Egyptian Soccer Match Turns Ugly

        In the seaside city of Port Said, Egypt a soccer game turned ugly and over seventy people were left dead. The match was between two Egyptian club teams; Al-Masry, the home team, and Al-Ahly, a Cairo based team. 

When Al-Masry beat Al-Ahly 3-1 in a massive upset, the crowd began to turn violent. Rival fans began throwing bottles and rocks at players. According to CNN many Al-Ahly fans were unable to exit the bleachers during the fighting because police refused to open the exit gates. 

Ever since Former President Hosni Mubarak was forced out of power in a popular uprising, security and police have been futile. Fans reported that police stood by and watched while others were being beaten and stabbed to death. Other deaths occurred from fans falling off bleachers and being caught under massive piles of people. 

This is single handedly the worst soccer riot to date. Hours after the fighting, Cairo protestors began chanting, "Down with the military rule...Tomorrow we come, we take the military down." While the fighting started because of soccer, it became very clear that these riots were for political reasons. 

During Egypt's revolution, many organized soccer groups became political voices for change. The former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak used soccer matches to boost his popularity while in office and became closely tied to the organized soccer groups. 

If one thing is clear, it is that the Egyptian military needs to reestablish its dominance before more riots break out. CNN's James Montague stated, "There's been a security vacuum, so we don't know whether it's that or whether there's a Mubarak element to it. We just don't know at the moment." 

This unfortunate event is still very fresh and as more news becomes clear, updated information will be made available. 

How Great Leaders Inspire Action - Simon Sinek

In a video on Ted.com in May of 2010, Simon Sinek addresses how great leaders inspire action. He begins his speech by asking three separate questions. First; why is apple so innovative when they’re just a computer company with all of the same access to talent, agencies, consultants, and media as everyone else? Second; Why did Martin Luther King lead the civil rights movement when we was not the only man who suffered from discrimination? And thirdly, why were the Wright brothers able to achieve man-powered flight when others were way more qualified with more resources? According to Sinek, these answers are simple and come in a system.

            Sinek refers to this as the “Golden Circle.” The outer most ring is “What?”, the next ring in is “How?” and the center point of the circle is “Why?”. This is the order in which most people and companies think; What? How? Why? They want to know what they are doing, how they are doing it, and lastly why they are doing it. According to Sinek the great leaders of the world think the exact opposite. Their thought process is; why am I doing this? How am I going to do this? What am I going to do to do this? They start from the center of the “Golden Circle” and work their way out. The “Why” expresses what that person or company stands for.

            Sinek gives a great example using Apple. If their focus was on the “What” their marketing message may sound something like, “We make great computers, they’re beautifully designed, simple to use, and user friendly. Want to buy one?” Instead, Apple is a leading innovator because they believe in something. Their marketing message is, “Everything we do we believe in challenging the status-quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use, and user friendly. We just happen to make great computers. Want to buy one? The biggest difference between the two is the second message conveys what they believe in. Sinek explains that people do not buy what you do; they buy why you do it.

            The goal in being successful is doing business with those who believe what you believe. If you hire some one and they take it because of the money, you will only get so much from them. If you hire some one because they believe in what you believe in, you can start to make progress. A man by the name of Samuel Peirpont Langley was given fifty thousand dollars to build the first man-powered flying machine. He went to Harvard and worked for the Smithsonian and was more than qualified for the job. He was given a highly sophisticated team and had every one rooting for him. Meanwhile two brothers from Ohio were also trying to build the first man-powered flying machine. Orville and Wilbur Wright did not have any funding, nor appropriate schooling but they both shared the same belief and dream driving them to succeed. When they did succeed, Samuel Peripont Langley quit. Instead of seeing their design and trying to improve upon it, he flat out quit. He was not the first, he didn’t get rich, and he didn’t get famous so it quit. Langley was doing it for the “what” and not the “why.”

            To answer his third question, Sinek discuss’ Dr. Martin Luther King and why he lead a civil rights movement when he was not the only man suffering. The reason is because MLK told people what he believed in and not what he wanted to change. The people who believed in what he believed in made his cause their own. People are driven by what they believe in. No one went to see MLK’s famous “I Have A Dream” Speech because of MLK, they went to see him because of what they believed in themselves. Sinek has a very clever line, “He gave the I have a dream speech, not the I have a plan speech.”

            In my opinion Simon Sinek delivered a very inspiration and eye-opening talk. He addresses the importance of why we do things and the reasoning behind out actions. To start a company it is not about what the company is going to do but why the company is going to do it. It is something I do not think enough people think about when trying to become successful. If a company is making a product to get rich but does not know why they are making that product, they will never succeed. 

SESAC and Spotify Join Forces

SESAC, the smallest of the three performance rights organizations, has recently joined forces with Spotify. SESAC was established in 1930 as an organization created to serve both the creators of music and music users through music licensing and timely, efficient royalty collection and distribution. They are based out of Nashville, but have offices in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Miami, and London. UK based Spotify is a music streaming service that offers a wide selection of music from many major and independent record labels. Some of these labels include Sony, Warner Music Group, Universal, etc.

SESAC has agreed to let Spotify stream songs from their repertory of songwriters and publishers in the United States. SESAC’s repertory includes genres such as Adult Contemporary, Urban, Jazz, Rock, Americana, Contemporary Christian, Latin, Country, Gospel, Dance, Classical, and New Age. This will increase the variety of music Spotify already has to offer. It has also become the performing rights organization of choice among many of Hollywood’s most popular film and television composers.

