The illiterates of 21'st century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and learn again - Future shock.
One school of thought feels writing on a clean slate is more easy today and hence would prefer to hire outside the industry rather then look inside when ever a radical change is required. Some such experiments have yielded good results. The tribe is increasing. Managers from unrelated industries who quickly understand the basics and try to keep it simple have been successful.
Those who refuse to unlearn tend to loose out in the long run. They move into obsolescence and then develop a phobia to change. We know the case of the frog refusing to jump out even when the temperature of the water goes up.
Change is constant and change does not mean changing jobs only, it can be a change in the way one works, behaves or manages stakeholders.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Monday, August 20, 2007
Grow ur Bussiness
15 Powerful Ways to Grow Your Business This Year
by Jim Cathcart, CSP, CPAE
1. Notice more . Grow your awareness (of money, needs, expenses, what's coming, what's working, where gaps are...). Know where you stand.
2. Give more than you have to. Practice up-serving not just "up-selling," (exceed your customer's expectations). Grow your impact on customers. The quickest way to get a raise is to give your customers and your company a raise through your performance.
3. Grow your profit per sale/account. Provide more value to the customer at an even lower cost to your company. Customers are assets, invest in them constantly.
4. Grow your ability to deliver value. Increase your possibilities (available credit, experts, investors, colleagues, partners, advisors, connections and ways to connect). Grow your technology. The better your tools, the better your results. Seek resources which can speed or refine your ability to deliver value.
5. Grow your freedom and flexibility (low inventory of materials, high availability to deliver, high inventory of sales to come). Stay financially light on your feet. Grow your savings and investments.
6. Grow your existing markets. Do more business with current customers and further penetrate each market.
7. Grow your image and market presence. Gain more share of mind. Improve and enhance your reputation as a true professional.
8. Grow your pipeline. Build a larger and better reservoir of future customers. Do next year's prospecting now. Identify more qualified buyers.
9. Grow your inner circle (your closest contacts). Take extra good care of the primary people in your career. Help them grow. Acknowledge them often. They'll become even better resources for you.
10. Grow your virtual work force. Find talent that can expand your capabilities without increasing your payroll expenses. Form strategic alliances and connect with expert vendors and colleagues.
11. Grow new markets. Get outside your usual channels. Ask, "who else could benefit from what we do?" Expand your thinking.
12. Let others sell for you. Grow your referrals. Seek new testimonials and endorsements. Capture examples of how others have benefited from what you do.
13. Serve your community. Be a responsible citizen. Make the places where you live and work better because you and your business are there.
14. Grow your industry . Advance the craft in what you do. Join your industry association. Write articles, teach others, and support your profession.
15. Grow your caring, compassion and sensitivity . Become known as someone who genuinely cares about making a difference. If you don't care about others why should they care about or listen to you?
©2002 Jim Cathcart, Lake Sherwood, CA
by Jim Cathcart, CSP, CPAE
1. Notice more . Grow your awareness (of money, needs, expenses, what's coming, what's working, where gaps are...). Know where you stand.
2. Give more than you have to. Practice up-serving not just "up-selling," (exceed your customer's expectations). Grow your impact on customers. The quickest way to get a raise is to give your customers and your company a raise through your performance.
3. Grow your profit per sale/account. Provide more value to the customer at an even lower cost to your company. Customers are assets, invest in them constantly.
4. Grow your ability to deliver value. Increase your possibilities (available credit, experts, investors, colleagues, partners, advisors, connections and ways to connect). Grow your technology. The better your tools, the better your results. Seek resources which can speed or refine your ability to deliver value.
5. Grow your freedom and flexibility (low inventory of materials, high availability to deliver, high inventory of sales to come). Stay financially light on your feet. Grow your savings and investments.
6. Grow your existing markets. Do more business with current customers and further penetrate each market.
7. Grow your image and market presence. Gain more share of mind. Improve and enhance your reputation as a true professional.
8. Grow your pipeline. Build a larger and better reservoir of future customers. Do next year's prospecting now. Identify more qualified buyers.
9. Grow your inner circle (your closest contacts). Take extra good care of the primary people in your career. Help them grow. Acknowledge them often. They'll become even better resources for you.
10. Grow your virtual work force. Find talent that can expand your capabilities without increasing your payroll expenses. Form strategic alliances and connect with expert vendors and colleagues.
