Why, When, And How To Pursue Excellence
“Anyone who has achieved excellence in any form knows that it comes as a result of ceaseless concentration.” – Louise Brooks Long before In Pursuit of Excellence became a best seller, prominent businessmen touted excellence as the ultimate corporate objective. And maybe it is for Fortune 500 companies. But…
Getting Your Personal Master Plan In Gear
“It is a bad plan that admits of no modification.” – Publilius Syrus (the first century B.C.) In Message #155, we talked about the way Jack Welch used a Master Plan to communicate and achieve his vision for General Electric. In Message #191, I suggested that this was the best…
The Secret To Getting Everybody To Be More Productive
“Men can be stimulated by hope or driven by fear, but the hope and the fear must be vivid and immediate if they are to be effective without producing weariness.” – Bertrand Russell In his book Motivation, Saul Gellerman makes an interesting point about the way groups of people perform.…
Deflecting Envy – How The Beatles Did It
“Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little.” – Gore Vidal As you become more successful, the people who know you will change in two ways. First, they will begin to think of you as smarter than they do now. Second, they will sometimes resent your good fortune. You…
Make Your Next Encounter A Good One
“The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they cant find them, make them.” – George Bernard Shaw Every time you have a conversation, exchange e-mail, attend a meeting, make a presentation, or attend a…
Giving Thanks
Of the many unpleasant things that happen to you when you approach 50, the recognition of mortality is the worst. You can’t avoid facing it. People you know even friends and family members are seriously sick or dying. In the past several months, I have been through (a) the motorcycle…
Andrew Carnegie: How He Got Wealthy Using ETR Secrets
“The place to improve the world is first in ones own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.” – Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Like most people, whenever the name Andrew Carnegie was mentioned, I used to think industrialist or philanthropist…
You Havent Found Your Protégé Yet?
“Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson I understand how hard it is to find the right person. Someone as good as or better than you. Someone who can replace you someday. (See Message #107.)…
What’s Wrong With Coming In Second?
“Creativity is a by-product of hard work. If I never have another really new idea, it wont matter.” – Andrew A. Rooney Too many self-help books tout the virtues of marching to your own drummer, beating your own path, or building your own mousetrap. Let’s talk today about being more…
Failed? Join The Club
“Flops are a part of lifes menu and I’ve never been a girl to miss out on any of the courses.” – Rosalind Russell When I talk about success, people sometimes get the idea that I have had nothing but. The truth is I am constantly failing. In small things…
So What? This Is America, Isn’t It?
“No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.” – William BlakeLike all countries, America is a land of inequalities. And despite the billions of dollars our government has spent on leveling the field, economic differences persist. While politicians, bureaucrats, social activists, and other collective thinkers struggle…
Book Review: “Who Moved My Cheese?”
”Be a good animal, true to your animal instincts.” – D.H. Lawrence Who Moved My Cheese? the best seller by Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson is a small book (94 pages with wide margins). It is arranged in three parts: a fable wrapped between two made-up conversations. Ive…