lynch mob. The people in the US largely delegate running the government to their elected officials so they can get back to important issues like working, paying taxes and watching American Idol.

I'm a little pissed off right now. Our politicians just don't get it. When it comes to healthcare, it's not real complicated. I want:

Security: To be able to get medical care without fear of being bankrupted or losing their life savings.

Stafety: A system that "does no harm."

Freedom: The ability to make choices and select providers.

Well, that didn't take long. We all know two things we didn't before the Tour:

1. Armstrong is in good form. And he's as cagy and smart as ever. Witness Armstrong's instinctive jump to the front as he smelled a break... and the crushing win by the Astana team in today's team time trial.
2. The question is, will Contador contest or be steamrolled by his 37 year old seven time winner domestique?

After looking over the stages of this year's Tour, I thought I'd share a little of what I expect to see. This year's tour has a couple of interesting stories:

Who will get DQ'd for doping? The last few years have taught us to expect the unexpected. 

How strong is Lance? If you listen to Lance, he's not in form. If you listen to everyone else, Lance is never in form until a crushing mountain stage. We'll get an early idea as we hit the montains in Stage 7.

The last few weeks have been crazy.  First, we moved from Fishers back to Indianapolis, and then this happened: