Life Changing Cheese - Business Lessons From Everyday Life

People naturally seek to learn about things they are interested in. In my case I am definitely interested in business. I have read numerous books off the Personal MBA reading list, I read business blogs, I listen to business audio books, and I did my undergrad in business management. Although all those sources of information are extremely valuable in developing my own business acumen, I am amazed at how some of the most valuable business lessons are encountered when you least expect them during your daily life.

This past weekend a few friends, my wife, and I went up to Portsmouth, New Hampshire for the day. Portsmouth is definitely a cool little artsy town with plenty of shops, restaurants, and bars. Our couple friends had been there before and were showing us around. We stopped into a quirky shop with tons of kitchen accessories, wine, and other knick knacks (definitely the least manly thing I have ever written). Our friends had mentioned that the place always had wine tastings and that they had this amazing cheese that we "just had to try."

As I approached the tasting area I saw a man behind the table pouring wine and setting up a platter. It was then that the man said something that caught my attention.

“Life changing cheese.”

Wow. What a great line! I am a very passionate person. When I am into something I am really into it. Whether it is hockey, music, my work, business, or playing guitar I am the kind of person who takes things that I am interested in or enjoy and I turn them into passions. For that reason, I am naturally drawn to people who are passionate about what they do. This wasn’t some person who was there to serve a few drinks and cubes of cheese to collect a paycheck. This guy was passionate about what he did and he was good at it.

The man went on to explain how the cheese was made in a cave in England and that the unique conditions gave it the "life changing" taste characteristics. He spoke of how many cases of cheese they sold a week and how they couldn't keep up with the demand. As he spoke I couldn't help but imagine little leprechaun looking dudes working away in a candlelit cave somewhere in the countryside of England. I must admit the cheese was amazing. The man wasn't just selling cheese, he was creating an experience!

As we walked through the streets of Portsmouth I wondered how influenced my friends were by marketing of the man selling the cheese. I wondered whether the cheese was really amazing or if it was just good cheese that was made great by the experience. I wondered how many other people went around telling their friends about "life changing cheese." I wondered how much cheese the passionate cheese peddler sold compared to the emotionless sample distributors at supermarkets. The fact that the "life changing cheese" experience stuck with me and that I put so much thought into a subject like cheese tells me that it was an example effective marketing at its core.

Not only was it a great day amongst friends, it was also a real life lesson in marketing that I will be able to reference moving ahead. How can I create "life changing cheese" in my own endeavors?

What Is Failure?

What is your greatest failure?

Most people find this question incredibly difficult for a myriad of different reasons. The answer to this question typically provides more insight into how the respondent views failure itself than the actual shortcomings demonstrated of the respondent.

An article was published in The Economist this week called “Fail Often, Fail Well,” that goes into depth on the benefits of learning how to fail effectively.

“Business writers have always worshipped at the altar of success. Tom Peters turned himself into a superstar with “In Search of Excellence”. Stephen Covey has sold more than 15m copies of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. Malcolm Gladwell cleverly subtitled his third book, “Outliers”, “The Story of Success”. This success-fetish makes the latest management fashion all the more remarkable. The April issue of the Harvard Business Review is devoted to failure, featuring among other contributors A.G. Lafley, a successful ex-boss of Procter & Gamble (P&G), proclaiming that “we learn much more from failure than we do from success.” The current British edition of Wired magazine has “Fail! Fast. Then succeed. What European business needs to learn from Silicon Valley” on its cover. IDEO, a consultancy, has coined the slogan “Fail often in order to succeed sooner”.

There are good reasons for the failure fashion. Success and failure are not polar opposites: you often need to endure the second to enjoy the first. Failure can indeed be a better teacher than success. It can also be a sign of creativity. The best way to avoid short-term failure is to keep churning out the same old products, though in the long term this may spell your doom. Businesses cannot invent the future—their own future—without taking risks.”

The piece goes on to give examples of how embracing and managing failures can benefit businesses and is a great read. But how can you apply the lesson to you as an individual as opposed to just looking from an organizational standpoint?

I grew up, like many people in our society, fearing failure. Whether it was working through school assignments or playing kickball at the park I had been conditioned to have a fear of not doing well. Although I think that feeling is very natural for most people I think it is very dangerous as well. By avoiding situations where you may fail you inevitably begin avoid situations where you have the opportunity to succeed.

As I have gotten older and experienced various successes in my personal and professional life I am more and more appreciative of the adversity that led to those successes. I may have not enjoyed the adversity at the time but it was a critical component in my overall success.

Two attitudinal adjustments have helped me immensely in managing my fear of failure and have thereby become a foundation for successes that I have: Although, like anyone else, battling self doubt is always a work in progress for me.

1. Maintain A Commitment To Learning From Adversity: By entering into every endeavor with a desire to learn from the experience it is difficult to categorize any outcome as a failure. So many of my past struggles have served me well in my future endeavors. Of course it is easier to recognize the value in a challenge after the bad taste has faded over time, but that is why it is so important to maintain the commitment to learning from your experiences on the way in.

2. Failure Is An End State And The Only Certain End State In Life Is Death: Failure is a bit of a dirty word for me in the sense that I don’t view most experiences as "failures." The only experience I view as a true failure is quitting. If you don’t quit something entirely you are merely experiencing a setback, and all setbacks can be overcome over time. If you are citing certain experiences as failures you likely gave up. By maintaining that the only certainty in your life is that it will eventually come to an end, a natural shift will occur in your attitude towards setbacks. Things may not always work out just as you would have liked but if you keep moving forward and learn from your setbacks you will avoid settling into a failure mentality.

Successful people and organizations push through and learn from "failures," with the most successful embracing and even seeking out "failure" learning opportunities. Embracing that mentality is not a natural feeling but one that will undoubtedly benefit organizations and individuals alike.

Book Review: Three Cups of Tea

Before I started studying for my GMAT and dropped all extracurricular activities like reading, I had started Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. The book had been recommended to me by a few different people, but I guess I just didn't know enough about it to read it sooner. I really wish I had heeded friend's recommendation sooner as this book was truly one of the best, most inspiring true stories I have ever read. Not only that, I found that as I read the book that the story takes place in a world that I have a particular interest in given the nature of my current work in the armed forces.

Below is an excerpt from the publisher on what the book is all about:
In 1993 Greg Mortenson was the exhausted survivor of a failed attempt to ascend K2, an American climbing bum wandering emaciated and lost through Pakistan's Karakoram Himalaya. After he was taken in and nursed back to health by the people of an impoverished Pakistani village, Mortenson promised to return one day and build them a school. From that rash, earnest promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of our time — Greg Mortenson's one-man mission to counteract extremism by building schools, especially for girls, throughout the breeding ground of the Taliban.

