Archive for category: Words of Wisdom

Words of Wisdom #5

March 23, 2012/in Words of Wisdom/by learningwithoutscars

Sleeism # 5

Man is like the turtle…. You have to stick your neck out in order to get ahead

This is similar to some of the quotes in our Friday Filosophy today. No guts no glory. If you don’t try who can you blame but yourself. The course starts with the first step. There are many other pithy sayings that mean the same thing. The time is now.

Words of Wisdom #4

March 16, 2012/in Words of Wisdom/by learningwithoutscars

Sleeism # 4

It is hard to soar with the Eagles

If you are up all night with the Turkeys

Sometimes it is hard to remember that the morning comes awfully early. When you are having fun in the evening and into the early morning it is wise to remember that the sun comes up every day (so far) and that you have to be race ready when you get up. It is not a sign of weakness to get to bed in the middle of a party. It is purely an understanding of the responsibilities we have the next day. The time is now.

Words of Wisdom #3

March 12, 2012/in Words of Wisdom/by learningwithoutscars

Sleeism # 3

Always assume the other person is twice as smart as you are and work twice as hard to prove they aren’t.

This is another from Tony Doxsey and it has help up rather well over the years. It is expressed another way that might help make it more clear to you. “In the long run, the race belongs not merely to the swift, but to the farseeing, to those who anticipate change” – Lykes Lines. This gives me great hope. It means you don’t have to be good looking, to be muscular, to be athletic, to be intellectual, or in any other manner extraordinary. You just have to be curious.

That combination of curiosity and the ability to work hard will get you a long, long way in life.

The time is now.

A Personal Note

March 10, 2012/in Filosophy, Words of Wisdom/by learningwithoutscars

It is Saturday and one of my favorite events is what I call a “Man Date.” This is when my grandson and I go and have our haircuts. It started when my daughter began to have trouble getting him to sit still for his haircut. So off we went for his first trip to the barbershop.

My barber is a terrific man, his name is Joe. He has run the typical old barbershop for many years. He is also a musician and entertains across the valley. He also leads the Scouts. He does a lot of things as well as providing a pretty mean haircut.

So there we are and my grandson is about four or so and he is going to have his first Barbershop haircut. He is not happy to hear the clippers or to see his mother and grandparents taking pictures of him crying. Joe you see has a grip on his head like it is bowling ball without the three holes. That is where it started. So for a number of years the two of us have gone off on a regular basis to have our “man date” at Joe’s.

This morning was our date and now it is a rather enjoyable time. The little guy sits in the chair – no booster required anymore – and has a chat with Joe. It is a fun and amusing watching the two of them talking about all kinds of weird and wonderful things. He has learned how to use the gels now – his grandfather (me) hasn’t got enough hair to use a gel and I am convinced that is Joe rubbing it in by teaching the little guy how to apply it and clean up afterwards. But it is a great haircut and I had one at the same time. So there we are – two “men” sharing time on a date getting our hair cut. You have to love it. The time is now.

Words of Wisdom #2

March 8, 2012/in Words of Wisdom/by learningwithoutscars

I started working – an actual on a daily basis job when I was fifteen years old. Yes I did a bunch of stuff before that but I don’t count it. Sometime in those early years I took on this Sleeism #2. It has been heard by anyone who has ever worked with me or suffered a discussion with me or in one manner or another spent time with me – which leads to me two short stories. Remember me? I tell stories as a means of ensuring that people understand my strange mannerisms in communications.

Story #1: It is 1983 and my family and I have moved to Denver, CO. I was working for a computer software company, EBS. The VP of Sales was a gentleman named Bill McManes. He was one of the best sales people I have ever seen from a selling technique perspective. He was awesome in action. Well my family was invited to join Bill and his family for Thanksgiving Dinner. It was a wonderful gesture. We were new in town and we didn’t know that many people so it was appreciated. We sat down for the dinner and Caroline my daughter was sitting to Bill’s left and Marlene, my wife, and I were down at the other end of the table. Bill looks to Caroline and asks innocently “Caroline have you heard about your father’s three strikes rule?” Caroline is an extremely wonderful person and she has a rather scary attribute – she is extremely intelligent. I know that is a father talking but I promise if anything I understate it. Well without missing a beat Caroline, who was somewhere around 8 years old at the time, said “Yes Bill I have one strike how many do you have?” Bill in amazement looked down the table and said “You do this to your kid???”

