One man's opinion...
https://www.oppenheimerfunds.com/targetedCopy/InvestorPages/EOM/equityCommentary.jhtml
Friday, May 29, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
It’s Not Supposed to be Easy
By Rob Gilbert, Ph.D
Professor of Sports Psychology
Montclair State University
September 15, 2007
Want to know an easy way to meet and exceed your goals?
Want to know an easy way to motivate yourself and others?
Want to know an easy way to become rich and famous?
Guess what? It doesn't exist!
There is no easy way.
Not only that -- it's not supposed to be easy.
If you want to stop smoking, lose weight, get in better shape, make more sales, etc. -- IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE EASY.
If you want to get stronger -- that barbell at the gym SHOULD feel heavy.
If you want to get better grades -- that book SHOULD have concepts that take time to understand.
If you want to close that big account -- that client SHOULD demand a lot of time, attention to detail, and a great deal of follow-through.
No matter what you want to do -- IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE EASY.
I'm shocked that people are shocked when they start something new and they groan, "This is not easy!"
Once you begin, it takes discipline to persevere BUT, the good news is, that eventually the discipline will turn into desire and if you persevere...
EVENTUALLY...
You won't have to diet, you'll WANT TO diet.
You won't have to work out, you'll WANT TO work out.
You won't have to _____ you'll want to _____ (You fill in the blanks.)
It doesn't start out as easy but it does get easier.
Make it easy on yourself, realize that it's not supposed to be easy.
Professor of Sports Psychology
Montclair State University
September 15, 2007
Want to know an easy way to meet and exceed your goals?
Want to know an easy way to motivate yourself and others?
Want to know an easy way to become rich and famous?
Guess what? It doesn't exist!
There is no easy way.
Not only that -- it's not supposed to be easy.
If you want to stop smoking, lose weight, get in better shape, make more sales, etc. -- IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE EASY.
If you want to get stronger -- that barbell at the gym SHOULD feel heavy.
If you want to get better grades -- that book SHOULD have concepts that take time to understand.
If you want to close that big account -- that client SHOULD demand a lot of time, attention to detail, and a great deal of follow-through.
No matter what you want to do -- IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE EASY.
I'm shocked that people are shocked when they start something new and they groan, "This is not easy!"
Once you begin, it takes discipline to persevere BUT, the good news is, that eventually the discipline will turn into desire and if you persevere...
EVENTUALLY...
You won't have to diet, you'll WANT TO diet.
You won't have to work out, you'll WANT TO work out.
You won't have to _____ you'll want to _____ (You fill in the blanks.)
It doesn't start out as easy but it does get easier.
Make it easy on yourself, realize that it's not supposed to be easy.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Professional Responsibility
“The forester should work for the good of the forest as an entity, not for the sake of the forest itself, but to ensure that it will remain a permanently productive source of goods and benefits to the owner and to society.”
David M. Smith
The Practice of Silviculture, 1962
David M. Smith
The Practice of Silviculture, 1962
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Just Because I’m Nice, Don’t Assume I’m Dumb
From Harvard Business Review
www.harvardbusiness.org
by Amy J.C. Cuddy
When we encounter someone new, we quickly seek answers to two questions rooted in the evolutionary need to make correct survival decisions: What are this person’s intentions toward me? and Is this person capable of acting on those intentions?
Because we lack the brainpower to weigh someone’s true merits quickly, we seize on our sometimes mistaken answers to these questions and rate the person high or low on imaginary scales of intention and capability—or, to use simpler terminology, warmth and competence. Recent psychological research involving thousands of people from two dozen nations shows that this way of thinking is remarkably widespread. Moreover, a number of studies show that warmth and competence assessments determine whether and how we intend to interact with others: We like to assist people we view as warm and block those we see as cold; we desire to associate with people we consider competent and ignore those we consider incompetent.
Inevitably, of course, we find clues to warmth and competence in stereotypes based on people’s race, gender, or nationality. Thus many of our decisions about whom to trust, doubt, defend, attack, hire, or fire are based on faulty data.
The warmth/competence model, which Susan Fiske, Peter Glick, and I have presented in more than a dozen academic ar ticles over the past few years, illuminates a great deal of behavior—for example, why people disrespect the elderly while feeling positive toward them (elders are seen as incompetent but warm). Such attitudes weren’t well explained by the prevailing psychological view of preju dice – namely, that people simply favor “us” and dislike “them.”