Award-winning journalist David Oliver Relin has collaborated on this spellbinding account of Mortenson's incredible accomplishments in a region where Americans are often feared and hated. In pursuit of his goal, Mortenson has survived kidnapping, fatwas issued by enraged mullahs, repeated death threats, and wrenching separations from his wife and children. But his success speaks for itself. At last count, his Central Asia Institute had built fifty-five schools. Three Cups of Tea is at once an unforgettable adventure and the inspiring true story of how one man really is changing the world — one school at a time.

When I searched for reviews on the book they were overwhelmingly positive. I thought of how I would review this book beyond the standard "it's good, read it," and I came up with a simple review that I think speaks volume about the power of this book. When I began the book I thought it would be great for other military members to get some insight into what else the region is all about outside of our current conflict in the area. However, by the time I finished I felt much more strongly than that. I think this book should be a mandatory read for every politician in our nation. I think it should be a predeployment requirement for each sailor, soldier, and airman that heads to the theater. And more importantly, I think it should be read in schools to children. I learned more about Islam and the countries of Pakistan and Afghanistan than I did in all my time in the military. The book taught me more about the real issues in that area of the world than any news article I have ever read. I am kind of ashamed to admit that, but it is what it is. Surely that is partially my fault. Part it is likely just the nature of what actually makes it into our short attention spans as Americans. I imagine that many others would feel the same way I did as I read the book, and a little understanding could take us a long way in resolving or at least understanding the conflict we find ourselves in. My enjoyment of the book had me taking a plethora of notes and quotes that I have shared below. Do yourself a favor and pick up this book.

Here are some notes and quotes I took from this fine piece of literature:

Introduction:
- General Bhangoo cites Mortenson as the most remarkable person he has ever met. He served as Musharraf's pilot and has met many world leaders

Failure:
- When it is dark enough you can see the stars
- Stuck and stranded in the mountains freezing, "Sleep in this cold seemed out of the question, so Mortenson lay beneath the stars salting the sky and decided to examine the nature of his failure.
- He made piece with his failure to honor his deceased sister Christa. It was his body that had failed, not his spirit and every body has its limits. He for the first time in his life had found the absolute limit of his.

The Wrong Side of the River:
- "All summer I'd looked at these mountains as goals, totally focused on the biggest one, K2. I'd thought about their elevation and the technical challenges they presented to me as a climber. But that morning for the first time, I simply saw them. It was overwhelming." - Greg Mortenson. A great symbolism for life itself. Sometimes we must sit back and take it in.

Progress and Perfection:
- "Can you imagine a fourth grade class in America, alone, without a teacher, sitting there quietly and working on their lessons? I felt like my heart was being torn out. There was a fierceness in their desire to learn, despite how mightily everything was stacked against them, that reminded me of Christa. I knew I had to do something." - Greg Mortenson
-Standing next to Haji Ali, on the ledge overlooking the valley, with such a crystalline view of the mountains he'd come halfway around the world to measure himself against, climbing K2 to place a necklace on its summit suddenly felt beside the point. There was a much more meaningful gesture he could make in honor of his sister's memory. He put his hands on Haji Ali's shoulders, as the old man had done to him dozens of times since they'd shared their first cup of tea. "I'm going to build you a school," he said, not yet realizing that with those words, the path of his life had just detoured down another trail, a route far more serpentine and arduous than the wrong turns he'd taken since retreating from K2. "I will build a school," Mortenson said. "I promise."

Self Storage:
-"Greatness is always built on this foundation: the ability to appear, speak and act, as the most common man."
- The older I get the more I appreciate my childhood. It was paradise.
- His father built a hospital in Tanzania focused on giving Tanzanians opportunity. The other expats were not happy when he said in 10 years I see all the department heads as Tanzanians.
- Watching him up there I felt so proud that this big barrel chested man was my father. He taught me, he taught all of us, that if you believe in yourself you can accomplish anything.
- After that the family moved to America in St. Paul.
- Greg signed up for the army his senior year since they didn't have much money.
- His father passed, then later his sister.

500 Letters One Check:
- He went right to the top writing letters to Oprah and the networks asking for money. Great lesson in going for it.
- He lived in his car and showered at the gym to save money for the school.
- Spoke to kids
- "But the kids got it right away. When they saw the pictures they couldn't believe that there was a place where children sat outside in the cold weather and tried to hold classes without teachers. They decided to do something about it.

Rawalpindi's Rooftops at Dusk:
- The quest for good can begin with a stubborn persistence to do what you say you are going to do.
- Take the first step and just keep walking

Hard Way Home:
- Not for the first time Mortenson wondered if Pakistan wasn't more of an idea than a country.
- Completed his treacherous journey and felt he had already won. I think when you set out to do something meaningful it often doesn't matter how far you get, because you got somewhere.

Beaten by the Braldu:
- Mortenson is an embodiment of the importance of human relationships. I don't think he could have succeeded had he not earned the respect of others he needed to help him.
- Mortenson felt a note of regret toward Akhmadu. He only wanted the children of his village to have the school that the government of Pakistan had failed to provide. But Mortenson's anger at Janjungpa and Changazi, at their scheming and dishonesty, spilled over the gratitude he felt for Akhmalu's months of uncomplaining service at K2 base camp until it became the same disheartening dun color as the surface of this ugliest of rivers.
- Perhaps he had been too harsh with these people: The economic disparity between them was just too great. Could it be that even a partially employed American who lived out of a storage locker could seem like little more than a flashing neon dollar sign to people in the poorest region of one of the world's poorest countries?
- When you reach out it can be overwhelming because you can't help everyone.

The People Have Spoken:
- He loses his girlfriend and his job
- "Pull yourself together Greg. Of course you have hit a few speed bumps.But what you are trying to do is much more difficult than climbing K2."
- Lou Reichardt knew something about suffering for and reaching difficult goals. His acknowledgement of how tough a path Mortenson was trying to walk made Mortenson feel that he hadn't failed. He just hadn't completed the climb. Yet.

Building Bridges:
- Rich societies can learn from the ancient societies about sustainment page 112
- "He operated as one of them, and I wondered how in the hell an American had managed that"
- Greg was humble and dodged credit. He did all the symbolic things to empower the Balti

Six Days:
-"I don't know if I particularly want to be remembered for anything,I have enjoyed great satisfaction from my climb of Mt. Everest. But my most worthwhile things have been the building of schools and medical clinics. That has given me more satisfaction that a footprint on a mountain" - Sir Edmund Hillary