I feel this was a very smart decision by both parties. As a music streaming website, Spotify must pride themselves on the large music collection they have to offer. By joining with SESAC, they are not increasing that collection. This directly increases their market audience. There are so many genres of music, it is hard to find a music-streaming site that offers music for every one’s individual taste. As SESAC becomes a more popular organization, it is important that they grow and spread their name. I feel both SESAC and Spotify will be happy with their collaboration. 

Is Tiger Back?

It has been over two years since Tiger Woods has been called a winner in the golf world. Seven hundred and forty nine days and twenty-six tournaments later, things have changed for the better.

The Chevron World Challenge took place this past weekend in Thousand Oaks, California. The tournament is hosted by Tiger Woods and is held at the Sherwood Country Club. It is a charity fundraiser tournament where all of the funds raised go to different charities Tiger is associated with.

With two holes left Tiger found himself one stroke behind previous tournament winner Zach Johnson. We had seen Tiger in a similar position about a year ago against Graeme McDowell who ended up winning after Tiger lost a four-shot lead. This time around we watched a very calm and collective Woods shot back-to-back birdies to win the tournament.

As the winner, Woods won $1.2 million, which he donated to his foundation. When Woods spoke about his victory he did not mention if this win felt different. In fact he stated, "They all feel good. They're not easy. People don't realize how hard it is to win golf tournaments... I don't think I've taken it for granted. And I know because of how hard it is."

His victory moved him from No. 52 to No. 21 in the world ranking, a ranking where he used to sit on the top at No. 1. Woods has not been ranked in the top 10 since his personal life got out of control. He was found cheating on his wife, crashed his Escalade, and even checked himself into a sex-rehab where he sought after therapy. Since that time Tiger has changed his swinging coach, his caddie, and endured injuries, which prevented him from entering in two tournaments.

The question now is will Woods continue on this upward path? Was this win a fluke? Is the old Tiger Back? For now we will just have to wait to see. He does not appear in another tournament until the end of January in Abu Dhabi.  

Let There Be BASKETBALL!

We now have more than just Christmas to look forward to this year on December 25^th. After a 148-day lockout, the NBA has finally reached a tentative agreement that means we will be watching basketball on Christmas day. No contracts have been signed but a handshake deal is enough to have everyone feeling very optimistic. Hallelujah!

The league has already had to cut ten games this season because of the lock out. The new revised schedule will have a 66 game season, which may seem short, but is better than no season at all. Networks such as ABC/ESPN, TNT/Turner, and any regional sports networks that hold television rights are finally able to let out sighs of relief. Without a season, the ad revenue hit these networks would have taken would be gargantuan.

To make the deal final a few things are needed. The NBA will need 15 of its 29 owners to vote for the deal. The union needs a “simple majority” of the more than 430 members. NBA commissioner, David Stern, stated once the deal is made it will take about 30 days before the season can begin. This has been a bit of a driving force behind getting the deal done for it’s hopeful start date of December 25^th.  

The season will open with three amazing matchups. The Boston Celtics will be playing against the New York Knicks in New York. This will be followed up by an NBA finals rematch between the Miami Heat and the Dallas Mavericks in Dallas. For dessert, MVP Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls will take on Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers in LA.

If this deal does not go through, more than just the sports world will be affected. There are thirty teams in the league that each employs hundreds of people. In an economy where jobs are so scarce, the NBA lockout could have been another huge slap in the face for thousands.

Just When We Thought They Were Over...Another Twilight Movie

This weekend is the domestic opening of Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 1. What does this mean for all of us guys who cannot stand another vampire love story? It means do not ask any girls on dates this weekend because you will be dragged into another two hours of countless love affairs and quarrels between humans, vampires, and werewolves (Sounds like high-school all over again, right?)

 Despite how any of us feel, we cannot argue with the numbers. According to Summit Entertainment the Twilight Saga is estimated to bring in  $110 to $125 million. Rival studios believe Summit is lowballing their numbers and Breaking Dawn could potentially make up to $142 million in its opening weekend alone.

Each of the previous three Twilight movies has been successful in the box office, especially the second movie, New Moon. The original Twilight brought in $69.6 million while New Moon made $142.8 million. This past year, the third Twilight movie, Eclipse, brought in $64.8 million. Breaking Dawn Part 1 will compete most closely with New Moon.

The final movie in the Twilight series has finished filming and will be released next year. There are already rumors that it will receive the highest box office gross of all of the four previous Twilight Movies.

What’s even more remarkable about these numbers is that all of the Twilight movies’ audience is predominantly female-driven and the movie itself is 2D. In a time where 3D action movies are taking over, Twilight is still staying strong and holding its own.

Two other movies that are set to release this week are Happy Feet Two and The Descendants staring George Clooney. While both movies are getting a lot of buzz, they will most certainly be pushed into the shadows with the same release of Breaking Dawn Part 1.

So how should we go about planning the weekend if we want to avoid seeing and hearing about Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 1 at all costs? My first piece of advice would be making it a “bro-weekend”. Go out with the boys, grab some beers, watch sports and do anything else that makes us feel like MEN.

If you accomplish that and are still feeling lonely by the end of the night… put some white make up on your face (To look extra pale) and go hang out outside of a movie theater. If you play your cards right, a woman might confuse you for a vampire and take you home.