Tag Archives: life lessons

November 11, 2013 · 10:11 am

Veteran’s Day And Business

Often when a national holiday approaches I’ll go back over my posts to see what I’ve written about the day in the past.  I’ve written about Veteran’s Day, which we celebrate today, here, here, and here.

Joseph Ambrose, an 86-year-old World War I vet...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Feel free to go back and read them but I noticed a common theme that I want to repeat and  pretty big omission that I want to correct.

In each of those posts I thank our men and women who served to protect and defend this country.  I do again.  “My war” would have been Vietnam just as my Dad’s was WWII.  He served when his time came because he was needed; I didn’t since the war was winding down and the draft was ending.  Putting the politics aside is almost impossible when discussing the differences between those two conflicts but the service given by those who went is indistinguishable.

I also draw an inelegant analogy between those folks selfless service to us and how businesses ought to be dedicated to serving their customers.  I also touch upon the teamwork needed to succeed.  A long time ago Fast Company published an article which cited an interesting study:

After World War II, the US military commissioned S.L.A. Marshall, a Harvard historian, to do a remarkable study. The question he was asked to research was, literally, why are men willing to die in war? Marshall was allowed to advance and test a variety of explanations. Patriotism – people would die for their country. Or family – men would fight and die to protect their wives and children. The answer that finally emerged was small-group integrity. In a group of people where each is truly committed to the others, no one will be the first to run. So they all stand and fight together.

You know I’m a big proponent of teamwork and believe it’s critical to business success.  The article goes on to talk about managerial courage and how it’s tested and that brings up the omission I want to correct.  Too many of us talk about business as war from time to time, just as we do comparing sports to combat.  We need to stop that.  I used to say that the best part of what I did was that when I screwed up nobody died.  Protecting one’s country for a lousy salary and risking a life can in no way be compared to playing a game for a lot of money or running a business for an obscene amount.

So to my Dad, my other family members, schoolmates, and the millions who stepped forward when their time came to serve I say thank you.  We voted last week – you made that possible.  Think about that as you conduct your business the rest of this week and you serve customers. clients, and commercial causes, hopefully as well as the Vets served us.

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November 7, 2013 · 11:30 am

Oh, The Places You’ll Go

Anyone who thinks Dr. Seuss was writing children’s books didn’t read them very carefully.

Cover of "Oh, the Places You'll Go!"

I was reminded of that a couple of times recently when the same book – Oh The Places You’ll Go – came up.  It was the last book of his that was published before he died in 1990 and it’s a favorite of mine.  I thought I’d point out a few of the business lessons the good doctor teaches us in that slim but important volume.

First, the importance of self-determination:

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.

Too often, we think of ourselves and/or our businesses as just pawns in some game being played out by an unseen hand (to use an economic term).  While packing up and leaving a job or changing the fundamental nature of a business is never a decision taken lightly, it’s an equally bad notion to be miserable or in a business that’s doomed to fail.

Next, he reminds us of the importance of setting priorities in both business and life as well as the importance of being a good person:

So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life’s
a Great Balancing Act.

Twenty words that say hundreds!  Next, one thing the book cautions against is delusional thinking:

On and on you will hike
and I know you’ll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.

That’s one of the more important business points that is most widely ignored.  How often does a staff listen to a boss’s motivational speech about how well everything is going and snicker because they know the reality looks nothing like what he’s saying?  How many executives interpret numbers in ways that always make them seem better than they really are?

Finally, another point I see all the time – negotiating against ourselves:

I’m afraid that some times
you’ll play lonely games too.
Games you can’t win
’cause you’ll play against you.

It’s a no-win game and we often talk ourselves out of proposing new ideas or better business terms because we tell ourselves “that will never work.”  It might not, but what ever it is definitely won’t happen if you talk yourself out of trying.

If you have a copy of the book in the house, the 5 minutes it would take to read it again would be time well spent.  Even better – if you have an older child, do something you haven’t done with them probably since they were 5 or 6 – read it to them.  After all, it’s not a book for children! Then let us know what they said.

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November 4, 2013 · 11:29 am

Will Rogers

Let’s start our week with a business point from the great American humorist Will Rogers.

Will Rogers

Will Rogers

For those of you unfamiliar with him, he’s best known for saying (in reference to Leon Trotsky) “I never met a man I didn’t like.”  I’ve always considered him the successor to Mark Twain in many ways in that he often made very pointed remarks in a gentle, funny manner.  That didn’t make his humor any less barbed, however.

You might think that I want to use that to make a point about business behavior.  That’s not a bad notion but not where we’re heading today.  Instead, let’s think about something he said that was brought to my attention via a fortune cookie.  A reader sent me the contents of the cookie (and I do hope that you will feel free to send in ideas, questions, or even rants) and when I read it I just knew it had to be a topic.  It said:

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.

For a man who died even before commercial television began, Will certainly gets business today.  No business can afford to rest on its laurels.  Market conditions change, consumer preferences change and of course technology has changed everything.  Take, for example, a huge company like Microsoft.  They built up large, profitable markets for their operating system and their Office products and those were cash cows.  Sure, there were constant upgrades but mostly they just “sat there” enjoying the stream of profits.  Suddenly, Google and Apple are cleaning their clock and those cash cows are in danger.

I take the statement on a personal level as well.  We all need to keep learning.  Much of what I do today is built upon the base of 35 years of business experience but it also requires me to have kept up with changes in the media and tech worlds.  I submit that none of us can be effective at our jobs or personal lives if we don’t make a constant effort to keep growing, no matter how successful we’ve been to that point.

Any thoughts?

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