• I just started reading this book called The Little Big Things and after ten minutes, I knew it was special.  I know a book is amazing when I’m reading and I suddenly stop and think: “Wow, this is something I have to write down.” (or type in my Blackberry as it were).  Here’s a tidbit from the first few pages that I had to jot down:

    “Excellence can be obtained if you:
    … care more than others think is wise;
    … risk more than others is safe;
    … dream more than others think is practical;
    … expect more than others think is possible;
    The Little Big Things, pg 10

    Here’s another one, I need to imprint on my eyelids:

    Excellence. Always.
    If Not Excellence, What?
    If Not Excellence Now, When?

    I’ve been very fond of the word “Awesome” for quite some years now, but I think that it’s nothing compared to how much Tom Peters (the author) likes the word “Excellence”.  I must admit though, it’s a pretty great word too.  The combination might be even better, maybe something like pure Awesomeness wrapped in a gooey dough of Excellence?  Now there’s a recipe for success.

  • “And all I ask is one thing … and this is … I’m asking this particularly of young people that watch… Please do no be cynical.  I hate cynicism.  For the record, it’s my least favorite quality.  It doesn’t lead anywhere.  Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get.  But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.  I’m telling you amazing things will happen.”
    – Conan O’Brien, Final Farewell Speech on the Tonight show

    Well said Conan.

  • “The simplest answer is usually the correct answer.”
    Occam’s Razor

    I think a lot of people insist on making things more complicated than they need to be.  Take losing weight for example.  There are thousands of fad diets involving various amounts of carbs, protein, fat, juices, raw food, and all sorts of other weird concoctions.  Has anyone thought that the answer to losing weight is to simply just reduce food intake and exercise more?

    “Ships sail around the world but the Flat Earth Society will flourish.”
    Warren Buffett

    Things aren’t always as simple as I’d like them to be but I think we could all use a good shave once in a while.

  • I read an interesting article in the Harvard Business Review (June 2010) about Uzma Khan’s research at Stanford’s business school showing that the more people want something, the less they’ll like it.  The paper outlines a couple of experiments they performed and observed that the more people were willing to pay for a prize, the more likely they were willing to trade it away.

    I’m not entirely convinced of the causality of the two events but I can believe that wanting doesn’t necessarily translate to liking.  Think about the clichés of girls chasing after the bad-boy or wanting to go to a restaurant with a long line up.  Many times the chase and anticipation is more satisfying than the goal.

    Something to think about: which things are we chasing because we like and which are we just chasing?

  • “You can always change your plan but only if you have one.”
    Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

    Life is full of little paradoxes.  Take planning for instance.  We make plans to meet up with friends that we sometimes can’t attend; we make plans to finish a project early when the reality is that rarely happens; and we make plans to be at a certain place in our lives that almost always never end up how we pictured it.  So the question remains, why do we always insist on making plans that don’t go the way we expect?

    That’s exactly missing the point.  It’s not the plan, it’s the planning.  It’s the process of understanding the many different ways in which your situation can interact with all the other external factors.  That’s the important part.  Nothing fixed or static about that.  And nothing more useful when you come across a situation you didn’t expect.

    Life doesn’t always go the way you expect, and with planning, that’s great news.

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