Haji Ali's Lesson:
- "It may seem absurd to believe that a "primitive" culture in the Himalaya has anything to teach our industrialized society. But our search for a future that works keeps spiraling back to an ancient connection between ourselves and the earth, an interconnectedness that ancient cultures have never abandoned." Helena Norberg-Hodge
- Watching this scene straight out of the Bible stories I'd learned in Sunday school I thought how much the different faiths had in common, how you could trace so many of their traditions back to the same root." - Greg Mortenson
- He stumbled his way into his life's work
- "That day Haji Ali taught me the most important lesson I've ever learned in my life. We Americans think you have to accomplish everything quickly. We're the country of thirty minute power lunches and two minute football drills. Our leaders thought their 'shock and awe' campaign could end the war in Iraq before it even started. Haji Ali taught me to share three cups of tea, to slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects. He taught me that I had more to learn from the people I work with than I could ever hope to teach them." - Mortenson
-"It was one of the most humbling things I have ever seen. Haji Ali had just handed over half the wealth of the village to that crook, but he was smiling like he'd just won a lottery," Mortenson said. "Don't be sad. Long after all those rams are dead and eaten this school will still stand. Haji Mehdi has food today. Now our children have education forever." - Hali Aji

A Smile Should Be More Than A Memory:
- The Wazir are not loyal to Afghanistan or Pakistan and have fiercely resisted worlds great powers throughout history
- Even the Taliban realized the importance of schools and spared Mortenson after eight days of captivity

Equilibrium:
- Hoerni's dying wish was to see the Korphe school
- Greg won people over by adapting and immersing himself in their way of life
- Greg removed a sick woman's placenta "For a Balti to let a foreign man, an infidel, have that kind of intimate contact with your wife took an incredible leap of faith. I felt humbled by how much they'd come to trust me,"
- Greg kept his word and delivered the picture to Hoerni
- "C'est moi, Jean. I built a school in the Karakoram Himalaya," he boasted. "What have you done for the last fifty years."
- "Jean Hoerni had the foresight to lead us to the twenty first century with cutting edge technology, but he also had the rare vision to look behind and reach out to people living as they have for centuries."

Mortenson in Motion:
- "We all sat there laughing and sipping tea peacefully. An infidel and representatives from three warring sects of Islam. And I thought if we can get along this well, we can accomplish anything. The British policy was 'divide and conquer' but I say 'unite and conquer.'"
- A boy is sent by his father to go to school and he is scared and confused but his father knows it is the right thing to do. People were inspired and gave him money to contribute to his education. Similar to military service in US.
- Greg gets it. He is likely doing as much to combat extremism as anyone...through education and opportunities
- "Once you educate the boys they tend to leave and go search for work in the cities, but the girls stay home, become leaders in the community, and pass on what they've learned. If you really want to change a culture, to empower women, improve basic hygiene and health care, and fight high rates of infant mortality, the answer is to educate girls."

Cherry Trees in the Sand:
- Good political tidbits. The Mujahadeen liked Bill Clinton for saving Muslims in Bosnia. Swedes are a peaceful country but they sell many arms.
- "I wish Westerners who misunderstand Muslims could have seen Syed Abbas in action that day. They would see that most people who practice the true teachings of Islam, even conservative mullahs like Syed, believe in peace and justice, not in terror. Just as the Torah and Bible teach concern for those in distress, the Koran instructs all Muslims to make caring for widows, orphans, and refugees a priority."
- "I have heard some people say Americans are bad. But we love Americans. They are the most kind people for us. They are the only ones who cared to help us." Fatima Batool
- "What we are trying to do may be just a drop in the ocean, but the ocean would be less because of that missing drop." Greg Mortenson
- The Oregonian was the first to tell his tale
- Terrorist impact. "A politically volatile area, rural Pakistan is a breeding ground for terrorists who share anti-American sentiment. Illiterate young boys often wind up in terrorist camps. When we increase literacy we substantially reduce tensions."
- The wealthy lured him out to various events with promises of donations but he often returned empty handed
- "They were following the same philosophy as I was. Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen's idea that you can change a culture by giving its girls the tools to grow up educated so they can help themselves. It was amazing to see the idea in action, working so well after only a generation, and it fired me up to fight for girls' education in Pakistan."
- "I don't care where the money comes from. It's all washed clean in the service of God." - Mother Teresa
- The burden of success came in the form of a long line of people wanting something from him
- "In times of war, you often hear leaders--Christian, Jewish, and Muslim--saying 'God is on our side.' But that isn't true. In war, God is on the side of the refugees, widows, and orphans."

A Village Called New York:
- Wahhabism is the Saudi conservative fundamentalist offshoot of Sunni Islam
- Oil money is smuggled into Pakistan's poorest regions and used to build mosques and schools for "Islamic Education" in other words to promote extremism.
- For Pakistanis it is simple economics. Free room and board and an education at Madrassa centers
- "Neither the teachers nor the students had any formal background in maths, science, history, or geography." The madrassa students were "the rootless and restless, the jobless and the economically deprived with little self knowledge. They admired war because it was the only occupation they could possibly adapt to. Their simple belief in messianic, puritan Islam which had been drummed into them by simple village mullahs was the only prop they could hold on to and which gave their beliefs some meaning."
- "The work Mortenson is doing building schools is giving thousands of students what they need most--a balanced education and the tools to pull themselves out of poverty. But we need many more like them. His schools are just a drop in the bucket when you look at the scale of the problem in Pakistan. Essentially, the state is failing its students on a massive scale and making them far too easy for extremists who run many of the madrassas to recruit."
- Al Qaeda assassinated the Lion of Panjshir Ahmed Shah Massoud before Sept 11 to destroy one man capable of uniting Northern Afghanistan around the American military
- Greg was right down the road from Osama on 9-11
- "It is by fate that Allah the Almighty has brought us together in this hour. Today is a day that you children will remember forever and tell your children and grandchildren. Today from the darkness of illiteracy, the light of education shines bright. We share in the sorrow as people weep and suffer in America today as we inaugurate this school. Those who have committed this evil act against the innocent, women and children, to create thousands of widows and orphans do not do so in the name of Islam. By the grace of Allah the Almighty may justice be served upon them. For this tragedy I humbly ask Mr. George and Dr. Greg Sahib for their forgiveness. All of you my brethren: Protect and embrace these two American brothers in our midst. Let no harm come to them. Share all you have to make their mission successful. These two Christian men have come halfway around the world to show our Muslim children the light of education. Why have we not been able to bring education to our children on our own? Fathers and parents, I implore you to dedicate your full effort and commitment to see that all your children are educated. Otherwise, they will merely graze like sheep in the field, at the mercy of nature and the world changing so terrifyingly around us. I request America to look into our hearts and see that the great majority of us are not terrorists, but good and simple people. Our land is stricken with poverty because we are without education. But today, another candle of knowledge has been lit. In the name of Allah the Almighty, may it light our way out of the darkness we find ourselves in." - Syed Abbas