Story #2: It is about 2009 and my daughter Caroline is going through her student teaching assignments. She was in a rather rough school in an underprivileged area. Well Caroline is a small woman somewhere around 100 pounds soaking wet and about 5”3. She also is a runner so she is incredibly fit. She calls me after school one day and relates the following story.

One of the students was causing trouble. This was a grade 5 class and the students are always trying to be the center of attention. After politely attempting to get control of the room there was this one young man who continued on being a disturber. He wouldn’t stop. So what did my daughter do? She asked him to stand up and while he was standing, being watched by everyone in the room, she walked slowly up to him and get very close. She held up one finger and said to this astonished your person in the appropriate tone “That Is One” – she turned didn’t say anything else and walked away. When she turned around to face the class she told him that he could now sit down. He never caused trouble again. She said to me on the phone “Dad does that ever work.” And I asked her why she thought it worked. She said – and I love it – he didn’t know what #2 was going to be.

So there are two stories to explain Sleeism #2 here it is:-

Sleeism # 2

Once is happenstance; Twice is circumstance; Third time is Enemy Action

Words of Wisdom #1

March 8, 2012/in Words of Wisdom/by learningwithoutscars

Over the years I have come up with a series of thoughts – either unique or in some cases I am sure repeats of someone much more sensible than I. These comments have started taking on the name of a Sleeism.

Of course there is no such word and at the risk of appearing to be more arrogant than I am sure I seem to be I have adopted this “moniker” for these words of wisdom.

Sleeism # 1

From my youth – It is NEVER too early to start winning. It is ALWAYS too early to start losing.

TESTIMONIALS

In this last weekend prior to the US election I am reading a rather outstanding book titled “The New Industrial Revolution” authored by Peter Marsh. I would like to extract a few passages from this book while encouraging you to get it and read it.

“In 1750, the leader in global manufacturing was China, responsible for more than a third of the output, followed by India with a quarter.”

I thought that might put a few things into context for some of you. In 2010 for the first time since around 1900 China passed the US as the largest world manufacturing country. Some things can change but they might go back to where they once were again. India will soon surpass China as a result of the demographics of that country. The average age in India is 28 years old.

America has become a service country. This is the value added portion of the supply chains across the world. The major trouble with this change is the opportunity for the undereducated people in the country has become a challenge. In 1900 the choice for the undereducated was agriculture, in 1950 the choice was a production line, what has it become in 2000? To many it is the fast food Industry but few view that as a “career” choice. This is one of the many new challenges facing the next administration. Yes we need to revive the job creating engine that America once was by completely overhauling the tax codes for individuals and corporations by eliminating as much as possible any deductions from taxable income for both. This will deal a serious body blow to the lobby profession which has hijacked the government from the people. Next we need to reexamine the use of the regulation. Regulations are not necessarily bad things but they need to be measured against the impact on the economy and on peoples’ lives. Next we need to become resource independent. That way we can control more of our lives and not be beholden to others.

American ingenuity is a wondrous thing. America seems to have the capacity to reinvent herself about every twenty years or so. We need a new iteration now and it is none too soon. The time is now.

November 3, 2012

Your Interpretation of Time

In tonight's post, guest blogger Bruce Baker walks you through your own interpretation of time, and what that interpretation can do to you.

Your Interpretation of Your Reality Is Taking You Down!

Human behaviour has always been based on our primary instinct of avoiding loss at any expense. If we can acquire equal gain, we tend to be satisfied and move on with our merry lives. When people feel that they are about to lose something or have lost something, our primary drive kicks in, and we try to compensate for this loss.

