Friday Reflections

If you stand up and be counted, from time to time you may get yourself knocked down. But ...

If you stand up and be counted, from time to time you may get yourself knocked down. But remember this: A man flattened by an opponent can get up again. A man flattened by conformity stays down for good." - Thomas J. Watson, Jr.

 

Story Line:

History is filled with stories of people and organizations who have lived upto the message of either part of above quote. FR has covered many such stories about people and organizations. Two notable ones in organizational area were, "Secrets of World's longest surviving companies" (published before FR went on web so link not available) and "Where are they now?" http://fridayreflections.typepad.com/weblog/2007/03/where-are-they-.html.

There are two types of situations that drives conformity behavior. One situation is where one does not want to ruffle any feathers, in other words just play it safe. Follow whatever rules that are laid down even if they do not make any sense any more, maintain status quo and count the time.
 
The other situation is where a person or organization has been very successful with one approach and a set of rules. But the very success blocks their vision to new ideas for shaping the future. "The way we were" and "Yesterday once more" are themes prevalent in this situation. It is hard for them to break inertia of old ways.
 
But then, the most admirable are the ones who have refused to get into this trap and continuously reinvented themselves or the ones who got trapped but recognized it and made efforts to get out of it. Most of the people who have reignited themselves or their organizations are controversial (have to be to break conformity) so it is understandable if one has a strong feelings about them one way or the other.
 
Here is a recent CNN interview with Paolo Coelho that shades light about such people. Again, you may not agree with everything he says but still there are many gold nuggets in there, advice about raising children is also applies to growing employees.
 
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2009/10/26/connector.paulo.coelho.cnn.html
 

Reflection:

I started my career in 1975 on Middle Field Road in Mountain View California. There were close to 100 companies in two blocks area at that time.  Most of them had great products and growing very fast at the time. But many companies became victims of their success and got complacent. New ideas were rejected, any one who brought competitive information that looked better than their own were ruled out or disciplined (still not as bad as Ancient Empires where people used to get executed for such noble acts).

While 99 of them perished, one of them is around and has become one of world's leading company. Secret, in my opinion: Acknowledging competitors as real and good; and getting aggressive to get better than them. Like world's longest lasting companies, already reinventing itself three times in it's young life.

The greatest mistake is to do nothing because you can only do a little.

"I am only one, but I am one.  I cannot do everything, but I can do something.  And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do."  ~Edward Everett Hale.

Story Line:

There are times in life and career when one wonders if what he/she does makes a difference, or if there is any significance to a “seemingly small” task performed by someone.

The following story by Loren Eisley was sent by a reader from Ghana in response to last week’s Friday Reflection, and was also previously sent by readers from Ireland, Malaysia and Korea.  It has real good points to ponder for individuals, managers and teachers.

One day a man was walking along the beach, when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean.  Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”
 
The youth replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out.  If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”
 
“Son,” the man said, “don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish?  You can’t make a difference!”

After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the surf.  Then, smiling at the man, he said…”I made a difference for that one.”

Reflections:
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.  "Anne Frank" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wuSaNCIde4&feature=related

*The title of this FR is a quote by -- Sydney Smith, English clergyman and writer

How to choreograph your life and career: Kitaro

August 5th is the fifth anniversary of Friday Reflections on the Internet, and the 24th year since its inception.

"This music is not from my mind. It is from heaven, going through my body and out my fingers through composing. Sometimes I wonder. I never practice. I don't read or write music, but my fingers move. I wonder, 'Whose song is this?' I write my songs, but they are not my songs." - Kitaro in an interview.

“He came out of stage.  It was black.  Then the spotlight came up slowly.  He just stood there.  And everything stopped.  The man has presence.” - Karen and Rich (Arizona Couple) describing their experience in a Kitaro concert.

Story Line: Takahashi Masanori’s (now known as Kitaro) first encounter with music was in early teenage years when he heard the songs of American singer Otis Redding.