Tea With the Taliban:
- After 9-11 the US media was just pumping stories out without checking facts etc. Offered Greg bribes to get into Afghanistan
- "I tried to talk about root causes of the conflict--the lack of education in Pakistan, and the rise of the Wahhabi madrassas and how that led to problems like terrorism. But that stuff hardly ever made it to print. They only wanted sound bites about top Taliban leaders so they could turn them into villains in the run up to war,"
- "Perhaps we should turn in Bin Laden to save Afghanistan. Mullah Omar thinks there is still time to talk our way out of war. Make no mistake, we will fight to the finish if we are attacked." - Mullah Zaeef
- Claims Mullah Omar called Bush for talks but he never called
- Mortenson recognized that the majority of Afghanistan were victims of 9-11 as well. We lumped all Muslims as terrorist.
- "When Greg wins the Nobel Peace Prize I hope the judges in Oslo point to that day. This guy Greg quietly doggedly heading back into a war zone to do battle with the real causes of terror is every bit as heroic as those firemen running up the stairs of the burning towers while everyone else was frantically trying to get out."
- The Taliban used commercial flights and satellite phones to call in US positions
- Greg got death threats and hatemail for preaching not to lump all of Islam with terrorists

Rumsfeld's Shoes:
- No one tracked Afghanistan's civilian casualties
- "I am old enough to remember this nonsense from World War II, when we turned on all the Japanese and interned them without good cause. These horrible hate letters are a mandate for you to get out and tell Americans what you know about Muslims. You represent the goodness and courage that America is all about. Get out, don't be afraid, and spread your message for peace. Make this your finest hour." - Patsy Collins in a letter to Greg
- Nov 13 2001 Kabul filled with music which the Taliban had banned as the Taliban fled the city. Girls came out of hiding to go to school.
- No border security from Afghanistan to Pakistan
- He told me that less than a quarter of the aid money president Bush had promised his country had actually arrived in Afghanistan. And of those insufficient funds, he said $680 million had been redirected to build runways and bulk up supply depots in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar for the invasion of Iraq everyone had expected would soon begin.
- "I meet so many people day in and day out who say theyre trying to do good and help people. But Greg is the real thing. He's walking the walk. And I'm his biggest fan. The sacrifices that he and his family have made are staggering. He represents the best of America. I just wanted to do what I could to see that his humanity had a chance to rub off on as many people as possible." - Rep. Mary Bono
- "I don't do what I am doing to fight terror. I do it because I care about kids. Fighting terror is maybe seventh or eighth on my list of priorities. But working over there I have learned a few things. Ive learned that terror doesnt happen because some group of people somewhere like Pakistan or Afghanistan simple decide to hate us. It happens because cchildren arent being offered a bright enough future that they have a reason to choose life over death."
- "They walked quickly most of them clutching laptops under their arms speeding towards their next task like missiles, like there wasnt time to look at me. And I remember thinking I was in the Army once, but this didnt have anything to do with the military I knew. This was a laptop Army." - Greg on the Pentagon
- "The worst thing we can do is what we're doing--ignoring the victims. To call them 'collateral damage' and not even try to count the numbers of the dead. Because to ignore them is to deny they ever existed, and there is no greater insult in the islamic world. For that we will never be forgiven."
- "Im no military expert and these figures might not be exactly right. But as best as I can tell, we've launched 114 tomahawk cruise missiles into Afghanistan so far. Now take the cost of one of those missiles tipped with a Raytheon guidance system, which I think is about $840,000. For that much money you could build dozens of schools that could provide tens of thousands over with a balanced nonextremist education over the course of a generation. Which one do you think will make us more secure."
- Greg was offered money to build schools from the US military
- "I realized my credibility i that part of the world depended on me not being associated with the American government, especially its military."
- Greg's integrity is pretty incredible turning down millions from the US government
- I cant believe how many people in DC he got to meet and how involved he was in the history of our country yet we have never heard of him until his book. I dont know if that says more about the power of books or the state of our media.

The Enemy is Ignorance:
- A girl plops down in front of Greg in a tribal council and asks for money now for medical tuition. She was educated in CAI schools and embodies all that Greg had hoped the girls would learn.
- "If we try to resolve terrorism with military might and nothing else then we will be no safer than we were before 9-11. If we truly want a legacy of peace for our children, we need to understand that this is a war that will ultimately be won with books, not with bombs."
- Story finally published in Parade magazine. Overwhelmed with letters Greg said he only got one negative one. Very diverse support and lots of vets
- "People like me are America's best friends in the region. Im a moderate muslim and educated man. But watching this even I could become a jihadi. How can Americans say they are making themselves safer? Your President Bush has done a wonderful job of uniting one billion muslims against America for the next 200 years." General Bashir Baz
- "Osama is not a product of Pakistan or Afghanistan. He is a creation of America. Thanks to America Osama is in every home. As a military man I know you can never fight and win against someone who can shoot at you once and then run off and hide while you have to remain eternally on guard. You have to attack the source of your enemy's strength. In America's case thats not Osama or Saddam or anyone else. The enemy is ignorance. The only way to defeat it is to build relationships with these people to draw them into the modern world with education and business. Otherwise the fight will go on forever." - General Baz
- Jahan the girl graduates and now wants to be a hospital exec
- "And now that I am already in Skardu I feel that anything is possible. I dont want to be just a health worker. I want to be such a woman that I can start a hospital and be an executive and look over all the health problems of all the women in Braldu. I want to become a very famous woman of this area. I want to be a superlady." She said daring anyone, any man, to tell her she couldn't.
Mortenson didnt laugh at all. Instead he beamed at the bold granddaughter of Hali Aji and imagined the contented look that would have been on the old nurmadhar's face if he had lived long enough to see this day, to see the seed they planted together bear such splendid fruit. 580 letters, twelve rams, and tens years of work was a small price to pay, Mortenson thought, for such a moment.

Stones Into Schools:
- Opium harvest spiked in 2003 from nonexistant to almost 4000 tons which was 2/3 of the worlds raw material for heroin. The funds were funneled back into the land to equip and recruit militias which made Karzais governement increasingly irrelevant.
- "We fought with Americans, here in these mountains, against the Russians. An though we heard many promises, they never returned to help us when the dying was done." Keep your promises!
- New fork in the road for Greg.

Humility & Hubris - Learning From A Punch In The Mouth

When I was 18 years old I was playing in the United States Hockey League, one of the premier junior A leagues in North America. It was my first year in the league and needless to say it was a challenging transition coming from minor hockey. Not only was the league leaps and bounds above any level I had played at previously, but there was a new dynamic in the form of fighting. The league played NHL rules and fighting typically resulted in a five minute time out, a pat on the back from your teammates, and a few new fans in the stands. I was hesitant to fight in my early days, however I got into a few and eventually found that I was pretty good at it. I never took on the role of the team’s go to fighter or anything, but I was less than hesitant to shy away for a scrap when warranted. Well over half way into my rookie year I had yet to “lose” a fight. That is not to say I won every fight either, just that I left each prior tilt feeling at least OK about it. A little cockiness, that was only revealed in hindsight, started to set in. One night up in Rochester, Minnesota I started a fight with the wrong kid and proceeded to get pumped for over a minute straight. I was, at the time, too cocky and proud to go down and end the fight so I stood there taking a beating convinced I could come back and get the best of him. Standing outside after the game with some buddies, my face throbbing in pain, in subzero temperatures, waiting for the bus to be fully loaded, I was dished a healthy dose of humility. This was not the first time and it would not be the last, it was merely an extremely memorable occasion for obvious reasons.

