Cool guy Steve Spangler with Ellen DeGeneres

At a recent convention where I was speaking, I ran into my good friend and science wizard Steve Spangler. As always, I was astounded by just how successful this guy is. He runs a multi-million dollar company, he’s an Emmy winner, and he’s appeared numerous times on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. And if you ask him what he does for a living, he’ll tell you the truth. He’s a science teacher.

So how does a science teacher achieve that kind of success? I think it boils down to a decision he made several years ago—a decision that most of us would never have thought to make.

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What if, on the day John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met, Lennon (who was the leader of his own band, The Quarrymen) had said, “You know, this McCartney fellow is pretty good—but I’ll bet if I look around I can find somebody cheaper.”

If that had happened, there’s a very good chance that you and I would never have heard of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, or the Beatles. The names George Harrison and Ringo Starr would mean nothing to us. (If, right now, you’re thinking to yourself, “Who are George Harrison and Ringo Starr?,” then you should leave this blog right now. It’s not for you. You may come back after you’ve listened to the White Album.) We never would have heard the songs Hey Jude, In My Life, Yesterday, I Want to Hold Your Hand, or All You Need Is Love, because they never would have existed.

The loss to the world would be almost unimaginable if John Lennon, having found the exact right person for the job, had opted to save a few dollars (or, being English, pounds) instead.

And yet companies do it all the time.

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I just got off the phone with a colleague who was complaining (whining, really) about the fact that nobody seemed to have any money to hire him. It’s the economy, of course. A few years ago, people had money, and he was being hired. Now, it’s dried up. Damn this economy!

To a certain extent, he’s right—things were easier a few years ago. But he was wrong when he said that nobody has any money. Because here’s the truth:

There’s always money for something that’s indispensable.

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Why are the Beatles still popular today, nearly 40 years after they broke up? Nostalgia is a small part (the Baby Boomers still rule the earth)–but the much larger reason is that the music still holds up. The songs the Fab Four created from 1963 to 1969 still sound fresh and exciting today, even if you’ve heard them a thousand times. In other words, the Beatles created something of lasting VALUE. Read More…

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I just finished listening to Breakfast with the Beatles, a weekly two-hour radio program here in Seattle. I listen to it every Sunday morning (unless I’m on the road for business); it’s a ritual for me. One of the songs they played today was the Beatles’ cover of Janie Bradford and Berry Gordy’s song, Money (That’s What I Want), which begins with the lyric:

“The best things in life are free, but you can keep them for the birds and bees, now give me money (that’s what I want).”

That lyric got me thinking about a former employer of mine–a wonderful woman named Dorothy Bullitt. When I first met her she was already into her 90s, still coming to work every day as the owner of the King Broadcasting Company, and the richest person in the state of Washington (until she was overtaken by some young upstart named Bill Gates). Over lunch one day she started talking to me about money. Since she was worth somewhere north of 300 million dollars, and my net worth was substantially south, I listened. Her philosophy was probably not original, but it was new to me. Read More…

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