Friday Filosophy #2016-25

What a week! Starting last Sunday with Father’s Day. That followed our comments on the status quo and disruption. And we were given a gift on Thursday with Brexit. Not a gift in the manner in which you are thinking, but in the manner of following the thoughts on status quo and disruption. I believe that we constantly need to be challenging the status quo which brings me to the topic of Friday Filosophy #2016-25: dreams.

 Some quotes on dreams.

 

Reality is wrong. Dreams are real.

Tupac Shakur

 

Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?

Leonardo Da Vinci

 

You have to have a dream so you can get up in the morning.

Billy Wilder

 

Like all dreamers, I mistook disenchantment for truth.

Jean-Paul Sartre

 

A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.

Colin Powell

 

Every dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.

Harriet Tubman

 

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.

Walt Disney

 

My thoughts go out to the citizens of the United Kingdom who have retaken control of their own destiny. Best wishes and lots of luck.

 

The time is now.

Friday Filosophy #2016-24

One of the most special gifts I received in my life has been fatherhood. My daughter is a very special woman. (I am sure she will poo poo this when she reads it but it is true.)  Although with my work and the travel it entailed it was difficult at times, as I missed things. We tried not to travel during school breaks and that was a very special time for me. The only problem I have as a father is that my daughter is almost identical to me. Make no mistake she has her mother’s manner and instincts and pleasing personality but there is no misunderstanding that she is my daughter.

Some quotes on fathers for our Friday Filosophy #2016-24.

 

My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.

Jim Valvano

 

One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.

George Herbert

 

A father is a man who expects his daughter to be as a good a woman as she meant to be.

Frank A Clark

 

I am not ashamed to say that no man I ever met was my father’s equal, and I never loved any other man as much.

Hedy Lamarr

 

One of the greatest gifts my father gave me – unintentionally – was witnessing the courage with which he bore adversity. We had a rollercoaster of a life with some really challenging financial periods. He was always unshaken, completely tranquil, the same ebullient, laughing, jovial man.

Ben Okri

 

I know that I will never find my father in any other man who comes into my life, because it is a void in my life that can only be filled by him.

This is the price you pay for having a great father. You get the wonder, the joy, the tender moments – and you get the tears at the end, too.

Harlan Coben

 

The time is now.

Friday Filosophy #2016-23

Last week we talked about the status quo. Now, in Friday Filosophy #2016-23, I want to move to technological disruptions. Conventional wisdom, which is another oxymoron for the status quo, states that disruptive technologies change everything.  Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen see disruptive technologies upsetting apple carts all over the globe.  

Here are some thoughts on disruptive technologies.

 

Disruption is, at its core, a really powerful idea. Everyone hijacks the idea to do whatever they want now.  It’s the same way people hijacked the word “paradigm” to justify lame things they’re trying to sell to mankind.

Clayton Christensen

 

Supply chains cannot tolerate even 24 hours of disruption. So if you lose your place in the supply chain because of wild behavior you could lose a lot. It would be like pouring cement down one of your oil wells.

Thomas Friedman

 

The key is to embrace disruption and change early. Don’t react to it decades later. You can’t fight innovation.

Ryan Kavanaugh

 

Employees speak of being fearful opening emails and feeling increasingly helpless in the face of the deluge. Physiologically, we now know that the state of continuous disruption puts us into a constant state of hormone-induced stress.

Noreen Hertz

 

The First Amendment was designed to allow for disruption of business as usual. It is not a quiet and subdued amendment or right.

Naomi Wolf

 

True disruption means threatening your existing product line and your past investments. Breakthrough products disrupt current lines of business.

Peter Diamondis

 

The time is now.

Friday Filosophy #2016-22

We just had a dismal jobs report posted yet the jobless rate continues going down. This just highlights the visible disconnect between “government” metrics and real life. The job participation rate is 62.6% :nearly at a forty year low. There are 94.7 million people who are outside the labor force. How dismal is that. Perspective is everything and the status quo is a serious threat to our families and the future of the country.

 

On that note, for our Friday Filosophy #2016-22, here are some thoughts on status quo:

 

The status quo sucks.

 George Carlin

 

I don’t accept the status quo. I do accept Visa, Master Card or American Express.

Stephen Colbert

 

The riskiest thing we can do is just maintain the status quo.

Bob Iger

 

People who demand neutrality in any situation are usually not neutral but in favor of the status quo.

Mas Eastman

 

The history of storytelling isn’t one of simply entertaining the masses but of also advising the status quo.

Therese Fowler

 

Entrepreneurs are misfits to the core. They forge ahead, making their own path and always, always, question the status quo.

Maximillian Degenerez

 

I am not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.

Niccolo Machiavelli

 

 

The time is now.

Friday Filosophy #2016-21

This weekend is a special one: Memorial Day. This is the day to remember all of the men and women who have died in the service of our country. They gave everything to allow us to enjoy our freedom. I am an immigrant to this country. I am thankful to be a citizen of this country.  For this Friday Filosophy #2016-21, I want to focus on this idea of country.

 

May Heaven be propitious, and smile on the cause of my country.

Zebulon Pike

 

Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.

George Washington

 

On what rests the hope of the republic? One country, one language, one flag.

