Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Pink Pong Tournament
Monday, January 23, 2012
Against All Odds...
Joe DiMaggio played his first full year in professional baseball for the minor league team, the San Francisco Seals. DiMaggio had convinced the manager to let him fill in as shortstop. Although by all accounts he did a poor job as a shortstop, he was an outstanding hitter. Everyone believed that DiMaggio was on his way to the major leagues - until a fluke accident nearly crippled him.
In 1934, DiMaggio tore the ligaments in his left knee while going to his sister's house. The injury scared away most teams. The Chicago Cubs turned him down because they believed he would never fully recover. Only one scout, Bill Essick for the New York Yankees, was willing to give him a shot. When New York's farm-system director George Weiss suggested offering DiMaggio a contract, Yankees' general manager Ed Barrow told him, "This is exactly what you were hired not to do." However, Weiss persisted and, after DiMaggio passed medical inspections, he began his major league baseball career with the New York Yankees. Bill Terry, manager of the New York Giants, ridiculed Weiss for the deal, telling him, "You've bought yourself a cripple."
Joltin' Joe DiMaggio remained with the team for his entire major league career. During that time, he led the Yankees to nine titles in thirteen years, four of which were during his first four years with the team. When DiMaggio retired in 1951, he was ranked fifth for the most career home runs and sixth for the best slugging percentage.
"A person always doing his or her best becomes a natural leader, just by example." - J.D.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
“Think P.I.G. – that’s my motto. P stands for Persistence, I stands for Integrity, and G stands for Guts. These are the ingredients for a successful business and a successful life.”
-Linda Chandller
“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that’s why I succeed.”
-Michael Jordan
“I had rather attempt something great and fail, than to attempt nothing at all and succeed.”
- Robert Schuller
Top 10 Success Factors for Entrepreneurs
I’ve been an entrepreneur most of my adult life and, recently, I’ve begun thinking about what it takes to become successful as an entrepreneur–and how I would even define “success.” I’ve given a lot of talks over the years on the subject of entrepreneurship. The first thing I find I have to do is to dispel the persistent myth that entrepreneurial success is all about innovative thinking and breakthrough ideas. I’ve discovered that entrepreneurial success usually comes through great execution, simply by doing a superior job of doing the blocking and tackling. But what else does it take to succeed as an entrepreneur and how should an entrepreneur define success? Here’s what I came up with:
1. Be passionate. You must be passionate about what you’re trying to achieve. That means you’re willing to sacrifice a large part of your waking hours to the idea you’ve come up with. Your passion will ignite the same intensity in the others who join you as you build a team. And with passion, both your team and your customers are more likely to truly believe in what you are trying to do.
2. Maintain focus. Great entrepreneurs focus intensely on an opportunity where others see nothing. This focus and intensity helps to eliminate wasted effort and distractions. Most companies die from indigestion rather than starvation. Companies suffer from doing too many things at the same time rather than doing too few things very well. Stay focused on the mission.
3. Work hard. Success only comes from hard work. There is no such thing as overnight success; behind every “overnight success” lies years of hard work and sweat. People with luck will tell you there’s no easy way to achieve success-and that luck comes to those who work hard. Focus on things you can control; stay focused on your efforts and let the results be what they will be.
4. Enjoy the journey. The road to success is going to be long, so remember to enjoy the journey. Everyone will teach you to focus on goals, but successful people focus on the journey and celebrate the milestones along the way. Is it worth spending a large part of your life trying to reach the destination if you didn’t enjoy the journey? Won’t your team also enjoy the journey more as well? Wouldn’t it be better for all of you to have the time of your lives during the journey, even if the destination is never reached?
5. Trust your gut instinct. There are too many variables in the real world that you simply can’t put into a spreadsheet. Spreadsheets spit out results from your inexact assumptions and give you a false sense of security. In most cases, your heart and gut is still your best guide. We’ve all had experiences in business where our heart told us something was wrong while our brain was still trying to use logic to figure it all out. Sometimes a faint voice based on instinct is far more reliable than overpowering logic.
6. Be flexible but persistent. Every entrepreneur has to be agile, continually learning and adapting as new information becomes available. At the same time, you have to remain devoted to the cause and mission of your enterprise. That’s where that faint voice becomes so important, especially when it is giving you early warning signals that things are off-track. Successful entrepreneurs find the balance between listening to that voice and staying persistent in driving for success-because sometimes success is waiting right across from the transitional bump that’s disguised as failure.
7. Rely on your team. It’s a simple fact: no individual can be good at everything. Everyone needs people around them who have complementary skill sets. It takes a lot of soul searching to find your own core skills and strengths. After that, find the smartest people you can who complement your strengths. It’s tempting to gravitate toward people who are like you; the trick is to find people who are not like you but who are good at what they do-and what you can’t do.
