Friday Filosophy #2015-31

In Friday Filosophy #2015-31 we are taking a look at leadership.

The world has changed rapidly over the past three decades and continues to change rapidly. If anything it is changing even more rapidly than it appears to be. However, there are some constants. From the Chairman at VW to the leader of the House of Representatives, we are seeing in front of us the challenges and difficulties in the position of leadership. Without making too much of these two examples you can see the challenges of CEOs in a number of different areas and Industries. Here are some quotes to consider from business and political leaders over the past half century.

I hope you enjoy them.

 

The key to successful leadership is influence, not authority.

Ken Blanchard

 

Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.

Jack Welsh

 

Are YOU growing yourself? Do you continue to learn? Do you read business books?

 

Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing.

Tom Peters

 

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

Winston Churchill

 

Leadership is not about titles, positions or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.

John C. Maxwell

 

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

Margaret Thatcher

 

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.

Lao Tzu

 

Isn’t that rather different than “You didn’t build that?”

 

I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.

Estee Lauder

 

We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat; they do not exist.

Queen Victoria

 

My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to takes these great people we have and to push them and make them even better.

Steve Jobs

 

There are two kinds of stones, as everyone knows. One of which rolls.

Amelia Earhart

 

I was never the smartest guy in the room. From the first person I hired, I was never the smartest guy in the room. And that’s a big deal. And if you’re going to be a leader – if you’re the leader and the smartest guy in the world – in the room, you’ve got real problems.

Jack Welsh

 

It is delusional to consider yourself the answer to all things.

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

John F Kennedy

 

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

Peter Drucker

 

A leader is a dealer in hope.

Napoleon Bonaparte

 

Too many companies believe people are interchangeable. Truly gifted people never are. They have unique talents. Such people cannot be forced into roles they are not suited for, nor should they be. Effective leaders allow great people to do the work they were born to do.

Warren Bennis

 

Contrary to popular opinion, leadership is not a reserved position for a reserved group of people who were elected or appointed, ordained or enthroned. Leadership is self-made, self-retained, self-inculcated and then exposed through a faithful, sincere, and exemplary life.

Israelmore Avivor

 

Leadership is the art of giving people a platform for spreading ideas that work.

Seth Godin

 

Let me close with some quotes from Charles Handy. Influential to the business world like Peter Drucker was in the US, but from his perch in Great Britain.

 

  1. The moment will arrive when you are comfortable with who you are, and what you are – bald or old or fat or poor, successful or struggling – when you don’t feel the need to apologize for anything or to deny anything. To be comfortable in your own skin is the beginning of strength.
  2. We cannot wait for great visions from great people, for they are in short supply. It is up to us to light our own small fires in the darkness.
  3. Change is only another word for growth, another synonym for learning.
  4. Instead of a national curriculum for education, what is really needed is an individual curriculum for every child.
  5. Creativity needs a bit of untidiness. Make everything too neat and there is no room for experiment.

 

The time is now.

Friday Filosophy #2015-30

With Friday Filosophy #2015-30 we are working here to get back into the routine of our technology updates.

With the fast pace of change in technological development I wanted to focus on some diverse views on technology. One day we will realize that we need to have the same amount of change and development in the sociological world as well.

Enjoy!

 

The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.

Bill Gates

 

One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.

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

Andrew Brown
Technology is a gift of God. After the gift of life it is perhaps the greatest of God’s gifts. It is the mother of civilizations, of arts and of sciences.

Freeman Dyson
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Arthur C. Clarke

 

Men have become the tools of their tools.

Henry David Thoreau
The time is now.

Friday Filosophy #2015-29

With our webinar series beginning next week for the fall session, Friday Filosophy #2015-29 is about something we strive for, always: excellence.

Satisfaction in life is knowing that you got the best out of your attributes. Don’t settle for less than you are capable of in your life. There is much more satisfaction in overcoming challenges and problems than sailing through life without being challenged. Many famous people have said something like this in different ways with the same meaning. Never lie to your reflection in the mirror even though it is the easiest person in the world to lie to. You will never achieve what you were meant to achieve.

Today I would like to explore some differing views of excellence.

 

Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it. Autograph your work with excellence.

Author Unknown

 

The secret of joy in work is contained in one word – excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.

Pearl S. Buck

 

Excellence is never an accident: it is the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, skillful execution and the vision to see obstacles as opportunities.

Anonymous

 

Mediocre men work at their best; men seeking excellence strive to do better.

Edwin Louis Cole

 

Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude.

Ralph Marston

 

Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.

John W Gardner

 

If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.

Thomas J. Watson

 

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.

Aristotle

 

ABILITY is what you are capable of doing.

MOTIVATION determines what you do.

ATTTITUDE determines how well you do it.

Lou Holtz

 

Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.

Vince Lombardi

 

No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

Martin Luther King

 

Once you have experienced excellence you will never again be content with mediocrity.

Thomas S. Watson

 

The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.

Vince Lombardi

 

If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.

Colin Powell

 

Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.

Samuel Johnson

 

Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.

Steve Jobs

 

Life’s like a play: it’s not the length but the excellence of the acting that matters.

Seneca

 

How you view your work or your life is your own. How others view you is not.

 

The time is now.

Friday Filosophy #2015-28

Friday Filosophy is back with #2015-28.  I hope you have all had a wonderful summer break.

 

The children are all back at school and the beginning of the second working half of the calendar begins.

 

Leadership is unlocking people’s potential to become better.

