I (agoge) purchased 2 second hand imate k-jam phones off trademe this week.
V cool and now I can blog direct from my cellphone.
Don't get too excited not sure if it will lead to more frequent posts …
Author: Andrew (Page 34 of 43)
I read listen to this on a Brian Tracy CD yesterday about being productive.
We live in a knowledge based, information based society.
Successful people are simply those who know more than their competitors. One of your most important responsibilities is keeping up to date with your chosen field and staying ahead of the pack, by continually taking in more information.
The amount of knowledge in every field is at least doubling every 7 years. That means you must double your knowledge every 7 years just to stay ahead.
The basic rule is; to earn more you must learn more. Or to put it another way; you are earning all that you possibly can today with what you now know.
You need to become an information gathering person to achieve and maintain excellence. If you want to be the best you must pay the price in terms of reading, listening, learning and growing.
You have gone as far as you can with what you now know. If you want to go further than you are now, you can only do it by taking in and applying new information.
He goes on to say that everyone who wants to get ahead should read for at least an hour a day. If you do this he suggests you will be regarded as a national authority in your field within 5 years.
In terms of the quote above. I think that there is portability to every role. Imagine if you wanted to be a leading sales person, what would happen if you studied that field for an hour a day. Just by the mere fact you are learning new things and continually challenging yourself you must improve!
What if you want to be an awesome mum and studied that topic for an hour a day. What about a leader or a pastor or an accountant?
The hard part. Resolving to do it!
The sun was persistently making its way towards setting, casting long shadows that ducked and dived over lush green rolling hills that were intermingled with native bush. No artwork or picture can capture such beauty.
Just 30 minutes later, the sun had set and its intensity was made known by illuminating some high streaky strata cloud with beautiful reddish orangey bands of light. The cloud twisted and turned just a little to create an incredible image that only a few privileged people would enjoy that day. In minutes they would be gone and never reappear.
These images made me thankful for my life.
They were an incredible birthday present!
Imagine living in Iraq at the moment. Imagine going to the markets and always having to scan the people around you, always wondering if that guy is the next suicide bomber.
Think for a moment about the shock and outrage as news filters around the city of another 200 people being killed in your city that day.
500 people in your country this week!
Over 62000 people since America arrived!
You have already had more than a few of your friends and family die or been injured.
‘We are ‘fighting terrorism’ in Iraq, that is why we are there, said Tony Blair this week. This story has changed so many times: first we were removing the WMD threat, then we were removing a dictator, then we were bringing democracy and free elections, and now we are fighting terrorism. ‘It is a worthy cause,’ echoed Dick Cheney.’ ^
How would you feel about Tony Blair “fighting terrorism’ for you?
How would you feel if you found out that the media in a small country in New Zealand found the ruthless, unnecessary and sad death of 33 Americans 4 days ago more important that 200 people in your city today? The 200 people dieing was the third news story in and only made it to that slot because it was one of the bloodiest days in months.
What the media reports is in direct response to what we want to see. We want to know about the US shootings, just as people would if it happened here. ‘The shootings happened in a free country’ we resonate, ‘What happens in Iraq is sad, but that’s what happens in the Middle East.’
How would you feel if you lived in Iraq?
Did you choose to get born in Iraq?
Did you choose to have America invade?
Did you choose to have an ill-equipped police force and poor intelligence that cant stop the bombings?
Wouldn’t you long for the freedom and the life you once knew?
How would you feel?
Implication: It blows my mind how insensitive we have become to real issues in the world. It appals me. But I don’t know what I can do about it.
Since its Easter I thought I would share two notions that have spun around in my mind over the last week.
Awe…
I love going for a ralk (part run, mostly walk) by the river. I love the fresh air, the smell from the wet autumn leaves and the sunshine that breaks through the natural canopy. I’m amused at the way the ducks quack, in a way that it sounds like Donald Duck laughing, particularly when I start running.
I enjoy solitary ralks and ralks with friends. At some point, I am almost always filled with awe for the creation I am witnessing. I am reminded that it is too big and beautiful to be an accident. I contemplate how God made the beauty and the smells and the sights. It prompts me to remember that the earth doesn’t revolve around me, It doesn’t exist for me.
I got an email the other day that simply said “thanks for ….”. The awesome thing about the email is that it was from a person I didn’t expect thanks from. It made me smile because I know this person has had a tough life and I see the person changing and growing. Its awesome.
Very awesome!
You know I think awe is a form of worship. Maybe it is worship in its purest sense. Not the stand up and sing songs kind of worship that my friend posted about. You know, where you stand and sing words because that’s what everyone is doing, even though nothing is happening in your heart.
No, awe is a feeling of being alive, of understanding that Gods grace isn’t just shown to the people in the church, but to everyone.
Through many things.
Everyday.
I would rather be filled with awe through seeing a person learning or through creation any day, compared to orchestrating awe or worship at a church service.
His Grace is shown to us everyday.
I think the problem is we are just to busy, mostly with dumb stuff, to notice!
Jesus as a kid…
Now, if you had grown up with Jesus, as a boy that is, wouldn’t you have noticed something different about him? Wouldn’t you have seen something different in his life for 30 odd years and thought, wow, this guy is the Messiah!
Well his friends and family and fellow villagers didn’t. He came into his hometown and started preaching one day and they said “what is he talking about, isn’t this Mary’s son, the brother of James, a carpenter”. Their attack was relentless.
