Ibn Yamin Faryumadi (1286-1368), Persian poet, stated that there are four types of men:
(1) The man who knows and knows that he knows… This is a man of knowledge; strive to know him because you can learn from him.
(2) The man who knows, but doesn’t know that he knows… This is a man who’s unaware, so bring it to his attention.
I recently read a book on Creativity by Herbert Myers and Richard Gerstman in which they profiled 20 creative individuals. I was particularly intrigued by one of the profiles, Edward Albee, a famous American playwright’s observation on creativity.
Albee said that “many people in the world have the same experiences, depending upon their intelligence, their sensitivity, and their willingness to pay attention to what is going on. The only thing that separates the creative from the non-creative is the fact that creative people are not content to merely have the experience, but insist on commenting on it”.
A person of excellence is a problem solver. Excellent people have identified their niche in their fields and developed their expertise to solve problems better than their peers. Life is all about problem solving and everyone wants people who can help them solve their problems.
An employee is hired and paid to solve problems. This is his primary purpose and the moment he stops fulfilling that purpose is the moment he gets fired. You are attracted to people who can help you solve your problems and likewise avoid those who create problems for you.
To stand out in life you have to live a life of excellence. The world is drawn to excellent men and women. We study them to learn the secrets of their performance. What made Steve Jobs tick? What separates Messi from his peers?
I believe that excellence speaks. You attain excellence when the result or quality of your work speaks on your behalf instead of your mouth. You can blow your trumpet till you are blue in the face but at the end of the day, you still have to deliver the results. You will be judged and rewarded on the basis of the results of your work.
It is amazing how quickly the year has gone. We are already in mid-October and 2012 is just around the corner. I set several goals and targets at the start of the year and I have had my share of struggles and successes in accomplishing them. The cause of most of my struggles has been procrastination. I have put off tackling things that would have helped me accomplish certain goals. I find that I don’t struggle with activities or goals that have urgent deadlines but it is the goals with open-ended time frames that I struggle with.
Image by Cog Log Lab (c)
Steve Jobs, the former CEO and co-founder of Apple Inc, died of pancreatic cancer on Wednesday at the age of 56. There has been an outpouring of grief and sadness at the demise of a man widely regarded as a charismatic and creative genius. All Jobs wanted to do was create insanely great products and in the process he changed the world of technology. A visionary and game changer who transformed several industries (computing, music, film, mobile etc) by reinventing what already existed.
It is not how long you live that counts but how much impact your life makes. What sort of legacy are you leaving behind? I like what Stephen Covey said about the clock and the compass in his book, First Things First. He said that the clock represents what we do with and how we manage our time while the compass represents our vision and direction by which we live our lives underpinned by our values. Covey argued that the compass is more important than the clock. Yet most of our attention is focused on the clock.
The ‘A + P x O = S’ formula is my personal mathematical interpretation of Malcolm Gladwell’s theory which he brilliantly explains in his bestselling book, Outliers (I recommend you get yourself a copy). He argues that success is not only solely based on ability and hard work, but a lot hinges on opportunity. Talent and sweat are not enough to get you to the top. But what is opportunity?
First it was Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (Tunisia), then it was Hosni Mubarak (Egypt), now Muammar Gaddafi (Libya) is the latest leader to flee the wrath of the masses. His whereabouts are currently unknown. There is a revolution in the Middle East. A revolution caused by dissatisfaction with the status quo.
Most of us are dependent on Google as the first point of call when searching for information. It’s interesting that the Google we know today (a $170 billion company) almost never existed if the founders had gotten their way. For those old enough to remember, there was a time when Google was not the search engine of choice. The internet was littered with many search engines such as Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, AltaVista, Lycos, Excite, Infoseek, Hotbot, AllTheWeb, etc.