The Success Design

As a business novice, I was intrigued to read such a comprehensive book by one of greatest business minds of our time.  But hey, you’ve got to start somewhere and Jack Welch is the perfect man to provide certain business insights that only a few a the top truly get and implement.  Of all the plethora of knowledge throughout the book, I found his discussion of differentiation the most intriguing.  By this, he means the 20-70-10 rule:  with business portfolios and employees there are always the 20% top performers, the 70% middle that make up the vast majority and the bottom 10%.  The bottom 10 must go, no question.  But then who in the middle 70% will now fall to the bottom 10%?

Jack Welch ran a well-oiled machine at GE and having the opportunity to learn from him was a treat.  As someone entirely schooled in law, I find the land of business quite foreign.  But with Jack Welch’s no-nonsense approach to business, I feel like I could hold my own in a business discussion with a couple of MBAs (minus the Six Sigma stuff (ha!)).

Your subconscious mind constantly records and stores unrelated data from the outside world.  Later, it combines these data into good answers - hunches - if you simply ask, trust, and listen.  These hunches, for example, can lead you to taking a spontaneous vacation and away from making a bad investment.

What hunches have you had lately?  How can you apply them to your idea?

Source: Roger von Oech’s Creative Whack Pack
http://www.creativethink.com/

A leading business school did a study that showed that its graduates did well at first, but in ten years, the were overtaken by a more streetwise, pragmatic group.  The reason according to the professor who ran the study:  “We taught them how to solve problems, not recognize opportunities.”

Where do you hear opportunity knocking?  How can you answer it?

Source:  Roger von Oech’s Creative Whack Pack
http://www.creativethink.com/

“Success of often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable”
~Coco Chanel

Dreams contain symbols through which our unconscious mind speaks to us.  We can use them to help us resolve conflicts and find new approaches to obstacles in our lives.  For example, if you dream that someone kidnaps your children, you might take it as a sign that you should spend more time with them.  It might also mean that you believe that someone is stealing your ideas.  Or perhaps it means that you’re being too serious should be more playful.  Dream have played a crucial role in science, art, and religion as well.  Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleyev’s periodic table was dream-inspired.  The plot for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde came to Robert Louis Stevenson in a dream.  As did the melody for “Yesterday” to Beatle Paul McCartney.  Spanish artist Francisco Goya used his nightmares as the basis for many of his later works.  Muhammad heard his prophetical call to found Islam in a dream.

How can you relate a recent dream to a current problem?

Source:  Roger von Oech’s Creative Whack Pack
http://www.creativethink.com/

“There is no royal, flower-stewn path to success.  And if there is, I have not found it.  For if I have accomplished anything in life, it is because I have been willing to work hard.”
~C.J. Walker (Inventor)

Today, I am privileged to be the Honorary Chair for Tallahassee’s Light the Night walk benefiting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  To learn more about the walk, please visit www.lightthenight.org.  For more information on the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, please visit www.lls.org.

Relentless for the cure!

“I like thinking big.  If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big”

~Donald Trump
www.trump.com

After finishing Ivanka Trump’s new book “The Trump Card”, I’m happy to report that my initial impressions of this remarkable woman were correct, and then some.  After watching her for the past few seasons on “The Apprentice”, I’ve grown to truly respect her individuality, obvious intellect, and careful insights.  She a star all on her own.

In her book, she reinforces all of these traits that I’ve grown to associate with her, all the while showing her readers many more.  She’s incredibly hard working, but doesn’t deny that she’s been given certain advantages by her family’s name and money.  But she doesn’t take any of these for granted.  She had to earn her way into the Trump Organization and she wouldn’t have it any other way.  Her famous father has ensured that she take nothing for granted as has her mother, Ivana.  They have raise a truly amazing daughter.  A true role model for all of us women in Generation Y who have very few, if any, to name.  Ivanka Trump stands at the top in my book!

Magnanimous

1.  greathearted: noble and generous in spirit; “a greathearted general”; “a magnanimous conqueror”

2.  big: generous and understanding and tolerant; “a heart big enough to hold no grudges”; “that’s very big of you to be so forgiving”; “a large and generous spirit”; “a large heart”; “magnanimous toward his enemies”

3.  greatness of mind; elevation or dignity of soul; That quality or combination of qualities, in character, which enables one to encounter danger and trouble with tranquility and firmness, to disdain injustice, meanness and revenge, and to act and sacrifice for

4.  Magnanimity (derived from the Latin roots magn- great, and anima, soul) is the virtue of being great of mind and heart. It encompasses, usually, a refusal to be petty, a willingness to face danger, and actions for noble purposes. Its antithesis is pusillanimity.

Synonyms: altruistic, benevolent, charitable, considerate, forgiving, generous, unselfish