11. Grow new markets. Get outside your usual channels. Ask, "who else could benefit from what we do?" Expand your thinking.
12. Let others sell for you. Grow your referrals. Seek new testimonials and endorsements. Capture examples of how others have benefited from what you do.
13. Serve your community. Be a responsible citizen. Make the places where you live and work better because you and your business are there.
14. Grow your industry . Advance the craft in what you do. Join your industry association. Write articles, teach others, and support your profession.
15. Grow your caring, compassion and sensitivity . Become known as someone who genuinely cares about making a difference. If you don't care about others why should they care about or listen to you?
©2002 Jim Cathcart, Lake Sherwood, CA
Sunday, August 19, 2007
The 8 keys to Success.
An Essay And Thoughts on What It Takes To Reach Your True Potential
David H. Lyman
For years, I have been lecturing to CEOs, artists, photographers, filmmakers and other creative people on what it takes to be successful - successful at least at being who they can be, not necessarily who others think they should be. I've interviewed hundreds of successful artists, counseled hundreds of students and working professionals on their way up and a few on their way down. I've also looked at my own career, talents and motivations along the way, and come to the conclusion that there were eight keys to being successful. When I started there were five keys; in a few years, when I am wiser, then maybe I'll have 10 keys, but for now eight keys seem enough. Here they are in their order of importance.
#1: PASSION
Passion is that "demonic compulsiveness" that John Gardner talks about in his book, "On Becoming a Novelist." It's what fires any creative person, something that gets you angry, or something you love and want to share. It's ambition, a vision for your future, dim though it may be. That vision leads to setting goals, long-term goals (I want to be a photographer) and short-term goals, (what camera do I buy?). I ask everyone I interview, have you written down your goals? Most people have not. Have you? Do you know where you'd like to be in five years? I do. I have written it down, so that at year's end, or on some quiet evening, I can look at what I've written and reflect on where I've been, and where I'm going ? how far along the path I've come and how far I've got to go. Often, I realize I've reached my goals and need to be dreaming about new horizons, new challenges and new goals. Write down your goals. They will tell you what to do for the short-term goals ? what books to buy, skills to develop, workshops to take, exercises to do to get better.
#2: ABILITY TO ACCEPT A RISK
I do not know anyone who has succeeded who has not been able to assess and take a risk and then live with the consequence - success or failure. Risk avoidance is a sure way to remain mediocre; being safe does not promote personal growth. Failure or making a mistake is not a bad thing; it's proof you were exploring new ways to do something, and that's better than safe success. We learn from our mistakes, not our successes. Really creative people embrace risk. They can sustain a high level of ambiguity; they do not need to know where they are. They do not mind being lost, for they call it just taking the longer, more interesting way around.
#3: HIGH SELF-ESTEEM
You think well of yourself. You are not boastful or egotistical, but do have an honest understanding of your talents, handicaps and are working toward getting better.
#4: PERSISTENCE
You have just done this long enough. How long is long enough? Well, it will take 10 years. I have asked hundreds of accomplished photographers, writers, filmmakers, painters and musician how long it took before they felt they were able to speak from a source within. Ten years was been their unanimous answer.
If it takes 10 years, then how do you spend the time wisely? It will take at least two years to acquire 70 percent of the craft you will need to work in your medium. It will take another eight years to acquire the next 20 percent of your craft. At 90 percent, you will have mastered your craft, but there is that 10 percent that will take a lifetime to acquire. In the meantime, while working to master your craft (the technical skills and processes for working in your medium) you will also be learning and acquiring a personal vision, your ability to see, to observe, to create and discover things. This is difficult at first, but the older you get the wiser and more aware you become. Craft and vision are your tools for inner exploration.
Persistence takes discipline. Discipline is simply doing what you know you need to do, even though you don't feel like doing it. The first thing is knowing what to do. Most people do not know. You are reading this, so you are interested in finding out what to do. Make a list. Next, find the willpower to do what's on the list. This is the most difficult part of all the keys - finding the positive willpower to do what you know you need to do. We all wrestle with discipline for it does not come easily, not even for the most successful.
#5: BEING NICE TO WORK WITH
Why is being nice important? Because it will be other people who will help you acquire the craft, help you discover and develop your vision, give you a job, introduce you to opportunities. People want to help others, but only if they show a willingness to work, to contribute and are nice to have around. People want to have positive, enthusiastic people around, people who will solve problems, not create them.