There is, however, a difference between loss aversion and risk aversion. As a business owner, this is where I encourage you to pay very close attention. Risk aversion is your perception of the utility value of a monetary payoff that depends on what you have previously experienced or what you expected to happen. For example, the last time you decided to pay for Bookkeeping services (your previous experience), you paid a lot of money, but the Bookkeeper made a bigger mess. (Your perception of the utility value of this service and the level of monetary payoff). Moving forward, you would rather do it yourself.

As our instant gratification mindset gains more traction, so does our interpretation of time change – suddenly, time is interpreted as being a lot shorter! With shorter perceived periods to prevent loss and reduce risk, our reaction to fear also increases not only in the sheer number of times we react to fear but the intensity of how we react. This intensity destroys what comes naturally to us and our ability to be creative and build tremendous value for ourselves and the others we serve.

This has profound implications for a business owner scaling up, starting up or fixing up a business. I continuously find myself working with CEOs that are constantly on edge, struggling to grow their business or, in many cases today, trying to prevent their companies from going down the proverbial tubes. What is even more profound is what got them to this state: short-term and reactive thinking based on their interpretation of risk and potential failure. Being in this perpetual state of loss or risk is not something new but being in this state continuously and over short bursts is what we need to be concerned with. Business leaders are always convincing themselves that “if I get this fixed now, all will be good” or “I’ll get back to the customer before the end of the day” or “I’ll pay some of this now and hopefully pay the rest at the end of the month.” The list goes on and on.

One of the primary reasons we end up “multi-tasking” or “switch-tasking” is the need for an instant fix based on an inaccurate interpretation of time. All this has achieved are businesses that are built with short-term solutions or quick fixes.

To take this a step further, business owners are not just confronted with one or two competing priorities but many at the same time. Franklin Covey’s Important vs. Urgent model is outstanding and always a tool I reference with my clients. Although a great tool, I continuously find that it is only useful if we understand our interpretation of time and how we behave as a result, as described above.

If we live in a world requiring instant gratification and quick fixes and respond to this as a business by operating this way, we are only preparing for one thing, failure. We run our businesses based on this behaviour based on our interpretation of time and the risk of loss as a result. If our expectations are short-term and superficial based on who we serve, then the nature of our decisions and our state of mind will respond accordingly.

Returning to Franklin Covey’s Important vs. Urgent model, trying to distinguish the importance and the urgency of the task just doesn’t cut it. When we are in the classroom or with our business coach or consultant, it seems logical and rational to think this way (i.e., tasks classified into their level of importance and urgency). As soon as we return to “the field,” we return to solving problems and making decisions based on instant gratification and quick fixes. Our natural need to want to be accepted and not rejected forces us into the same old vicious routine – reacting to every single demand that needs to be resolved. The business owner, in turn, responds to this as a risk that needs to be managed and if not “now” or “very soon,” the overwhelming reaction of loss aversion kicks in again.

Society has only been successful in times when we have been able to cooperate and align our expectations. We are a society today and subsequently a business community that has evolved into the “me” culture that works on their individual needs and expectations, which are now governed by the need for instant gratification and instant resolution. As such, we respond to each other this way which requires any small business that either wants to scale, start-up or fix-up to respond the same way, failing, not only the business failing but the business owner failing, which in most cases causes a breakdown in their lives in general.

It’s time that business owners realize that this elusion of time and their response to their interpretation of risk and fear of loss is not a sustainable reality. If we think that this short-term reactive and superficial culture is the “modern way,” I hate to see the state of business and the value of service to each other over the next decade or so.

I can tell you without a doubt that business owners that I have and continue to work with that have finally realized the extent of this problem for themselves and are now thriving. You may ask what I define thriving as? Their levels of stress have drastically decreased, their creativity has drastically increased, and the value they deliver to their market has improved significantly.

Take a leap of faith, and I can guarantee you that you and your business will thrive as well!

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June 8, 2021