1. Deciding what he loves to do, assuming responsibility and learning new skills: He learned guitar, formed a small band with his friends, and started performing at various events. Later he changed to keyboard. Once, before an event, the drummer was injured. Kitaro took a crash course on drumming and the event went on for the customer. On another occasion, the Bassist got ill and he learnt how to play Bass.
2. Willing to pay the price for what he wanted to achieve: after graduating from his home town, he moved to Tokyo and supported himself by taking on several part time jobs such as cooking or civil service work, meanwhile composing songs at night. There he joined a commercial band and toured around the world. In 1977 he went solo and his music in Japanese TV series Silk Road (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ulc51ZOGQk) gave him international recognition.
3. Go out with passion for your dream never look back and produce incredible performance: His music in the Oliver Stone movie Heaven and Earth (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO82u7CKj1k&feature=fvw) won a Golden Globe award. A quarter of a century later, with 67 albums, two Grammy awards, various international recognitions and sales exceeding over 100 million records, he is still going strong - touring around the world sending a profound message of peace and spiritual development through his music.

Here are two additional samples of Kitaro’s music:

• Dance of Saraswati: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=244lUx0HaPY&feature=related
• Kokoro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgO81dKsL4Y&feature=related

Reflection:

Friday Reflections started in August 1985 when I was working an intense, long hours, demanding job in a start up called Altera. To balance whatever time was left in a day for family (8-10PM); every evening we would go out for an hour long car ride to catch up on day’s events.

Monday to Thursday were music days, and every Friday I would tell a story to the children - about either work life or other life. 24 years later, FR stories are read in over 120 countries. Those two children are long gone from home, but evening rides have continued with music. Kitaro is one of those great musicians we take along for a ride with us.

"Screw it, Let’s do it..." - Lessons in Life by Sir Richard Branson

Point to Ponder:

“Business opportunities are like buses, there's always another one coming.” - Richard Branson

"An optimist sees an opportunity in all circumstances."

Story Line:

From the book "Screw it, Let’s do it" Lessons in Life by Sir Richard Branson:

We spent the rest of our holiday on another island. Our plan was to travel on to Puerto Rico but when we got to the airport, the flight was canceled. People were roaming around looking lost. No one was doing anything. So I did- someone had to. I chartered a plane for $2000. I divided that by number of people. It came to $30 per head. I borrowed a blackboard and wrote on it:

VIRGIN AIRWAYS. $39 SINGLE FLIGHT TO PUERTO RICO.

The idea of Virgin Airways was born.

Reflection: 

Sir Richard Branson (born 1950) is best known for his Virgin brand of over 360 companies. Branson's first successful business venture was at age 16, when he published a magazine called Student. He then set up an audio record mail-order business in 1970. In 1972, he opened a chain of record stores, Virgin Records, later known as Virgin Megastores. Branson has dyslexia and had poor academic performance as a student, but discovered his ability to connect with others. (source: Wikipedia)

Branson’s Quotable Quotes:

"I never get the accountants in before I start up a business. It's done on gut feeling, especially if I can see that they are taking the mickey out of the consumer."

"I cannot remember a moment in my life when I have not felt the love of my family. We were a family that would have killed for each other - and we still are."

Is there a pony in the current global dung heap (crisis)?

Points to Ponder:

“In times of great stress or adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.” - Lee Iacocca (who was fired from Ford Motors in the 1980s, joined Chrysler in bankruptcy, and turned it around to be a very profitable company)

"Discovery consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else and thinking something different”
- Albert Szent-Gyorgyi quotes (Hungarian Biochemist, 1937 Nobel Prize for Medicine, 1893-1986)

Story Line:

Worried that their boys had developed extreme personalities - one was a total pessimist, the other a total optimist - their parents took them to a psychiatrist.

First the psychiatrist treated the pessimist. Trying to brighten his outlook, the psychiatrist took him to a room piled to the ceiling with brand-new toys. But instead of yelping with delight, the little boy burst into tears. “What’s the matter?” the psychiatrist asked, baffled. “Don’t you want to play with any of the toys?” “Yes,” the little boy bawled, “but if I did I’d only break them.”

Next the psychiatrist treated the optimist. Trying to dampen his outlook, the psychiatrist took him to a room piled to the ceiling with horse manure. But instead of wrinkling his nose in disgust, the optimist emitted just the yelp of delight the psychiatrist had been hoping to hear from his brother, the pessimist.

