It’s amazing to me, but looking back over nearly a decade of writing I find posts that still impress, with information that is as useful now as when it was written. Golden Oldies is a collection of what I consider some of the best posts during that time. I recently read an article in Inc. on a better way to move yourself forward then setting goals or making resolutions and it reminded me of something I wrote back in 2009. Same idea; different language. Read other Golden Oldies here.
I write and talk a lot about what happens when you choose to change your MAP through awareness and the resulting boos to your energy and creativity.
What I can’t remember sharing with you is a critical ingredient in the change sauce that I call the Philosophy of ER.
I consciously developed it formally and have shared it for decades to offset all the talk about failure when people are working to change.
First, you have to understand that I don’t believe in failure; I don’t think that someone has truly failed unless they’re dead. As long as they’re breathing, the worst bums on skid row have the potential to change, i.e., the possibility is there, even if the likelihood is not.
For decades change has focused on setting goals and if they aren’t achieved as stated, then you had failed.
Over the years I’ve worked with a lot of people (including myself) whose self esteem was at best badly bruised, at worst like Swiss cheese.
They started by telling me how they had failed at this or that, but in more detailed discussions it turned out that, although they hadn’t achieved their stated goal within the deadline, the goals and deadlines (one or both) weren’t exactly reality based or had changed along the way and not been restated.
To be valid, goals must come with delivery dates, but those dates must be achievable—not easy, but achievable.
When you set goals without taking into account minor details, such as friends/family/spouse/kids/working/sleeping/eating, then you’re setting yourself up for failure.
Beyond being reality-based, we all need an ongoing sense of accomplishment, especially for that which can’t be done in a few days, to sustain the long term effort that big goals take—thus came the Philosophy of ER.
Over the last couple of decades I’ve ERed almost everything (even when it’s grammatically incorrect).
I may not be wise, but I’m wisER.
I may not be rich, but I’m richER.
I may not be patient, but I’m patientER.
I may not be skinny, but I’m skinniER.
You get the idea.
So start ERing today and tomorrow you too will be happiER, smartER, healthiER and successfulER.
Just keep reminding yourself that to err is human, but to ER is divine.
Try it. You can do a lot worse than adding some ER to your life!
It’s amazing to me, but looking back over nearly a decade of writing I find posts that still impress, with information that is as useful now as when it was written. Golden Oldies is a collection of what I consider some of the best posts during that time. Interestingly, the original link didn’t work anymore, but Shift Happens was easily searched and it turns out that it has been updated several times since 2007; visit Shift Happens’ home. Read other Golden Oldies here.
I don’t usually frequent video sites (dinosaur that I am), but I received a link to a video called Shift Happens and it had some very interesting information. I don’t know if the number stats are 100% accurate, but the information in it parallels other sources I read.
Three of the points confirm a critical hiring attitude—
One week of the New York Times contains more information than a person living in the 18th century came across in a lifetime.
More unique, new information will be generated this year than in the previous 5000 years combined.
Half of what students starting a four-year degree learn in their first year will be outdated by the third year.
Given the third point, it’s reasonable to assume that a similar pattern holds for work experience, too.
And that brings us to the critical hiring attitude that every manager needs to have—it’s not just what a person knows, but also how well they learn combined with their ability to extrapolate new insights from their previous knowledge and experience that makes them a more valuable addition to your team.
In other words, think not only of where they have been, but also of where they can go in the future.
It’s amazing to me, but looking back over nearly a decade of writing I find posts that still impress, with information that is as useful now as when it was written. Golden Oldies is a collection of what I consider some of the best posts during that time. Read other Golden Oldies here
The Tao of Life
We learn through words and can often learn more by deconstructing them.
Just as one of the most critical managerial (human) actions is found in its own anagram the Tao of another is found within the word itself.
The word is LIFE.
The Tao of life is IF.
IF you think/say/do this instead of that the Tao changes.
Who does a company, with explosive growth, founded and built by old folks in their forties and fifties all with extensive executive management experience, turn to when moving to the next level?
