Curious about Plants: Do They Have a Place in Your Life? and What Do They Mean to You?

“I grow plants for many reasons: to please my eye or to please my soul, to challenge the elements or to challenge my patience, for novelty or for nostalgia, but mostly for the joy in seeing them grow.” - David Hobson, American politician


“I hardly have any spare time! But when I do, I garden a lot - I love plants and flowers.” – Soundarya, American actress


I chose “plants” for this blog’s theme, because I spent a good bit of the morning planting on my new balcony. You may remember that I did have a large garden at the side of my former apartment. And, even though there is space designated here for tenants’ gardens, I decided to grow in pots this year. I can really relate to Soundarya without spare time. However, I am planning to spend time out there this summer.


I am even trying a couple of tomato plants along with the flowers. The plants I chose are recommended for pots and patios, so keep your fingers crossed.


When I searched for quotations, not only was there an interesting variety about the plants that grow, but also many relating to plants for businesses – like auto, industrial, power, and nuclear – which I won’t include. I did allow a few where plant was a verb.


Let’s get started:

• “The ground we walk on, the plants and creatures, the clouds above constantly dissolving into new formations - each gift of nature possessing its own radiant energy, bound together by cosmic harmony.” - Ruth Bernhard, German photographer



• “The historical circumstance of interest is that the tropical rain forests have persisted over broad parts of the continents since their origins as stronghold of the flowering plants 150 million years ago.” - E. O. Wilson, American scientist



• “This evidence is overwhelming at this point. You eat more plants, you eat less other stuff, you live longer.” - Mark Bittman, American author



• “Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants.” - John W. Gardner, American educator



• “When man learns to understand and control his own behavior as well as he is learning to understand and control the behavior of crop plants and domestic animals, he may be justified in believing that he has become civilized.” - Ayn Rand, Russian writer



• “Working with plants, trees, fences and walls, if they practice sincerely they will attain enlightenment.” - Dogen Zenji, Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher

And, now some with a different twist – even a bit of humor:

• “Trees and plants always look like the people they live with, somehow.” - Zora Neale Hurston, American dramatist



• “Use plants to bring life.” - Douglas Wilson, American entertainer



• “If we had paid no more attention to our plants than we have to our children, we would now be living in a jungle of weed.” - Luther Burbank, American environmentalist



• “Never go to a doctor whose office plants have died.” - Erma Bombeck, American journalist



• “Plant and your spouse plants with you; weed and you weed alone.” - Jean Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher



• “My fake plants died because I did not pretend to water them.” - Mitch Hedberg, American comedian

A few more strong thoughts:

• “My father being an outdoors person, he used to take us on quite a few adventures through the wild areas down there, introducing us to alligators and rattlesnakes and all the trees and plants.” - Jim Fowler, American scientist



• “Nations, like plants and human beings, grow. And if the development is thwarted they are dwarfed and overshadowed.” - Claude McKay, Jamaican writer



• “A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them.”- Liberty Hyde Bailey, American scientist



• “A man doesn't plant a tree for himself. He plants it for posterity.” - Alexander Smith, Scottish poet



• “A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.” - D. Elton Trueblood, American philosopher, educator and theologian



• “A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.” - Saint Basil, Greek saint

So, do you do any planting – inside or outside? I would love to hear about your gardens and why you love them too!

Curious about Marketing: Do You Do It? And, How Important Is It to You and Your Business?

• Definition of Marketing: of Market ; The act of selling or of purchasing in, or as in, a market. Articles in, or from, a market; supplies.
  
  “There is probably a perverse pride in my administration... that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who's occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can't be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.” - Barack Obama – American President
  
  “To me, we're marketing hope.” - Joel Osteen, American clergyman
  
  Why did I choose “marketing” for this week’s theme? One of my favorite gurus was interviewed in the latest version of Entrepreneur magazine. Guy Kawasaki was talking about selling, social media and being enchanting. Read the following excerpt for what he feels about the importance of marketing and enchantment – not enough enchanting quotations to choose it as a theme.
  
  What about the excuse that it takes too much time?
  How valuable is your time? Very valuable. But how valuable is making sales? Social media is marketing, and marketing is a core activity of companies. You can sit by the side of the river for a long time before a roast duck flies into your mouth, or you can gain thousands of followers and fans. You've got to go out there and enchant.
  
  Entrepreneurship is synonymous with selling, and being enchanting about it -- by influencing behavior in "ethical, long-lasting ways" - will help you sell, says Guy Kawasaki, founding partner at Garage Technology Ventures, co-founder of Alltop.com and Apple Computer's former chief evangelist. He's also the bestselling author of 10 books, including, most recently, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions, chock-full of usable startup and social media tips on how to do just that.
  
  I have found that every successful entrepreneur – either online or offline – stresses the importance of marketing. And to succeed, we must love marketing and ABM or Always Be Marketing. As you have probably guessed, I did find many great quotations about marketing.
  

