Generosity

There is a huge difference between being generous and being altruistic. Generosity is purposeful and discerning, altruism is blind and indiscreet. Recipients act accordingly. Seldom do you see the recipient of altruism express gratitude. – Lyle

Chess

The master chess player has not merely mastered how each piece moves or developed a few opening and closing strategies; the master chess player can think at least 6 moves into the future, understanding how to trap his opponent and win the game. - Charles Koch



The same applies in the business world.

Human Plan

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - Lazarus Long in Time Enough for Love by Robert Heinlein



This is my second most favorite quote. Think about giving it as a graduation present for it may cause the graduate to realize how much is left to learn.

Target Practice

Ideas pull the trigger, but instinct loads the gun. - Don Marquis



Load the clip; pull the trigger; have another in the chamber in case you miss; keep pulling until you hit the target. Your aim will get better with practice - the target may not get any closer.

Scratching

Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching for what it gets. – Henry Ford



Creativity, enthusiasm, innovation come from pressure. You can create your own pressure for only so long but it quickly returns when your market forces you to "scratch." This goes for your employees as well.

Burning Words

If you are to be pungent, be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams – the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn. – Robert Southey



A fun analogy to help us remember to write, then condense, then condense some more. The work of writing is not the writing but the re-writing.

Blind Beetle

When a blind beetle crawls over the surface of a curved branch, it doesn't notice that the track it has covered is indeed curved. I was lucky enough to notice what the beetle didn't notice. - Albert Einstein



Was he lucky to see or did he have the ability to view better? I think he had the ability to throw out what was intuitively obvious and look at what was really going on. Intuition has it's limitations because it is based on incomplete information.

Goals

If you are not working daily toward your goals, you are helping someone achieve theirs. – Kerry L. Johnson



I doubt the inverse of this is true (working towards your goal prevents others from reaching theirs). The prudent person wants everyone to succeed.

Chapter 3

This is the third chapter of my never ending short story "Index Out Front". See the list at top right to read the previous chapters. I'll post additional chapters every couple of weeks. - Lyle
__________________________________________________

She read the draft copy I had printed with a blank expression, eyes darting across each line in rapid succession.

“Crap.” she said, throwing the pages back on my desk.

“What do you mean? What’s wrong with it?”

“Don’t ask that question unless you really want to know. I don’t lie, I give my true opinion and if it offends you then you need to understand that the reason is because you asked – not that I was inconsiderate.”

“I can handle anything you can dish out……kid.” I was starting to regret having invited her to read what I had written.

She paused momentarily as if contemplating what to do next. She started slowly. “Your story lacks substance, fire, drama. Your story is a recounting of every day occurrences for the average person with average ability, intelligence and talent. If I wanted to know more about a person like that I would just walk down the street and start talking to whomever. Your story does not inspire me. Your story is like a painting of a bowl full of flowers. Yea, it’s great you can portray a bowl full of flowers but a real flower in my own bowl on my own table is a far more valuable. If you want to impress me, affect me, cause me to swoon, then write about something which will inspire me, make me want to achieve, make me cry with joy, make me think, make me feel human. Your story tells me what I’ve suspected – people are a miserable lot. Sorry, but I need light to survive.”

She was out of her chair and out the door before I could utter a word.

--------------------- - ------------------------

I didn’t look as she came into class the next day. I knew she would not be afraid to look at me. Damn it.

I lectured about proper usage, grammar and syntax and sentence structure. I exhorted the value of community service, the need for political reform, the value of serving humanity, the essence of cultural diversity, I love teaching English Composition because you can have your way with all forms of opinions with a moldable audience. I chuckled inwardly as I fed this line of bull-crap to my students, knowing full well they would absorb it all and regurgitate it precisely at the next test as well as the next time the subject came up in a social gathering of family or friends. Everybody except her of course. I watched her out of the corner of my eye and could see she was not impressed.

