Friday, June 26, 2009

Improving Efficiency: Success comes from loving our work


The consciousness of being superbly equipped for your work brings untold satisfaction.

Efficiency is the watchword of today. The half-prepared man, the man who is ignorant, the man who doesn’t know his lines, is placed at a tremendous disadvantage.

A student seeking admission to the Oberlin College asked its famous president if there was not some way of taking a sort of homeopathic college course, some short-cut by which he could get all the essentials in a few months.

This was the president’s reply: “When the Creator wanted a squash, he created it in six months, but when he wanted an oak, he took a hundred years.”

One of the highest-paid women workers in the world, the foreign buyer for a big department store, owes her position more to thorough training for her work than to any other thing. Between salary and commissions, her income amounts to thirty thousand dollars a year.

Speaking of her place in the firm, one of its highest members said to a writer: “We regard Miss Blank as more of a friend than an employee; and she came to us just twenty years ago with her hair in pig-tails, tied with a shoe string; and she was so ill fed and ill clothed we had to pass her over to our house nurse to get her currycombed and scrubbed before we could put her on as a cash girl. Without training, she would probably have dropped back in the gutter as an unfit and a failure. With training, she has become one of the ablest business women in the country.”

The term “salesmanship” is a very broad one; it covers many fields. The drummer for a boot and shoe house, the insurance agent and manager, the banker and broker, whose business is to dispose of millions of dollars’ worth of stocks and bonds—all these are “salesmen,” trafficking in one kind of goods or another—all form a part of the world’s great system of organized barter.

There are three essentials which must be considered in deciding on salesmanship or any other vocation, namely: taste, talent, and training. The first is, by far, the most important of all the essentials, for whatever we have a taste for, we will be interested in; what we really become interested in, we are bound to love, sooner or later, and success comes from loving our work.

To find out whether or not you are cut out for a salesman, you must first analyze the question of your taste and your talent. In this matter, however, it should be borne in mind that human nature, especially in youth, is plastic, and that we can be molded by others, or we can mold ourselves.

Even though one has not a strong taste, naturally, or a decided talent for salesmanship, he can acquire both, for even talent, like taste, may be either natural or acquired. By proper training in salesmanship, which means the right kind of reading, observing and listening, and right practicing, we can develop our taste and ability so as to become good salesmen or good saleswomen.

The basic requirements for successful salesmanship are good health, a cheerful disposition, courtesy, tact, resourcefulness, facility of expression, honesty, a firm and unshakable confidence in one’s self, a thorough knowledge of, and confidence in, the goods which one is selling, and ability to close.

True cordiality of manner must be reinforced by intelligence and by a ready command of information in regard to the matters in hand. It will be seen that all things make the man as well as the salesman—when coupled with sincerity and highmindness, they can’t but bring success in any career.

The foundation for salesmanship can hardly be laid too early. The youth who uses his spare time when at school, in vacation season, and out of business hours, in acquiring the art of salesmanship will gain power to climb up in the world that cannot be obtained so readily by any other means.

Fortunate is the young man who has received the right kind of business training. No matter what his occupation or profession, such training will make him a more efficient worker. Many youths have had fathers whose experience and advice have been valuable to them.

Others have been favored by getting into firms of high caliber. As a result they have been in a splendid environment during their most formative years, and in so far have had an inestimable advantage in success training.

Many people have the impression that almost anybody can be a salesman, and that salesmanship doesn’t require much, if any, special training. The young man who starts out to sell things on this supposition will soon find out his mistake. If salesmanship is to be your vocation you cannot afford to take any such superficial view of its requirements.

You cannot afford to botch your life. You cannot afford a little, picayune career as a salesman, with a little salary and no outlook. If salesmanship is worth giving your life to, it is worth very serious and very profound and scientific preparation and training.

