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Wisdom is Sunlight Of the Soul
Quotes, aphorisms, proverbs or whatever you want to call them — I’m a junkie. I picked up the habit from my father who was an Associated Press journalist. Readers of my nationally syndicated column will recognize them as morals. They need to be short, snappy and to the point. A good moral or proverb must…
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Innovation Requires Creative Space
Seymour Cray, the founder of Cray Research and legendary free spirit in the management community, was once asked – according to a Wall Street Journal story – to produce a one-year and a five-year plan. The next day, he produced two three-ring binders, each containing a single sheet of paper. In the first binder, Cray…
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Achieving Your Potential
A famous art professor died and went to heaven. At the Pearly Gates, the professor asked St. Peter, “Sir, I spent most of my life on earth studying great art, but I have a question that has puzzled me for 30 years: Who was the greatest painter in history?” St. Peter pointed to a nearby…
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Prepare For The Future By Learning From Your Past
A farmer famed for his agricultural know-how once hired a neighbor’s teenage son to help him do the spring plowing. The farmer believed in letting people do their work without undue supervision, so he placed the boy on the tractor and went over the hill to work on another field. Anxious to plow straight furrows,…
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Remember To Work On Keeping Your Memory
American mathematician Norbert Wiener had a reputation for being a little absent-minded. According to one story, when his family moved to a new Massachusetts home, his wife insisted on supervising every detail of the move because she couldn’t depend on Wiener to remember the important details – like their new address.Wiener went to work on…
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Getting Unstuck Means Sticking to a Plan
Three men were in a pickup truck driving in the woods when they became stuck in the mud. The driver became angry and began to shout and curse. He pounded on the steering wheel and then sat fuming about their bad luck. The second man climbed out of the truck and took refuge in the…
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Work Requires Fair Play Too
One day many years ago, two young fellows were in a quarrel, and it had signs of becoming serious. Future U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, himself a young man at the time, but with an earnest desire for fair play, was called upon to decide the difficulty. One of the combatants, who had been defeated in…
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Criticism Challenges Creativity
The great American filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille said, “Creativity is a drug I cannot live without.” As I’ve said in the past, I always try to start each day with a healthy dose of vitamin C – Creativity. I believe that creative ideas and actions are what make life interesting. More important than drugs and…
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Communication Need Not Be Complicated
Several years ago, a seasoned plumber wrote to the U.S. Bureau of Standards promoting a new procedure for cleaning pipes. The bureau replied: “The efficiency of the recommended solution is completely undisputed. However, there is an inherent incompatibility between the aforementioned solution and the basic chemical structures of the commonly used materials in current household…
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Calm Your Emotions Before They Get Out Of Control
A young woman was waiting for her flight at a big airport, so she decided to buy a book to read and a packet of cookies to snack on. She sat down in an armchair in a VIP lounge to relax and read in peace. A man sat down in the next seat, opened his…