#6: WHO YOU KNOW
If you are nice to work with, the next will follow. You need to know and be known by people who will help you, hire you, buy your work, and give you advice. Here is a list of people you need to know and be known by:
Good Teachers - People who know what you need to know and can teach it to you in a way that you learn it.
Coaches - People who know your limits and your potential and will help keep you close to your "edge" of learning and growing.
Peers - Your friends and classmates, people who are on the same rung of the ladder as you, who are striving as you are.
Masters - People who are successful in their careers who can look at your work, your process and your career and give you valuable feedback, feedback you will accept and follow.
Mentors - A master with whom you have established a working relationship, someone who is wiser, accomplished and will help you understand the limits and possibilities of your projects, your process and your creative life.
Your Clients - The people who will buy your work, give you assignments, hire you.
#7: MASTER YOUR CRAFT
Learn a craft, so you have a tool with which to earn a living. This tool can also be used to explore life - outwardly and spiritually inwardly - as you search your soul for the reasons of your existence.
#8: TALENT
Talent is the last thing you need. You have to have some of it, but you do not need a lot. Too much talent is often a handicap. Things come too easily and there is little incentive to push, to make use of the talent. I know highly talented musicians who refuse to perform in public, photographers who are so arrogant no one wants them around, filmmakers whose egos are so inflated they are a pain to deal with, and others who are so impatient at getting what they want, they never master anything and, therefore, never do succeed. I prefer to surround myself with positive, successful people, young people who are enthusiastic even though they have yet to find or develop what talent they may have.
A talent is the natural ability to do something extraordinary. We all can do a lot, but some people have been gifted with talents that go beyond what others can do. What are you talented at? Do you know?
Success is not a matter of being talented. Notice it is last on the list. A little bit of talent, combined with the other seven keys, will lead you to success. I know many people who are talented, but lack one or more of the other seven keys and they fail to succeed.
Do not blame your lack of success on your lack of talent. It will be your attitude that will determine your altitude, not your talent or lack thereof.
David H. Lyman
For years, I have been lecturing to CEOs, artists, photographers, filmmakers and other creative people on what it takes to be successful - successful at least at being who they can be, not necessarily who others think they should be. I've interviewed hundreds of successful artists, counseled hundreds of students and working professionals on their way up and a few on their way down. I've also looked at my own career, talents and motivations along the way, and come to the conclusion that there were eight keys to being successful. When I started there were five keys; in a few years, when I am wiser, then maybe I'll have 10 keys, but for now eight keys seem enough. Here they are in their order of importance.
#1: PASSION
Passion is that "demonic compulsiveness" that John Gardner talks about in his book, "On Becoming a Novelist." It's what fires any creative person, something that gets you angry, or something you love and want to share. It's ambition, a vision for your future, dim though it may be. That vision leads to setting goals, long-term goals (I want to be a photographer) and short-term goals, (what camera do I buy?). I ask everyone I interview, have you written down your goals? Most people have not. Have you? Do you know where you'd like to be in five years? I do. I have written it down, so that at year's end, or on some quiet evening, I can look at what I've written and reflect on where I've been, and where I'm going ? how far along the path I've come and how far I've got to go. Often, I realize I've reached my goals and need to be dreaming about new horizons, new challenges and new goals. Write down your goals. They will tell you what to do for the short-term goals ? what books to buy, skills to develop, workshops to take, exercises to do to get better.
#2: ABILITY TO ACCEPT A RISK
I do not know anyone who has succeeded who has not been able to assess and take a risk and then live with the consequence - success or failure. Risk avoidance is a sure way to remain mediocre; being safe does not promote personal growth. Failure or making a mistake is not a bad thing; it's proof you were exploring new ways to do something, and that's better than safe success. We learn from our mistakes, not our successes. Really creative people embrace risk. They can sustain a high level of ambiguity; they do not need to know where they are. They do not mind being lost, for they call it just taking the longer, more interesting way around.
#3: HIGH SELF-ESTEEM
You think well of yourself. You are not boastful or egotistical, but do have an honest understanding of your talents, handicaps and are working toward getting better.
