July 24, 2012

“If all you play is defense, you have to win 100% of the time – and you can’t.”

Herb Meyer

Author, Key Note and Vistage Speaker, 

and former Assistant to the Director of the CIA during the Reagan Administration.

SHAMELESS PLUG: Herb Meyer is speaking to our CEO and Key Executive Groups this week.

 Stephen Covey, RIP

There is no name that is more immediately identified with self-improvement than Stephen Covey,  who died last week at age 79 from injuries sustained in a cycling accident.  His “ Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” is one of the all-time best sellers in this genre and took the approach that character and wisdom were the best paths to personal effectiveness..  This brief obituary from the “Schumpeter”  column in the Economist is worth a moment of your time to remember a man who will not be soon forgotten.

 Nine beliefs of remarkably successful people

There are many recipes for success to be gleaned from studying successful people.   I find that talking to people who study the successful people is often more productive, not only in revealing what they did, but more importantly what they believe.  In a recent INC Magazine article by Jeff Haden who has “ghost written” a number of books by successful business leaders, he shares  “Nine Beliefs of Remarkably Successful People” that he has distilled from working with them.

A Bluffer’s Guide to Start Ups

When we think of startups we think of the Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfreys and Martha Stewarts of the world and wonder what they knew that we don’t that accounts for their success.   According to British Entrepreneur Luke Johnson’s Financial Times column, it’s  not just what they knew….it’s also about what they didn’t know,,, and the role that bluffing can play at a critical moment in a careers. Learn more in his brief article A Bluffer’s Guide to Starting a Business.

ECON RECON:

100 Mind Blowing Facts about the Economy:   Check out  100 Mind Blowing Facts about the Economy from the Motley Fool website.   Here is a sample of seven that I found interesting:

4. According to The New York Times: “From 2001 to 2011, state and local financing per [college] student declined by 24 percent nationally.”

8. In 1998, oil industry executives told Congress that oil would average $10 a barrel for the following decade. In reality, it averaged $44.9 a barrel. Most people are terrible at predicting the future — even (or especially) experts.

10. From 1929 to 1932, the total amount of money paid out in wages fell by 60%, according to historian Frederick Lewis Allen. By contrast, from 2007-2009, total American wages fell less than 5%. What we experienced in recent years was nothing close to the Great Depression.

15. If state, local, and federal employment followed the same trend from 2008 through today as it did from 2005-2008, the unemployment rate would be 6.5% instead of 8.2%.

35. Forty percent of kids raised in a family in the top income quintile stay there as adults, and 40% of those born into the lowest quintile remain there. Only 8% of those raised in the top quintile drop to the lowest quintile as adults, according to the Pew Economic Mobility Project.

39. Five of every six American families earn more than their respective parents did, according to the Pew Economic Mobility Project.

43. Ten percent of Medicare recipients who received hospital care made up 64% of the program’s hospital spending in 2009, according to The Wall Street Journal