About Growing Older…

  • First…  eventually you  will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.
  • Second… the older we  get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.
  • Third… some  people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to know “why” I  look this way. I’ve traveled a long way and some of the roads weren’t paved.
  • Fourth…  when you are  dissatisfied and would like to go back to youth, think of Algebra.
  • Fifth…  you know you  are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks.
  • Sixth…  I don’t know  how I got over the hill without getting to the top.
  • Seventh… one of  the many things no one tells you about aging is that it is such a nice change  from being young.
  • Eighth…  one  must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.
  • Ninth…  being young is  beautiful, but being old is comfortable.
  • Tenth…  long ago when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft. Today it’s called golf.
  • And finally…  if  you don’t learn to laugh at trouble, you won’t have anything to laugh at when  you are old.

The time is now….

I am in Hawaii this month for some down time and reflection. This is always a good thing for me to do. As I do this I ran across a wonderful slideshow with some pithy comments. I thought you might enjoy.

The person who considers himself too old to learn something has probably always been that way.

The good side of aging, as old as one might be, is that one is always younger than he will ever be.

There are four great periods in the life of a man; the one where he believes in Santa Claus, the one where he no longer believes in Santa Claus, the one where he is Santa Claus, and finally the one where he looks more and more like Santa Claus.

As one grows old, one generally  rids himself of his shortcomings because they no longer serve any useful purpose.

If someone declares that he is able to do everything at sixty that he was able to do at twenty, then he was not doing very much when he was twenty.

It is by growing old that one learns to remain young.

The entire life of a human being  depends upon ”yes” and “no” uttered two or three times  between the ages of sixteen and twenty-five.

So long as one continues to be amazed,  one can delay growing old.

The time is now…..

The world is more malleable than you think, and it’s waiting for you to hammer it into shape.

Bono, musician

Well here we are. After some resistance I seem to be surviving the travails of a blog. This is my 100th posting. I hope you are enjoying my blathering on about this and that. I appreciate the comments that you are sending my way and look forward to more.

Doon’t forget that we had a reading assignment earlier this week. The Goal. And I hope you have found some time to read it. It is a timeless classic in my view and one that bears rereading occassionally to keep on your toes. Complacency is the enemy, Don’t forget that “Good” and “Great” are the enemy of what is “Possible.”

The time is now.

 

 

At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.

Aristotle

 

The aim of art is to present not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.

Aristotle

 

Hope is the dream of the waking man.

Aristotle

From the incredible mind of Stephen Wright

  • Borrow money from pessimists — they don’t expect it back.
  • I’d kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.
  • Half the people you know are below average.
  • 42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
  • OK, so what’s the speed of dark?

 

In his blog Growth Without Pain – Jay Roszell makes many great points.

I used to have a standard three questions I would ask regularly but at least twice a year of my co-workers.

  1. What am I doing that you like that I do and want me to coninue doing?
  2. What am I doing that you don’t like that I do and want me to stop?
  3. What am I doing that doesn’t really matter to you?

From the answers I could make solid decisions on how I was impacting others and what I did that should have been done by someone else.

Try it yourself and see how you like the approach. Please let us know how it worked out for you. The time is now.

In doing background work for my monthly CED column I noticed some interesting facts about Genuine Parts.

Genuine Parts is the parent of NAPA the parts specialist in the automotive replacement business. From my perspective they also mirror the construction equipment marketplace. Over the past four years Genuine Parts has seen through 2008 and 2009 declines in profit of 2% and 14% respectively. In the years 2010 and 2011 they returned to profit growth of 20% and 19% respectively. Analysts are predicting another year of double digit growth for 2012.

How do individual dealers in North America compare? I think we have some work to do to regain our footing. The time is now.

Just a short note. A good man with a world of experience is starting into the world of the blog. His blog is – growth without pain. Check it out you won’t be sorry. The time is now.

Many of you seem to appreciate the Words of Wisdom that we post. For that I say a big thank you. And a tease don’t forget they are all WOW. The time is now.