8. Focus on execution. Unless you are the smartest person on earth, it’s likely that many others have thought about doing the same thing you’re trying to do. Success doesn’t necessarily come from breakthrough innovation, but from flawless execution. A great strategy alone won’t win a game or a battle; the win comes from basic blocking and tackling. No matter how much time you spend perfecting your business plan, you still have to adapt according to the ground realities. You’re going to learn a lot more useful information from taking action rather than hypothesizing.
9. Have integrity. I can’t imagine anyone ever achieving long-term success without having honesty and integrity. These two qualities need to be at the core of everything we do. Everybody has a conscience-but too many people stop listening to it. There is always that faint voice that warns you when you are not being completely honest or even slightly off track from the path of integrity. Be sure to listen to that voice.
10. Give back. Success is much more rewarding if you give back. By the time become successful, lots of people will have helped you along the way. You’ll learn, as I have, that you rarely get a chance to help the people who helped you because in most cases, you don’t even know who they were. The only way to pay back the debts we owe is to help people we can help-and hope they will go on to help more people. It’s our responsibility to do “good” with the resources we have available.
You might do all of the above and will wonder “but am I successful?” Success, of course, is very personal; there is no universal way of measuring success. What do successful people like Bill Gates and Mother Teresa have in common? On the surface it’s hard to find anything they share-and yet both are successful. I personally believe the real metric of success isn’t the size of your bank account. It’s the number of people in whose lives you are able make a positive difference. This is the measure of success we need to apply while we are on our journey to success.
Naveen Jain is a philanthropist, entrepreneur and a technology pioneer. He is a founder and CEO of Intelius, chairman of education & global development at XPrize foundation and on the board of trustees at Singularity University. Previously, he was the founder and CEO of InfoSpace, and a senior executive at Microsoft Corporation. Among his achievements are: Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year; Albert Einstein Technology Medal for pioneers in technology; “Top 20 Entrepreneurs” by Red Herring; “Six People Who Will Change the Internet” by Information Week.
-Linda Chandller
“I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that’s why I succeed.”
-Michael Jordan
“I had rather attempt something great and fail, than to attempt nothing at all and succeed.”
- Robert Schuller
Top 10 Success Factors for Entrepreneurs
I’ve been an entrepreneur most of my adult life and, recently, I’ve begun thinking about what it takes to become successful as an entrepreneur–and how I would even define “success.” I’ve given a lot of talks over the years on the subject of entrepreneurship. The first thing I find I have to do is to dispel the persistent myth that entrepreneurial success is all about innovative thinking and breakthrough ideas. I’ve discovered that entrepreneurial success usually comes through great execution, simply by doing a superior job of doing the blocking and tackling. But what else does it take to succeed as an entrepreneur and how should an entrepreneur define success? Here’s what I came up with:
1. Be passionate. You must be passionate about what you’re trying to achieve. That means you’re willing to sacrifice a large part of your waking hours to the idea you’ve come up with. Your passion will ignite the same intensity in the others who join you as you build a team. And with passion, both your team and your customers are more likely to truly believe in what you are trying to do.
2. Maintain focus. Great entrepreneurs focus intensely on an opportunity where others see nothing. This focus and intensity helps to eliminate wasted effort and distractions. Most companies die from indigestion rather than starvation. Companies suffer from doing too many things at the same time rather than doing too few things very well. Stay focused on the mission.
3. Work hard. Success only comes from hard work. There is no such thing as overnight success; behind every “overnight success” lies years of hard work and sweat. People with luck will tell you there’s no easy way to achieve success-and that luck comes to those who work hard. Focus on things you can control; stay focused on your efforts and let the results be what they will be.
4. Enjoy the journey. The road to success is going to be long, so remember to enjoy the journey. Everyone will teach you to focus on goals, but successful people focus on the journey and celebrate the milestones along the way. Is it worth spending a large part of your life trying to reach the destination if you didn’t enjoy the journey? Won’t your team also enjoy the journey more as well? Wouldn’t it be better for all of you to have the time of your lives during the journey, even if the destination is never reached?
5. Trust your gut instinct. There are too many variables in the real world that you simply can’t put into a spreadsheet. Spreadsheets spit out results from your inexact assumptions and give you a false sense of security. In most cases, your heart and gut is still your best guide. We’ve all had experiences in business where our heart told us something was wrong while our brain was still trying to use logic to figure it all out. Sometimes a faint voice based on instinct is far more reliable than overpowering logic.
6. Be flexible but persistent. Every entrepreneur has to be agile, continually learning and adapting as new information becomes available. At the same time, you have to remain devoted to the cause and mission of your enterprise. That’s where that faint voice becomes so important, especially when it is giving you early warning signals that things are off-track. Successful entrepreneurs find the balance between listening to that voice and staying persistent in driving for success-because sometimes success is waiting right across from the transitional bump that’s disguised as failure.
