If you know me, you know I like movies, and will post about them every so often. This is one of those times.

On a Fantasy Football messageboard I participate in, we just did a “Great Movie” draft. Basically, twenty of us took turns and picked the best movies of all time.

If you are unfamiliar w/ the draft concept, it’s like a Fantasy Football draft - you have a draft order that snakes (round 1 is 1-20, round 2 is 20-1, round 3 is 1-20, and so on).

The draft would be thirty rounds, and here are the categories:

Non-American Films (2)
Silent Films (1)
Hollywood Classics (1930-1969) (3)
Modern Hollywood Movies post 1970 (3)
Comedies (2)
Action (1)
Drama (1)
Horror (1)
Blockbuster (Top 5 in sales for any given year) (1)
Animated (1)
Musical (1)
Cult (1)
Documentary (1)
Sci-Fi/Fantasy (1)
Based on Novel (1)
Independent (1)
Sports (1)
War (1)
Childrens (1)
Holiday (1)
Martial Arts (1)
Western (1)
Bad Movie (1)
Wildcard (1)

So you draft your team, keeping an eye on filling categories. When it’s all over, judges will rate the categories, assign points (generally 1-20 - if more than one film in the category, like modern classics - three films got 20, three got 19, and so on.)

Now, the key - at least to me - was to pick the best films of all time. Judging didn’t always go as planned. For example, I picked the original Solaris for my sci-fi, kind of expecting this important critical fave to score high. It didn’t - the particular judge doesn’t like older, slower, foreign films. Oops.

Anyway, here are the first two rounds so you get a feel for this (I’m JWB)

Round 11. John Madden’s Lunchbox The Godfather
2. jwb The Godfather, Part II
3. joffer 12 Angry Men
4. MCguidance The Shawshank Redemption
5. Fennis Casablanca
6. Misfit Blondes Citizen Kane
7. kumerica Raiders of the Lost Ark
8. Aaron Rudnicki Pulp Fiction
9. higgins Seven Samurai
10. Shut It Down Last Tango In Paris
11. wikkidpissah Dr. Strangelove
12. Big Rocks Star Wars
13. RebelINS Goodfellas
14. surebeatssupermariobrothers The Rules of the Game
15. Acer FC Die Hard
16. hooter311 The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
17. Scott Norwood Jaws
18. Abrantes 8 1/2
19. LHUCKS Raging Bull
20. Orange Crush Singin’ In The Rain

Round 2

1. Orange Crush Modern Times
2. LHUCKS City Lights
3. Abrantes Chinatown
4. Scott Norwood Psycho
5. hooter311 One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
6. Acer FC The Empire Strikes Back
7. surebeatssupermariobrothers Gone With The Wind
8. RebelINS The Searchers
9. Big Rocks 2001: A Space Oddysey
10. wikkidpissah Apocalypse Now
11. shut it down Caligula
12. higgins Lawrence of Arabia
13. Aaron Rudnicki Blade Runner
14. kumerica The Wizard of Oz
15. Misfit Blondes Schindler’s List
16. Fennis A Christmas Story
17. MCguidance The Exorcist
18. Joffer It’s A Wonderful Life
19. jwb Metropolis
20. John Madden’s Lunchbox Life of Brian

and so on…

The next post in a day or so will have my team as drafted, then the final post my short writeup for each movie.

I like to think I’ve been successful in my life. And in looking back, I think the greatest periods of success that I have enjoyed - whether working for others or working for myself - is when I was true to myself in terms of sleep. Let me explain:

There were three jobs in my life that I really thrived at (and these were the jobs I left on good terms, too). The three jobs were retail manager/buyer (twice), and computer tech support. I loved those jobs, did excellent work, and was loved in return. Every other job I had I either got fired, or quit in a huff. And I didn’t like any of those lesser jobs either.

I’ve also owned three businesses in my life - a direct mail advertising business in the 90’s (failed), a computer consulting business in the 90’s (failed), and what I do now (success - going on a decade of success, in fact.) And not only did I fail at the first two, I really didn’t enjoy them all that much either.

Now, here’s the funny thing: I’ve noticed a direct correlation in all of my successes. It’s sleep. Or, more precisely, the ability to work late and sleep in.

No two ways around it - I’m an evening/night guy. I am at my best in the afternoon/evening. The retail jobs I had, since I was the boss, I worked the afternoon-close shift. Tech support was 4-midnight.