This last weekend, almost a decade after getting speed bagged, I suffered another proverbial ass kicking. Although this time around it wasn’t a southpaw opponent, it was at the hands of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT). I wasn’t necessarily cocky heading into the test as I had my reservations, but I really thought that my two months of preparation were enough to reach my goal score. The score doesn’t lie. My preparation wasn’t enough, and it hit me like a punch in the face. I was lambasted with all the standard emotions; disbelief, anger, self doubt, etc. However, when all the dust began to settle I forced myself to look at my GMAT setback like any other.

Getting a healthy dose of humility is never fun, but always necessary. Necessary in that it prevents the inevitable creep of hubris which poisons the human psyche. So what lessons can learned from this punch in the mouth that can be paralleled to future trials and tribulations?

1. A dose of humility is a stake in the ground – these unpleasant events are clear and distinct points in time where character decisions are made. Where do you go from here? Do you let the situation control your decisions moving forward or do you accept reality and continue to persevere towards your goal?

2. Humility serves as a reality barometer – After my emotions settled down I looked at my situation and said ‘it is what it is.’ That statement although simplistic and clichéd serves a purpose. That purpose is to help you get a grasp on reality. Things are never as good as you think they are when you are up and never as bad as you think they are when you are down. Although a dose of humility often puts you in one of the down spells, it has the effect of smacking you back into concert with reality. After you have recovered from the shock of recent events you can use the adversity to gather a firm grasp on where you are at; you can then accurately devise of plan of where you are going.

3. When you get punched in the mouth punch back – With the GMAT, I could take my score and move on. I could go do something else or alter my goals so that they are achievable without doing anything else, but I won’t. I want to take another run at it. I want to do as well I know I can do. I want reach my original goal. With the GMAT or anything else, sometimes you just have to use some old fashioned perseverance. I see this partial failure as just a step in process of success. There is no guarantee I won’t do worse on the next try, but at least I will know that I took another swing. Like a fight in hockey, it isn't really that important whether you "win or lose" but that you showed up in the first place!

9 Things I Learned in ’09 Part II

In the spirit of the first holidays for BadskiBlog I thought I would keep with one of the major themes of the blog and write about some things I learned during my first year of blogging.

5. People Are Inherently Good – My experience with the formation of Checking For Charity, shared experiences with fellow Air Force people going through adversity, and playing/being around hockey people have reaffirmed my belief that mankind is inherently good. There are always some bad apples that take up a disproportionate amount of the headlines out there but in general there are people everywhere lining up to contribute positively to this earth. I think as long as I surround myself with good people, do in my heart what I know is right, and try to improve I will be alright no matter where life leads me.

6. Too Many Opportunities Can Be Paralyzing – Many of my biggest worries and struggles in the past year have been the paralyzing effects of too many opportunities. I am healthy, educated, pretty motivated and excited for what the future brings but there is a problem….I don’t know what I want to do! There are plenty of things I could see myself doing but I just don’t know where to start. I discussed this in my blog post entitled desire spiral earlier in the year. My antidote for such feelings is focusing on achieving happiness NOW! It is important to look forward to making your next day better than the last but who knows whether we will even see tomorrow. Keep that future state in your minds eye but ensure that you are happy today. Content but never satisfied.

7. The Road To Wealth For Many Should Be Boring – People who strike it rich overnight are the exception. For the majority of people wealth should start with the Badskiblog definition of rich and continue down a long, boring, steady road to wealth. Keep more than you spend, develop good habits, think long term, and maintain life balance! In our world of short attention spans it is important to remember there are no shortcuts or it would simply be the way. Take the long term boring approach. It is much more reliable and much less stressful than the alternatives.

8. Happiness Is The Ultimate Goal – I have talked about the quest for happiness in almost every one of these nine musings and it is a constant theme amongst all BadskiBlog posts. Ayn Rand said in her masterpiece Atlas Shrugged "Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values." Rand believed, as I do, that the pursuit of happiness is the highest virtue man. If you are always looking ahead to attain happiness you are wrong. Happiness starts now and should be a constant stream of your memories past, a focus of your present, and a goal of your future. If it is not then you know it is time for some form of change in your life.

9. Family Friends and Familiarization – Going with the theme of happiness as the ultimate goal, I have reaffirmed what I believed well before 2009. The best ways for me to achieve happiness are family, friends and familiarization. The first two are fairly straightforward and have been a mainstay in my happiness fix for quite some time. The last reference refers to self awareness and development. Through experiences, learning, growing we gradually come to know the person we spend the most time with….ourselves.

Hopefully my posts weren't too cheese ball and cliched in the reflection of the last year. Although it is difficult to try and encapsulate all you have learned in the past year within a few bullets, I think it is a valuable form of reflection that I will likely carry on in future years of BadskiBlog. What did you learn this year?

9 Things I Learned in ’09 Part I

In the spirit of the holidays I thought I would keep with one of the major themes of BadskiBlog and write about some things I learned in 2009, my first year of blogging.

1. The Importance Of Balance - As I get older I find I struggle more and more with balance and that balance has a greater impact on my overall happiness. I think as a kid you go with the flow and you obviously have much fewer responsibilities competing for your time and effort. You mostly just do what you enjoy doing and let your parents take care of the rest. In an effort to continue to do what I enjoy doing along with all the other things that come with growing up I often find myself either trying to cram too many things into my life or focusing too intently on some things while neglecting others. Not only do these strategies not work, they can be extremely stressful and unproductive. I have and will continue to focus on maintaining balance in my life while ensuring that no one thing overshadows the big picture which is to love the life I lead.

2. Consistency Is Hard – Desire to succeed is not enough. I have learned that it takes consistent behaviors to achieve one's goals. As I become more self aware I have noticed that it is typically not large decisions that negatively impact my life but a series of small instances where I have strayed from the pursuit of excellence and next thing you know I am in a rut. When I was in school at the Air Force Academy we went through survival training out in the woods. We had to do night navigations with only a compass. Our group got extremely lost in the woods. It wasn't that we took a wrong heading or were walking in circles for hours. We we just walking in the direction of our heading and not picking short points of reference to walk to before reconfiguring ourselves on the proper heading. Those slight errors over time led us way off course. I think of that hopeless feeling I had stuck in the middle of the woods wondering how I got so lost and relate it to how we as individuals often get off track in our lives. Beware of the slow erosion of what you are all about and strive for consistent excellence.

