I’m Mad As Hell
I’m Mad As Hell
Meet Your Host, Alan Weiss
Alan Weiss is one of those rare people who can say he is a consultant, speaker, and author and mean it.
His consulting firm, Summit Consulting Group, Inc., has attracted clients such as Merck, Hewlett-Packard, GE, Mercedes-Benz, State Street Corporation, Times Mirror Group, The Federal Reserve, The New York Times Corporation, Toyota, and over 500 other leading organizations. He has served on several boards of directors in various capacities.
His prolific publishing includes over 500 articles and 60 books, including his best-seller, Million Dollar Consulting (from McGraw-Hill) now in its 30th year and sixth edition. His newest is Your Legacy is Now: Life is not about a search for meaning but the creation of meaning (Routledge, 2021). His books have been on the curricula at Villanova, Temple University, and the Wharton School of Business, and have been translated into 15 languages.
Get to know AlanShow Notes
“I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore”
This is a line from the 1976 movie Network. The line is spoken by Howard Beale, a character who is angry about the state of America.
The executive vice president at a huge bank asked where I was from. “So you left that cesspool to move up here,” he said. I said, “Why are so many of you so jealous of New York, is it an inferiority complex?” (This guy was later cashiered because of massive sexual harassment charges.)
Then you have the passive-aggressive types: “I assume your daughter’s school as her backup school”? “No, but you wouldn’t know how good it is because your kids could never get in and you could never pay for it.”
My first Ferrari: “Look, you can’t afford the insurance and she could never learn to drive it.” Three Ferraris later, he put me into the first Bentley sports car for $150,000 to try to buy my good will. I’ve now had seven Bentley’s.
Stop taking crap from people. When the woman in the coffee shop was rude twice in a row, I told the owner, whom I’ve known since he opened up 20 years ago. “I’ll take care of it,” he said. She’s all peaches and cream now.
Prudence is required. I don’t respond to poor driving. I don’t want to encourage road rage. But I have taken movies of truck doing 40 on the main street, and a state bus tailgating at six feet behind cars. I received very thankful notes from the trucking company and the Rhode Island transit people. How will they know if no one tells them?
I stop donating to causes that are poorly run, don’t conduct quality events, and constantly berate me as if I’m an ATM. I hang up on every phone solicitation. The gym knows that when I’m there, if they can, they don’t play rap music featuring the “N-word,” or “mother F,” or any other Fbomb, or calling women “bitches.” That’s not a matter of taste. It’s revolting. Should they show porn videos on the wall, as well?
I don’t try to please other people’s accounting departments and their affectations. They don’t need a W2 from me, I’m a corporation. I don’t send invoices for minor amounts. And I’m on them like the wrath of God if they owe me money past the due date.
And speaking of God: Jesus said to turn the other cheek, but he never said to let them keep hitting you.
Alan Weiss’s The Uncomfortable Truth® is a weekly broadcast from “The Rock Star of Consulting,” Alan Weiss, who holds forth with his best (and often most contrarian) ideas about society, culture, business, and personal growth. His 60+ books in 12 languages, and his travels to, and work in, 50 countries contribute to a fascinating and often belief-challenging 20 minutes that might just change your next 20 years.
Introduction to the show recorded by Connie Dieken
