Leading a Corporation

These very words I have heard from a source so beautiful, I was shocked to find it verbatim...

How could a person lead a corporation if he cannot even lead himself? How could you nurture a family if you haven't learned to nurture and care for yourself? How could you possible do good if you don't even feel good?

-- Robin Sharma, in The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, Pg. 96

Time

Saying that you don't have time to improve your thoughts and your life is like saying you don't have time to stop for gas because you are too busy driving. Eventually it will catch up with you.

-- Robin Sharma in The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, Pg. 59

Success

Success, like happiness, cannot be pursued. It must ensue. And it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself.

Victor Frankl, quoted by Robin Sharma in The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, Pg. 56.

Purpose

When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all of your thoughts break their bonds: your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive and you discover yourself to be a greater person than you ever dreamed yourself to be.

Robin Sharma, Pg. 50, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

The Purpose of Life

The Purpose of Life is a Life of Purpose.

Robin S. Sharma in The Monk who Sold His Ferrarri

A Prototype is worth a Thousand Pictures

A picture is worth a thousand words.. a good prototype is worth a thousand pictures.

-- Tom Kelley, in the Art of Innovation, describing IDEO's maxims, Page 112

Generation Differences

Complaints about youth having lost respect for the values of their elders have been found on Egyptian papyrus scrolls dating from 2000 BC and in the writings of Hesiod, a Green author from the end of the eighth century B. C.


Hofstede, Software of the Mind, Pg 17

More Equal Than Others

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others

A proclamation by the pigs who control the government in the novel Animal Farm, by George Orwell. Also quoted by Hofstede, in his book - Software of the Mind.

Moral for Managers

From Software of the Mind, Chapter 2: More Equal Than Others, Geert Hofstede explains power distance, and concludes from his research -

"The moral for managers is: if you want to know how your subordinates see you, don't try to look in the mirror; that just produces wishful thinking. Turn around 180 degrees and face your own boss."

Definition of Insanity

James Robbins, a start-up coach for 20 years, has a sign in his office that is captured by Prof. Bob Sutton in his book, Wierd Ideas That Work, Pg. 4, last line.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result."

A very deep thought. So how many insane people do I know? How many times have I been insane?

Surviving in a Multi-cultural World

The basic skill for surviving in a multicultural world, .. is understanding first one's own cultural values (and that is why one needs a cultural identity of one's own), and next the cultural values of the others with whom one has to cooperate.

-- from Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind - Intercultural Cooperation and its Importance for Survival by Geert Hofstede (Pg.238)


I was reading this chapter today as part of my coursework "Organization Design for Project and Companies," and my thoughts went back to a question that a friend asked on the relevance of one's own cultural values in modern times. I am disturbed by the current fashion of throwing out all ideas of the past in the hope that the future will somehow be better. Diana Larsen, the Goddess of Retrospectives, once told me that most organizations fall into the trap of throwing out all the good things they have along with the bad in the name of reform. The process of Retrospectives aims at identifying the good that needs to be preserved.