My first two businesses were straight “in-person” B2B, meaning I had to rise early. I failed. But my current business is at home, through the Internet - I work late and sleep in.

I noticed in my last two years of business, I changed a little - I wasn’t enjoying it quite as much. Wanna know why? Because I was making an effort to “get up earlier”. Why, I don’t know - maybe I felt it was more “business-like” to be up at 8am. No coincidence that I started having trouble sleeping two years ago.

It took me until right now (well, yesterday, really) to make this connection. Because two weeks ago, I started going to bed when I felt like it (2-3am usually) and sleeping until I naturally woke up (9-10am). In other words, I stopped fighting my body - ever since I was a kid, I was like this. I’m just naturally a Night Owl. And I can’t be successful or truly happy unless I remain true to that. I realize that now.

It’s only been two weeks, but I’m ecstatic about this - I feel one million times better. And I have zero trouble sleeping (and need no help), because I don’t give a @#$% what time I wake up.

To me, this is one of the keys to success - be true to yourself. I realize it’s not always 100% practical (moms everywhere will disagree with me, and even I sometimes have to schedule something early), but going against your nature is going to be more of a hindrance than a help.

So, how many people already felt the deflate in terms of resolutions and the like? It all sounds well and good New Year’s Day, when the slate is clean and all is possible.

Then comes Monday morning, when you are back to work, and it strangely feels just like it did before the New Year. As if nothing profound happened. No more shiny clean slate - your first phone call of the day (Mr. Idiot) blew that one. It’s like when you decide “yea, I’ll start going to the gym” and then you realize the gym is really crowded and smells funny.

Hang in there. Change really does start with one day. Be it January 1st or March 9th (by my calculation, the most boring day of the year.)

Here are a few predictions for the New Year:

We will see the slowdown of social media, as everyone realizes it’s:

A) not all that useful for business; and

B) a pain in the ass at times.

Really, I know people who got caught because they called in sick, then someone else posted to facebook about the big party that the sick person attended that very same day. And the human resources manager (who the sick person stupidly friended) sees “YEA, THAT WAS AN AWESOME PARTY. AREN’T YOU GLAD YOU LISTENED TO ME AND CALLED IN SICK??” 

Yea, that’s good… and as far as business, sure, it has its uses - basically, it’s a quasi-website/blog with a built-in RSS feed. But it’s not this be-all, end-all “join or die” thing it was touted as not too long ago. And Twitter… I still think we’re trying to figure that one out.

The economy will recover… kinda

The most common definition of recession is two consecutive quarters of a falling GDP. But if the GDP bottoms out, well, it’s not a recession anymore. In fact, if it bottoms out, a recession is technically over. That’s good… right?

Seriously, I don’t think there will ever be a recovery like we’d like to see. I’ll post more thoughts on this in the coming weeks as to why I feel this way. But let’s just say this “everybody lives the good life” society we’ve built is unsustainable. Sorry to be a bit gloomy, but it’s true.

However…

Opportunity will abound for those who can deliver the goods

I have always felt that those who can truly produce quality work will succeed (and I don’t mean showing up at a job and going through the motions - I mean people who are exceptional at what they do). And I feel that will really start to come into its own starting this year, because there’s soooo much mediocrity out there. And it’s getting exposed, because…

It’s not going to get any quieter

To me, the aughts (or 00’s or whatever we’re calling it) will be partially defined by “noise”. Goodness, the noise… cell phones, texts, texts while driving, texts while sitting in front of me at the movies, text your vote to #5542, banner ads, Nigerian millions and Viagra for the taking, call to vote for your favorite American Idol, click here to follow me, get your new ringtones here, send a JibJab card, mood=moody (duh), sign my online petition, become an affiliate, click here to comment…

You can’t hide anymore. Personally, or professionally. If you do something good, everyone knows. If you do something bad, everyone knows. And if you call in sick and go to a party instead, everyone knows (oops.) That’s a good thing for some of us, not so good for others.

For me, it’ll be good, because I predict that…

In terms of business, real messages with Substance will increasingly be listened to

Bite-sized nuggets of marketing aren’t going away. But they will reach a point where they begin to drown each other out (I think we’re getting close to that now.) This will allow for longer, calmer, more honest types of marketing to increase their effectiveness. Because they’ll be seen as more “real”.

Anyway, there are a few predictions to get you through the start of your week.