What comes after the URL?

image from pixabay
image from pixabay

I recently had a breakfast meeting recently with a very smart man who made a statement that has been circling around in my mind for some days now.

He suggested the way we access information may soon shift.

Consider: 52% of web sharing is now occurring on Facebook. Over half of information being shared right now is being done inside Facebook. A number of prominent bloggers have also shifted to FB versus maintaining their own website.

What do YOU think the future of information in the cloud looks like?

Are you adding value or experiencing diminishing returns?

I’ve spent a lot of time this last year contemplating what Seth Godin writes of here. 20160731 OODAMr. Godin has a phenomenal ability to capture ideas and relay them in short, hard hitting concepts.

His blog post on conservation vs. concentration of effort speaks directly to me. It’s critical as a 21st century business owners, we ask ourselves these questions:

Are our actions adding value or are we spending effort for diminishing returns?

How can we know? Are you tracking your marketing efforts? Do you know what’s working or not?

 

 

23 best quotes on leadership…

  • Do not overly exalt yourself.
    – Marcus Aurelius

 

  • Being a good leader is not a byproduct of a pleasant personality.
    – Retired USAF MSgt John Mitchell

 

  • I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?
    – Benjamin Disraeli

 

  • Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.
    – Margaret Mead

 

  •  To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less.
    – Andre Malraux

 

  • It’s hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.
    – Adlai Stevenson

 

  • Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
    – Peter F. Drucker

 

  • I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself.
    – Robert E. Lee

 

  • I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.
    – Ralph Nader

 

  • I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness; the second is frugality; the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others. Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men.
    – Lao Tzu

 

  • The day the soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
    – Retired General Colin Powell

 

  • Do not expect bad people to exempt you from their destructive ways. 
    – Marcus Aurelius

 

  • You do not lead by hitting people over the head — that’s assault, not leadership.
    – Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower

 

  • Refrain from imposing your feelings onto reality.
    – Marcus Aurelius

 

  • Too many kings can ruin an army. 
    – Homer

 

  • The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.
    – Harvey S. Firestone

 

  • Our power lies in our small daily choices, one after another, to create eternal ripples of a life well lived.
    – Mollie Marti

 

  • A good leader is a person who takes a little more than his share of the blame and a little less than his share of the credit.
    – John Maxwell

 

  • No great manager or leader ever fell from heaven, its learned not inherited.
    – Tom Northup

 

  • As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.
    – Bill Gates

 

  • You manage things; you lead people.
    – Real Admiral Grace Murray Hopper

 

  • What you do has far greater impact than what you say.  
    – Stephen Covey

 

  • Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.
    – Colin Powell

 

Rule #1: define your why

I believe the first rule of a successful venture is to define your “why?”

Why are you doing what you are doing?

What drives you to get up every morning, gear up and head out the door?

My professional why is helping people succeed in their businesses. I am fascinated by what makes businesses and people tick and the exploration of ways to improve strategy, culture and processes.

Why is defining your why so important? 

If you don’t know you’re why, you’re what and how are going to be extremely difficult to define, much less execute.

You must know your why so that you can effectively determine your what and how.

Why am I doing this?

What problem am I solving?

How am I going to solve that problem?

Business Strategy: Asking “what next”?

Are you asking, “What next?” in your business? Is this part of your overall strategy?20160731 OODA

Is it part of your battle rhythm?

This isn’t necessarily a ‘what does tomorrow look like?’ question. It’s more geared at ‘what’s next for my industry? for my business? are we positioned to compete in that model? are we positioned to innovate in that model?’

The eye cannot see what the mind does not know…

I heard the above words from a physician whom diagnosed inside thirty

image from pixabay
image from pixabay

seconds what we had been struggling to identify for nearly fifteen months with one of our children.

In this short timeframe, she observed several indicators that led her to an immediate diagnosis of a condition we did not know existed.

She was able to do this because she – her mind – had a working knowledge of the same.

This is one reason I never want to stop learning. There is always something more to learn, a new perspective to consider.

Toward that end, I am currently working my way through several of the books on this list.

Inc: 10 Powerful Books That Will Change How You See the World