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“to fail to plan is to plan to fail” (US President &WWII Army General Dwight Eisenhower)
So what's your plan for the London Olympic Games, starting on the 27th of July?
I'm sure you will spend some time in front of the telly watching the games, might also enjoy going to see it live at the Stadium. That's all really lovely, but I'm always wondering what businesses will do during that two week period the Games are on?
A very Happy New Year to all!
The New Year has started, as it finished, with much in the news about racism. I have been a Liverpool football club supporter since they won the 1965 FA Cup Final, the first football match I remember seeing, but find myself disappointed in the way that the Suarez / Evra dispute has been dealt with.
TAKING A CHANCE
I really like the BBC Homepage “Fact of the Day”, short and sweet, sometimes a little obscure but nearly always hits the spot.
A great one today:
“Grapefruit have nothing to do with grapes. They don't taste or look like grapes. The word is a mistranslation from the French grappe-fruit meaning 'bunch-fruit' or 'cluster-fruit'. Grapefruit grow in clusters on trees”.
A grapefruit is a lemon that had a chance and took advantage of it. OSCAR WILDE
Remember the honeybee's ripple effect in collecting honey?
The great scientist Buckminster Fuller (considered to be both a true genius and a somewhat eccentric visionary) believed about the ripple effect of taking action. He explained this with the example of the honeybee. The honeybee's primary objective is to obtain nectar to make honey. While going after the honey, however, it serves a much greater purpose. As it flies from flower to flower, it picks up pollens and ends up cross pollinating more plants than can be counted! It is an unintended ripple effect, but a very important one.
Fuller also explained that we are like speedboats - the sheer force of our forward motion creates ripple effects all around us.
This week, let's remember to move ahead against the odds as we are often not aware of the true effects of our actions.
AMUSING OR JUST STUPID? GIVE THE RIGHT IMPRESSION
Several signs warning people to expect traffic delays during a local carnival had to be changed because they contained spelling mistakes.
Sittingbourne Carnival Association said it had to announce road closures a week before the event despite the mistakes.
Pam Griggs, from the association, said the signs would be replaced or changed.
She added: "People will either think we are stupid and we can't spell or they will have a good laugh.
"At least people are reading them."
The signs were manufactured by a printing firm from outside the area.
It’s testing when someone else makes you feel like you’re not good enough. Rejection is such a harsh word. Especially when you’ve been working towards something, built up that courage and completely put yourself out there, just to hear ‘no’. That definitely burns; maybe even feels like a kick in the ribs, making us feel quite vulnerable and low.
But here are some famous rejections that might make you look at things a bit differently.
A first impression is not just the most important but who’s to say that you won’t get that chance again? If your business comes across as unprofessional and inexperienced at first impression, it can usually be the deal-breaker with potential clients. Here’s how to be sure the one you leave is the right one.
There are lessons that you learn through life which stick with you, the main one being is that your mother was ALWAYS right, retrospective of course and it often hurts to admit it.
One little lesson that has stuck with me was from a department director who would never allow the word “very” to be used in any communication or script. I was a credit manager in a City bank (yes I admit to having been a City banker but it was a long time ago when Greece’s credit rating was AAA). His argument was that something either was or wasn’t, it was either urgent or it wasn’t urgent, it was black or it was white; “very” was superfluous and it is a word I have to think quite hard about using to this day. Actually “quite” might fall into the same category.
You may have heard previously the story of Spencer Silver inventing the post-it notes. Scientist Spencer Silver at 3M decided to invent a very strong glue. Before long, he invented a new glue, but found that it was super weak. He figured it was the world’s worst glue! But, he decided to keep it anyway and share his ‘failure’ with his co-workers.
4 years later, his colleague Arthur Fry was trying find a way to stop his bookmarks from falling out of his songbook. He thought of trying Silver’s super weak glue to stick his bookmarks. This worked amazingly well! Over the next 6 years, Fry and other 3M scientists worked with this glue and in 1980, they launched the first sticky notes i.e. Post-it Notes to the world.
This week, let’s remember that even failures can pay themselves forward.. Sometimes as block buster inventions!
Another Monday story. This one is about Sam, the star Cola salesman who was sent to the middle east.
Having rolled out extremely successful marketing campaigns all around the UK, Sam was sent to the middle east.
Unable to speak arabic, Sam smartly decided to produce an advertising campaign based on picture, to be sure he understood it all. Not a stupid idea, is it?
Sharing some more stories with you today: do you know what is the common point between famous Thomas Edison and James Dyson?
Edison, one of the most prolific inventors of all time, was busy working on the concept of an electric bulb in his laboratory in Menlo Park. Rumors had spread all across and press reporters were all eagerly awaiting any news of a breakthrough. Many weeks later, Edison finally emerged from his laboratory having invented the light bulb. A reporter asked him - ‘Mr. Edison, rumors is it true that you failed in your first 1000 attempts to invent the light bulb? ‘Young man, I did not fail a 1000 times. I have discovered and documented a 1000 ways on how-not-to-make-a-light bulb! I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.’
Here’s a little story worth sharing:
Jim and George worked for rival shoe companies.
They were both sent to Africa to survey the market for shoes. When they reached Africa, they both realized nobody wore shoes. At the end of their day trip, they paged their bosses - Jim said - ‘Wasted Trip. No opportunity. They don’t wear shoes.’ And George said - ‘WONDERFUL trip: they don’t wear shoes YET!! Unlimited market opportunities. We can sell to everybody.’
Our attitudes change our beliefs. And our beliefs, in turn, influence results.
This week, let’s remember the 2 salesmen when we find ourselves feeling pessimistic about a situation..
