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October 11, 2004

Zachronyms by David Zach

For those of you who didn't know it, I have a book. Not your typical futuristic, gee whiz sort of book you'd expect from a futurist, but a simple, funny book that helps you look at the here and now from a few new directions.

I'm convinced that a good sense of humor is the most important strategic skill you can develop. If you don't believe that, then consider an old Jewish saying that goes "If you want to get God to laugh, then tell him about your plans." Make all the plans you want, but always know that your plans may lead you to someplace unexpected.

The book is entitled Zachronyms, so named by a local reporter, and grew out of my demographic research work at Northwestern Mutual Life. Demographic reports can be a bit dry, so I decided to improve them, without permission, by adding those funny lifestyle acronyms that were so popular back in the 1980s. (There's a clear reason why I'm doing the work I do and not still at the Mothership.) People kept asking me to put them in a list; that list got faxed around (this was pre-email) and it started getting great press and even global attention.

A copy of that list is available in the Handouts section of my website.

I started getting new ones sent to me from as far away as England. Even Timothy Leary sent me some. (During his very late night phone call I asked him if he was THE Timothy Leary, and he replied, "I don't know." That proves it was him.) After collecting hundreds of them, I published them in a book back in 1998 and use it primarily as a reward for good and bad behavior in my audiences as well as a fund raiser for the likes of the American Red Cross and various client charitable foundations. Audiences seem to like the book as they typically start to interact more when they know that might get them a copy.

If you didn't get a chance to act up in my audience, you can still get one by going to amazon.com. The link to amazon is below, where, gosh, you can buy used copies of my book for as little as 61 cents! Now you can buy them for all your friends too! For those of you who would be happy with just with an eBook version, check the Download section of my website.


Posted by dmzach

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