I had pondered the topic of the next writing assignment but I hadn’t decided until I saw how uninterested she was in my lecture. “Three to five pages on Cultural Diversity. Narrow the topic to a perspective which can be fully covered in a short piece”.

She didn’t turn in a paper. I stopped her and asked her why. “The subject did not interest me.” She said curtly and walked off. I chuckled - It was going to be fun to lower her grade. “What would interest you?” I called after her. “Sculpture.” she said and continued to walk away.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Coming up in later Chapters:
Sculpture
Sewers and Roses
A trip to the cemetery
Love is Like Salt
The Difference Between Men and Women
...and more!

Morality

Indigestion is charged by God with enforcing morality on the stomach. - Victor Hugo



Wouldn't be nice if there were some other affliction which enforced morality in general? It used to be this was handled by the community. If you were immoral you were ostracized at best, hung by the neck at worst. This approach tended to keep folks in line. Today, with political correctness as it is, one is ostracized for stating a view ("What makes you think you are right?").

Solution

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate. - Henry J. Tillman



Gotcha! I keep telling you that words mean something, though the "something" might be plural.

Thoughts On Paper

In conversation you can get away with all kinds of vagueness and nonsense, often without even realizing it. But there's something about putting your thoughts on paper that forces you to get down to specifics. That way, it's harder to deceive yourself – or anybody else. - Lee Iacocca, on writing, speaking from his experience as manager in business.



I think this is a very good idea. Put your thoughts and directives on paper to avoid vagueness and nonsense.

Freedom of Speech

The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously. - Hubert Humphrey



The old adage "Don't believe everything you read." should be changed to "Don't believe everything you hear or read." By the way, don't be upset because it was said, just don't take them seriously.

Wages

It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages. - Henry Ford



All employees who talk to the folks really paying their wages should be reminded of this regularly.

Defending Civilization

We are fools when we fail to defend civilization. The ancient Romans might as well have said, "Oh, the Germanic tribes have valid nationalistic and cultural aspirations. Let’s pull the legions off the Rhine, submit our differences to a multilateral peace conference chaired by the Pathan Empire and start a Vandal Studies program at the Academy in Athens.” - P.J. O’Rourke



Though this is a particular timely thought - has there ever been a time when it did not apply?

Thinking Differently

Corruption: The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. - Nietzsche, Dawn, 297



This is dated. That is what the 60's were all about though the pendulum seems to swung the other way too far. Thinking differently shouldn't be confused with thinking well.

Wax Nose

A truth that is merely acquired from others only clings to us as a limb added to the body, or as a false tooth, or a wax nose. A truth we have acquired by our own mental exertions, is like our natural limbs, which really belong to us. This is exactly the difference between an original thinker and the mere learned man. – Arthur Schopenhauer

This is why "Education alone does not a man make." No matter how many acronyms are piled behind a name does not necessarily reflect on ability. Remember that the next time you hire someone.

Practical Results

Physics is like sex. Sure, it may give some practical results, but that's not why we do it. - Dr. Richard P. Feynman



The same could be said about the study of economics.

Stockholders

An excellent monument might be erected to the Unknown Stockholder. It might take the form of a solid stone ark of faith apparently floating on a pool of water. – Felix Riesenberg



If I ever make enough money in the market I will commission the work!

Pride

One of the best temporary cures for pride and affectation is seasickness; a man who wants to vomit never puts on airs. - Josh Billings



Evil thought moment: If you need a break from such a person why not invite them deep sea fishing? Beware of your own proclivities though, you might be humbled yourself.

Doctrine

Doctrine is the necessary foundation of duty; if the theory is not correct, the practice cannot be right. Tell me what a man believes, and I will tell you what he will do. – Tryon Edwards

If more folks used this concept in choosing a spouse there would be many more happy couples!

