Favorite Thoughts

On Getting Ahead

• The one sure way to get ahead is to seek out and take care of other people´s needs.
• It should be a goal to leave everyone who comes in contact with you better off for having had that contact with you.
• The way to get other people to do what you want is to use the dynamite tool of TNT:
  • Trustworthiness is established
  • Needs of others are identified
  • Triumph is achieved with a solution to their needs
• The keys to success are to have several passions, develop areas of interest that you know more about than others, and use TNT.
• If when you meet someone, you use their name and focus on them with intensity for 60 seconds, they will remember you for years.
• If you want positive results, start all written communications with the word “you”.  That’s what the recipient is most interested in.

On Management

• An employer´s highest obligation is to provide meaningful, rewarding work in an atmosphere of civility and respect.
• Responsible leaders are careful with their power.
• If you want to test someone´s character don´t give them adversity, give them power. That is the true test of character.
• Unless you´ve solicited and received "creative disagreement", you probably don´t understand all sides of the issue and are not ready to make a decision.
• Good crew coordination means challenging the captain when they are about to make a mistake.  A good captain is thankful for the challenge.
• Experts make as many errors as novices—they have just become better at catching and correcting them.
• Sometimes the riskiest thing to do is not to take a risk.
• Failure is wasted if you don´t take responsibility for it.

On Managing Yourself

• Doing things that matter to lots of people means that there will be many opinions of you—some will be unfavorable no matter how good a job you do.
• You can’t control all the things that happen to you, but you can control how you respond to them
• Anger is a totally counter-productive and destructive emotion.  Attempting to “get it out of your system” by expressing it only prolongs and heightens the emotion.
• Don’t take insults and indignities personally—it is a reflection on them not on you.
• Verbal attacks are a compliment; no one will bother to disparage someone that doesn’t matter to them.