Jeff Bezos (Amazon founder)'s Princeton University graduation commencement speech, "What matters more than your talent". Quite inspiring.

"It's harder to be kind than clever.

Cleverness is a gift. Kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy. They are given after all. Choices can be hard.

How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make?
Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions?
Will you follow dogma, or will you be original?
Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure?
Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions?
Will you bluff it out when you're wrong, or will you apologize?
Will you guard your heart against rejection, or will you act when you fall in love?
Will you play it safe, or will you be a little bit swashbuckling?
When it's tough, will you give up, or will you be relentless?
Will you be a cynic, or will you be a builder?
Will you be clever at the expense of others, or will you be kind?"

Be inspired!

p.s. If you know Amazon :-), you can probably skip the introduction and start at the 6:28 mark.

The Pareto Principle

See the Wiki Link The Pareto Principle for further details.

"The Pareto principle (also known as the 80–20 rule, the law of the vital few, and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.[1][2]

Business-management consultant Joseph M. Juran suggested the principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed in 1906 that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population; he developed the principle by observing that 20% of the pea pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas.[2]

It is a common rule of thumb in business; e.g., "80% of your sales come from 20% of your clients". Mathematically, where something is shared among a sufficiently large set of participants, there must be a number k between 50 and 100 such that "k% is taken by (100 − k)% of the participants". The number k may vary from 50 (in the case of equal distribution, i.e. 100% of the population have equal shares) to nearly 100 (when a tiny number of participants account for almost all of the resource). There is nothing special about the number 80% mathematically, but many real systems have k somewhere around this region of intermediate imbalance in distribution.[3]

The Pareto principle is only tangentially related to Pareto efficiency, which was also introduced by the same economist. Pareto developed both concepts in the context of the distribution of income and wealth among the population."

Food for Thoughts - Business Books

Here is a recommendation by Dave Kerpen, 9 Business Books That Will Change Your Life (click).

The short list is:

1) What Color is Your Parachute? A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career Seekers by Richard Bolles

2) Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends & Friends Into Customers by Seth Godin

3) The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell

4) Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap - and Others Don't by Jim Collins

5) Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase The Value of Your Growing Firm by Verne Harnish

6) The E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work, and What to Do About It by Michael Gerber

7) Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You by John Warrilow

8) Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

9) The Three Big Questions for a Frantic Family: A Leadership Fable About Restoring Sanity to The Most Important Organization in Your Life by Patrick Lencioni

I haven't read any of the above and can't validate the claims of the author. Will look into it and hope one of them will hit the spot and change my business life, for good.

Feel It

The following is a note I sent to a mentee of mine a few weeks ago. She has educational background in broadcasting and obviously her career is geared towards the creative side of her.

"Last night, as I was flipping through TV and getting a mental shutdown, I happened upon a program called "What Not to Wear" on TLC.

Long story short, this episode is about the makeover of a brainy 23-year old, who is applying for a PhD degree in physics, while still dressed like a teenager, with a big Pi, her favorite number on her T-shirt. As the fashion gurus kept putting forward new ideas, every time without failing, her analytical brain kicked in and her thought process went, "well, the color... the style.... the cut...how not me....."

Finally, the designers said, "Don't think too much. Feel it."

I think this applies to you too. You are in a different field. There is no magic potion, silver bullet, the E = mc2 to be discovered. As I mentioned, the creative thinking requires the leap of faith. "Don't think too much. Feel it." For that, I think another post in my blog may be helpful: Steve Jobs Standford Commencement speech. Jobs shared his life lessons, including connecting the dots.

I can use an analogy. It's very much like dating. You can rationalize it, match.com it, but at the end of the day, you just need to go for it, trust your hunch, be ready to fail and start again, keep at it, till you find your prince charming."

This relates to the previous post of Paralysis by Analysis. It separates entrepreneurs from ordinary work-bees.

Entrepreneurs:

- have a vision or a great idea
- turn it into actions
- are not afraid to make decisions
- are willing to fail
- are not taking "impossible" as an answer
- are looking for a solution instead of backing away from a problem

Go get them!

Paralysis By Analysis

"There was little room for fear and doubt in what he did. There should be caution and a keen eye to detail, but fear and doubt could incapacitate. He could stand up here all night thinking up excuses not to proceed. Stan Hurley, the tough SOB who had trained him, had warned him about the pitfalls of paralysis by analysis." - Mitch Rapp in "Kill Shot" by Vince Flynn.

"Paralysis by analysis." I like that.

How so to life in general! We often think too much and get incapacitated by all the baggages and what-ifs.

Get rid of the clutters, lighten up, keep it simple and ....

"Just do it!" - Nike

Four Management Lessons

A bit salty, but get a laugh for things that are obvious.

Lesson No.1

A crow was sitting on a tree, doing nothing all day.A small rabbit saw the crow, and asked him, "Can I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?"

The crow answered: " Sure, why not."

So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the crow, and rested. All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Management Lesson: To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.

Lesson No.2

A turkey was chatting with a bull. "I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, "but I haven't got the energy." "Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?" replied the bull. "They're packed with nutrients." The turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found that it actually gave him enough strength to reach the first branch of the tree.The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fortnight, there he was proudly perched at the top of the tree.

Soon he was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot the turkey out of the tree.

Management Lesson: Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.

Lesson No.3

When the body was first made, all the parts wanted to be Boss. The brain said, "I should be Boss because I control the whole body's responses and functions." The feet said, " We should be Boss as we carry the brain about and get him to where he wants to go." The hands said, "We should be the Boss because we do all the work and earn all the money." And so it went on and on with the heart, the lungs and the eyes until finally the asshole spoke up. All the parts laughed at the idea of the asshole being the Boss. So the asshole went on strike, blocked itself up and refused to work. Within a short time the eyes became crossed, the hands clenched, the feet twitched, the heart and lungs began to panic and the brain fevered.Eventually they all decided that the asshole should be the Boss.

Management Lesson: You don't need brains to be a Boss - any asshole will do.

Lesson No.4

A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold, the bird froze and fell to the ground in a large field. While it was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on it. As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung,it began to realize how warm it was. The dung was actually thawing him out! He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy. A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung, and promptly dug him out and ate him!

Management Lesson:

1) Not everyone who drops shit on you is your enemy.

2) Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend.

3) And when you're in deep shit, keep your mouth shut!