The company hasn’t disclosed exact revenue figures, but it says it grew new annual recurring revenue by more than 50% in 2014, and claims more than 2,500 companies, including Coca Cola, Toyota, and AAA use its software. It’s raised $100 million in funding from investors like Salesforce, Norwest Venture Partners, and Bessemer Venture Partners.
The company is Adaptive Insights and the guy is Tom Bogan, an even older guy, with even more experience.
When a large sample of Facebook groups created by 20- to 29-year-olds was examined by a team based at the Yale School of Public Health, three-quarters of the groups were found to denigrate old people. More than a third advocated banning old people from public activities like shopping.
Of course, one assumes that the ‘old people’ to which they refer aren’t their relatives.
(I’d like to hear them on the subject 10, 20, 30 and 40 years from now.)
There is enormous value in having ‘been there/done that’ through multiple economic cycles, cultural change, globalization and technology evolution/revolution.
But to take advantage of it you need to be comfortable enough in your own skin to admit you need to learn — like Mark Zukerberg and Larry Page.
Does William Butler Yeats’s line “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity,” fit you?
Sounds like a bad thing, but actually it’s a great attitude to cultivate.
Look at the two parts separately.
Let’s take the second part first; I believe “while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity” refers to people who espouse a certain approach or methodology so emphatically that nothing sways them that there may be a better way or even that a different method will accomplish the same thing.
“The best lack all conviction” could be taken to mean being totally wish-washy with no firm beliefs, but taken together with the second part I think it means being open to new ideas/approaches.
In other words, the first is open to learning and the second is a ‘my way or the highway’ type.
Who would you rather work with?
If you want the first, be sure not to model the second.
Thirty-odd years ago when what most people think of technology were young and the Digital Generation was barely started Bill Gates and other experts raved about how that generation would revolutionize the world because they would all grow up programming.
The assumption was that most anyone with a computer would learn to program, because that was the nature of the beast.
Many others disagreed saying that just because someone drove a car didn’t mean that person wanted to work under the hood.
Turned out the latter group was correct.
Few people, whether their careers or their pleasures, depend on computers and the Internet have a clue as to what is actually going on—nor do they particularly care.
But for those of you who have a bit of curiosity as to what happens when you click ‘send’ I offer the following video; and if you already know watch anyway.
You’ll appreciate the skill it took to make something opaque so transparent.
I call Saturday Expand Your Mind and I try and provide links to articles and information of which you may be unaware or that gives you a different view of something you already know.
Along the way I learn a lot—both new stuff and new ways of looking at old stuff—just like you.
What I want to share today has nothing to do with business or anything about which I usually write.
But it blew my mind and I thought it was likely to have a similar effect on you.
A little background.
Street dancing, for lack of a better term, fascinates me. The athleticism is amazing and the skill required is obvious.
As with any art form, innovation has moved it in new directions, with multiple offshoots.
In the last few years Memphis jookin has acquired international celebrity, principally because of the exceptional young performer Lil Buck (real name, Charles Riley). An extraordinary YouTube clip of Lil Buck dancing “The Swan” to the cello playing of Yo-Yo Ma in April 2011 caused a sensation.
Of course I watched the clip and that’s what blew my mind.
It comes with the impeccable credentials of TED and is called, rightly so, TED-Ed.
It’s a link to a world for you to explore with your kids and other learning-oriented friends.
It’s one of those links that you should blast out to everyone in each of your networks and Tweet so the world will know.
“Our goal here is to offer teachers free tools in a way they will find empowering,” said TED Curator Chris Anderson, on the new TED Ed site. “This new platform allows them to take any useful educational video, not just TED’s, and easily create a customized lesson plan around it. Great teaching skills are never displaced by technology. On the contrary, they’re amplified by it. That’s our purpose here: to give teachers an exciting new way to extend learning beyond classroom hours.”
Yes, it’s a fantastic tool for actual teachers (send those you know the link), but, in the end, we are all teachers and learners.
Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.
Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,
I call Saturday Expand Your Mind and I try and provide links to articles and information of which you may be unaware or that gives you a different view of something you already know.
