An old man lived alone in Minnesota. He wanted to spade his potato garden,
but it was very hard work. His only son, who would have helped him, was in
prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and mentioned his situation:
Dear Son,
I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won’t be able to plant my potato
garden this year. I hate to miss doing the garden, because your mother always
loved planting time. I’m just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. If
you were here, all my troubles would be over. I know you would dig the plot for
me, if you weren’t in prison.
Love, Dad
Shortly, the old man received this telegram: “For Heaven’s sake, Dad, don’t dig
up the garden!! That’s where I buried the GUNS!!”
At 4 a.m. the next morning, a dozen FBI agents and local police officers
showed up and dug up the entire garden without finding any guns.
Confused, the old man wrote another note to his son telling him what
happened, and asked him what to do next.
His son’s reply was: “Go ahead and plant your potatoes, Dad…………………. It’s the
best I could do for you from here.”
MORAL:
No matter where you are in the world, if you have decided to do something
deep from your heart, you can do it. It is the thought that matters and not
where you are or where the person is:-)))
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
Finish Strong is more than a statement, it’s an attitude.
It’s an attitude of believing you can do something and having the courage and
determination to see it through. And of course, you can apply this “finish
strong attitude” to your business or your life! here’s a personal story about
setting goals from the author, Dan Green……. Enjoy!
Keep Clip’n Along
By embracing the attitude to Finish Strong, I’ve created a personal level of
accountability that goes with me wherever I go. The first time I really
discovered the power of this mindset was early in my selling career. In the
early nineties I sold software systems to commercial banks. A great deal of my
selling efforts involved prospecting for leads over the phone. No matter how
good you are at selling over the phone, it can be challenging to push yourself
to make one more call – and a key to success in selling is “making one more
call”.
As a method of daily goal setting, I would start my day in the office by taking
out twenty five paper clips from my desktop paper clip holder. I would place
the paper clips on a coaster right next to the holder which was next to the
phone. Each time I engaged in a meaningful selling conversation I would take
one of the paper clips from the pile and put it back in the holder. I knew that
if I created twenty five selling conversations each day, that my ultimate sales
goals would be reached. I made a commitment not to leave the office until
every paper clip was put back.
There were many times that the day was over for everyone else and I had one
paperclip sitting on that coaster staring at me. In order to finish strong, I
needed to have one more selling conversation. I dialed until I succeeded. I
never left a paperclip sitting on the coaster and I never put one back that did
not earn it. The level of activity I created during this time stuffed my sales
pipeline with opportunities. My career took off and I tripled my income in
the course of two years – all because I chose to Finish Strong
We realize the importance of our voices only when they are silenced.
An elderly carpenter was ready to retire.
He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house-building business and live a
more leisurely life with his wife, enjoying his extended family. He would miss the paycheck,
but he needed to retire. They could get by.
The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go and asked if he could build just one more
house as a favor. The carpenter said yes, but in time it was easy to see that his heart was not
in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an
unfortunate way to end a dedicated career.
When the carpenter finished his work the employer came to inspect the house. He handed
the front-door key to the carpenter. “This is your house,” he said, “My gift to you!”
The carpenter was shocked! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own
house, he would have done it all so differently.
So it is with us. We build our lives, a day at a time, often putting less than our best into the
building.
Then with a shock we realize we have to live in the house we have built.
If we could do it over, we would do it much differently. But we cannot go back.
You are the carpenter. Each day you hammer a nail, place a board, or erect a wall. “Life is a
do-it-yourself project,” someone has said. Your attitudes and the choices you make today,
build the “house” you live in tomorrow.
Build wisely!
Safe jobs, safe choices, safe dreams. But the life you truly want usually sits on the other side of uncertainty. Take the risk. Start the business.
According to the current structure of education if Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg or Albert Einstein came and taught at a university they would actually hurt the rankings. You see these guys were university drop outs. They don’t even have a bachelors degree, never mind a PhD.
The top of the food chain in terms of policy and planning are PhDs in the academic world. This is an “exclusive” club that guys like Steve, Bill, Richard, Mark and Albert can’t join. These guys would get relatively junior positions working in education in the middle east and their ideas are not likely to be heard. The academics are deciding what the next generation should be learning, not the entrepreneurs.
If Bill, Steve and the gang sacrificed 3 to 5 years out of the real world of creating jobs and inventing new things to go into academia they would be able to have more influence on policy in government or finally begin a career in teaching at a university.
The myth is that the more degrees you have the more qualified you are to tell the next generation what to do. From having worked with many PhDs – and I apologize if I generalize here – but they are impractical people for the real world. They over analyze decisions. They are great at producing documents because that is what they have been taught. The more paperwork, the better. Not many PhDs are granted if at the end of the dissertation the student comes back with a one pager on how to change the world. Instead they need to make that one pager in to over 100 pages.
This was fair enough when their wasn’t too much information in the world. There used to be a lot fewer books. Now though the world wants to know less, not more. We use Google so we can visit less websites, quicker. In the new economy how many people you can influence with your ideas is more important than producing things that no one reads.
How do you pass a PhD? You supervisor and a handful of people decide if your work is good enough. Essentially they are seeing if you actually did the work.
How do you make a successful business? The world decides by voting with their wallets if they want to buy your products or services. If you produce something impractical, you go hungry. If you produce something the world loves, you make loads of money. Unlike a PhD, it doesn’t matter if you did the work or you got someone else to do it. As long as it was done.
I see many of the ambitious people in the Arab world decide to pursue a PhD rather than start a business. This means financing either from their parents or the government for 3 to 5 years. No jobs are created. No real wealth is created. Instead what they have is a stable job in government after receiving the letters “Dr.” in front of their names. A burden to the tax payer (or a drain on the oil money if you are in the middle east).
Henry Mintzberg, a management guru, wrote “Managers not MBAs” and I agree with him that MBAs are also over-rated. I’d like to write the follow-up book called: “Entrepreneurs not PhDs”.
I work through a lot of challenges, but the big idea is this: life gets better with skill.
I help underdogs, leaders, and achievers make the most of what they’ve got. I have a passion for excellence and a passion for getting results. I’m also a fan of better ways for better days in in the pursuit of GREATNESS!
I am an teacher. This is not just my day job but it’s a lifestyle and calling. As part of my calling, I nurture multiple followers on agile goals. Each goal is a new team, a new adventure, and new lessons learned. I’ve authored several blogs, where I write prescriptive guidance to share and scale patterns and practices for success. ustadhyusuf.com is designed to help you make the most of work and life, using success patterns. It’s also a highly effective time management system.
I’m also an avid mentor at work. I regularly work with several mentees to help them improve their effectiveness. This includes everything from improving communication skills to leadership skills or basic project management.
Over the course of leading many projects, many teams, and many adventures, I’ve learned how to get results and balance life. I continuously invest in what I call my “Life Frame”, which is the hot spots in life: Mind, Body, Emotions, Career, Financial, Relationships, and Fun. I continuously study these hot spots on a quest for the best insights and actions, for work and life. I’m a fan of finding and sharing the principles, patterns and proven practices that work in the real-world under extreme conditions.
