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	Saturday, May 28, 2005

Points to Ponder 3  ( on quotes) Here are some more of my musings as I read some quotations. I have just got some comments from well meaning people who think I have been too stingy and frugal.  Maybe too conservative in managing my company.  As budding entrepreneurs, especially if you are a startup, you should wear your stinginess ( as long as it is not in being stingy in rewarding and paying people) as a badge of honor.  If you are trying to buy great cars, or decorate your office lavishly when you are still in the growth phase, you might be doing your company irreparable harm early which it will be hard to recover.  Confucius advised us over 2 thousand years ago, " He who will not economize will have to agonize." Of course, the flipside of being advised, or criticized is to be flattered, and I also hear a lot of that.  It is always important to remember, as Josh Billings said, that you should "treat flattery like cologne -- to be smelled, but not to be swallowed. " And when criticized, you tended to be defensive, and is itching for an argument, remember Euripedes advice: "Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish." And when we complained how we, as parents who have endured hardship, and that our children don't appreciate the value of money, here is Katharine Whitehorn's take, "The easiest way for your children to learn about money is for you not to have any." From a parent, and a businessman, it would be good to learn what comes first -- and when we think of how many business people spent thousands of hours accumulating wealth only to be lost by their children who does not appreciate its value, it might makes sense that before you start to earn what you want to give to your children, teach them the proper skills to retain that money first.   5:44:01 PM     comment []   trackback []

	Monday, May 23, 2005

Points to Ponder 2   ( on quotes) Dr. Robert Schuller gives us another gem which gives us a better understanding on the person we really are when you ask this question to yourself . "What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?" The Greek Philosopher, Aristotle, gives us another food for thought, which actually is pretty obvious and common sensical... "For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them." Sydney Smith , an English clergyman of the 19th century, understands only too well what forms habits and opinions -- "Never try to reason the prejudice out of a man. It was not reasoned into him, and cannot be reasoned out." And as entrepreneurs, as those who did everything to grow the company, including deliver the goods, collect the money, and sweep the floor, we are often overwhelmed when we finally grow big enough to meet the experts and the business elite.  Here is one great advice, though I had failed to note who said it, "Don't be buffaloed by experts and elites. Experts often possess more data than judgment. Elites can become so inbred that they produce hemophiliacs who bleed to death as soon as they are nicked by the real world."   7:54:50 PM     comment []   trackback []

	Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Points to Ponder 1  ( on quotes) I've decided not only to put in my favorite business quotes, but to write it in such a way that I put in also my own. This morning, I was thinking, "what if one of the better ways to know how your employees think about money is to put a 5 cent coin near the lobby and see how many would bother to pick it up? ".  I am thinking on how your employee views money could give you a good clue on how to help them succeed in life. I have been thinking on where I want to expand the market for my products, and this quote of Claude Bastiat is something that gives food for thought, "....that it is better to endure competition for rich customers than to be invested with monopoly over impoverished customers. ".  This is advice given in the 19th century.  Would you think it is still true? Here is another quote from famous coach, Lombardi, that support my posting on being tough, "let me tell you what winning means - you're willing to go longer, work harder , and give more than anyone else."  And here is the greatest advice from Hubbard on how to multiply your money, " The safest way to double your money is to fold it over an dput it in your pocket. "  In short, save it, I think.  This coincides with the advice of Benjamin Franklin, "The Road to Wealth is as plain as the way to market.  Waste neither time nor money ... ".  After all , you increase your money by the difference of what comes in, and what goes out...   3:30:41 PM     comment []   trackback []

	Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Quotes to Live By     ( my favorite quotes) What matters is not ideas, but the people who have them.  Good people can fix bad ideas, but good ideas can't save bad people .......................... Paul Graham Do not go silently into that good night,  Rage, rage against the dying of the light ........ Dylan Thomas Insurmountable is a word we ripped out of the dictionary years ago. At EDS, we love a challenge and the bigger it is, the more we dig in until its solved. Its what makes us who we are. Each day over 120,000 EDS employees go to work, roll up their sleeves and do whatever it takes to make sure our clients are well served.  Each day they bring with them a tenacious can do spirit and an uncompromising commitment to service.  Each day they're the reason we've never faced a challenge we haven't been able to rise above... EDS. Manpower. Brainpower. Willpower.....................EDS advertisement The chains of habit are too light to be felt until they're too heavy to be broken...... Bertrand Russell. A nation which indulges in pretty dresses, nice food, physical enjoyment and expensive fashions can never succeed in establishing a strong nation..... Gen Masaharu Homma, Japanese conquerer of manila and bataan 1942   10:34:42 AM     comment []   trackback []