#4: PERSISTENCE
You have just done this long enough. How long is long enough? Well, it will take 10 years. I have asked hundreds of accomplished photographers, writers, filmmakers, painters and musician how long it took before they felt they were able to speak from a source within. Ten years was been their unanimous answer.
If it takes 10 years, then how do you spend the time wisely? It will take at least two years to acquire 70 percent of the craft you will need to work in your medium. It will take another eight years to acquire the next 20 percent of your craft. At 90 percent, you will have mastered your craft, but there is that 10 percent that will take a lifetime to acquire. In the meantime, while working to master your craft (the technical skills and processes for working in your medium) you will also be learning and acquiring a personal vision, your ability to see, to observe, to create and discover things. This is difficult at first, but the older you get the wiser and more aware you become. Craft and vision are your tools for inner exploration.
Persistence takes discipline. Discipline is simply doing what you know you need to do, even though you don't feel like doing it. The first thing is knowing what to do. Most people do not know. You are reading this, so you are interested in finding out what to do. Make a list. Next, find the willpower to do what's on the list. This is the most difficult part of all the keys - finding the positive willpower to do what you know you need to do. We all wrestle with discipline for it does not come easily, not even for the most successful.
#5: BEING NICE TO WORK WITH
Why is being nice important? Because it will be other people who will help you acquire the craft, help you discover and develop your vision, give you a job, introduce you to opportunities. People want to help others, but only if they show a willingness to work, to contribute and are nice to have around. People want to have positive, enthusiastic people around, people who will solve problems, not create them.
#6: WHO YOU KNOW
If you are nice to work with, the next will follow. You need to know and be known by people who will help you, hire you, buy your work, and give you advice. Here is a list of people you need to know and be known by:
Good Teachers - People who know what you need to know and can teach it to you in a way that you learn it.
Coaches - People who know your limits and your potential and will help keep you close to your "edge" of learning and growing.
Peers - Your friends and classmates, people who are on the same rung of the ladder as you, who are striving as you are.
Masters - People who are successful in their careers who can look at your work, your process and your career and give you valuable feedback, feedback you will accept and follow.
Mentors - A master with whom you have established a working relationship, someone who is wiser, accomplished and will help you understand the limits and possibilities of your projects, your process and your creative life.
Your Clients - The people who will buy your work, give you assignments, hire you.
#7: MASTER YOUR CRAFT
Learn a craft, so you have a tool with which to earn a living. This tool can also be used to explore life - outwardly and spiritually inwardly - as you search your soul for the reasons of your existence.
#8: TALENT
Talent is the last thing you need. You have to have some of it, but you do not need a lot. Too much talent is often a handicap. Things come too easily and there is little incentive to push, to make use of the talent. I know highly talented musicians who refuse to perform in public, photographers who are so arrogant no one wants them around, filmmakers whose egos are so inflated they are a pain to deal with, and others who are so impatient at getting what they want, they never master anything and, therefore, never do succeed. I prefer to surround myself with positive, successful people, young people who are enthusiastic even though they have yet to find or develop what talent they may have.
A talent is the natural ability to do something extraordinary. We all can do a lot, but some people have been gifted with talents that go beyond what others can do. What are you talented at? Do you know?
Success is not a matter of being talented. Notice it is last on the list. A little bit of talent, combined with the other seven keys, will lead you to success. I know many people who are talented, but lack one or more of the other seven keys and they fail to succeed.
Do not blame your lack of success on your lack of talent. It will be your attitude that will determine your altitude, not your talent or lack thereof.
Monday, August 6, 2007
Breathe Your Stress Away
By Devananda Tandavan
Stress is a natural and necessary consequence of living. But there’s no need for us to be subject to it in abnormal amounts. Any influence that perverts or abuses the expenditure of our energy toward our desired functions is stress.
When excessive, it produces undesirable reactions, both physical and mental. Examples of stress symptoms are: overeating, drug or alcohol abuse, excessive smoking, glued to the TV, loss of appetite, boredom, twitches and tics, inability to concentrate, persistent worry and fear, hopelessness, depression, sudden lapses of memory, disturbed sleep, sudden feelings of hyper-elation, frequent colds and illness, aches, muscle cramps and chronic fatigue. It’s easy to have any one of these symptoms in a very subtle form and tend to pass it off as not important.
Recognizing The Symptons
Adequate stress management, or coping with stress, must start by recognizing the underlying symptoms, then doing something about it. Our Hindu yoga practices alleviate stress – a fact which Western medicine is just now recognizing.
