Day: April 22, 2008

free, innovation, Tom Peters

Tom Peters – for FREE

Christa Avampato

Tom Peters is arguably the greatest mind out there in the field of innovation. I visit his site often and am as bowled over by his generosity as I am by his thinking and writing about innovation. After every talk, he posts his presentations. He makes his latest thinking available on his blog. Why would he do this? He could get a book deal at he drop of a hat. (He wrote In Search of Excellence, the book that some consider to be the best business book ever written.) So why give away the secret sauce?

There are a whole host of reason for giving away knowledge. For one, it creates community and opens you up to learn from others. Tom Peters is an authority on innovation, and authorities publish. And so you might wonder, if I can just read his thinking in a book why would anyone ever hire him? What he put out into the world through his book was his personal brand character. That’s also what he puts out on his blog. Who he is and what he believes. People hire him for who he is and what he inspires in others. See sold a lot of books, and those books only helped him further to sell himself and his knowledge.

I highly encourage you to take advantage of all that is truly free in life – take a look at what Tom has to offer: http://www.tompeters.com/freestuff

Harvey Atler, health, melodic intonation therapy, music, New York Times

A stroke victim learns to speak through song

Christa Avampato

I find is fascinating that speech is formed by the left side of our brain, while singing, though it uses the same muscles, is formed on the right side of the brain. That division may have saved Mr. Harvey Alter, a stroke survivor, from never being able to speak again.

After his stroke, and the resulting Broca’s aphasia that is caused, Mr. Alter could say only short words after month of therapy. Now, the conversation is flowing with much less difficulty thanks to melodic intonation therapy, a therapy that helps stroke victims learn to speak again by first teaching them to sing.

In today’s New York Times(http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/health/22stro.html?_r=1&th=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&emc=th&adxnnlx=1208867443-SaFTSaS+Lm2ZuHy3sjUsiw), the details of the therapy, as well as Harvey Alter’s dramatic recovery are both touching and inspiring. “Happy Birthday” opened the door to a new life for him, the confidence to believe that he could heal himself. So while music may be good for the soul, melodic intonation therapy makes it also good for the mind.