The optimist clambered to the top of the pile, dropped to his knees, and began gleefully digging out scoop after scoop with his bare hands. “What do you think you’re doing?” the psychiatrist asked, just as baffled by the optimist as he had been by the pessimist. “With all this manure,” the little boy replied, beaming, “there must be a pony in here somewhere!”

Reflection:

It seems that in current global situation everything that could go wrong seems to be going wrong. But then looking back at previous crisis whether: economic, wars, terrorism, corrupt politicians, natural disasters; the new world order has emerged with new opportunities. Even during the greatest depression era (1929-37); many ideas, new companies and new leadership emerged.

So where are the Ponies in current dung heap? Any Points to Ponder?

Are you an Eagle living the life of a Chicken?

Thanks to Sophia Zhou from Dalian China for sending this thought-provoking story, based upon "The Chicken and The Eagle Story" by Dr. Eldon Taylor

A baby eagle was once rescued by a farmer, who nurtured it to health and brought it up with his flock of chickens.  Years later, a visitor came to the farm and was incredulous to see this eagle amongst the chickens, wandering around scratching on the ground for seeds ... even making noises like a chicken -- "bwack bwack bwack!"

He was very sad to see such a magnificent creature acting this way, when he knew it was supposed to soar freely in the sky. Hoping that the eagle would discover its true nature, he convinced the farmer to take the eagle to the top of a large hill overlooking the valley below, and throw it towards the sky.

For the first few tries, the eagle was not able to fly.  It simply fell down and started scratching in the dirt again.  But the farmer did not give up.  Every day he would take the eagle back to the hills and every day the eagle would try again.  Eventually, at last, the eagle soared up into the sky and disappeared.

Reflection: There are many meanings within this story. First and foremost, don’t allow yourself to be bound by the standard conventions and expectations of your surroundings.  If you accept the life of a chicken, you'll never be able to soar like an eagle.  Broaden your horizons and push your limits. 

Your reflection?

Everyone knows a piece of dust (sand) can fly, but who would have imagined that it can make an airplane fly?

"If you can think of it, you can dream of it, (and if you do something about it), you can achieve it." - Siegfried and Roy

Story Line:

Five decades ago when I started my first job at Raytheon Semiconductor in Silicon Valley, my boss Charles Fa (a co-founder of Advanced Memory Systems prior to joining Raytheon) often used to tell me: "This industry is going to change the world".

Working in a silicon fabrication area with a 56 mm diameter slice (a.k.a silicon wafer) that had a few transistors on it, I often wondered how something made out of a piece of sand (dust) is going to change the world. But the job had definitely changed my world: I had an income and green card eligibility, so I accepted my boss's imagination.

At the time, the area around Middlefield Road and Ellis Street was filled with many buildings belonging to Fairchild Semiconductor, three buildings belonging to Raytheon, and one small building occupied by Intel. There were of course many more companies in the Santa Clara area as well.

Today, most of the silicon wafers in use are of 300mm diameter and contain millions of transistors. The continuous innovations in technology have created a wide variety of applications, started many new industries around the world, and made a significant impact on the world and its economy.  Look around: cooking appliances, medical devices, cars, cash registers, computers, musical instruments, telephones, airplanes...

Look more; the silicon chips all around us....

Today's reflection is dedicated to all great people: That Dare to Imagine, Dare to Try, Dare to Fail, Dare to Persevere and Dare to Win.

Everyone knew a piece of dust can fly, but only you had imagined that it would make an airplane fly.

Reflection: Many of the companies from my early days have purged; some have merged and a few have surged (and continues to surge). I wish all the remaining ones a great future ... and a very special greetings to my tiny neighbor on Middlefield Road five decades ago, which has grown into the world's largest semiconductor company. Happy 40th Birthday Intel.

Wisdom in Failure

“Every problem that you face comes to you at the time when you need it to learn a valuable lesson that will act as a springboard to future success. But you must find that lesson and learn it.” - Dennis Waitley

Storyline:

During my recent overseas trip, I met this young gentleman. Looking at his face, it seemed to me that something was bothering him. He had graduated four years ago and joined high-tech industry. As his fate would have it, the first two projects he had been assigned were canceled after a few years. He seemed to have personally associated himself with the failure of the projects. 