7. Rely on your team. It’s a simple fact: no individual can be good at everything. Everyone needs people around them who have complementary skill sets. It takes a lot of soul searching to find your own core skills and strengths. After that, find the smartest people you can who complement your strengths. It’s tempting to gravitate toward people who are like you; the trick is to find people who are not like you but who are good at what they do-and what you can’t do.
8. Focus on execution. Unless you are the smartest person on earth, it’s likely that many others have thought about doing the same thing you’re trying to do. Success doesn’t necessarily come from breakthrough innovation, but from flawless execution. A great strategy alone won’t win a game or a battle; the win comes from basic blocking and tackling. No matter how much time you spend perfecting your business plan, you still have to adapt according to the ground realities. You’re going to learn a lot more useful information from taking action rather than hypothesizing.
9. Have integrity. I can’t imagine anyone ever achieving long-term success without having honesty and integrity. These two qualities need to be at the core of everything we do. Everybody has a conscience-but too many people stop listening to it. There is always that faint voice that warns you when you are not being completely honest or even slightly off track from the path of integrity. Be sure to listen to that voice.
10. Give back. Success is much more rewarding if you give back. By the time become successful, lots of people will have helped you along the way. You’ll learn, as I have, that you rarely get a chance to help the people who helped you because in most cases, you don’t even know who they were. The only way to pay back the debts we owe is to help people we can help-and hope they will go on to help more people. It’s our responsibility to do “good” with the resources we have available.
You might do all of the above and will wonder “but am I successful?” Success, of course, is very personal; there is no universal way of measuring success. What do successful people like Bill Gates and Mother Teresa have in common? On the surface it’s hard to find anything they share-and yet both are successful. I personally believe the real metric of success isn’t the size of your bank account. It’s the number of people in whose lives you are able make a positive difference. This is the measure of success we need to apply while we are on our journey to success.
Naveen Jain is a philanthropist, entrepreneur and a technology pioneer. He is a founder and CEO of Intelius, chairman of education & global development at XPrize foundation and on the board of trustees at Singularity University. Previously, he was the founder and CEO of InfoSpace, and a senior executive at Microsoft Corporation. Among his achievements are: Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year; Albert Einstein Technology Medal for pioneers in technology; “Top 20 Entrepreneurs” by Red Herring; “Six People Who Will Change the Internet” by Information Week.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Entreprenuer vs. Employee
If only most business owners thought more like an entrepreneur and not an employee. You see most business owners work too hard, for too many hours, for far too little money …
In most cases it's because they never build their business into anything more than a job for themselves and a few others. And, as a one person business, they've got the world's most demanding boss and an employee who never seems to want to work.
The See-Saw is the ultimate in pain for the greatly skilled employee who starts their own business selling what they did before. They quickly learn that half their time is spent chasing work and the other half doing the work. It's sell, do, sell, do, sell, do …
No matter what you do it seems you're stuck. You're the best at what you do, so everyone wants you, but you're still trading time for money … Unfortunately, most people in this situation end up going back to get a job in another company. Yet some take the next step …
So then, what happens to these business owners … ? Some step up and go on to employing others and even though they are now an employer, they unfortunately still seem to think like an employee. They think that hard work will solve all ills …
Now instead of see-sawing, they're running in circles, chasing their tail, cleaning up after others, working longer hours, putting out fires, making less than some of their employees and still having to do much of the work they did before. They thought they'd have people working for them, when in reality, they're working for their people.
When most business owners get into this mess, they think, "I should just sack the lot of them and go back to when it was just me". Either way, see-saw or circles, still thinking like a hard working employee has you doomed to a life of small business drudgery, even as the business owner …
Well, here are the 7 most important things you need to do to make the shift to a business owner, that is, someone who treats their business as an investment, rather than a job … someone who works only a few hours a week and lives off of the profits their business makes.
1. Learn as much as you can about how to run a business. Learn about accounting, sales, marketing, stock ordering, recruitment, team building, systems building, entrepreneurship and everything you can. Read, attend seminars, listen to tapes and watch video's.
2. Start with the end in mind. Be clear on the fact that you're building a business that will run without you, not a job that will chain you to the wheel forever.
3. Build systems and not just people. Don't just hire the best people, hire great people and give them great systems. Document everything you do so you can easily teach new people how to do it.
4. Build a Great Team. To do that of course you've got to become a great leader and learn what it takes to build a team to run the business when you're not there.
5. Change your Identity. Stop thinking of yourself as a carpenter, solicitor, poodle clipper, or whatever the profession of your business is and think of yourself as an entrepreneur who is currently building a carpentry etc etc.
