They were noisey, not just there

While driving to complete an errand today, I found myself thinking about those who had passed on: family, friends, colleagues, mentors, and acquaintances ... why I remembered some and thought so seldom if at all about others. Once again, I found myself lamenting the creeping mediocrity and sameness that I sense in the business world, American society, and quite frankly in many folks with whom I deal on a social level. A flash of "I wonder why?" was soon replaced by another "Aha!" moment.

The people I remember and miss were not necessarily the nicest, or smartest, or kindest, or funniest, or wealthiest. What made me remember them was their ability to illicit strong responses in others. That's right ... they could bring people to anger, or side-splitting laughter, or hot-to-trot debate, or raucous sharing of like's and dislike's, or name-calling debates about politics and religion, or howls of protest, or "Oh my gosh!" moments, or head-shaking realizations about their abilities to think, create, reason, screw up, offend ... whatever.

And do you know why the could do that? Simple. They were not afraid to be themselves, speak their mind, tell someone they loved or disliked them, challenge what they didn't believe, call BS by its name as soon as it reared its ugly head. They also loved taking on the status quo and abusing "sacred cows." They suffered fools not at all, and were totally fearless when something or someone attempted to intimidate them. They were strong, loyal, took big risks, won often and screwed up quite a bit, too. In other words, they lived (not by any stretch of the imagination to be confused with simple existence).

I wonder what would happen in the modern business world, in local and US politics, and in many households today if everyone acted that way? What do you think?