Tag Archives: life

October 8, 2012 · 9:51 am

Don Larsen And You

Way back on this date in 1956 the Yankees were playing the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series.

The "everlasting image" of Yogi Berr...

The “everlasting image” of Yogi Berra leaping into Larsen’s arms upon the completion of the perfect game (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Yankees’ Don Larsen did something that had never been done before (or since). He pitched a perfect game in the World Series. For those of you who don’t follow baseball (we do have quite a few international readers here!), a perfect game is one in which 27 batters come to the plate and none of them reach first base. 3 outs per inning, 9 innings per game. No walks, no hits. Perfection. It’s an extremely rare feat under any circumstances – there have only been 23 perfect games in the 100+ year history of major league baseball.  To accomplish it under the pressure of the World Series is amazing.

I don’t know what was in his mind as he took the mound that day but I’m willing to bet his focus was on getting the next batter out, not on making sure none of the 27 would reach base.  Let me give you a similar thought.  There are two Swedish golf instructors who operate Vision54.   The thinking is that if we can birdie every hole during a round of golf we’d shoot 54.   That’s perfection of another sort and it sounds impossible.  Then again, as I pointed out to someone over the weekend, he’d made birdie on every hole on our course at one point or another, just not in the same round.  Like a baseball pitcher who’s retired every batter he’ll face that day at one point or another in his career, the task is to turn what you’ve done before into a consistent reality, one pitch or one swing at a time.

That’s the business point too.  We look at daunting tasks – double our sales, find 50 new customers in a few months – as impossible.  Yet we’ve increased our sales and we’ve found new customers.  We have the ability to do the remarkable because the remarkable is just stuff we can do done each and every time.  It’s less about ability than it is about execution (and maybe a little luck thrown in from time to time).

What do you think?  What impossible thing will you do today?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under Helpful Hints, Thinking Aloud

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

October 5, 2012 · 9:01 am

Eating Rocks And Bark

Our Foodie Friday Fun this week revolves around rocks, bark, and dried flowers. You probably had all three for breakfast this morning. Seriously.  Salt is the only rock we humans eat on a regular basis (or on any other basis as far as I’m concerned). The bark we regularly eat is cinnamon – you might have sprinkled some on your oatmeal or cereal. The dried flowers are pepper – maybe on your eggs?

You just know there’s a business point lurking here, and you’re right.

What’s interesting about each of the aforementioned food items is that someone had to be the first to figure out that these seemingly unappetizing things were actually quite tasty and useful in the kitchen.  None of them, however, can be used “as is”.  Peppercorns (actually a fruit of a flowering vine) need to be dried.  Cinnamon needs to be transformed from tree bark into a dried and ground form.  Salt comes in dozens of types but is either extracted from the ground or from the sea.  I’m not sure who was the first to figure that out but it’s instructive.  All have been used by humans for millennia and maybe the ancients were smarter than we are in some ways.

Sometimes our first instincts when we see something or someone who doesn’t appear to be particularly useful is to move on.  Our ancestors couldn’t do that – food was not something you ran to the supermarket to get.  In many businesses today, resource availability is in many ways as challenging as food was for the ancients.  Everything they encountered was evaluated (I expect quite a few brave souls didn’t survive the “R&D” phase of new food discovery) before it was discarded.  In the cases of these three items, someone had to figure out how to transform them into something useful.  Maybe a dead animal or fish was preserved in a bath of seawater that dried.  Maybe someone saw an animal eating tree bark and tried some.

We need to have the same mentality in many ways.  Don’t dismiss anyone or anything out of hand.  Take some time to think about how they can be useful in another form or another position (I know a lot of ex-lawyers who are great salespeople and a few accountants who do wonders in marketing).  Rocks and bark may not seem like a great diet but thinking out of the box is at the root of a great business.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under food, Helpful Hints

Tagged as , , , , ,

September 27, 2012 · 10:35 am

Atonement

Yesterday was Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. For those of you unfamiliar with the holiday, it concludes the 10 day period at the start of the Jewish calendar – Rosh Hashanah – head of the year – during which all Jews are supposed to reflect upon the past year and examine how they’re going to change their lives going forward. One also seeks forgiveness from those against whom he has transgressed – both those of this earth and higher powers. There is a lot of other imagery connected with the period – inscription in the Book of Life being a big one – but I think there’s something each of us can take as a business lesson in a non-denominational way.

We all get off track.  Sometimes it’s in little ways like eating badly or drinking too much.  Sometimes it’s in big ways like alienating our families or hurting friends who love us.  The concept in Judaism of repentance is called Teshuva  which means “return”.  I love the notion of coming back to one’s self as well as to the basic human tenets that are common to all religions and peoples.

We can take a period of reflection and “return” in our business lives as well.  The most obvious way is for us as individuals   Whom have we alienated this year?  What client have we taken for granted?  But it a bigger opportunity.  How has the business diverged from the mission?  Why have we stopped getting better and are just marching in place?  What can we be doing to grow our people but are ignoring?

We ask those kinds of questions from time to time but I guess I’m suggesting that it become a more formal process.  Set aside a period every year for “return” thinking.  A period of repentance?  Maybe, in some cases.  But in all cases a chance to change.  A chance to regret past bad actions and to vow not to repeat them.  Most importantly (this is true in the religious sense as well), to correct the transgression.  To apologize.   To make restitution.  Whatever is right and lets everyone move forward with a clear conscious and a vow to do better.

Sound like a plan?

Enhanced by Zemanta

1 Comment

Filed under Reality checks, Thinking Aloud

Tagged as , , , , , ,