I know a physician, a splendid fellow, who studied medicine in a small, country medical school, where there was very little material, and practically no opportunity for hospital work. In fact, during his years of preparation his experience outside of medical books was very meager. Since getting his M.D. diploma this man has been a very hard worker and has managed to get a fair living, but he is much handicapped in his chance to make a name in his profession.

He has a fine mind, however, and if he had gone to the Harvard Medical School in Boston, or to one of the other great medical schools where there is an abundance of material for observation and facilities for practice in the hospitals and clinics, he would have learned more in six months, outside of what he gathered from books and lectures, than he learned in all of his course in the country medical schools.

His poor training has condemned him to a mediocre success, when his natural ability, with a thorough preparation, would have made him a noted physician.

You cannot afford to carry on your life work as an amateur, with improper preparation. You want to be known as an expert, as a man of standing, a man who would be looked up to as an authority, a specialist in his line.

To enter on your life work indifferently prepared, half trained, would be like a man going into business without even a common school education, knowing nothing about figures.

No matter how naturally able such a man might be, people would take advantage of his ignorance. He would be at the mercy of his bookkeeper and the other employees, and of unscrupulous businessmen. And if he should try to make up for his lack of early training or education, he must do it at a great cost in time and energy.

Successful salesmanship of the highest order requires not only a fine special training, but also a good education and a keen insight into human nature; it also requires resourcefulness, inventiveness and originality.

In fact, a salesman who would become a giant in his line, must combine with the art of salesmanship a number of the highest intellectual qualities.

Yet in salesmanship, as in every other vocation, there is not one qualification needed that cannot be cultivated by any youth of average ability and intelligence. Success in it, as in every other business and profession, is merely the triumph of the common virtues and ordinary ability.

In salesmanship, as in war, there is offensive and defensive. The trained salesman knows how to attack, and he knows how to defend himself when he is attacked. Everything contained within the covers of this book has for its object the most effective offensive and defensive methods in selling.

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Monday, June 22, 2009

How to brainstorm: creative Ideas: inspiration and innovation


The human capacity for ideas is something truly great!

For us, being creative and coming up with new ideas, answers and creative solutions, sometimes are easy, sometimes hard.

Yet, it is an integral part of what makes us uniquely human and having the capacity to grow, enrich, enhance, improve and develop.

Pushing ourselves beyond the limit, thinking outside the box for example are just some of the techniques we employ to come up with new ideas, inspiration and innovation.

We can master, hone, harness and make the most of our own and others’ creativity, innovation and inspiration.

We need to constantly be on the lookout for great new ways of getting ideas out there. This is how we will get ahead, continuing to thrive, grow and flourish.

We come up with new ideas for myriads of reasons, like being under pressure to be the best and solve problems, but also for the greater good, personal development, expression and satisfaction.

Being open-minded and receptive to new, innovative ways of thinking and doing things are essential for success and results. Developing and improving new ideas are some of the basic building-blocks for growth and improvement in business, as well as for our daily lives!

To have creative ideas you need good people, the right setting and atmosphere conducive and receptive to sparking that creativity and dynamic innovation!

Brainstorming is popular problem solving and innovation techniques in a wide variety of disciplines, like engineering, manufacturing, sales, and resource or project management.

To get results from new ideas, this process asks for a fine measure of creativity as well!

Sometimes coming up with new ideas can be a challenge. It may be difficult and/or expensive, then at other times working on the wrong type of idea, can be catastrophic as well! We even need to be creative with our new ideas and how use them, not just how we come up with them!

In many companies research and development often takes a back seat and brainstorming is just one technique you can use to ensure that this business priority does not fall by the way-side!

Novel, weird or even off-the-bat type ideas might not always be practical or ‘wise’, but sometimes this is where genius resides and reveals itself.

Absurdity oftentimes prove to hold some creativity keys that leads us to say that in brainstorming we never criticize, we generate new ideas first, and not evaluate them!

THIS IS THE FIRST AND GOLDEN RULE OF BRAINSTORMING! (initially at least!)