Hatha Yoga
Hatha yoga teaches us to relax the physical body through stretching and breath control. Diaphragmatic breathing makes us aware of the condition of our body and mind. In order to strengthen the diaphragm – a muscle of respiration – we may practice “sandbag” breathing. A sandbag weighing five to ten pounds is placed upon the upper abdomen to give a slight resistance to the movement of the abdomen during inhalation or contraction of the diaphragm.
Alternate Breathing
A powerful relaxation method is “Alternate Breathing.” The basic technique is to apply slight pressure on the left nostril with the middle and ring fingers of the right hand. The thumb is used to apply a slight pressure on the right nostril. Breathe in through the right nostril, closing it after inhalation is complete and then breathe out through the left side. Then the breath is taken in through the left nostril and the exhalation is out the right. This completes one round then you start over.
Be Aware Of Ur Breathing
Breathe smoothly, slowly with no pause between inhalation and exhalation. Do three rounds of alternate breathing whenever you’re over-stressed. Awareness is drawn to breathing, and thus withdrawn from the stressful situation.
Alternate breathing may be preceded or followed by conscious, diaphragmatic and even breathing. This is a slow, deliberate inhalation and exhalation of equal length, say a count of four in and a count of four out with no pause at the change from inhalation to exhalation, or vice versa.
Benefits
Once rhythm is attained, slow down the breath until you’re exhaling twice the time that you’re inhaling; using a 2:1 pattern. This stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system (slowing the heart rate), brings relaxation and reduces arousal stimulations.
Plus, meditation performed twice daily broadens our consciousness and maintains the state of living in the present. It protects us from reacting negatively to the stress of living in our fast-paced world.
Stress is a natural and necessary consequence of living. But there’s no need for us to be subject to it in abnormal amounts. Any influence that perverts or abuses the expenditure of our energy toward our desired functions is stress.
When excessive, it produces undesirable reactions, both physical and mental. Examples of stress symptoms are: overeating, drug or alcohol abuse, excessive smoking, glued to the TV, loss of appetite, boredom, twitches and tics, inability to concentrate, persistent worry and fear, hopelessness, depression, sudden lapses of memory, disturbed sleep, sudden feelings of hyper-elation, frequent colds and illness, aches, muscle cramps and chronic fatigue. It’s easy to have any one of these symptoms in a very subtle form and tend to pass it off as not important.
Recognizing The Symptons
Adequate stress management, or coping with stress, must start by recognizing the underlying symptoms, then doing something about it. Our Hindu yoga practices alleviate stress – a fact which Western medicine is just now recognizing.
Hatha Yoga
Hatha yoga teaches us to relax the physical body through stretching and breath control. Diaphragmatic breathing makes us aware of the condition of our body and mind. In order to strengthen the diaphragm – a muscle of respiration – we may practice “sandbag” breathing. A sandbag weighing five to ten pounds is placed upon the upper abdomen to give a slight resistance to the movement of the abdomen during inhalation or contraction of the diaphragm.
Alternate Breathing
A powerful relaxation method is “Alternate Breathing.” The basic technique is to apply slight pressure on the left nostril with the middle and ring fingers of the right hand. The thumb is used to apply a slight pressure on the right nostril. Breathe in through the right nostril, closing it after inhalation is complete and then breathe out through the left side. Then the breath is taken in through the left nostril and the exhalation is out the right. This completes one round then you start over.
Be Aware Of Ur Breathing
Breathe smoothly, slowly with no pause between inhalation and exhalation. Do three rounds of alternate breathing whenever you’re over-stressed. Awareness is drawn to breathing, and thus withdrawn from the stressful situation.
Alternate breathing may be preceded or followed by conscious, diaphragmatic and even breathing. This is a slow, deliberate inhalation and exhalation of equal length, say a count of four in and a count of four out with no pause at the change from inhalation to exhalation, or vice versa.
Benefits
Once rhythm is attained, slow down the breath until you’re exhaling twice the time that you’re inhaling; using a 2:1 pattern. This stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system (slowing the heart rate), brings relaxation and reduces arousal stimulations.
Plus, meditation performed twice daily broadens our consciousness and maintains the state of living in the present. It protects us from reacting negatively to the stress of living in our fast-paced world.
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