3. Adversity Often Provides Clarity – I have gone through a lot of change in the last year. New jobs, new places to live, new ventures, etc all that have brought new challenges. No one particularly enjoys going through tough times and I am no exception. However, as the saying goes you wouldn’t be able to tell the good days without the bad. Perhaps the greatest adversity I am going to face will take place in 2010 in the form of a six month deployment. It is a very scary and challenging thing to think that you will be disconnected from the familiar and comfortable life you have built for six months. I have struggled with the realization that my turn is coming for much of this year. However even though I am dreading being away from family and friends for that long I am confident and maybe even looking forward to the life clarity that my deployment will surely bring.

4. The More I Learn The Less I Really Know – One of the main reasons I took up blogging was the forcing mechanism it provides to justify and think through what you truly believe. You can’t just throw out the first thing you think of because when you do it is staring right back at you and anyone else who wishes to read it. There is something very enlightening about looking at your own words. There are many times where I will read something I wrote and begin to think of exceptions or scenarios to the point I was trying to make. As I have progressed through this my first year blogging I have tackled a lot of different topics and have learned a lot. I have read a lot of books in the past year and have made a conscious effort to be more aware of world happenings. My increased effort to learn has taught me one of the oldest clichés in the book, "the more you learn the less you know." It’s a cliché for a reason! Because it is so true. Its like climbing a flight of stairs. At the bottom you can only see the few stairs ahead of you. However, with each step another step is revealed to you, things you wouldn't have known had you not taking that previous step. I feel the same with my own quest for knowledge and growth. There is just so much out there. When I try to make huge strides in knowledge and growth I get frustrated. As long as I keep in perspective that I am better than I was before, I can handle the reality that no matter how much I learn there is so much more out there that I don't know.

To be continued…..

Lightning Bolt Inspiration vs. Persistent Practice & Preparation

Does innovation have to be a lightning bolt of inspiration or can it, like any other skill, be fashioned from practice, preparation, and a consistent process? Arguments can be found leaning both ways. You can read about the belief that there are those with a born "entrepreneurial spirit" or study those who claim you can condition your "ability to innovate" almost like a muscle. CNN in the Executive Education section of their website recently posted an article on this very argument. You can read the full transcript here. The article claims that researchers have discovered "the five secrets of innovation."

Coming up with brilliant, game-changing ideas is what makes the likes of Apple's Steve Jobs so successful, and now researchers say they have identified the five secrets to being a great innovator.

Professors from Harvard Business School, Insead and Brigham Young University have just completed a six-year study of more than 3,000 executives and 500 innovative entrepreneurs, that included interviews with high-profile entrepreneurs including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Michael Dell, founder of Dell computers.

In an article published in December's Harvard Business Review the researchers identified five skills that separate the blue-sky innovators from the rest -- skills they labeled associating, questioning, observing, experimenting and discovering.

FIVE KEYS TO INNOVATION
Researchers say they have identified five skills that drive innovation:

Associating: The ability to connect seemingly unrelated questions, problems or ideas from different fields.

Questioning: Innovators constantly ask questions that challenge the common wisdom. They ask "why?", "why not?" and "what if?"

Observing: Discovery-driven executives scrutinize common phenomena, particularly the behavior of potential customers.

Experimenting: Innovative entrepreneurs actively try out new ideas by creating prototypes and launching pilots.

Obviously these researchers side more towards the ability to innovate being a learned trait. I would have to agree that the ability to innovate like any other skill can be learned through hard work, practice, and dedication. However, I also acknowledge the fact some people hit the genetic lottery while others are well....not so fortunate. I think that like most things even an absent disposition can be overcome if the desire is there. I think more and more business minds are starting to lean in the direction of this line of thinking. I am currently reading Innovation and Entrepreneurship by business hall of famer Peter Drucker in which the entire premise of the book is calculated implementation of innovation and entrepreneurship. I will go into more detail of my thoughts on the book after its completion, but the one thing that really stands out is Drucker's ability to use actual stories and examples to illustrate his views and principles. Badskiblog readers are also familiar with another book I read recently by Twyla Tharp called the Creative Habit, which held a very similar view on creativity although presented in a very different manner than Drucker.

One of the men behind the study, Insead's Hal Gregersen, told CNN, "What the innovators have in common is that they can put together ideas and information in unique combinations that nobody else has quite put together before."

The researchers describe this ability to connect ideas as "associating," and say it's key to innovators' ability to think outside the box. But they add that the secret to how the great innovators think is the way they act.

"The way they act is to observe actively, like an anthropologist, and they talk to incredibly diverse people with different world views, who can challenge their assumptions," Gregersen told CNN.

Because the ability to think differently comes from acting differently, Gregersen says anyone can become a better innovator, just by acting like one.

"Studies have shown that creativity is close to 80 percent learned and acquired," he told CNN. "We found that it's like exercising your muscles -- if you engage in the actions you build the skills."

I love the way they describe what true innovators do...they recognize unique patterns that others don't see. I like that describe them as anthropologist-esque. Entrepreneurs seek to satisfy wants or create wants that consumers didn't know they had. Innovators ability to satisfy wants typically rests firmly upon their ability to recognize patterns amongst the most complex study known to man; the study of man. It is a very insightful and great way to look at what entrepreneurs actually do. What are you doing to hone your innovation acumen?

Learning is a Journey Not a Destination

“Experience is the best teacher, but a fool will learn from no other.” - Benjamin Franklin (American Statesman, Scientist, Philosopher, Printer, Writer and Inventor. 1706-1790)

Here is an awesome post from a new blog I have been reading lately called Six Pixels of Separation. The post is on the importance of learning from everything! I think it ties in nicely with the BadskiBlog theme of a fairly average cranium looking to expand. I know that my blogs I follow list is getting fairly ridiculous but there is a lot of good stuff out there and I have to show the love. Here are some excerpts of the quality advice from the post above.

Last week, there was a Blog post here titled, 10 New Business Books Worth Checking Out. As I was sorting through which books to list, it was interesting to read the reviews surrounding these titles (both on the book retail websites and on Blogs, Twitter feeds, etc...). You could tell which reviewers were regular people (the silent majority, the mass population, etc...) and which were the ones who were neck-deep into New Media (those with their own Blogs, thousands of followers on Twitter, etc...). It should come as no shock, that when it comes to Bloggers we like to eat our own. We're quick to judge, comment and attack, but in seeing countless semi-nice reviews with lines like, "there is nothing new in this book" or "I didn't really learn anything I didn't already know," it wound up becoming somewhat comical.

The real experts, the ones who really are superstars don't do this.

After spending countless years in the music industry, it was plain as day who would be a successful artist/musician and who would disappear quickly into obscurity. The real geniuses, the real experts and the real artists were the ones who knew this one golden rule: you can learn something new from anyone at any time. The trick is in leaving yourself open to this experience. The trick is in always being a student.