Here goes:

• “Business has only two functions - marketing and innovation.” - Milan Kundera, Czechoslovakian writer
  


• “But, the thing is, since I always had my own little shop and direct access to the public, I've been able to build up a technique without marketing people ever telling me what the public wants.” – Vivienne Westwood, English designer



• “Firms need to ensure that their ability to provide effective customer service keeps pace with their growth. If you're marketing your firm to new customers, you better be able to provide them service when they do business with you.” - Arthur Levitt, American public servant



• “Google actually relies on our users to help with our marketing. We have a very high percentage of our users who often tell others about our search engine.” - Sergey Brin, American businessman



• “I do not believe in censorship, but I believe we already have censorship in what is called marketing theory, namely the only information we get in mainstream media is for profit.” - Sam Sheppard, American scientist



• “I don't need somebody behind a desk to tell me what a marketing survey says is funny. I got 3 million miles and 70,000 tickets sold, telling me that I know how to make people laugh.” - D. L. Hughley, American actor



• “In marketing I've seen only one strategy that can't miss - and that is to market to your best customers first, your best prospects second and the rest of the world last.” - John Romero, American inventor

And, of course, a few more for fun:

• “Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.” - David Packard, American businessman


• “Our co-founder and company president, Jim Levy, came from a record industry background and understood the marketing and promotion of artists as well as products. So the video game business went from absolutely zero designer credit to something approaching rock star promotion.” – David Crane, American Video Game designer and programmer


• “Programmers and marketing people know how to get into your subconscious - they spend millions of dollars researching colors, shapes, designs, symbols, that affect your preferences, and they can make you feel warm, trusting, like buying. They can manipulate you.” - Richard Hatch, American actor


• “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” - Peter Drucker, American businessman


• “The ultimate test of a finished account executive is his ability to write a sound marketing plan.” - Morris Hite, American businessman


• “There are certain people who have become better artists, but they're brilliant at marketing. I think someone who's been phenomenal like that is Madonna.” - Michael Bolton, American musician


• “There was a period of time in America where the advertising world actually went to the housewives of America and had them write jingles that would appeal to them. It was actually brilliant marketing.” - Julianne Moore, American actress

So, do you have a marketing plan? If so, please let me hear from you. I would love to read your feedback about what it consists of and what works the best for you. Is it enchanting?

Curious about Art: It Is Art that Plays a Huge Part in Our Surroundings and Environment. There Is an Artist in Each of Us and Our Lives

Definition of Art: A system of rules serving to facilitate the performance of certain actions; a system of principles and rules for attaining a desired end; method of doing well some special work; -- often contradistinguished from science or speculative principles; as, the art of building or engraving; the art of war; the art of navigation. The application of skill to the production of the beautiful by imitation or design, or an occupation in which skill is so employed, as in painting and sculpture; one of the fine arts; as, he prefers art to literature. Skill, dexterity, or the power of performing certain actions, acquired by experience, study, or observation; knack; as, a man has the art of managing his business to advantage.

“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” - Albert Einstein, German physicist

I chose art for this week’s blog because yesterday I did what I love doing – visiting an art museum. Akron, Ohio was one of only two North American museums chosen for the M. C. Escher exhibit of his original work – and, I was there. It was a terrific show, and the Akron Art Museum is a tribute to art itself. It has been remodeled, is incredibly modern, beautiful and spacious.

The whole experience was so special, I realized how much I miss doing art (it was my major field of study when I went back to college in 1971).

The quotations are varied, fun and inspiring. Let’s share some:

• “The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.” - Martin Luther King, Jr., American leader



• “Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.” – Winston Churchill, British statesman



• “Life doesn't imitate art, it imitates bad television.” - Woody Allen, American actor



• “Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.” - Oscar Wilde, Irish dramatist



• “If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.” - John F. Kennedy, American President



• “Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed.” - Khalil Gibran, Lebanese American poet



• “Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring two pence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.” - C. S. Lewis, British author



• “Winners have the ability to step back from the canvas of their lives like an artist gaining perspective. They make their lives a work of art - an individual masterpiece.- Denis Waitley, American writer

And, a few more:

• “Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art.” - Ansel Adams, American photographer



• “The great art of life is sensation, to feel that we exist, even in pain.” - Lord Byron, British poet



• “The excellency of every art is its intensity, capable of making all disagreeable evaporate.” - John Keats, English poet



• “Space is the breath of art.” - Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect



• “Art is making something out of nothing and selling it.” - Frank Zappa, American musician



• “The capacity to be puzzled is the premise of all creation, be it in art or in science.” - Erich Fromm, American psychologist



• “Art is not a thing; it is a way.” - Elbert Hubbard, American writer



• “Being an artist is dragging your innermost feelings out, giving a piece of yourself, no matter in which art form, in which medium.” - Henry Rollins, American musician



• “An art which isn't based on feeling isn't an art at all.” - Paul Cezanne, French artist



• “The art of love is largely the art of persistence.” - Albert Ellis, American psychologist

How much are you affected by art? What are your favorite styles? I would love to hear from you.