Earlier this week I saw, Jim Bergquist give a presentation. He spoke about creativity and innovation using his own stories and the World Famous Pike Place Fish Market as examples. I was able to take away a few nuggets that I would like to share with you . . . along with my own comments of course!

“In order to create something you need to be able to create nothing because creation is something from nothing” was one of Jim’s statements. All too often companies want to fix or change what they already have, but what they really need is to start over—to create something from nothing. Starting over is a very scary thing to do and it has the potential to bring a person to their knees, so you can imagine what it does to a company! While yes it is a big risk, but there are no limits to what you can create from nothing (except the ones you set). Take that risk before a problem becomes a nightmare and save yourself and the company from everything that is at stake by waiting.

“Create the future from the future instead of the past,” Jim continues. Here is one topic that I have never understood, setting goals is about writing down and committing to what you would like to achieve, right? So why would you base you or your company’s future success on past successes and failures? Past failures and successes end up being learns or things that you have experienced. Do you want to relive what you have already experienced or would you like to create new experiences? In order to grow and move forward, we need to be challenged and create new experiences. How would your company be different if the goals you selected were based on the future instead of the past? How would business be different if all companies selected goals based on the future instead of the past?

At one point, Jim was speaking about experience, which got me thinking. Yes, life is about choices. We have the opportunity to choose what we will experience and what our experiences will be like. It is great to choose to accept this responsibility, but what about those times when our experience is determined or influenced by someone else? When another person has this control, it has a dramatic impact on how we perceive the experience. Since we are such giving creatures, we end up giving them 100% of the credit. Think about it, when was the last time you had a great experience with a company? What made it so great? Most likely, it involved an employee making you feel like you were the only customer in the world. Now when was the last time you had a bad experience? Again, most likely, that experience also involved an employee. However, this employee was less than accommodating and you probably perceived them as incompetent, which led you to judge the company as being so as well. Your employees have a direct impact on how your customers experience your company, your products and your services. This experience has a strong influence over your customer. Will they become a repeat customer, will they refer you, or will they stay with your service at all.

I spent a day in jail! Well the day was really just a couple of hours and the jail was really a bunch of plastic pipes put together to look like a cell and the jail, well that was actually a winery where they had lunch and of course wine ready and waiting. So I have to admit that my time ‘in jail’ was quite enjoyable.

My experience with the MDA and raising money for Jerry’s Kids was very pleasant. They were organized, made it fun, and it was easy to participate. From the time they originally contacted me; they played up the legal aspect and were always pleasant to talk to. Every other week, I either received a phone call from my parole officer or an email with tips on how to raise money. The emails normally consisted of a personalized note, some random and fun picture of someone or something in jail and already written letters to send to people to explain how their donation will help the organization.

A friend and local business owner Valari Jackson participated in the event with me, so we arranged it that we would be arrested together. A local car dealer donated all of the vehicles used to pick up the jailbirds. Military officers arrested the jailbirds and one of the lady’s who benefits from the MDA was the judge that you had to plead your case to!

Upon arrival, you had to plead your case to the judge and though she was having a wonderful time, she seemed to throw everyone in jail! Pictures were taken and lunch was served. We were able to network with other businesses, enjoy our lunch and wine and even make calls to request bail money. We had a pleasant surprise when two peacocks showed up at the door. Apparently they live at the winery and are very friendly. I was able to touch them and we were told they will eat out of your hand—but no one present had any idea of what to feed them.

During our time there, the parole officers came around and introduced themselves to us. They answered any questions we had and asked for suggestions to make the event even easier for our participation next year. The only suggestion that I was able to come up with was they needed to provide a short blurb about the MDA and Jerry’s Kids so we as jailbirds could speak about it, intelligently that is.

At the end of the event, they were able to raise $30,000 for the local branch. Thank you to everyone who donated their time and money to make this event a great success!