Chapter 2

This is the second chapter of my never ending short story "Index Out Front". See the list at top right to read the previous chapters. I'll post additional chapters every couple of weeks. - Lyle
-------- - ---------

She sat by herself in the cafeteria the next day surrounded by books. It struck me as odd that there were three books on golf stacked in front of her like a barricade. This meager fortification protected a slim leather-bound volume over which she hunched as if her eyesight had failed. “You missed class”, I said.

“I was out of town.”

“So you play golf?”

“No, never.”

“Why the books?”

“I needed to learn about it. Now they’re going back to the library.”

“Sounds like a mystery to me. You never play golf yet you learn about it and you go out of town and miss class. Am I getting close?”

“I went to see Tiger Woods play golf.”

“How was it?”

“I’ll write about it, I won’t talk about it.” With that she went back to writing in her leather bound book which I could now see had blank pages. It was a diary of course, which helped to explain the fortification.

I took the challenge. How was I to come up with a writing assignment which would cause someone to write about a game which they didn’t play yet would cause them to miss class? I assigned a paper written from a personal perspective about an off-campus activity. I knew it was lame.

I dug through the stack to find hers first. The title “Shine on Brightly” struck me as odd. The words did not flow across the page - they remained stationary and allowed the reader to caress them. I wept. “I need light to survive…..”; “Most people don’t shine, they cast shadows….”; “His joy was radiant……”; “You can tell from his smile……”. When I had finished I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to rip it to shreds so no one else could read it. I wanted to put it in the vault so no one could destroy it. I wanted to make a movie out of it. I wanted to force her make it longer so I could read more. I could not bear to read the other papers.

I wrote across the top of her paper “I cannot give you a grade on this paper. See me after class.”

--------- - ----------
I started doing background research on my novel three years ago. I’ve learned more about Midwestern farm life, soccer, science fiction, football, cheerleaders, high school administration and small towns than any person aught to know. My “home town” novel is well under way and is bound to be a hit. At least that is what I thought a few days ago.

She stood calmly in front of my desk. “Well?” she said.

I suppose a writer should be allowed to be speechless.

“Didn’t you like my paper?”

“Would you review the novel I’ve been working on?” I hadn’t planned on being so blunt.

“What’s in it for me?” she said.

“I could give you credit in the foreword.”

“Bullshit. I charge ten dollars an hour until the day I am published, and then the price goes up.”

“I could give you an “F.”

“Go ahead, it would only mean you couldn’t teach.”

“Come to my office tomorrow.”

Stand Up

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. - Mark Twain



There are two ways to make yourself feel superior: Do something great; Put down others in an effort to make yourself appear elevated. Unfortunately the latter is far more common, which is to be expected, because it requires much less effort. If you stand up you will get shot at by those who remain seated (rarely by those who have stood up before).

Dinner Conversation

"Remember this: one can be a strict logician or grammarian and at the same time full of imagination and music." - Herman Hesse, The Glass Bead Game

Seek out those you can have an imaginative, logical, rhapsodic conversation with and take them out to dinner.

Novelty

Of all the passions that possess mankind, the love of novelty rules most the mind; in search of this from realm to realm we roam, our fleets come fraught with every folly home. – Samuel Foote

Isn't using this what Apple has been best at? Novel products can become fads but to become indispensable they must have value beyond their cost. Microsoft has been good at he latter, Apple the former. So the lessen to be learned is to imbue your product with both.

Three Parts of Business

There be three parts of business- the preparation, the debate or examination, and the perfection; whereof if you look for dispatch let the middle only be the work of many and the first and last the work of few. – Francis Bacon

It took me a bit to recognize it but he really nailed the segmented aspects of business. There is a lot of guidance here in just a few words.

Feedback

On busy days in our telemarketing centers, I bring in buffet lunches, so people don't have to get up from their stations to go to lunch. But, I haven't yet gotten them to accept the catheter idea I proposed. - Jim McCann, CEO of 800-FLOWERS



Feedback, always listen to feedback - your idea might not go over well, even if it is a good one!

Gospel Intelligence

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence. - Bertrand Russell



Interesting observation. The question is "Why not?"