No matter how wild or crazy it might seem, ideas sometimes come from the strangest people and places we could possibly imagine. It can be quite a challenge, obstacle and task both personally and collectively to let go and just be creative.

We are taught to be in control, not absurd and this might actually hamper our own and dynamic interaction, innovation, inspiration and brainstorming. We need to create and environment conducive to coming up with GREAT, NEW IDEAS!

It is sometimes counter-intuitive, wild and crazy… and we need to learn to be OK with it!

Brainstorming is an innovative, idea-generating thought and action process for problem solving and inspired un-inhibited thought-creation.

According to online sourcing (www.wikipedia.org) brainstorming originated in 1953 in a book called Applied Imagination by Alex F. Osborn, an advertising executive and it has many potential applications and contexts where it can be useful and contribute meaningfully:

- Action plans
- Business planning
- Event planning
- Ideation
- Identifying client objectives
- Improvement on existing products, patents and services
- Improvements to process and businesses
- Innovations and inventions
- Marketing and advertising
- New product development
- Project Management
- Risks assessments
- Solving complex and technical problems
- Team building
- Trial preparation by attorneys
… and many more

Some more qualitative initial insights into the nature and dynamics of brainstorming, types, iterations, variations and more.

Brainstorming is a group process and idea-generation method. Its origin can be traced back to the 1930s. The key process , method and channel used for group-problem solving and new idea generation in a collaborative setting.

Technology can oftentimes be use for mass-brainstorming or large-sized groups and conferences.

It is also about so much MORE than mere ideas! It is about NEW IDEAS! It is also about the qualitative selection, prioritization, improvement, evaluation and implementation of those ideas afterwards that makes the whole endeavor meaningful and rewarding. This is how it really contributes to society, life, career, family, business and the future!

Brainstorming is said to fall into THREE major phases or ‘parts’(process-steps)

1) Fact finding (problem definition and preparatory steps)
2) Idea generation
3) Solution finding

Defining the problem is the first step, after which you need to gather any information that might relate to the problem.

Actual brainstorming activity is used to generate ideas, insights and angels to answer and solve issue and problem at hand.

Selecting the best ideas and solutions, implementing the answers round out the process.

TWO KEY PRINCIPLES FOR Brainstorming

INQUIRY, CURIOSITY WITH NO CRITIQUE - Suspended and deferred judgment – creative boundless and boundaryless invention, innovation and inspired, uninhibited flow of ideas
VOLUME and Quantity of ideas will lead to a couple of qualitative NEW IDEAS!

The biggest error in brainstorming is rushing to a judgment, critique or dismisses something.
Using our creative minds and energies is what we need to foster and focus less on the judging side of our brain!

Associations and connections, synergy is what leads to good ideas. This processing takes time and through brainstorming with self and others they can be brought to the surface, improved upon, brought from concept to reality – in the end making a contribution and difference, translating into meaningful action and effecting change, improvement and the like.

Going deeper and beyond is what brainstorming is all about!

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Improve your life, living pace, getting things done!


Here are a couple of key time-planning type questions that you can and have to ask yourself:

- How is your day organized from waking to sleeping?
- How does each decision you make pertaining to time, useful, beneficial and uplifting, worth its weight in gold getting results.
- How do you structure and utilize your time ?
- How do you assign minutes, hours to important tasks to get things done?
- Do you get or feel stressed, in over your head, under pressure, if you do not do it, or have not had the time to plan your day, week etc.?

Here are some more of the benefits that you can tap into with good time management:
- reach targets and goals more effectively, faster etc.
- More and qualitative results quicker
- Be and have less stressed

All of us wake up or go to sleep with some set or list of to do’ s in our head, some write it down, others just rehearse their days through their mind.

We all are not just blown around by wind and whim. Does this ring true for you? Are you a list maker?

