The value of lessons

After crosses and losses, men grow humbler and wiser. Benjamin Franklin 1706 – 1790 Several years ago, I worked with a young man for a few months with the goal of teaching him better methods to market his services. I became quite frustrated because he didn’t seem to appreciate the value of my lessons and wasn’t fully implementing them. So I set aside some time to consider the situation and try to understand what was going wrong. This contemplation ended up being very enlightening for me. Here’s what I came to realize. This man was listening to what I had …
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Teaching penguins to fly

You possess strengths you might not realize you have. Find the right one. Use it. Epictetus 55 – 135 A.D. There’s an interesting story about penguins that illustrates a profound lesson. As the story goes, a group of penguins got wind of the fact that inspirational and motivational speakers were achieving amazing results with their followers. And the penguins wondered if a motivational speaker could help them learn to fly. After all, the penguins reasoned, they were birds, and birds fly. What was stopping them from achieving their potential? So the penguins formed a committee to find a motivational speaker …
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What’s more important, the right answer or the right question?

Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers. Tony Robbins 1960 – In school, we were taught that we needed to know the right answer. (Thankfully, it was usually in the back of the book.) As we grew up and embarked on our careers, we were again told to know the right answer. When we’re asked a question, it’s important that we know the correct response. Lately, I’ve come to understand the value of asking the right question. The right answer to the wrong question isn’t worth much. But too often, we’re so focused on …
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