leroygardner.com

HT to Damien Hoffman aka Wall Street Cheat Sheet

Damien: Do you have a core personal philosophy you tapped to develop that theory?

Howard: Yeah. In my soul I believe that positivity is rewarded. I truly believe in karma. I hang around with positive people who don’t keep score — which limits the people you hang around. For example, when I go out to dinner with people and everyone adds up the bill and I owe $11.22, you’re not going to see me hanging out with that group of people. Life’s too short. There’s no quarterly balance sheet. The balance sheet is over a much longer time frame. This philosophy is not going to make me the richest person in the world, but sometimes the richest people are the cheapest. I see this as one’s inner-gauge, which ultimately becomes that person’s lifestyle.

Twitter is interesting for this very reason. If your a negative person, you can’t hide that on Twitter for six months. For example, when I blog I can go through a negative phase, but on Twitter if I twit something negative, a few tweets later I’m back to positive again because Twitter is who you are. That’s why the feeds in Twitter and Facebook are so popular: you can’t hide who you are. If you’re a miserable fuck — and I could name five of them but I don’t want to give them the credibility — you’ll have your following but your followers are all miserable fucks too. That’s why the tech guys have been penciled into a corner with the nerds who like to fight all the time. They haven’t been as successful on Twitter because they’re always fighting. On the other hand, the entertainers have taken over Twitter because they are entertainers — they do things that are positive or funny or have something irreverent to say. That appeals to a much broader audience.

Damien: Do you prefer Facebook or Twitter?

Howard: Facebook is just too fake for me. First of all, Facebook is littered with people making mistakes because they think what is funny really isn’t. Second, it’s a big lie because people get to post the pictures they want everyone to see — like during high school when you put stuff on your wall. Everyone does the same thing: they hang what represents who they want to be, not what represents who they truly are.

Damien: You did a cool blog post about how Facebook is the ego and Twitter is the Id.

Howard: Exactly. I am not on Twitter’s recommended list. People who follow me have stuck with me because I share or because I make them laugh. That’s how I live my life. However, on Facebook I have a lot more followers, but I never go there. When someone follows me on Facebook they have a perceived vision of me. If they knew the real me, the one on Twitter, they’d have a fucking heart attack — they’d never invest with me again. [Laughing.]

Circa late winter this year, I took a trip to NYC, made a point to take up a so-called “Ninja” of customer service (I think I recall the title correctly) or something’s offer to those customers or curious to stop and tour their facilities/office/production factory/design room/executive suites/lunchroom all in one big loft type space.

Little did I know what lay ahead…Marshall (our Ninja du jour) knew.

We buzzed up and were let up. My friend, his wife and I climbed the five or so flights of stairs into the lair of Bonobos wonderfulness.

Marshall ushered us past other folks diligently working at whatever ninjas do when not working with customers touring the office, into a room where other people not necessarily ninjas were doing whatever non-ninjas do, but there were racks of jazzy looking slacks of all fabric and pattern.

I worked through about two or three pairs with Marshall’s knowing guidance, arrived at the…

Shoguns

They were f-ing great. I was always the guy who thought, yeah I am too cool, the clothes don’t make the man, I can make whatever look good…blah blah blah.

BUT I will be a bonobos uncle if those pants didn’t make me feel as cool as Miles, bad like Superfly and slick like George Gervin.

So yeah we found the size, we transacted in goods and services for an equivalent monteary device (it had a Mastercard logo on it) and I really did not want to take those frickin things off.

So I didn’t.
Marshall plunked down a chair, I stood on it and he diligently pinned a psuedo-hem (technical term, I know) in my cuffs.

He filled in the rest at the Bonobos Blog over there.

Bottom line, yeah dug them, yeah I ditched the garbage pants I had worn in. And walked the streets of NYC with unfinished trousers on the rest of the day, happy as a clam.

BTW Bonobos pants kick ass, their Ninjas kick ass and the pants will make yours look like a G.

Keep up the good work, and touche’ Mr. Roy, touche’. Anytime I can get described as doing something with finesse and not be dissapointed that I got compared to a b-baller, I owe a beverage to that Ninja.