Inaccurate warmth/competence judgments can lead managers to trust untrustworthy associates or undervalue potentially important connections with people. They can also undermine companies’ efforts to build effective teams, identify lucrative opportunities, and retain good employees. For example, mothers, like the elderly, are chronically stereotyped as less competent (although warmer) than other workers and as a result are often underpromoted and underpaid.
Our and others’ research has yielded another important finding: People tend to see warmth and competence as inversely related. If there’s an apparent surplus of one trait, they infer a deficit of the other. (“She’s so sweet....She’d probably be inept in the boardroom.”) So how can managers use the warmth/competence model to make better judgments? I recommend a two-part approach.
Don’t take shortcuts. Virtually everyone uses stereotypes to make snap judgments. But when facing personnel decisions, managers should push themselves to be aware of how they form impressions. They should avoid sizing people up on the basis of stereo typical perceptions of warmth and competence.
Separate the two dimensions. It’s not a zero- sum game: Warmth and competence aren’t mutually exclusive. Managers should ask themselves, for example, whether that highly competent technician also has social or customer skills that could be useful to the company.
These simple reality checks can help managers see past social categories and recognize individuals’ true talents, thus avoiding the high cost of mistaken judgments.
Amy J.C. Cuddy is an assistant professor at Harvard Business School in Boston.
www.harvardbusiness.org
by Amy J.C. Cuddy
When we encounter someone new, we quickly seek answers to two questions rooted in the evolutionary need to make correct survival decisions: What are this person’s intentions toward me? and Is this person capable of acting on those intentions?
Because we lack the brainpower to weigh someone’s true merits quickly, we seize on our sometimes mistaken answers to these questions and rate the person high or low on imaginary scales of intention and capability—or, to use simpler terminology, warmth and competence. Recent psychological research involving thousands of people from two dozen nations shows that this way of thinking is remarkably widespread. Moreover, a number of studies show that warmth and competence assessments determine whether and how we intend to interact with others: We like to assist people we view as warm and block those we see as cold; we desire to associate with people we consider competent and ignore those we consider incompetent.
Inevitably, of course, we find clues to warmth and competence in stereotypes based on people’s race, gender, or nationality. Thus many of our decisions about whom to trust, doubt, defend, attack, hire, or fire are based on faulty data.
The warmth/competence model, which Susan Fiske, Peter Glick, and I have presented in more than a dozen academic ar ticles over the past few years, illuminates a great deal of behavior—for example, why people disrespect the elderly while feeling positive toward them (elders are seen as incompetent but warm). Such attitudes weren’t well explained by the prevailing psychological view of preju dice – namely, that people simply favor “us” and dislike “them.”
Inaccurate warmth/competence judgments can lead managers to trust untrustworthy associates or undervalue potentially important connections with people. They can also undermine companies’ efforts to build effective teams, identify lucrative opportunities, and retain good employees. For example, mothers, like the elderly, are chronically stereotyped as less competent (although warmer) than other workers and as a result are often underpromoted and underpaid.
Our and others’ research has yielded another important finding: People tend to see warmth and competence as inversely related. If there’s an apparent surplus of one trait, they infer a deficit of the other. (“She’s so sweet....She’d probably be inept in the boardroom.”) So how can managers use the warmth/competence model to make better judgments? I recommend a two-part approach.
Don’t take shortcuts. Virtually everyone uses stereotypes to make snap judgments. But when facing personnel decisions, managers should push themselves to be aware of how they form impressions. They should avoid sizing people up on the basis of stereo typical perceptions of warmth and competence.
Separate the two dimensions. It’s not a zero- sum game: Warmth and competence aren’t mutually exclusive. Managers should ask themselves, for example, whether that highly competent technician also has social or customer skills that could be useful to the company.
These simple reality checks can help managers see past social categories and recognize individuals’ true talents, thus avoiding the high cost of mistaken judgments.
Amy J.C. Cuddy is an assistant professor at Harvard Business School in Boston.
Monday, May 4, 2009
In Search of Excellence
Check this out. This is the website of the co-author of the ground-breaking 1982 book In Search of Excellence.
http://www.tompeters.com/index.php
http://www.tompeters.com/index.php
Friday, May 1, 2009
A cheery thought that can be applied to the current state of the national economy...
"Nothin's never so bad that it can't get worse."
Satchel Paige
Satchel Paige
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