When I asked for more details about what had happened, I was amazed how many different experiences this young man had been exposed to in those two projects and the amount of knowledge he had gained out of various experiments, the type of things that he could have never learned if the projects had gone without hiccups. In fact, he had not only gathered immense technical knowledge but also a lot of knowledge about business, relationships and logistics. As it turns out, the projects were canceled for business reasons, and not by any of his doing.

I told him that not many four-year employees are as lucky as he was to become one of the most valuable players for the group. He seemed surprised until we took an inventory of his learning and identified multiple places where they could be useful.

As my friend Biil Lim, the author of 'Dare to Fail' and 'Wisdom in Failure' says, "Don't worry about your failures (and disappointments). In fact, you should record and keep them. You will be surprised how much people are prepared to pay to listen to your failure stories when you succeed."

Reflection:

J.K. Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter book series delivered her commencement address, "The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination" at the annual meeting of the Harvard alumni association.

"I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale."  Here is the link for the curious and the interested...

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkREt4ZB-ck
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kh_tSiqL1U&feature=related

"You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default." - J.K. Rowling, the author of Harry Potter.

Time and Tide waits for no one.

“There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.”
-William Shakespeare

Story Line:

In the early 80s, while visiting “The happiest place on earth,” a.k.a. Disneyland, two fellows ended up in The Bear County.

There they saw a show where different, large, and overstuffed toy bears and animals were singing country music songs. Seeing children and adults alike enjoying the show, these fellows got to talking after the show.

“What if we made a talking toy bear in a size that children can handle?” They saw an opportunity to put a singing bear in every home.

Even though the initial impression and many subsequent signs were pointing to an incredible opportunity, those fellows kept gathering more and more data to justify their case. I guess they wanted to do a thorough risk assessment and proper risk mitigation before the start.

Now, the only trouble with ideas is that others can get them too. And in many cases, they can be the same ideas as yours.

While those fellows were busy researching and talking, a company named Worlds of Wonder introduced Teddy Ruxpin™, a talking teddy bear who could tell stories and sing similar to the ones in Bear County.

Reflection:

Teddy Ruxpin™ was introduced in 1985 and became a great success in the market. Many people get ideas. Ideas have huge potential for success. But it is only those who act in a timely manner and do something about it (sell, license or make); that get the opportunity to enjoy the rewards.

"In life there are no guarantees, only opportunities."

You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet

“Insanity is doing same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Albert Einstein

“If you do what you have always done, you will get what you have always gotten” (or less) author unknown

Storyline: You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet. (Real author unknown - quote told to me by Mike Yakos during China trip.)

Many years ago, while on an overseas trip I called my wife at home and told her about this beautiful egg that I had encountered that day. 

She asked me, “How did it taste?” I said, “I don’t know. I did not eat it.” 

She asked, “Why not? Is it because it is being hatched?” 

I said, “No, this was a hundred year old egg in a display cabinet in the museum that I visited today.”

Said my wife, “If you can’t eat it or hatch it then what good is that egg?” Obviously she was coming from her value proposition criterion.

That conversation keeps coming back to me many times since then.

Sometime ago, employees of one company were faced with a situation where there was some rule in the group that they had to follow. But it did not make sense to some new employees. 

So one curious and zealous employee inquired further and discovered from the old timers that the rule was in practice for a long time and named after the group VP who had proclaimed it in early 1990s. She was told that the group had accepted and followed the rule since then.

But she was not accustomed at accepting things at face value and took initiative to investigate further and showed that the 17 years since, the rule did not have any useful value. She suggested a new rule which was accepted. She basically broke the golden egg that was laid two VPs ago and in the previous century and millennium.

Reflection: 

Rules are made for a purpose. And they are meant to be broken when their useful value has diminished. Look around you and evaluate the usefulness of the rules, policies and procedures that have been there longer than a few years. Break an egg or two. But remember, Just breaking an egg is not enough. Once you break them you must be ready to make an omelet. (Propose useful alternatives and ensure they are carried through for implementation).