Posts by Early To Rise
Do What You Were Meant to Do – Even If You Don’t Get Paid For It
“The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Recently, DF, a friend and colleague, wrote me: “From the time he was a small toddler, Mozart was playing the piano. He could play the piano and violin at a virtuoso…
Read MoreCreate Change Safely
“When you are right, you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.” – Martin Luther King Jr. For years, Kimberly-Clark had made nice, steady profits selling paper wholesale. But when Darwin Smith took over as CEO, he believed the future was in consumer paper goods — and he believed…
Read MoreThe Awful Truth About Teamwork
“Look over your shoulder now and then to be sure someone’s following you.” – Henry Gilmer In Dick Lyles’ book “Winning Ways”, a parable on success, Albert is hampered in business by his inability to work as a team member. His supervisor tells him to visit a local college-football coach for advice. What he gets…
Read MoreETR Can Change Your Life If You Let It
“Some people like my advice so much that they frame it upon the wall instead of using it.” – Gordon R. Dickson During the three years that I’ve been spooning out daily advice in ETR, it has become obvious that most of those who read it will never make any good use of it. And…
Read MoreSix Simple Rules for Making Every Meal a Pleasure
“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.” – Anthelme Brillat-Savarin You can make all your meals elegant by following six simple rules: 1. Pay a little extra for the principal element. For breakfast, buy great, freshly roasted coffee — and grind it yourself. For lunch, pay a little more…
Read MoreWhat it Really Means When an Employee Threatens to Resign
When an employee threatens to resign, take a step back from the situation and ask these specific questions, both for them and yourself.
Read MoreImpress Your Boss by Keeping Him Informed
“I have made this [letter] longer, because I – have not had the time to make it shorter.” – Blaise Pascal If you want to impress your boss . . . whether you are new on the job or not . . . keep him periodically apprised of your progress and plans. You should do…
Read MorePerfect Dad, Flawed Dad: How Good Do You Have to Be?
“Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.” – Katherine Mansfield SM told me that he’d always assumed his father was “above it all” because of how successful he had been. He had appeared to…
Read MoreGetting Sick and Getting Ahead: Are They Related?
“I’ve used up all my sick time, so now I’m calling in dead.” – Author unknown A colleague of mine made an unannounced visit to one of his divisional profit centers, only to discover that the manager had been home “with a flu” for three days. “I could hardly contain myself,” he wrote me. “I…
Read MoreHow to Be “Good” Without Being a Jerk About It
“Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam [timber] out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” – The Bible, Matthew 7:5 Unethical work behavior has lessened, according to a survey done this year (presumably before the Enron and other scandals) by the…
Read MoreHow to End a Bad (Personal or Business) Relationship
“Ah yes, divorce, from the Latin word meaning to rip out a man’s genitals through his wallet.” – Robin Williams The last time I spoke to FJ, he was cursing his soon-to-be-ex wife. He was angry at her for giving up on the marriage and vowed to do everything he could to keep her from…
Read MoreHow to Be Great at Anything
“What we’re all striving for is authenticity, a spirit-to-spirit connection.” – Oprah Winfrey Good writing is hard to define. As a consultant to publishers, I know that as well as anyone does. It seems as if I’m always in the middle of one debate or another about whether some particular piece of writing is good,…
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