MH3 Olympics, Opinion, Sports

Black September

The masked man on the balcony still haunts me to this day.

I don’t know whether these are real memories, real time wounds, slashed in my then seven-year-old brain. Or are they a cumulation of painful reminders echoed through news clips, books, and digital articles I have been subjected to for years.

When I press my eyelids closed to forget, they are met with the stinging of my salted tears. The memory of being so frightened that somehow that masked man on the TV set was going to come hunting for this scared seven-year-old boy, thousands of miles away. The memory of asking my parents if this marked the return of a Holocaust-like situation.

Continue reading “Black September” →

MH3 Life Lessons, Living Life, Opinion, Travel, vacation

Summer Lovers

My kids finished school yesterday. Guess that means it’s summer vacation time. So why am I at my desk this morning? Better yet, why are you?

How jealous were you when your little rodents came home yesterday and announced they were sleeping in for eight straight weeks and had little intention of showering, changing their clothes or listening to you?!
What went through your mind as you drove them to the camp bus pick-up location or as their grandparents loaded them up for two weeks of cottaging? How did you feel when your teenager headed to the airport for their job in Banff or simply hopped on the same camp bus, as a CIT, that they used to board as a first-timer?

Look around your office and check out how many people have decided this is the weekend that officially marks summer, and smartly booked today off for an extra long weekend. Continue reading “Summer Lovers” →

MH3 Business, Canadian Sponsorship Forum, Marketing, Opinion, Sponsorship, TrojanOne, Work

Passion Juice

I love you.

It’s true.

I may not even know you, but I love you. Oh not all of you. Especially those I don’t know.

And not in a physical or otherwise unallowable manner. But certainly in a passionate manner, I do love you, I truly do. Because you read my blog. It’s the highest honour that you can bestow upon me. You take the time to share in what’s on my mind or happening in my life.

I’m pretty passionate about writing. I’m in a constant struggle with myself to move beyond these weekly unedited, unrehearsed, unscripted, underground submissions. Okay not so underground, but it did sound pretty romantic. Underground blogs. The struggle is to get my act together and write something longer, meatier, more worthy of your attention and effort. Continue reading “Passion Juice” →

MH3 Living Life, Opinion

Child’s Play: Today’s Kids Are Stressed, Too

Do you remember what it was like to be a kid?

I’m talking about being an eight year old. Or maybe ten. Twelve at the most.

What a time.

Your only worries were whether to play baseball or hockey. Go to your friends or have them to your house. Or which magazine to read first.

No bosses. No mortgages. No email.

Look at your calendar. Your June 1st of many moons ago was a welcomed date. It signified that your school year was coming quickly to a close. That your summer break was just a few weeks away. Your teacher was creating fun activities versus drafting tests.

You weren’t thinking of hitting your Q2 numbers, about covering for a co-worker’s vacation or if you were even going to be able to take your own.

Kids have nothing to worry about.

If you believe that, then perhaps your head is buried deep in the sand of your summer cottage rental.

I have no expertise on the subject, but through my work with several clients in the sector, it’s abundantly clear that today’s children face more issues than those of my generation could ever imagine. Divorce. Bullying. Depression. Obsession. Poverty. Obesity. Violence. Isolation. Racism. Continue reading “Child’s Play: Today’s Kids Are Stressed, Too” →

MH3 Opinion, Sports

Playing To Win

I have made this speech before.

Not on a single stage. Not all in one place. Not completely in one writing. But I have given it a go in various blogs. I have hinted at it in conference presentations. But being at SportAccord in Québec City this week has allowed my thoughts to ferment even further, and now I am going to liberally pour them out to you today.

The speech itself is quite short. It is only three words. But its impact reaches across economics, health care, marketing, tourism, business, international development and politics. “Play to Win.”


Play to Win is a mantra we should all adopt. Continue reading “Playing To Win” →

MH3 Coaching, Football, Life Lessons, Opinion, Sports

Joe Pa

I apologize if you think I blog too much about football.

It’s a fair critique by the way, but I’m a big boy, I can take it. My thicker-than-usual skin on this subject matter was incubated through countless years of advice from my parents. You see, this football obsession was started at an early age and I was appropriately counseled by my folks to not put all of my eggs in a single metaphorical basket. They were right… to an extent.

But critique or not, it is nearly impossible to avoid blogging about the passing of the winningest major (U.S.) college football coach of all time, especially given the pigskin-related headlines that dominate the news. The Super Bowl contenders have been chosen. Planning for the 100th Grey Cup is well underway. Coaches are being hired, fired and re-hired, on both sides of the border. Plus, the whole horrific Sandusky allegations are rolling towards trial. (I have taken into consideration the request of the university’s interim president and stopped calling it the Penn State Affair. It really was the alleged evil of one sick individual, as opposed to an institutional crime. Unless we find out the institution’s level of complicity is higher than any of us grossly unimagined.)

