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"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambition. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."
Mark Twain
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 09:32 AM
In this months Entrepreneur Magazine, Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki share some insights into the entrepreneurial mind.
"Entrepreneurs like to have control, which equals more flexibility, and that hasn’t changed. Very few entrepreneurs would welcome the opportunity to work for someone else even if it meant higher income. Entrepreneurs are motivated by independence as well as challenge, knowing they are ultimately responsible for themselves. Monetary success is certainly helpful, but it often becomes more of a score card than anything else.
It’s about motivation. Successful entrepreneurs will be doing what they love doing, otherwise they wouldn’t be doing it, nor would they be successful. Passion is absolutely necessary for success."
Donald Trump
"The entrepreneurs I talk to are more concerned about their purpose and mission. Making money is just a game to them. People are looking at the meaning of work now. There’s plenty of money."
Robert Kiyosaki
Click here for the full article.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 08:05 PM
Live life now!
"Every man dies. Not every man really lives."
William Wallace from the movie Braveheart
"Learn as if you were going to live forever. Live as if you were going to die tomorrow."
Unknown
Rediscover the child.
Man's maturity: to have regained the seriousness that he had as a child at play.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friendship
"Friends are God's way of taking care of us."
Unknown
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 07:32 PM
"We have this obsession with 'leadership.' Its intention may be to empower people, but it's effect is often to disempower them. By focusing on the single person, even in the context of others, leadership becomes part of the syndrome of individuality that is sweeping the world and undermining organisations in particular and communities in general."
Professor Mintzberg in the Financial Times
Interesting contribution.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 10:22 AM
Do you know when to leave in a sales situation?
Do you know that leaving may oftentimes be the best approach to making the sale?
Find out more on our latest podcast.
As always, enjoy and share.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 03:06 PM
Visitors to this site will know that I don't in the main post endorsements from people who have attended my courses in this section. However there is always a first and the following story gives a fantastic insight into the wisdom of daring to dream. I interject only to highlight the learning points:
Just a note to say thanks....got to see you, I think it was last year when
you done a workshop for Enterprise Ireland.
I attended with my sister Caroline....which was great because every now and
again, if things are not going so well we remind each other of your
inspirational talk.
My wife Zane and I at the time were putting together plans for our house, a
Log cabin from Zane's home town in Latvia.
At that time, Zane was working part-time in local garden centre, I was working a few days per week. We had made a decision to be at home for our daughter (now three).
The plan was a bit mad but for us a dream to bring a bit of Latvia to
Ireland and to live in a healthy natural house.
"Choose to go up the mountain with a mountain climber!"
When we aired the idea of the log cabin, many people advised us that we were out of our tree.
"You won't get a mortgage - planning will be difficult - who will insure you."
All this did was make us more focused what we wanted.
I took courses and we visited people who sold log houses.
"Knowledge always gives you enough reasons not to act."
However we still didn't totally commit thinking that logistically this was a challenge, to put it mildly. Getting the house across Europe was one thing but to get it up the narrow boreen to the site, appeared impossible.
It was some time later and an encounter with one of your seminars that I realised that we would never forgive ourselves if we didn't recognise the signs that this was the house that we wanted, and it seemed wanted us!
We set about designing the house ourselves, I done all the drawings (My technical qualifications, an 'F' in the Junior Cert in 1983, and a CAD course over 16 hours in 1999).
Last week we moved into the house.
It was built over six months in Latvia, then arrived in Ireland on July 2nd in three forty foot artics.
The building has since featured on an RTE documentary (Building on the edge) and the Irish Independent .
So many times over the past months I've drawn inspiration from your words,
the pages of "How? When You Don't Know How" and "Life: A Trip Towards Trust"
are well fingered at this stage.
I just realised as we got ready to move in that we were going to be "Living
in a Tree". The journey of designing, building and living in a house like
this makes the journey back to normality all the more difficult!!
All typical notions of career advancement or status attainment are
superseded by the drive to achieve personal fulfilment.
"Teachers open the door but you must enter by yourself."
I now don't feel the need to refer to your publications anymore, I just look
around me and feel the fruits of trusting in myself and I just love the
little surprises that happen,
"Trust with you heart and watch your life become one of magic and adventure."
....like recently getting to sing alongside the Harlem Gospel Choir as an aside was told I couldn't sing in school also!....or meeting wonderful
positive people who just arrive at the door with the solution to a problem
that we haven't been able to answer.
Kevin, keep up the good work and thanks again.
Thank you Bernard for the affirmation and the spell boundng story.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 11:56 AM
"He should sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lives a great street-sweeper who did his job well'."
Martin Luther King Jr
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 08:38 PM
The following six characteristics are based on US research carried out on athletes who made spectacular recoveries from injuries to not alone recover fully, but to move onto even greater athletic achievements.
Motivation both ways
Most people are either motivated away from pain or towards pleasure. The athletes created a compelling vision of both scenarios that spurred them on to great success.
High standards
They had a high inner standard to be in even better shape than before their injuries.
Break down your goals into actionable first steps.
For many people, the thought of walking up the metaphorical mountain is overwhelming. However when they take their first few steps, the impossible becomes possible.
The athletes in this study broke down their big goal down into very small steps. One athlete had to survive before he could stand, stand before he could walk, and walk again before he could run. Of course, Success breeds success.
Looking Ahead and Living Now
A cocktail of focusing on the steps and been inspired by the overall goal was the route to success for the athletes.
Personal involvement
"If its to be, its up to me."
The more athletes actively participated in their own rehabilitation plan, the more they helped themselves, and this, in turn, greatly improved the possibilities of their full recovery.
Self-to-self comparisons
Compare yourself to ...yourself. Though more and more people have decided to take the path to unlimited stress by basing their happiness on their relative position to others, these athletes looked in the mirror.
They made a self-to-self comparison. How far have I come since yesterday, last week, last month was the type of analysis undertaken.
Thanks Con for sharing!
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 10:27 AM
The latest podcast highlights the importance of focusing on the "real stuff" in our lives.
Enjoy and share.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 01:58 PM
"If to hope overmuch, be an error,
It's one which the wise would prefer.
How many a heart has been saddened,
by fears which never occur."
Anonymous
Thanks John!
Good luck to the excellent group of new teachers in West Cork, Ireland, -John, Enda, Eileen, Kathy, Greta and Mary who will be teaching our "Looking Ahead and Living Now" schools programme.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 04:06 PM
"We tend to get what we expect."
Norman Vincent Peale
What do you expect from your staff?
Have you communicated this to them?
Lack of communication is cited in study after study as the cause of many challenges in the workplace.
In your discussions, have you listened and considered their dreams and ambitions before you dared to dream at a corporate level. If the employee's dreams are reflected in the company vision, you are on the way.
Do you expect the best?
This positive energy will help bring out the best in your staff. Unfortunately a lack of belief will create the expected negative circumstances as well.
Expect the best and jumpstart your company's potential.
Posted by Kevin Kelly at 12:59 PM