Last Thursday, I got an email from Pocket, a web/mobile application which allows you to save your personal list of online articles that you want to read at a later date. I use the iOS version of this app a lot. The Pocket email stated that I made it to the top 1% of readers in Pocket for 2013. A breakdown of my stats revealed that I had read 2,441,513 words in Pocket this year so far. I was shocked that I read these many words via my mobile devices in 2013.
“We can’t all be Superman, but we sure as shit can train hard, and with loads of practice, we can be Batman.” Kevin Smith (film director)
I came across this quote in Kevin Smith’s biography, Tough Shit. I was so impressed with it that I stored it away in my 2013 quotations’ file. It is a very simple but insightful quote and though Kevin Smith didn’t expand it in his book; I would like to do that in this post.
Most Pentecostal churches have the tradition of inviting members of the congregation up to the front to share their testimonies. A testimony is a story of trials and triumphs. It is shared to encourage and inspire other members of the congregation going through similar trials. The premise of testimonies is that God is good and He is willing to help those who have faith in Him. Testimonies are usually a few minutes long. It is the testimony narrator’s responsibility to condense his rather long personal narrative into a short, meaningful and inspiring story.
My son loves stories. He is always demanding that we read or tell him a story every night before he goes to bed. We are all storytelling animals. We make sense of the world via stories. Even when we are asleep, our dreams unfold as stories. The world like my son is eager for good stories. This is because stories have the ability not just to entertain but also to transform us.
One of most powerful verses in the Bible can be found in Psalm 90. This Psalm is often referred to as Moses’ prayer. Verse 12 of the Psalm states that “Teach us to make the most of our time so that we may grow in wisdom (NLT)” This verse tackles the issue of the finiteness of life. It recognises the importance of maximising life and the dangers of an unexamined life.
I got the opportunity to do an MBA guest lecture last Saturday. I spoke on “The Power and Limitation of Leadership and Organisational Metaphors”. The students’ feedback was great and I had fun designing and delivering the lecture (slides below). I have been interested in metaphors since the day; I did a module on the topic for my Psychology Masters degree about 10 years ago.
This is a short post with a big theme.
I once read that “the best time to plant an oak tree was 20 years ago and the second best time is today”. The oak planting analogy is an apt one in relation to important projects which you know you ought to be doing but you aren’t doing at the moment.
I conceived this thought experiment a few years old which I remembered today as I pondered what to blog about this week. I call it the ‘Amazon thought experiment’. As an avid book reader, Amazon is my favourite online bookstore. This is because Amazon has more book titles than any bricks and mortar bookshop in the world and it also has the best book deals. Okay, imagine you were given a voucher that allowed you to buy 100 books of your choice on Amazon. What would you buy?
I read a Harvard Business Review article on Sir Alex Ferguson’s management career last week. He was the manager of Manchester United for 26 years (1986-2013) and he is also the most successful manager in English Football history. His management methods are currently being studied by MBA students at Harvard Business School. The HBR article titled ‘Ferguson’s Formula‘ focuses on Ferguson’s 8 management principles. I will focus on just one in this post.
A man’s gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men. Proverbs 18:16
Before David became the giant killer; he was a lyre player. A lyre is a musical instrument which is closely related to a harp. David wasn’t a professional lyre player but he was very good. I presume that it was a hobby for him because his main job was tending sheep for his father. He must have practiced playing his lyre while tending sheep during the day and also played it in the evenings as musical entertainment for family and friends. I am sure that David never really expected his lyre playing skills to be his ticket to the palace. He simply developed his skills for his own personal amusement and to entertain others.