The first time I lost that amount of money was during the devastating economic crash in the real estate market. My company was investing in real estate doing flips, rentals, and short/long-term investments. We also got into hard money lending. During the crash we had individuals and companies default on money we lent. That was the first time! The second time was yesterday, but not as significant. I am playing a game on ESPN called Streak for the Ca$h. The game is simple and it is free, you simply pick a game winner for all different sports and whoever get's the longest winning streak for the month wins $50,000, and if you have over 27 winning streaks in a row, you can win $100,000. Don't worry there is a leadership lesson here, not just a sports talk... Keep reading! My approach was more based off running simple statistics and probability to get the wins versus who I thought would win or what other people were voting for. I made sure to not... How do we find peace? Does Obama provide it? Does war create it? Does a treaty guarantee it? Does Miss America's dream inspire it?
World peace, I do not know. However what I do know is we do not have personal peace enough. We do not have stillness in life. We all only have only 168 hours per week, awake for only 112 of them, that is a total of 6,720 minutes of productive time. Here is a challenge, CLICK the image below and do NOTHING for two minutes. Can you do it? Coaching Moment: Make a practice of silent peace everyday. That is a total of 14 minutes out of 6,720 in a week. You can afford it! Yes we can. Yes we can. Yes we can. When you look at marketing and the value of it's worth, you must look at the avenue of marketing. It has always been said that word-of-mouth advertising works. The warm market penetration needs to really be assessed by more businesses. In Warren Buffet's book, The Warren Buffet CEO: Secrets from the Berkshire Hathaway Managers, written by Robert Miles, on one particular visit with GEICO, Warren talks of the humility of the CEO of GEICO, Tony Nicely. GEICO is known for spending the most money on advertising than any other company. Whether you are fans of the caveman who I guess were deeply offended, the googly eyes, the gecko, the woodchucks chucking wood, or perhaps the little piggy who said, "Wee wee" all the way home, or perhaps good 'ol Abe telling the truth you can recall dozens of different commercials of theirs. Below is the annoying pig... Often times when I am talking to clients or potential partners about their marketing strategies I ask them if they have ever seen a GEICO commercial, and like clock work everyone says...
The following is an excerpt of a blog from a great friend of mine discussing some things we should all be doing, always, enjoy...
Provided courtesy of Chris Conrey: Everyone knows the old salesman maxim: Always Be Closing. Made famous by Alec Baldwin’s Glengarry Glen Ross performance (watch here – some foul language) which has been shown in 20% of sales meetings across the world since the movie’s release in 1992 – any professional salesperson has heard this term approximately 4,576,861 times over the course of their career. But there are other things you should always be doing.
Many of you have special talents, gifts, and abilities and it feels good to be held in a high regard for them, of course it does. But at the end of the day where has it gotten you? Nowhere. A large group of people walk away to watch the next big act.
So the irony of leadership is here. We think just because we are on stage and in front of people we are leading. We think we are leading when people applaud and stand in ovation for us. We think we are leading when we are showing a skill that no one else has. However leadership is not about the leader, it is about the... I recently sent out a tweet that said, "Stress & burnout comes from living out of alignment w/our values. When not in tune with our inner core we experience distress. #BringValue." As it posted to Facebook one of my friends asked me to explain. I realized a simple Facebook post explanation was not adequate so here is the thought dug up a little deeper...
---- If you were to look at any list of great leaders of the century, and you would find these five people at the top of the list: So where does your life bring value?
Your philosophy (the way you think) creates your attitude, your actions & your results... and that creates your life. “Do the thing and you shall have the power.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson Take for instance the transformation of Nike with there then-new ad, “Just Do It” that appeared on the scene in 1988. Nike spent a staggering... The original kanji characters for the word kaizen are: 改 善 In Japanese this is pronounced "kaizen" 改 ("kai") means "change" or "the action to correct". 善 ("zen") means "good". In Korean this is pronounced "ge sun" 改善 ("ge sun") means "improvement" or "change for the better" In Chinese this is pronounced "gai shan": 改善 ("gǎi shàn") means "change for the better" or "improve". 改 ("gǎi") means "change" or "the action to correct". 善 ("shàn") means "good" or "benefit". Kaizen means simply "improvement" in Japanese. Kaizen strategy calls for never-ending efforts for improvement involving everyone in the organization. When used inside an organization properly, everyone from the CEO to the janitor, even external stakeholders can participate in the continuous improvement. A main difference culturally is in the western continents, such as USA, Americans are very motivated by monetary gains when it comes to achievements. In the east it is much different. Involvement in something bigger, making a difference, and being noticed for achievements is more meaningful. For instance many companies incorporate kaizen very purposely. Quick and Easy Kaizen helps eliminate or reduce wastes, promotes personal growth of employees and the company, provides guidance for employees, and serves as a barometer of leadership. Each Kaizen may be small, but the cumulative effect is tremendous. Benefits Quick and easy Kaizen empowers employees, enriches the work experience and brings out the best in every person. It improves quality, safety, cost structures, delivery, environments, throughput and customer service. The Process The Quick and Easy Kaizen process works as follows:
Three Key Characteristics
Source of Information: Japan Human Relations Association The Japan Human Relations Association (JHRA) is leading the quick and easy kaizen efforts throughout Japan with its training programs, workshops, and publications. JHRA only promotes quick and easy kaizen. They dropped all of the other HR functions for they believe that quick and easy kaizen is the best way to develop human resources within a company. History
After WWII, to help restore Japan, American occupation forces brought in American experts to help with the rebuilding of Japanese industry. The Civil Communications Section (CCS) developed a Management Training Program that taught statistical control methods as part of the overall material. This course was developed and taught by Homer Sarasohn and Charles Protzman in 1949-50. Sarasohn recommended W. Edwards Deming for further training in Statistical Methods. The Economic and Scientific Section (ESS) group was also tasked with improving Japanese management skills and Edgar McVoy was instrumental in bringing Lowell Mellen to Japan to properly install the Training Within Industry (TWI) programs in 1951. Prior to the arrival of Mellen in 1951, the ESS group had a training film to introduce the three TWI "J" programs (Job Instruction, Job Methods and Job Relations)---the film was titled "Improvement in 4 Steps" (Kaizen eno Yon Dankai). Thus the original introduction of "Kaizen" to Japan. For the pioneering, introduction, and implementation of Kaizen in Japan, the Emperor of Japan awarded the 2nd Order Medal of the Sacred Treasure to Dr. Deming in 1960. Consequently, the Union of Japanese Science and Engineering (JUSE) instituted the annual Deming Prizes for achievement in quality and dependability of products. On October 18, 1989, JUSE awarded the Deming Prize to Florida Power & Light Co. (FPL), based in the US, for its exceptional accomplishments in process and quality control management. FPL was the first company outside Japan to win the Deming Prize. Reference:
Are you good at what you do? Chances are, unless you are completely new at what you are doing you have gotten good, perhaps you have even became an expert in your field. In one recent conversation with a client, he told me that after an average of 2 months most of his sales guys are 'great' at what they do and at that point are creating their own desired income. He says that it only takes a little time to learn their clients, their computer system and organizational expectations. Typically in my professional past experiences, I would say it was a 2-6 month time frame before I felt comfortable and in some cases good at what I was doing. Of course if there was previous experience in that industry then that 2-6 months could be mere weeks.
On one hand it is good… |
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