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Name of author Rick Baker, P.Eng.

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Thought Tweet #717

by Rick Baker
On Apr 16, 2013

Thought Tweet #717 Battles require people; people require battles.


The Thinking Behind The Tweet

We all have heard it takes two to tango. Tango requires people...two. Battles require people...at least one.

Battles are a fact of human nature. The question is: Do you back into battles or do you pick them well? Is logic in action when you select your battles? Does self-control determine your battles and how you fight them? Do your battles align with your strengths? 

Tags:

Beyond Business | Thought Tweets

Thought Tweet #716

by Rick Baker
On Apr 15, 2013

Thought Tweet #716 The “Sales Choice”: (1) we can ignore ourselves and satisfy others or (2) we can care for ourselves and satisfy others.


The Thinking Behind The Tweet

If you make the choice - Option 1 - then get out of Sales because you will never succeed.

That narrows down the options available to a person who truly wants to succeed in a Sales role.

There is only One Option: To succeed in Sales roles, we must care for ourselves and satisfy others.

Tags:

Sales | Thought Tweets

Yellow is not my favourite colour!

by Rick Baker
On Apr 15, 2013

When I was a child I wanted a Boston Bruins hockey jersey. It wasn't that I liked the Boston Bruins. In those days they were a horrible hockey team. None of my friends took them seriously. No, I didn't like the Bruins...at the time I was a Leafs fan. I had a blue Leafs jersey. But, I was somewhat obsessed with the colour yellow and I begged my parents...and, my parents bought a Boston Bruins hockey jersey for me. I loved the colour yellow so much I wore the Bruins jersey despite the ongoing ridicule it generated from my friends. I wore the yellow jersey until it fell apart.

 The jersey looked a lot like this one.

My parents were proud of their children. They must have been because they kept many souvenirs of our childhood....some rather-unruly report cards, many bad-haircut family pictures, and folders full of our artwork, dating back to kindergarten.

One day I was at my parents' home and they were sorting through some of that old stuff. They had a big 'Rick Kindergarten' scrapbook, filled with my hand-made [including some finger-made] kindergarten artwork. When I opened the scrapbook, I was shocked to see so much yellow in my artwork.

No, that's not true. 

It wasn't yellow.

It was orange.

Now, I have known for many years I have a level of colourblindness. But, I never thought I couldn't tell yellow from orange. I was shocked...there it was...orange...everywhere. Every painting contained orange. Numerous orange suns. Now, it is possible the paint changed colour over the years, however, I don't think that's the case.

My memory contained yellow - my artwork contained orange.

It's clear I have spent most of my life confusing yellow and orange. I still do.

In my childish days it wasn't a huge problem. Sure I got razzed when I wore that Boston Bruins jersey...but 10 years later the Bruins were a force to be reckoned with and Bobby Orr and the gang put an end to the Bruins' embarrassment and my jersey faux pas.

But now, I can no longer tolerate that yellow-orange confusion.

Orange is our colour for Creativity: and, that said, Orange is my favourite colour!

At Spirited, colours have meaning...

 Green is the colour we use for Good or Positive [as in Good Habits, Bad Habits, & New Things]

 Red is the colour we use for Bad or Negative [as in Negative Emotions]

 Blue is the colour we use for New [as in Good Habits, Bad Habits, & New Things]

 Gray is the colour we use for Uncertainty and Indecision [as in Maybe, which is much worse than No]

 

And last, but certainly not least...

Orange is our colour for Creativity

[which leads to 3 awesome in-words - Insight, Invention, & Innovation and much more]

 

Looking to the future, Creativity is an essential Leadership Priority.

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Thought Tweet #715

by Rick Baker
On Apr 12, 2013

Thought Tweet #715 When a combination of skills, goals, & plans is not present, people give up their dreams & hope.

 

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

Skills, goals and plans will always be required. Without these basics work is demoralizing and frustrating. Without these basics, unless they have tremendous will, people give up their dreams and hope.

Thought Tweet #714

by Rick Baker
On Apr 11, 2013

Thought Tweet #714 The people you know have enough challenges and fears on their own plates to make your problems pale by comparison.

 

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

Also, your achievements do little to alleviate others’ fears, or address their challenges, or attack their opportunities, or resolve their problems. You will have excelled if your achievements alleviate some of your own fears, let alone touch at removing the fears of others.

You may obtain value by considering that, from time to time.

Tags:

Emotions & Feelings @ Work | Solutions & Opportunities | Thick Skin & Thin Skull | Thought Tweets

Looking out for #1

by Rick Baker
On Apr 11, 2013

It can be very difficult to take care of oneself...looking out for #1 can be a real chore.

Machiavelli knew this.

Some 500 years ago Machiavelli wrote the facts of it. For all his wisdom, he is now seen by the ‘mob’ as the harbinger of bad things…sinister, the speaker of the unspeakable. But, like most of us, Machiavelli is at best understood just enough to be misunderstood. While he spoke simple, honest, straight-forward realism, his name is now a cliché for the toughness or nastiness of the human condition around strength and power.

It seems to me Machiavelli just wanted to support his homeland. He just wanted to guide those more powerful than he. He just wanted to be factual and ‘pragmatic’ and he just wanted to sell his novel-efficient ideas concerning lordship and power.

He just wanted a piece of the pie.

He wanted to help others make the pie bigger…and he wanted his piece.

But Machiavelli...boy...this guy was weak on sales skill.

He was horrible at it. Not as bad as some of the people who have worked for me, of course, but that’s another story and Machiavelli’s sales skills were awful nonetheless.

Sure, his words have stood the test of 500 years of time. But, at the time when he wrote them, his words were not selling anyone on anything. In fairness to him, there is no question – it was tough to find a good audience for much in the 1500’s.

Yes, Machiavelli was not that successful in his day. And, history and ‘mob’ rote-thinking has not been much kinder to him. Today’s ‘mob’, none of whom I am sure has ever read a word he put to paper, view Machiavelli as the cliché for manipulative skepticism. And, that is a damn shame. After 500 years it is time to cut this guy some slack.  I mean everyone is pretty happy about giving many others credit where credit is due: Galileo, etc.

So, why not cut some slack for Machiavelli?

Tags:

Leaders' Thoughts | Thick Skin & Thin Skull

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