Alexander Henry

 

Who sows virtue reaps honor.

Leonardo da Vinci

 

I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.

Nathan Hale

 

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.

Mark Twain

 

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Martin Luther King Jr.

 

Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that’s real power.

Clint Eastwood

 

I am not concerned with your liking or disliking me…all I ask is that you respect me as a human being.

Jackie Robinson

 

The time is now.

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Friday Filosophy #2016-20

Every now and then a little humility is a good thing. Not the artificial, superficial kind, but the real heartfelt humility.  For our Friday Filosophy #2016-20 on a loose schedule, we are taking a look at humility.

 Humility is the true key to success. Successful people lose their way at times. They often embrace and overindulge from the fruits of success. Humility halts this arrogance and self-indulging trap. Humble people share the credit and wealth, remaining focused and hungry to continue the journey of success.

Rick Pitino

 

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.

C.S. Lewis

 

It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.

Saint Augustine

 

It ain’t the heat, it’s the humility.

Yogi Berra

 

Nothing is more deceitful than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast.

Jane Austen

 

I believe the first test of a truly great man is his humility.

John Rushkin

 

True humility is contentment.

Henri Frederic Amiel

 

Humility is a great quality of leadership which derives respect and not just fear and hatred.

Yousef Munayyer

 

The time is now.

Friday Filosophy #2016-19

Today, in Friday Filosophy #2016-19, I would like to explore excellence. Performance Excellence is the title of our second level of management training for parts and service management in the capital goods industry,

 

Good, better, best. Never let it rest. ‘Til your good is better and your better is best.

St. Jerome

 

I’d rather attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed.

Robert H. Schuller

 

In order to succeed, we must first believe that we can.

Nikos Kazantzakis

 

Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.

Charles H. Swindoll

 

Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.

Og Mandino

 

What you do today can improve all your tomorrows.

Ralph Marston

 

You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.

Rabindranath Tagore

 

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.

C.S. Lewis

 

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.

Confucius

 

A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.

Ayn Rand

 

The time is now.

Friday Filosophy #2016-17

Over the past three to four decades there has been many trillions of dollars spent on technology. Unfortunately there has not been the same investment in sociology. Friday Filosophy #2016-17 offers some timely quotes on technology.

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology exceeded our humanity.

Albert Einstein

 

The number one benefit of information technology is that it empowers people to do what they want to do. It lets people be creative. It lets people be productive. It lets people learn things they didn’t think they could learn before, and so in a sense it is all about potential.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

If someone tells you that you have a lot of potential when you are sixteen that is a complement. If that some someone tells you that you have a lot of potential at sixty six you have to ask what you have done for the past fifty years.

R.J. Slee

 

Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.

Bill Gates

 

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Arthur C. Clarke

 

Technology… is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other.

Carrier Snow

 

Our technological powers increase, but the side effects and potential hazards escalate.

Alvin Toffler

 

The internet is so big, so powerful and pointless that for some people it is a complete substitute for life.

Andrew Brown

 

Men have become the tools of their tools.

Henry David Thoreau

 

The time is now.

Friday Filosophy #2016-16

One of the many challenges we have in this workplace and life is the use of time, the constant pressures, the feeling of being out of control of our lives. With that in mind I offer you some quotes on Serenity in Friday Filosophy #2016-16. I have been searching for serenity in my life for many years now. The search continues.

 

Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity that nothing is.

Thomas Szasz

 

The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, and all the sweet serenity of books.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

 

Check our website at www.rjslee.com for a comprehensive reading list. You can also review our writing activities over the past twenty plus years. Reading is a critical element in serenity and personal growth.

 

But I do know focusing on the exterior doesn’t make me happy. If you want peace and serenity, it won’t be reached by getting thinner or fatter.

Elle Macpherson

 

There is a kind of serenity in love which is almost a paradise.

Alain Badiou

 

A conviction that you are a daughter of God gives you a feeling of comfort in your self-worth. It means that you can find strength in the balm of Christ. It will help you meet the heartaches and challenges with faith and serenity.

James E. Faust.

 

A garden must contain the mysterious with a feeling of serenity and joy.

Luis Barragan

 

I started running around my 30th birthday. I wanted to lose weight; I didn’t anticipate the serenity. Being in motion, suddenly my body was busy so my head could work out some issues I had swept under a carpet of wine and cheese. Good therapy, that’s a good run.

Michael Weatherly

 

The time is now.

Friday Filosophy #2016-15

One of the many misunderstandings that people have about management is that they equate it to leadership. You manage processes, but you lead people.  For Friday Filosophy #2016-15, some thoughts about leadership, from leaders.

 

Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.

Margaret Thatcher.

 

The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets people to do the greatest things.

Ronald Reagan

 

To add value to others, one must first value others.

Before you can be of any value to anyone else you must be of value to yourself.

R.J. Slee

 

The task of the leader is to get their people from where they are to where they have not been.

Henry Kissinger

 

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they are capable of being.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

There are no office hours for leaders.

Cardinal J. Gibbons

 

When people talk, listen completely.

Ernest Hemingway

 

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.

Peter Drucker

 

A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is don’t, his aim fulfilled, they will say we did it ourselves.

Lao Tzu

 

The time is now.