6. Make a Decision. First comes the dream and then the most important step, the decision that you are 100% committed to making the dream a reality.
7. Get a Coach or Mentor. If you want to get great results get someone to show you how to do it and push you like a great coach would.
Getting into business can be the best decision you'll ever make. Building a great level of income and a great lifestyle is truly rewarding. Yet, making your dreams a reality as a business owner is often one of the most challenging paths to follow. Keep focusing on what you CAN do and smile each day, knowing that you are your own boss …
In most cases it's because they never build their business into anything more than a job for themselves and a few others. And, as a one person business, they've got the world's most demanding boss and an employee who never seems to want to work.
The See-Saw is the ultimate in pain for the greatly skilled employee who starts their own business selling what they did before. They quickly learn that half their time is spent chasing work and the other half doing the work. It's sell, do, sell, do, sell, do …
No matter what you do it seems you're stuck. You're the best at what you do, so everyone wants you, but you're still trading time for money … Unfortunately, most people in this situation end up going back to get a job in another company. Yet some take the next step …
So then, what happens to these business owners … ? Some step up and go on to employing others and even though they are now an employer, they unfortunately still seem to think like an employee. They think that hard work will solve all ills …
Now instead of see-sawing, they're running in circles, chasing their tail, cleaning up after others, working longer hours, putting out fires, making less than some of their employees and still having to do much of the work they did before. They thought they'd have people working for them, when in reality, they're working for their people.
When most business owners get into this mess, they think, "I should just sack the lot of them and go back to when it was just me". Either way, see-saw or circles, still thinking like a hard working employee has you doomed to a life of small business drudgery, even as the business owner …
Well, here are the 7 most important things you need to do to make the shift to a business owner, that is, someone who treats their business as an investment, rather than a job … someone who works only a few hours a week and lives off of the profits their business makes.
1. Learn as much as you can about how to run a business. Learn about accounting, sales, marketing, stock ordering, recruitment, team building, systems building, entrepreneurship and everything you can. Read, attend seminars, listen to tapes and watch video's.
2. Start with the end in mind. Be clear on the fact that you're building a business that will run without you, not a job that will chain you to the wheel forever.
3. Build systems and not just people. Don't just hire the best people, hire great people and give them great systems. Document everything you do so you can easily teach new people how to do it.
4. Build a Great Team. To do that of course you've got to become a great leader and learn what it takes to build a team to run the business when you're not there.
5. Change your Identity. Stop thinking of yourself as a carpenter, solicitor, poodle clipper, or whatever the profession of your business is and think of yourself as an entrepreneur who is currently building a carpentry etc etc.
6. Make a Decision. First comes the dream and then the most important step, the decision that you are 100% committed to making the dream a reality.
7. Get a Coach or Mentor. If you want to get great results get someone to show you how to do it and push you like a great coach would.
Getting into business can be the best decision you'll ever make. Building a great level of income and a great lifestyle is truly rewarding. Yet, making your dreams a reality as a business owner is often one of the most challenging paths to follow. Keep focusing on what you CAN do and smile each day, knowing that you are your own boss …
11 Commandments of an Entrepreneur
11.) Admit your mistakes -- be humble.
10.) Be flexible -- keep an open mind.
9.) Be rational -- look at all the options.
8.) Have fun -- don't take things too seriously.
7.) Never get smug -- don't think that your "____" don't stink!
6.) Don't undersprice yourself or your medium -- don't attack the industry, build it up.
5.) Believe in yourself -- if you think you can make it happen, you will.
4.) Never jeopardize your integrity -- we'll win the right way or we won't win at all.
3.) Be good to your people -- get them into the game and give them a piece of the pie.
2.) Be passionate about what you do and compassionate about how you do it.
1.) TAKE CARE OF YOUR TEAM AND YOUR CLIENT -- THINK OF THEM ALWAYS AND YOU'LL WIN!
Jeff Smulyan
CEO & President
Emmis Communications
10.) Be flexible -- keep an open mind.
9.) Be rational -- look at all the options.
8.) Have fun -- don't take things too seriously.
7.) Never get smug -- don't think that your "____" don't stink!
6.) Don't undersprice yourself or your medium -- don't attack the industry, build it up.
5.) Believe in yourself -- if you think you can make it happen, you will.
4.) Never jeopardize your integrity -- we'll win the right way or we won't win at all.
3.) Be good to your people -- get them into the game and give them a piece of the pie.
2.) Be passionate about what you do and compassionate about how you do it.
1.) TAKE CARE OF YOUR TEAM AND YOUR CLIENT -- THINK OF THEM ALWAYS AND YOU'LL WIN!
Jeff Smulyan
CEO & President
Emmis Communications
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Quotes
"The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes."
- Earl of Beaconsfield
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and their families!
- Earl of Beaconsfield
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and their families!
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