30 Under 30 America's Coolest Young Entrepreneurs

Recession? What recession? You'd think the events of the past year would have curbed Generation Y's enthusiasm for the always-uncertain entrepreneurial life, but you'd never know it by looking at this year's 30 Under 30 list. It's a dynamic group of self-starters that has managed to raise money, launch new products, build new technologies, and tap into underserved markets. And they've done it with relentless enthusiasm and resiliency.

Inc. Magazine has released its 30 under 30 America's Coolest Entrepreneurs and I have brought it to you right here at BadskiBlog. Some of these business models are pretty cool, some underwhelm me; it looks like ALL are successful. Inc. Magazine does the 30 under 30 America’s Coolest Entrepreneurs every year and regardless of whether or not you agree with all their picks there are some valuable lessons to be learned. One of the things I liked this year was the emphasis on teamwork and partnering. Coming up a hockey guy I love the team environment. In fact the older I get it seems the more paralyzed I am by working alone. I just don’t see the value in working alone. It’s not realistic and more importantly it's not fun. I don’t feel any shame in reaching out for help and some of my finest life achievements come from standing on the backs of my teammates.

Every year, our 30 Under 30 list is populated by a number of companies that were started by partners. But this year, more than two-thirds of the entrepreneurs we feature launched their ventures with one or more co-founders. Curiously, I came up with almost the same number when I surveyed the people I interviewed for my new book, Upstarts! How GenY Entrepreneurs Are Rocking the World of Business. Sixty-four percent had started their companies with partners. So what's going on here?

Generation Y seems to thrive on teamwork and to crave social interaction, so it's no wonder that solo founders are less common than partnerships. But it's not just that these young entrepreneurs want company -- many seem to know what they don't know and are not a bit afraid to acknowledge the gaps in their skill sets. And if those gaps can be filled by a childhood friend, a classmate, or a spouse, so much the better.

Here is a slideshow detailing all the business models for these young entrepreneurs. I love looking at profiles like this because it helps me to see patterns in how successful entrepreneurs built their visions. Even if I would never create a new vintage clothing line or a bottle cap accessory business, I can still learn from their business model and experiences. I am huge fan of IdeaPaint. What a great business model. Simple yet worth talking about. I think the possibilities for markets are virtually endless as well. I can see everyone from coaches to music producers using this simple yet innovative product. Their website is amazing as well. They present their product in a manner that would make Steve Jobs or Garr Reynolds proud.

Another cool slideshow feature Inc. did this year was provide advice from the young entrepreneurs. BadskiBlog readers know my love for quotes and my propensity to latch on to any snippet of advice. So this section was great for me. Although the advice is fairly generic, it is like anything else in the sense that the masters of any skill or profession never take the basics for granted. Quotes are typically targeting the fundamentals of life, or lessons that a broad audience can and should learn from. Generic or not I like reading these types of quotes.

Stick With It

"Start-ups don't die, they commit suicide. In other words, 90 percent of start-ups fail because the founders get bored, discouraged, or something else, and they move on to other things, not because of some catastrophe. No matter how dark it is today, things will always better tomorrow."

-- Justin Kan, Justin.TV

Twitter For Entrepreneurs

I have been using Twitter for a few months and since I have started I have run into so many people who are talking about it and then they ask the same question. They always ask "what is the point of Twitter? I don't get it." Then I jump in like a huge computer nerd and try to explain what I think its all about, and from there its almost a perfect split. People either get it and think its brilliant or they still think its stupid. I don't think Twitter is about tweeting (140 character micro blog posts). I think Twitter capitalizes and makes visual our natural tendency as humans to group with other like-minded people. However, Twitter enhances this by allowing people who have never and would never have met to become linked. By allowing you to see who someone is following and all the people who are following them you can see how the cliche'd six degrees of separation begins to manifest itself online through this amazing social networking vehicle.

Well if you are searching for like minded people or mentors that are entrepreneurs then I have found the list for you. I found this slide show on BusinessWeek the other day that lists the top 20 entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. You can check it out here. I followed the majority of these folks tonight and already have had more than a few followers pick me up. Could be some potential BadskiBlog readers, could be bloggers that I want to read, could be future Checking For Charity donors, could be future employers, could be potential business partners. Who knows. Worst case is I will be exposed to some new information to digest via the web. Below is a sample of the kinds of people on the top 20 list.

BadskiBlog Officially Moves To Beantown!

That's right. Heidi, Otis and I have arrived in Boston and are currently living in an extended stay hotel until we can move into our new place. Things have been in whirlwind mode the last few weeks and the last few days have been absolutely crazy, but we have finally arrived. We will definitely miss the dirty Jerz but are excited to settle in here in Boston for the next couple years. I apologize for the lack of posts but between the move and becoming a landlord it has been really tough to carve out some time to blog.

One quick thought though. Showing up to work today and moving up here really put into perspective how much we take for granted on a day to day basis and how much of what we do is formed around habit. When you move, everything is a struggle. Whether it is finding your new office or finding gas, everything is unfamiliar and takes a concerted effort. I have been feeling that way with my rental property for the last month or two and although it is challenging and uncomfortable it is a great learning opportunity nonetheless. Shoot me an email or give me a call if you are in Boston.

Geitner Can't Sell His House...But Should He?

Check out this article on ABCNews about Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and his inability to sell his home. Most people probably just read this article and try to make some joke about how Tim Geithner is running our nations treasury but he can't even sell his home. But I think by doing that a lot of people miss a valuable lesson in home buying.

After leaving the tony New York City suburb of Mamaroneck to take his new post in Washington, D.C., Geithner put his five-bedroom Tudor home on the market for $1.635 million.

That was in February. By May, he cut the price $60,000 but still got no takers. A few weeks later, May 21, the home in New York's Westchester County was reportedly rented for $7,500 a month.

"Mr. Geithner's house is a textbook example of what is happening in the market here," said Leah Caro, president of Bronxville-Ley Real Estate and president of the Westchester Board of Realtors. "Many sellers are bringing their houses on [the market], finding that they don't have a buyer for it, making price adjustments in hope of luring a buyer into the marketplace. In the case of Mr. Geithner, he had to move. And renting was his best option."

That valuable lesson is that when it comes to real estate it is a lot easier to make a poor market decision than a poor overall decision. I love real estate and the benefits it has to offer, even in times like these. In fact I am in a very similar situation to Mr. Geithner. I just found some tenants for my condo, as I will be moving to Boston come this weekend. There are many people who would have sold and either taken a huge loss on the sale price or tried to command more than the market is willing to pay and would have lost money with the property sitting vacant. Geithner and I decided that renting was the best option for us. He likely paid someone to take care of it for him. I on the other hand have been working my ass off alongside my partner in crime to get my place rented out for the last two months (read here). People ask me if I regret buying and I have to say I really don't Yeah the last two months have been a stressful hell, but the learning experience has been priceless. I must say as I sit here on my air mattress in the living room with my computer set up on a makeshift desk of boxes, touch up paint still drying on the wall, I am extremely fulfilled with what Heidi and I have accomplished. I am not naive enough to think that everyone should own property and everyone should be a do it yourself landlord: to each his own. But for me it was a great decision, even with my Timothy Geithner like situation. More to come on my landlording lessons learned soon. I really liked the following passage because I think it illustrates the inherent flaw in peoples hindsight way of thinking.

