An impassioned plea for America to step off the brink as the world watches its political scene with mystified horror
Unlike landmines, the dangers littering the horizon are in clear view but the United States is lurching toward their path with a reckless velocity bordering on a false sense of invincibility.
For those who love America and want her to succeed, seeing her teetering so close to the edge of adversity fills us with both dread, and an alarming sense of inevitability.
A house divide simply cannot stand.
It is less than 30 days to the 2020 presidential election and the tension is already palpable. This season of anomie is running high on a powder keg of incendiary politics, fear of violence, and doubts about the basic integrity of the election, along with a host of other nefarious variables, each of which is capable of lighting a fuse to this combustible tinderbox of a year that won’t let up. …
Learn how the power of persuasion lies in the ability to spread the gospel of why, how, and what.
What is the most important element in selling a product?
Why do hundreds of people brave the elements to sleep in front of an Apple store ahead of the worldwide release of the latest iPhone?
How do successful brands magically ignite the excitement of customers way beyond the utility of their products?
Nobel laureate and oracle of timeless wisdom, Bertrand Russell, points to desire as the culprit, the central driving force for human behavior.
Having a good product is undoubtedly an essential requirement in attaining the type of cult followership successful brands enjoy.
However, the genius of extraordinary products lies in not only meeting people's needs but tapping into their unarticulated desires. This leadership insight separates the alphas from the rest of the pack. This was perhaps the guiding principle of Steve Job’s business philosophy. …
How to appreciate, understand, and reap the benefits of vertical integration.
Vertical Integration is a highfalutin term for an ongoing concept our ancestors discovered long ago: the quest for improved efficiency at all levels of the production chain.
From the time our hunter-gatherer forebears discovered some 2.6 million years ago that sharpened stone cores made optimized cutting tools, mankind has not relented in trying to get more from less effort.
With time, division of labor was introduced to increase productivity due to specialization; but at some point, a savvy dairy farmer discovered that he could probably make more profit and control his prices by hauling his produce to the market, instead of allowing other merchants do the transporting. …
An empowering culture is the foundation upon which lasting impact and achievement is built.
Like most writers who have the delusion of becoming the next Steve King, I have been aspiring to write a novel for quite some time.
How is that working out for me, you ask?
Well, to borrow a page from theological redemption, “I’m not where I want to be, but thank God I’m not where I used to be.”
Amen.
Unfortunately, the epiphany that led to my breakthrough came after wasted months of frustration, with nothing to show for it but a scatological mess of morass and confusion masquerading as words clobbered together on a screen.
My writing was abysmally lacking in the structural guardrails necessary to meaning and form. …
Learn how these software processes can guide you to leverage small, continuous changes into big improvements
Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) are processes designed to slay the hydra-headed monster that is software development.
Whenever you land on an application as benign-looking as Google’s home page, beneath its veneer of blandness is a roiling ecosystem of interconnected organisms, each spawning their own subsystems fuelled by an insatiable appetite for code and data capable of drowning an ocean liner.
Therefore, the core function of software engineering is to reduce complexity, and the duo processes of CI and CD help accomplish this.
There are several parallels and universal lessons we can draw from these processes to help optimize our lives, based on the following…
Talent is important, but it can only get you so far. To win in life and business, focus on sweat-equity and building a culture of organizational excellence.
The enigma of talent
Talent can’t seem to make up its mind on what it wants to be.
Talent is scarce, and yet the world suffers from an overabundance of talent. Everyone is born with talent; it is the cheapest commodity on earth, and yet one of the most highly sought after.
Talent comes a dime-a-dozen, yet people are willing to pay a premium for what is perceived as top-notch talent. Yet, top-notch talent isn’t a guarantee of success. …
Focus on the process, and let the results take care of themselves
Several years ago, I read the professional memoir of one of the most preeminent sports broadcasters of the last century, the late Howard Cosell titled, I Never Played the Game. The choice of the title was tongue-in-cheek: Cosell was a lawyer turned broadcaster who never professionally played any of the sports he was covering; however, the book really alluded to Cosell never playing the political game in his vocation as a sports journalist.
In life however, you don’t have that luxury; if you want to win, pursue a dream, accomplish an objective, or otherwise capture some brass ring of achievement, then you have to play the game. …
Alchemy is the invisible force that makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts by creating an elixir of unseen advantages
Remember that misbegotten movie where Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp were cast together as love interest? The Tourist, on paper, seemed like a match made in heaven: two extremely good-looking Hollywood A-listers at the height of their star power teaming up together under the glamorous backdrop of Paris and Venice.
It bombed colossally, receiving a meager 20% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Why happened?
Well, for all its star power, The Tourist lacked chemistry — or more grandiosely, it lacked that elusive, ineffable, and mysterious element known as alchemy.
On the other hand, The Notebook starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams must have done something right, because almost every lady I’ve met invariably identifies it as one of their best movies, right before they turn into doe-eyed, hopeless romantics as they wax on and on with love-stricken adulation (for the most part I pretend to be enthralled, because hey, who can root against all-conquering love. …
Improve your life using the principles of lean manufacturing to rid yourself of burdensome baggage and unproductive activity
Lean manufacturing was a process adopted to reduce wastage without sacrificing productivity. It was used as a means to optimize the production process on the manufacturing floor by reducing inventory.
There are timeless lessons to be gleaned from this Toyota’s 1930’s production model and applied successfully to our 21st Century existence. In essence, the core of lean manufacturing is about not carrying excess baggage.
Just as lean manufacturing strives to eliminate inventory, carrying needless baggage from the past will inevitably weigh us down and slow our onward journey, if we don’t let go.
Lean manufacturing understood that there is a commercial cost to allowing unnecessary items take up valuable space on the manufacturing floor. …
Coexisting with people you don’t like is difficult, yet necessary and achievable
Have you ever meet someone you didn’t like? Someone whose personality, behavior, or quirks immediately summoned a force-field of repulsion once you entered their vicinity or looked in their direction.
If your answer is ‘No’ let me be the first to nominate you for sainthood.
For the rest of us lesser mortals, we usually find it unavoidable to go through life without meeting someone who grates on our nerves: the slothful roommate who never picks up after themselves, or the backstabbing coworker who would do anything to climb the corporate ladder.
Whether at work, family reunions, kindergarten playgrounds, or the apartment next-door, you’ll inevitably run into people you don’t like; people who for some reason, rub you the wrong way. …
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