Category: Life Lessons
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Every Worthwhile Goal requires Sacrifice
One of the lessons I took from ancient myth: Heroes always sacrifice something: There are few shortcuts for the most important things in our lives – health, relationships, a beautiful home, meaningful work on problems you care about Are you willing to pay the price? If you liked this post, you will also like Set…
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Without a Goal, you can’t Score
“without a goal, you can’t score” …and you are probably somewhat de-motivated… In sports, the goal is very clear. In football – a 24ft by 8ft steel or aluminium frame with a net… so you can clearly see if the ball goes in. In sports, the victory condition is very clear… more goals than the…
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Active Patience vs Passive Patience
There is an old story of a person trapped on the roof of a building as floodwaters are rising. A boat passes and the occupants shout “come down, we’ll take you to safety”. The person says “No, God will save me”. Another boat passes. The occupants shout “come down, we’ll take you to safety” The…
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Active vs Passive Patience
A couple of years ago, I wrote about the life strategy of “Stand in the Traffic”. Shane Parrish in a recent Farnham Street newsletter item reminded me of the concept. His framing of the concept is “Active Patience”. If you’ve not read about “Stand in the Traffic” as a life strategy, check out the original…
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Being a good manager (of yourself)
I’ve met some excellent business managers… who are extremely poor managers of their own life. They get results. They support others. They build capable, effective teams. Their business grows. …but they are not joyful. They are not waking up motivated each day. They are not finding themselves energised through the day by the activities, people…
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Reputation for getting up early = you can stay in bed all day
Reputation… “the beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone”; “a widespread belief that someone or something has a particular characteristic.” Your reputation shapes how people see you. “A man with a reputation for getting up early can stay in bed all day” Irish proverb The reputation you have shapes how everything you do…
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Where opportunities come from
Jim Collins says that “Return on Luck” is one of the significant factors in extreme success. It is not that successful companies or people have more luck… it is how they follow through on their lucky breaks that makes the difference. One person might meet someone who could open a door of massive opportunity… but…
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3 Life and Leadership Lessons from my Father
My father is by all accounts a successful leader. There are 3 “superpowers” that he has that I think have helped him have such a positive effect in each of these environments. My father has had a long and successful career in business leading to a decade as the Chairman of the Board of Accenture,…
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The $5 Challenge – A Stanford Strategy Story…
Back in 2009, Stanford prof Tina Seelig split students in the school of engineering into teams and gave them an envelope containing $5. Teams had only two hours to generate as much money as possible. Each team would get three minutes to present their project to the entire class. Here is Tina’s own article explaining the experience: The $5…
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Build Strong Foundations
Build Strong Foundations before you grow higher. Are you investing in your own Foundations – or are you building the house of your life on sand? Leadership coach Luis Soares shared the story in the video below a few years ago on a leadership retreat for Vistage Spain. There are two metaphors in the video:…