What Is Really Important?

The following is the philosophy of Charles Schultz, the creator of the “Peanuts” comic strip. You don’t have to actually answer the questions. Just read questions straight through, and you’ll get the point.

1.Name the five wealthiest people in the world.
2.Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.
3.Name the last five winners of the Miss America Pageant.
4.Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.
5.Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor or actress.
6.Name the last decade’s worth of World Series winners.

How did you do? The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.

Here’s another quiz. See how you do on this one!

1.List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.
2.Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.
3.Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.
4.Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.
5.Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.

Easier? The lesson: The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones who care!

World’s Greatest Management Principle

You can work
Miracles by having
FAITH in others!
To get the best out
Of others, CHOOSE
To think and
BELIEVE the best
About them.

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

- Dylan Thomas

The Road Ahead

Sometimes I think the fates must grin as we
Denounce them and insist,
The only reason we can’t win is the fates
Themselves have missed.
Yet, there lives on the ancient claim—
We win or lose within ourselves,
The shining trophies on our shelves can
Never win tomorrow’s game.
So you and I know deeper down there is a
Chance to win the crown,
But when we fail to give our best, we
Simply haven’t met the test
Of giving all and saving none until the
Game is rally won.
Of showing what is meant by grit, of
Fighting on when others quit,
Of playing through not letting up, it’s
Bearing down that wins the cup.
Of taking it and taking more until we
Gain the winning score,
Of dreaming there’s a goal ahead, of
Hoping when our dreams are dead,
Of praying when our hopes have fled.
Yet, losing, not afraid to fall,
If bravely we have given all, for who
Can ask more of a man
Than giving all, it seems to me, is not
So far from VICTORY.
And so the fates are seldom wrong, no
Matter how they twist and wind,
It’s you and I who make our fates, we
Open up or close the gates,
On the road ahead or the road behind.

How to Be a Champion

You wonder how they do it and you look to
See the knack,
You watch the foot in action, or the
Shoulder, or the back,
But when you spot the answer where the
Higher glamours lurk,
You’ll find in moving higher up the
Laurel covered spire,
That the most of it is practice and the
Rest of it is work.

By Grantland Rice

I Thank My Competitors

My competitors do more for me
than my friends.

My friends are too polite to point out my
weaknesses, but my competitors go to great
expense to tell of them.

My competitors are efficient and diligent.
They make me search for ways to improve
my products and services.

My competitors would take my business away
from me if they could.

This keeps me alert to hold what I have.

If I had no competitors, I would be lazy,
incompetent and complacent. I need the
discipline they enforce upon me.

I thank my competitors.
They have been good to me.

GOD BLESS THEM ALL

Doing The Remarkable

When it comes to meeting and conquering the negativity in your life, here is a key question: what can you do, starting today, that will make a difference?

What can you do during economic chaos? What can you do when everything has gone wrong? What can you do when you've run out of money, when you don't feel well and it's all gone sour? What can you do?

Let me give you the broad answer first. You can do the most remarkable things, no matter what happens. People can do incredible things, unbelievable things, despite the most impossible or disastrous circumstances.

Here is why humans can do remarkable things: because they are remarkable. Humans are different than any other creation. When a dog starts with weeds, he winds up with weeds. And the reason is because he's a dog. But that's not true with human beings. Humans can turn weeds into gardens.

Humans can turn nothing into something, pennies into fortune, and disaster into success. And the reason they can do such remarkable things is because they are remarkable. Try reaching down inside of yourself; you'll come up with some more of those remarkable human gifts. They're there, waiting to be discovered and employed.

With those gifts, you can change anything for yourself that you wish to change. And I challenge you to do that because you can change. If you don't like how something is going for you, change it. If something isn't enough, change it. If something doesn't suit you; change it. If something doesn't please you, change it. You don't ever have to be the same after today. If you don't like your present address, change it -- you're not a tree!

If there is one thing to get excited about, it's your ability to make yourself do the necessary things, to get a desired result, to turn the negative into success. That's true excitement.

Michael Jordan on Fear

I never looked at the consequences of missing a big shot. Why? Because when you think about the consequences, you always think of a negative result.

Some people get frozen by the fear of failure. They get it from peers or from just thinking about the possibility of negative results. They might be afraid of looking bad or being embarrassed. I realized that if I was going to achieve anything in life I had to be aggressive. I had to get out there and go for it. I don't believe you can achieve anything by being passive. I'm not thinking about anything except what I'm trying to accomplish. Any fear is an illusion. You think something is standing in your way but nothing is really there. What is there is an opportunity to do your best and gain some success. If it turns out my best isn't good enough, then at least I'll never be able to look back and say I was too afraid to try. Failure always made me try harder the next time.