How does that work? Why didn’t they see him for who he was? I guess it is because Jesus was real. The gospels show Jesus to be a man who was often annoyed and frustrated, sometimes scared, sad on occasion, and even angry.
Why is it then that Christians think they need to be perfect and ‘holier than thou’. Why do so many Christians lack authenticity? Why of all people do they have to pretend like everything is OK? If Jesus friends and family struggled to see the real him because they knew him, why do Christians pretend to be other than the real them?
Two thoughts. Evocative; hopefully. Heresy; maybe!
Bessemer Venture Partners is perhaps one of America's oldest venture capital firm, carrying on an unbroken practice of venture capital investing that stretches back to 1911.
They have a "Anti-Portfolio" section on their website discussing some of the names they have passed on in the Venture Capital stage. Just small names like Apple, eBay, Fedex, Google to name a few.
Check it out here, its mind blowing to think about how much money they missed out on.
[Hat tip: Idealog]
Come to the edge. We might fall.
Come to the edge. It's too high!
Come to the edge! And they came,
and he pushed …… and they flew. – Christopher Logue
I have just finished my sixth book for the year, Seth Godins "Free Prize Inside" (and it actually has one). It is a book that challenges business to go to the edges and beyond.
The key implication for me: Ideas are worthless if no one owns them and makes them happen.
To read the full review and get your free prize click here. If you post a comment on viewpoint.net.nz, I'll email you a free prize.
Mainfreight today announced that they have conditionally sold Pan Orient Project Logistics business and its 75% interest in LEP (New Zealand and Australia) to global logistics company Agility Group for A$83 million. It is the last of the non core Owens businesses to be sold. The funds released from the sale will be used by Mainfreight to fund its ongoing international expansion.
With Mainfreight, Freightways and others slowly establishing significant off shore businesses I wonder what a successful strategy would be for more NZ companies to do the same?
The road to overseas subsidiaries it would seem is littered with more stories of failure than success. Air NZ and Ansett, Telecom and AAPT (yet to see the end of this movie) are examples of huge companies struggling to make it happen. How then is it possible for a NZ company to stem the tide of Aussie investment and head into their backyard? What are the key points to consider?
#1 It is harder than you think.
Summed up well by Josef Roberts who launched Red Bull in the two countries. "Don't rush overseas. Australia might have five times the population, but it also has five times the competition, and Kiwis aren't used to dealing with Australian bureaucracy. Roberts worked out a worst-case scenario, and then doubled the cost and doubled the time. "We were about right," he says. "It took three times as long and was three times as expensive." [From Idealog "Meet the man who gave Red Bull wings"]
#2 You need to avoid the Valley of Death
Rod Drury wrote about the Valley of Death "From New Zealand, once you have saturated the local market, you then have a massive transformational change to address another market. You may need to introduce capital, add new staff, learn foreign rules – the list goes on. For us to take almost our first step of expansion, to enter only our second market – we bet our businesses. I'm calling this – the Valley of Death."
#3 You need to take your time.
This would be the key lesson I have gleamed from companies like Mainfreight, Freightways or even Michael Hill who have set-up in Australia. They seem to make slow educated decisions about their growth into other countries. They take the time to understand the markets, people, culture and regulations and they take small incremental steps. They have done this well and don't bet the NZ business on it.
I don't have much first hand experience. Hopefully one day I will, but in the meantime I am interested in your thoughts.
One of my friend's parents could not get home the other day because of the flooding in the Far North and for some reason I had this urge to fly over the region and see it first hand. I love floods, they amaze me! If only I had my pilots licence and fine weather and spare time I am sure I would have done it – Yeah Right.
It is funny how we are often drawn to want to see natural disasters. I guess floods blow my mind for the same reasons that we are drawn to sit by rivers, stand on a wind blown rocks gazing out into the pacific ocean, look in marvel at the full moon or to sit on mountain tops and soak in the view.
I think in all of us, seeing the disaster or the view or feeling the wind reminds us that there is a force in the universe greater than us. That there are beautiful and awe-inspiring things in our life everyday that we take for granted.
For me it makes me feel human and reminds me, yet again, I don't spend enough time soaking in creation.
'Old marketing is dead
10 years ago we were able to advertise a position in a paper and know that people looking for a job would see it. Nowadays you need to advertise in many papers and on multiple websites and you are still not guaranteed a good response.
It used to be that you could build a product and market it really well and people would naturally use your service. Nowadays we are all bombarded with advertising and media and information. We as consumers often ignore these messages. When was the last time you made that call after hearing an ad? It is almost impossible to make an impression and a thousand fold more difficult to actually get them to pick-up the phone.
New marketing is everything we do
Brand is no longer about just having a great logo and good advertising. Brand is now driven by everything the company does. Every time we answer the phone or deliver a sales proposal or email a client or they use online, we build our brand. The aim of new marketing is to get talked about, in a positive way of course, because of how ingenious we are!
To have a strong brand you now have to have a service that is so ingenious, so smart and edgy and stunning that it gets talked about. Think about Google. How many of you started using Google because you saw their ad. None, they didn't advertise. You heard about it, tried it, liked it, kept using it and if you're an early adopter like me, probably told others about it.' – quote from my eBook called 'Being INGENIOUS @ agoge'
All this means that the old way of attracting candidates or getting customers works less and less. It will get harder and harder get peoples attention. Your only chance is to focus on providing a stunning service or being an incredible employer, so that you get talked about.
Finally, fyi, we measure most of our advertsing, we change ads and try new and creative things. When you measure advertising, the results generally dont make good reading, it forces you to think outside the square. You should try it!