Are you a getting the job/tasks done type person, driving for closure, organizing and prioritizing, multi-tasking until things are/get done? TIME MANAGEMENT CAN HELP!

We all face competing priorities everyday and how we react to them, can also affect what we can and will get done.

We are living in increasingly fast-paced worlds and realities, contexts, with many key priorities to effect and execute.

Some feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of what they have to get done, that they are left debilitated, not able to complete anything well or at all.

Sometimes referred to as “analysis paralysis” or the inability to move beyond the planning and lists phases, with some real action, results and decisions.

Taking in and processing information on an on-going basis, constantly overloading your mind, worried, frustrated and without concentration of mind or energies plague us, at home, at work, in every aspect, or the most important areas of our lives, relationships and interactions, pursuits, hobbies, careers etc.

We need to figure out a solution to make the most of every day that is given and added to our lives, yet we struggle.

How are you and when do you know that you are successful and accomplished in the time management field.

If you can get the most out of not only every day but every hour, focusing on the things that really need to get finished and done, as opposed to feeling overwhelmed and grinding to a halt, accomplishing nothing much, then you know you are slugging it out and making some leeway with time and managing yourself better.

So, how do you make the most of every hour? Well, start fresh, take a little break, at the start, middle and finish of the hour, before the next.

Set aside a couple of things (say 3-4, or focus on 1 key/complex task that has to get done and simply get it done.

If you are working on more than one task, chop the hour into its 15 minute segments and get started on the first one. It sounds rudimentary, but that is really all you have to do.

Once that one task is checked and crossed off your list, move on to the next one. Do not get interrupted, distracted or called away from it. Tend to everything else that keeps you from finishing it, until you are done.

If the task takes a little longer than expected, see how realistic it is to still get all the other three done, or just part of them, deferring the lesser parts to a little later, or when you have a moment free. Your task list does not have to be set in stone, be a flexible, live, real-time dynamic, rather than a dead, rigid document.

If the latter, you will still soon feel the pressure, frustration of not getting everything done that you wanted too. Remain and be MORE patient and flexible with yourself as you adjust to this new way of doing things.

If you do not have a desk, time or calendar type planner (hard copy or electronic, handheld type device, digital organizer, filo-fax, small notebook etc. , get and learn, start to use a time planner of some sorts.

This will help you very quickly take control and make tangible what you are up against, what needs to be and get done. It makes visible and gives live and momentum to an otherwise overwhelming chaos and mess (without knowing what, where to start, what to do, etc. )

Now you can start not only planning today, every hour, where you need to be, what you need to accomplish, running errands, knocking tasks of the list one by one, but you can also plan beyond the short term, like medium to long term – your next vacation, setting financial/savings type goals and targets, planning for the year, major events, business or leisure travel, this month, this week, new week and yes, each day, starting with today.

For most, these types of activities are hard to start and/or stick by. One reason is tackling and focusing too much on the mechanics rather than the process, journey and results.

Have a master task list that is ranked and prioritized and start with the ones that are most important, most urgent, cannot wait, overdue, behind type of ones (typically relieving some pressure), so you can have more time to still plan ahead, work on some of the other tasks, Updating your calendar and a daily "actions" list as often as you can, focus on tomorrow and the remainder of the week, the weekend and next week.

Very few people are surprised that all of a sudden they feel more relaxed and have more time on their hands to do the things they enjoy and be with those they love, even pursue things (activities, hobbies, socials), that they did not have time for before.

Again, most of these planning and preparing activities do not come naturally for the majority of us. To some, yes, who are blessed with attention to detail, routines, rites and personal rituals, but not all of us!

These tools can help, only to the extent that they better and improve your life, living pace, getting things done, flows with your lifestyle, pace, responsibilities and realities of personal, work and family life.

You can synergize, coordinate, organize and harmonize these things into a well-sounding clockwork type symphony, if you put your mind and heart, as well as purpose into it.

Tenzin
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http://www.MessageOfAMaster.com

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