"I don't think anybody is in a position to say that he overpaid, or anybody overpaid, when he bought his house because market value is market value," Stiefvater said. "Back in the those days, everybody was overbidding -- I'm not saying overpaying, but overbidding -- and getting into bidding wars and multiple offers escalated the sale prices to what I think was higher than market value."

At the time everyone makes the decision that they think is the best decision. If you get down the road a bit further and it turns out you were 'wrong' then just change your way of thinking now and adapt and overcome. If that means taking a loss on rent while the market recovers so be it. You are still getting a write off, depreciation expenses, someone else paying your mortgage and building your equity. Not to mention priceless experience. More to come on my landlording journey...I promise.

Leadership Opportunity Cost

The older I get the more I look for examples of leadership. In the majority of my posts on this blog there is a recurring theme of continuous learning no matter what the situation. Being a self proclaimed optimist I do my best to practice what I preach and learn even in difficult situations. I get emotional like anyone else but in the long run I tend to look back on difficult situations and realize that I learned as much if not more than I would had things gone smoothly. Check out my buddy’s guest post here for a more in depth explanation of this concept.

I was pumping a little iron in the good ol’ gym today listening to some thrash when I started to challenge this concept in a specific area. That area is leadership. Throughout my life I have been involved in sports, the military, business, etc. All of these fields provide a plethora of examples of leaders. Like anything else there are good leaders and bad leaders. I have always heeded the advice to learn from leaders both good and bad. From the good you learn what to emulate, from the bad you learn what not to do. Both are valuable, I do not doubt that. However, today when I was working out thinking about the ever present examples of poor leadership I started wondering if the two are equally valuable.

Am I, by being exposed more often than not to poor leadership, at a disadvantage in comparison to someone who is constantly surrounded by great leaders? Is there an opportunity cost to learning from piss poor leaders that outweighs the “what to avoid” knowledge and experience gained from being in their presence?

Rhetorical? Yes. Important to explore for yours and my personal development? Most definitely. Hockey is a small world. If the world we live in has people separated by six degrees of separation, then the hockey world is more in line with two degrees of separation. There aren’t too many names that come up that you haven’t played with or against or names that aren’t tied to someone that you have played with or against. In this small environment you get to notice trends amongst players, especially the ones above you on the hockey totem pole. I have noticed more often than not that the best players, the winners, grew up playing on winning teams. That is not to say that there aren’t diamonds in the rough because there are. I just think that the diamonds are more memorable and interesting than the winner who has been a winner on every team they have ever played on. What does this have to do with our discussion above? Well I think it has a lot to do with it. As I have said before, I believe sports parallel life. I don’t think it is a coincidence that a lot of winners stay winners.

Not only do I want to surround myself with great leaders because it provides a more enjoyable day to day experience. I want to surround myself with great examples so I can become a lifelong winner. Surround yourself with losers long enough and it is only a matter of time before you look in the mirror and are surprised by what you see. Life is really too short for that.
I am going to continue my lifelong commitment to learning from every scenario good and bad, but in environments where bad chi reigns I hope I am enlightened enough to know when to move on to a culture of success and righteousness.

Personal MBA Update

The Personal MBA reading list has been updated for 2009. Luckily the books I have ordered/read are still on the list. If you haven't gone and read the manifesto and checked out the reading list you can find it here.

I just finished my second book from the list, well actually it was an audio book. The audio book is titled "The Art of Exceptional Living" by Jim Rohn. The first thing that struck me about the audio book was how short it was. The thing only had two discs which is quite short compared to most audio books I have listened to. The second thing that I noticed was how ridiculous Jim Rohn's voice was! Wow! This guy sounds like a combination of Dana Carvey's George Bush "Read My Lips" impersonation and the Church Lady. I must say that voice aside he was a pretty good speaker. The disc was a combination of live lectures and studio recorded lessons. For how short the recording was, it was packed with lessons, quotes, and little tidbits of information that are pretty powerful. I know it's probably not the safest thing in the world, but I was jotting down notes at stoplights and while I was cruising down the highway just to capture important concepts and quotes. That was pretty much the only downfall of the audio book is that it put a damper on my new note taking strategy. All in all I think the book was good with some great points and an even better message. If I had to summarize the message it would be: develop your personal philosophy, don't change circumstances change yourself, take responsibility for everything, read and learn constantly. I have included the key points I could decipher from my chicken scratch while driving notes below.

- Philosophy is the key to success - Your personal philosophy is everything

- People complain about their circumstances. Don't bash the stuff you have because it is all you got. It is how you react that matters

-Study what you want- money, happiness, etc.

- "Leaders are readers!" The one constant among all successful people is that they read!

- "What you have at the moment, you've attracted by the person you have become"

- Do something different with your same circumstances

- You can only change the outside by changing what is on the inside

- Self improvement typically starts with money because it is the most measurable and tangible. People start with money because you can count it!

- Become more valuable as a person. If you make $5 per hour that is what you are worth to the marketplace. Disney CEO makes $52M per year because he is more valuable

- "Work harder on yourself than you do on your job"

- Life and business are like the seasons and you can't change the seasons so change yourself
1. Learn to handle the winters. There are always down times and down markets.
2. Take advantage of spring opportunities. These are the times after the winters
3. Nourish and protect in summer. All good gets attacked and all values must be defended
4. Reap in fall with out complaint. Accept responsibility when bad and don't feel guilty when you succeed.

- Five Principles
1. Ability to absorb - welcome to the university of life, soak it in
2. Ability to respond - know how to feel
3. Ability to reflect - reflect on days, months, years
4. Ability to act - know the law of diminishing intent. Act now but not irrationally
5. Ability to share - by sharing you gain more than you give. If you tell to 10 people they hear it once and you hear it 10 times

- Most people say take care of other people or do things for other people. He says "I will work on/take care of me FOR you" This is similar to Ayn Rand's theory that the rational pursuit of one's own self interest is the highest virtue

- Only 3% of the population has a library card. A library card is all it takes to begin to better yourself. Be the minority join the 3%!

- The best you can do is not all you can do. It's not enough. If you do 5 push ups and say I did my best that's all I can do is that really true? No. If you wait a minute you can do 5 more. And in a few days you can do 10. Eventually you can do 50. Doing your best over time will yield results and begin your personal development.

I realize that some of my notes probably don't seem very insightful. In fact some might seem just downright dumb. However, they are key concepts that I absorbed by actually listening to the audio book. Don't be tempted to try and pick the key concepts out of someone else's notes or a summary of the book. Experience the books for yourself and start your own learning journey whether it is with the Personal MBA or your own program.