That's why my advice has always been to "think positive" and find fuel in any failure. Sometimes failure actually just gets you closer to where you want to be. If I'm trying to fix a car, every time I try something that doesn't work, I'm getting closer to finding the answer. The greatest inventions in the world had hundreds of failures before the answers were found.

I think fear sometimes comes from a lack of focus or concentration. If I had stood at the free-throw line and thought about 10 million people watching me on the other side of the camera lens, I couldn't have made anything. So I mentally tried to put myself in a familiar place. I thought about all those times I shot free throws in practice and went through the same motion, the same technique that I had used thousands of times. You forget about the outcome. You know you are doing the right things. So you relax and perform. After that you can't control anything anyway. It's out of your hands, so don't worry about it.

--Michael Jordan

John Wooden Quotations

A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.

Ability is a poor man's wealth.

Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

Be prepared and be honest.

Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights.

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.

Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.

I'd rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent.

If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?

If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes.

It isn't what you do, but how you do it.

It's not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.

It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.

It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.

Material possessions, winning scores, and great reputations are meaningless in the eyes of the Lord, because He knows what we really are and that is all that matters.

Never mistake activity for achievement.

Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.

"Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out."

"Never mistake activity for achievement."

"Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then."

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."

"Be prepared and be honest."

"Be quick, but don't hurry."

"You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It's a weakness to get caught up in either one."

"You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you."

"What you are as a person is far more important than what you are as a basketball player."

"Winning takes talent; to repeat takes character."

"A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment."

"I'd rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent."

"If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?"

"If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes."

"It isn't what you do, but how you do it."

"Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be."

"Consider the rights of others before your own feelings and the feelings of others before your own rights."

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."

"Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability."

"It's not so important who starts the game but who finishes it."

"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts."

"It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen."

"Talent is God-given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful."

"The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team."

"Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."

"Success is never final; failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts."

"I'm Having a Party"

If you have ever gone through a toll booth, you know that your relationship to the person in the booth is not the most intimate you'll ever have. It is one of life's frequent non-encounters: You hand over money; you drive off.

I have been through every one of the 17 toll booths on the Oakland - San Francisco Bay Bridge on thousands of occasions and never had an exchange worth remembering with anybody.

Late one morning I headed for lunch in San Francisco. As I drove toward one of the booths, I heard loud music. It sounded like a party or a Michael Jackson concert. I looked around. No other cars with their windows open. No sound trucks or outdoor speakers. I looked at the toll booth. Inside it, the man was dancing.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm having a party," he said.

"What about the rest of these people?" I looked over at other booths; nothing moving there.

"They're busy."

I had a dozen other questions for him, but somebody in a big hurry to get somewhere started punching his horn behind me and I drove off. But I made a note to myself: Find this guy again. There's something in his eye that says there's magic in his toll booth. Months later I did find him again, still with the loud music, still having a party.

Again I asked, "What are you doing?"

He said, "I remember you from the last time. I'm still dancing. I'm having the same party."

I said, "Look. What about the rest of the people."

He said. "Stop. What do those look like to you?" He pointed down the row of toll booths.

"They look like toll booths."

"Noooo imagination!"

I said, "Okay, I give up. What do they look like to you?"

He said, "Vertical coffins."

"What are you talking about?"

"I can prove it. At 8:30 every morning, live people get in. Then they die for eight hours. At 4:30, like Lazarus from the dead, they reemerge and go home. For eight hours, brain is on hold, dead on the job. Going through the motions."

I was amazed. This guy had developed a philosophy, a mythology about his job. I could not help asking the next question:

"Why is it different for you? You're having a good time."

He looked at me. "I knew you were going to ask that," he said. "I'm going to be a dancer someday." He pointed to the administration building. "My bosses are in there, and they're paying for my training."

Sixteen people dead on the job, and the seventeenth, in precisely the same situation, figures out a way to live. That man was having a party where you and I would probably not last three days. The boredom! He and I did have lunch later, and he said,

"I don't understand why anybody would think my job is boring. I have a corner office, glass on all sides. I can see the Golden Gate, San Francisco, the Berkeley hills; half the Western world vacations here and I just stroll in every day and practice dancing."

Abraham Lincoln said, "Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

I would tend to agree.

~ Written by Dr. Charles Garfield who is an expert On Peak Performance and Team Management. ~