Bill Bradley

 

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.

Dale Carnegie

 

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.

Henry David Thoreau

 

Obstacles cannot crush me, every obstacle yields to stern resolve.

Leonardo da Vinci

 

Let’s all get back to work.

The time is now.

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Friday Filosophy #2015-27 A Midsummer’s Blog

I’m not trying to be Shakespeare with that title, but Friday Filosophy #2015-27 is A Midsummer’s Blog on all of the joys of the season we’re in.

The middle of summer is upon us and I am pleased to bring back a mid-summer’s blog for your consideration. One of the things I truly enjoyed growing up were my summers in the Laurentians north of Montreal. My mother was able to find and purchase an old house, built in 1908, for the family to spend school holidays at every year. My father commuted on Wednesday and the weekends from his “city” job.

As a result of that I grew up on a lake. The country club was a very basic offering. We had swimming, tennis and diving lessons for $5.00/month. The golf course was $16.00 a season for youth under 16 years of age. It was a fantastic opportunity.

So I had two lives: the summer place which was for fun, the city place which was for work.

Here are some thoughts for you on summertime.

 

Summer means happy times and good sunshine. It means going to the beach, going to Disneyland, having fun.

Brian Wilson

 

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching clouds float across the sky is by no means a waste of time.

John Lubbock

 

Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it.

Russell Baker

 

Summer is the annual permission slip to be lazy. To do nothing and have it count for something. To lie in the grass and count the stars. To sit on a branch and study the clouds.

Regina Brett

 

In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.

Albert Camus

 

Tears are the summer showers to the soul.

Albert Austin

 

Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.

Langston Hughes

 

Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.

Sam Keen

 

Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the most beautiful words in the English language.

Henry James

 

People take pictures of the summer, just in case something thought they had missed it, and to prove that it really existed.

Ray Davies

 

Oh, summer night,

Has a smile of light,

And she sits on a sapphire throne.

Bryan Procter

 

I hope you each have taken time this summer to slow down and enjoy. I remember having blood shot eyes most of the time from playing underwater tag with my friend Cliff and seeing rainbows around the sun all the time.

See you in September.

The time is now.

Friday Filosophy #2015-26

Although we are running a week behind, we are beginning to catch up.  Our Friday Filosophy #2015-26 focuses upon education.

 

Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom.

George Washington Carver

 

Education is the most powerful tool you can use to change the world.

Nelson Mandela

 

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

Aristotle

 

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

Aristotle

 

The only person who is educated is the one who has learning how to learn and change.

Carl Rogers

 

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.

Maya Angelou

 

The purpose of education is replace an empty mind with an open one.

Malcolm Forbes.

 

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

Benjamin Franklin

 

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.

William Butler Yeats.

 

The time is now.

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Friday Filosophy #2015-25

Today, for our Friday Filosophy #2015-25 I am taking a different tack. I am going to give you a summer reading list. Reading is a wonderful activity. You can be transported to different places in the world as well as in your mind. Learning is a tremendously important activity for me. It is one of the key activities in my quest to stay current. Enjoy.

The End of College: Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere. Author: Kevin Carey. This is an eye-opening read.

“The University of Everywhere is where students of the future will go to college.  Parts of it will be familiar to anyone who’s gotten a great college education, because some aspects of human learning are eternal. But in many respects, it will be like nothing that has come before.” ~ Kevin Carey

BOLD: How to go big and create wealth and impact the world.  Authors: Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler.

“The day before something is a breakthrough, it’s a crazy idea.” ~ Peter H. Diamandis

Executive Toughness: The Mental-Training program to increase your Leadership Performance.  Author: Dr. Jason Selk

“Mental toughness is the ability to focus on and execute solutions, especially in the face of adversity.” ~ Dr. Jason Selk

The time is now.

I would also direct you to our new business. Learning Without Scars is the Company we created to replace our Quest, Learning Centers, Inc. in the fall of 2014. Check it out at www.learningwithoutscars.org.  There are sixty two different learning opportunities for you to take advantage of and continue your personal growth.  The recommended summer reading is just a part of the advancement of your goals.

Friday Philosophy #2015-24

For Friday Philosophy #2015-24 I wanted to share with you some ideas that came to me from one of the events of this week.

I was at a graduation ceremony earlier this week and heard the Headmaster talk about reading a biography of Albert Einstein. It moved me to share some of his quotes with you this week.

 

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

You have to learn the rules of the game and then you have to play better than anyone else.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.

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

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.

If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what then, is an empty desk a sign.

There are many more. For those who are interested you can do a search on the man.

 

The time is now.

Friday Filosophy #2015-23

For our Friday Filosophy #2015-23, we are back to quotes by multiple people.  Unfortunately, we missed Friday.

 

Education is the mother of leadership.

Wendell Wilkie

A competent leader can get efficient service from poor troops, while on the contrary an incapable leader can demoralize the best of troops.

John J Pershing

One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.

Arnold H Glasow

 

The time is now.

 

Friday Filosophy #2015-22

This week, in Friday Filosophy #2015-22, let’s go back to an earlier era. Some of us might want to return to yesteryear – the times of Ronald Reagan.

 

We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

Peace is not the absence of conflict. It is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.

When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat.

Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.

If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

There are no limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination and wonder.

The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I am here to help.

There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.

We are never defeated unless we give up on God.

We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.

Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.

Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.

My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose – somehow we win out.

All great change in America begins at the dinner table.

 

The time is now.