The topic at hand, of course, is the sad farewell we must give Joe Paterno, who died last weekend at age 85. Continue reading “Joe Pa” →

MH3 Business, Living Life, Opinion, TrojanOne, Work

Not Another “Year in Review”

It seems this time of year, journalists get even lazier than normal and run endless versions of Year in Review, Year in Photos, Year in Quotes, Year in Tweets, etc.

So as a casual blogger and wannabe scribe, am I going to hold myself to a higher bar? Heck no. My middle name is “Bandwagon,” so look out because I am jumping on. Continue reading “Not Another “Year in Review”” →

MH3 Coaching, Football, Life Lessons, Living Life, Opinion, Sports

Game Over?

It was a cruel irony for me to be in Pittsburgh on the weekend when the Penn State scandal erupted.

Sunday, some pals and I were indulging in being immersed in American football culture and lapping it up. It was a scene right out of a bad Tom Cruise movie. Me and the boys sitting in a greasy spoon/bar/hangout – aptly called Locals – on the South Side of the Steel City, quaffing beers and devouring all day breakfast.

The TVs were showing every afternoon game imaginable, with our attention focused on the Bills getting t-rexed by the Jets. Most of the bar was clad in black and yellow, in anticipation of the Steelers’ evening clash with the hated Browns… err, Ravens!

But between Cruise sightings (he was actually in town filming a movie, which I am pretty certain isn’t the sequel to All The Right Moves), and Ray Lewis -bashing, our talk turned solemn to the scandal erupting in not so ‘Happy Valley.’ I could not believe what I read online. No one could.

It has gotten even worse as the week has unfolded. I don’t need to rehash what has been said in a thousand places. But I do need to share my thoughts with you. Because they are sad ones. Continue reading “Game Over?” →

MH3 Activation, Business, Events, Marketing, Opinion, Properties, Sponsors, Sponsorship, TrojanOne

12 Partnerships I Loved in 2011

We are pitching on a music program right now, perhaps against some of my loyal readers, and I was asked by my staff to provide a favourite music memory.

Mine was J. Giles Band-inspired. Yes, back in grade 10, some girl named Beth dumped my (then) skinny behind, for my best friend Bill. True story. I then proceeded to play the aforementioned “Love Stinks” on my SEARS brand stereo (yes, true story) about twenty times a day for nearly a month. My poor dad threatened to shut off the power if he heard that same beat one more time during his morning coffee.

Love doesn’t actually stink. But jealousy, in a grade 10 sort of way, certainly does.

Yesterday at the Sponsorship Marketing Council of Canada Breakfast Forum, I talked about some of my current jealousies. Specifically, sponsorship programs that I have seen recently, of which I had NO part in, but wish I did. Continue reading “12 Partnerships I Loved in 2011” →

MH3 Coaching, Football, Life Lessons, Living Life, Opinion, Sports

Sideline Act

I think we need a law to ban idiotic parents from attending their kids’ sporting events.

My rant today is partially due to me being a recent victim of a parent’s heckling. So maybe I should just grow a tougher skin.

The back-story is this. 2011 will go down in my calendar as the proud time period when both my sons started playing tackle football. It’s been a riot. The first day of workouts. The first day in equipment. Their first games. Their first tackles (which took a little longer).

The kids have had a chance to play in Ivor Wynne Stadium and at the Rogers Centre. The former is the home of a professional football team. The latter is the burial ground for Jimmy Hoffa, Jimmy Key (after he was unearthed form Exhibition Stadium in 1985) and Cleo Lemon.

They play in an organization called the North York Grizzlies. It’s run by a very dedicated group of volunteers and has an enthusiastic bunch of smart coaches. Our organization isn’t as big or massive as Niagara, Burlington or Hamilton, which possess massive house league feeder systems – but we are competitive.

As a parent, I have questions for the coaches and the odd ‘complaint’ about playing time. They might have interpreted it as more than odd, but overall I try to go out of my way to thank, praise, motivate, and interact with the coaches. No one is paying them to teach my prodigies this amazing sport, so I am very grateful for their hours of volunteerism.

However, what I have discovered is that I may be in the minority. Actually, scratch that – I know I am in the majority, but boy does this organization have a very vocal minority who aren’t as grateful as I am. Continue reading “Sideline Act” →