"...keeping you great"
HEADLINES:
00's The Big Con -- Frank Rich at the NY Times, beat me to the label (I added the word "big"), but in reflecting on the last decade, it felt like one big con job! 9/11, Wall Street, Big Pharma, the Government; plus Madoff, Woods, and the space-balloon fiasco -- I've never felt more lied to and deceived than in this last decade, though the increased transparency provided by the internet likely means the big cons are just being exposed more. "The Great Awakening" is my hope for the coming decade. Big lesson? Big is ALWAYS bad!
Andre Agassi Had the Wrong Big Goal (BHAG) -- I thoroughly enjoyed reading Andre Agassi's autobiography entitled Open: An Autobiography over the holidays. Critics are calling it the best sports biography ever written given Agassi's candor (he has always hated tennis, lied about his drug use, wore a wig when he had long hair, etc). A major turning point in his career was when he realized he was pursuing the wrong long-term goal (BHAG) for himself. Rather than pursue winning the most Grand Slams, he focused on winning a Career Grand Slam (all four majors), something only one other player at the time, Rod Laver, had ever achieved. This change in goals changed everything -- his training, scheduling, and focus. And with his Olympic Gold win in 1996, he's the ONLY player in history to win the Career Golden Slam -- all four majors and the Olympics. It made me rethink Gazelles BHAG during our planning session earlier this week. Are you pursuing the right BHAG for you and your company?
Andre Agassi's Vision Boards -- Agassi benefited from several accidental vision boards. The most ironic was Brook Shields' (Agassi's first wife) posting of Steffi Graf's picture as she was preparing for their wedding. Shields wanted to get in shape for her wedding and felt that Steffi Graf had the best looking legs. Little did Shields know that Agassi would later divorce her and marry Graf, who is the only woman to ever win the Career Golden Slam as well -- a piece of sports trivia I never put together. BTW, do any of you know Agassi? Trying to get him to speak at the Sales Summit since he's based in Las Vegas.
Vision Boards for the Family -- taking a lead from Keith Ferrazzi of Who's Got Your Back fame, who hosted a vision boarding exercise with 30 friends over the holidays, our family is taking this weekend to put together vision boards for the coming decade. Search the internet for pictures and images that represent your long term goals and post them on a board. Then mount the boards where each member of the family can see their individual board daily.
The Complete Vision Board Kit by John Assaraf -- Assaraf, featured in The Secret, author of The Answer, and keynoter for the Sales and Marketing Summit in Vegas April 20 -- 22, has a Vision Board Kit book -- I downloaded it to my Kindle and will be using it with the family this weekend -- it walks you through how to properly create vision boards. Here's a link to Amazon. I've used visions boards and they work. There is no better way to kick-off the new decade!
Tropicare Achieves Vision -- Record Revenues and Profits -- planning pays off for Johannes Brinksma's Dutch-based Tropicare, a leader in global travel healthcare. Double digit growth (which exceeded their plan); record profits due to a focus on improved procurement; and more cash by reducing A/R days from 40 to 32 (something they reviewed DAILY!) for 2009. Notes Brinkma "last year we went to your seminar in Washington in December (2008). We applied the principles and worked on the One-Page Plan, structure, and data. It's not easy, but we kept going and it paid off. For (2010) we've determined goals...and happily we also found Spark in Holland (Gazelles coaching partner) that can support us as well with the Rockefeller Habits and more."
Executing Big Goals/Visions -- and this note from Steve Kendrick with Structures Building Company, custom and luxury home builder in Charleston, SC "We recently built a show house for Coastal Living Magazine in 4 months using your daily/weekly meeting format. We'd never have succeeded without it. They told us we were the first builder that actually finished one of their homes on time and on such short notice! Coming out of the recession, lean and mean, we now look forward to implementing new goals and your suggested meeting regimen to take our company to the next leve!!"
HEADLINES:
00's The Big Con -- Frank Rich at the NY Times, beat me to the label (I added the word "big"), but in reflecting on the last decade, it felt like one big con job! 9/11, Wall Street, Big Pharma, the Government; plus Madoff, Woods, and the space-balloon fiasco -- I've never felt more lied to and deceived than in this last decade, though the increased transparency provided by the internet likely means the big cons are just being exposed more. "The Great Awakening" is my hope for the coming decade. Big lesson? Big is ALWAYS bad!
Andre Agassi Had the Wrong Big Goal (BHAG) -- I thoroughly enjoyed reading Andre Agassi's autobiography entitled Open: An Autobiography over the holidays. Critics are calling it the best sports biography ever written given Agassi's candor (he has always hated tennis, lied about his drug use, wore a wig when he had long hair, etc). A major turning point in his career was when he realized he was pursuing the wrong long-term goal (BHAG) for himself. Rather than pursue winning the most Grand Slams, he focused on winning a Career Grand Slam (all four majors), something only one other player at the time, Rod Laver, had ever achieved. This change in goals changed everything -- his training, scheduling, and focus. And with his Olympic Gold win in 1996, he's the ONLY player in history to win the Career Golden Slam -- all four majors and the Olympics. It made me rethink Gazelles BHAG during our planning session earlier this week. Are you pursuing the right BHAG for you and your company?
Andre Agassi's Vision Boards -- Agassi benefited from several accidental vision boards. The most ironic was Brook Shields' (Agassi's first wife) posting of Steffi Graf's picture as she was preparing for their wedding. Shields wanted to get in shape for her wedding and felt that Steffi Graf had the best looking legs. Little did Shields know that Agassi would later divorce her and marry Graf, who is the only woman to ever win the Career Golden Slam as well -- a piece of sports trivia I never put together. BTW, do any of you know Agassi? Trying to get him to speak at the Sales Summit since he's based in Las Vegas.
Vision Boards for the Family -- taking a lead from Keith Ferrazzi of Who's Got Your Back fame, who hosted a vision boarding exercise with 30 friends over the holidays, our family is taking this weekend to put together vision boards for the coming decade. Search the internet for pictures and images that represent your long term goals and post them on a board. Then mount the boards where each member of the family can see their individual board daily.
The Complete Vision Board Kit by John Assaraf -- Assaraf, featured in The Secret, author of The Answer, and keynoter for the Sales and Marketing Summit in Vegas April 20 -- 22, has a Vision Board Kit book -- I downloaded it to my Kindle and will be using it with the family this weekend -- it walks you through how to properly create vision boards. Here's a link to Amazon. I've used visions boards and they work. There is no better way to kick-off the new decade!
Tropicare Achieves Vision -- Record Revenues and Profits -- planning pays off for Johannes Brinksma's Dutch-based Tropicare, a leader in global travel healthcare. Double digit growth (which exceeded their plan); record profits due to a focus on improved procurement; and more cash by reducing A/R days from 40 to 32 (something they reviewed DAILY!) for 2009. Notes Brinkma "last year we went to your seminar in Washington in December (2008). We applied the principles and worked on the One-Page Plan, structure, and data. It's not easy, but we kept going and it paid off. For (2010) we've determined goals...and happily we also found Spark in Holland (Gazelles coaching partner) that can support us as well with the Rockefeller Habits and more."
Executing Big Goals/Visions -- and this note from Steve Kendrick with Structures Building Company, custom and luxury home builder in Charleston, SC "We recently built a show house for Coastal Living Magazine in 4 months using your daily/weekly meeting format. We'd never have succeeded without it. They told us we were the first builder that actually finished one of their homes on time and on such short notice! Coming out of the recession, lean and mean, we now look forward to implementing new goals and your suggested meeting regimen to take our company to the next leve!!"