We Live and We Die Based on.....

Once upon a time in a land far far away comes a tale of two men.  The younger gentleman had traveled far and wide to find the older wiser gentleman.  When he finally found him he spent many a minute telling the gentleman about how far he had traveled, all of his accomplishments and the reason for his search.   The younger man pleaded with the older - wiser man,

"Oh wise man, how I would love to sit at your feet and learn what you know.  Please teach me as I want to learn everything you have experienced and become wiser myself."

The older - wiser gentleman quietly asked the man in to partake of his lunch, as he was just sitting down to his midday meal.  The man quickly came in to the table to sit down.  As the older man sat down he noticed that the younger man was searching for something and asked him how he could serve.  The younger man replied,

"I hate to be a bother, but do you possibly have salt?"  

The older man turned to the cupboard, pulled down the salt and gently sat it on the table.  The younger man, quickly turned the salt shaker over and began shaking salt over the prepared food.  As he took his first bite, he made a horrible face and he quickly asked for a glass of water.  The older gentleman slid him over his own cup of water and waited while the younger man finished the drink and gasped out,

" I mean no offense good sir, but the food on this dish is horribly over-seasoned and salted.  May I  suggest that  the person who committed this egregious mistake be asked to leave your household until they learn what is enough and what is too much?"

The older, and much wiser, gentleman gently stood up, walked to the door, and asked the younger man to follow him.  As he led him out the door he quietly said,

"Young man you have indeed traveled far and wide to find me.  Unfortunately I am not the one to help you, as you, yourself, said that the person who does not know what is enough and what is too much should be asked to leave" 

As the younger man gaped at him in astonishment and confusion the older man took pity on him and decided to share a 'little' bit of wisdom with  him, as he had traveled so far to find him.  He continued,

"Earlier you told me you wanted to learn what I know and experience what I have experienced.  What I know, is that one who salts his food before tasting it is simply unable to have enough of an open mind to even begin to comprehend what I can teach him.  You are headstrong and determined - and that is good -  but if not coupled with humility and an understanding of  the importance in owning your own decisions you will never learn and become wise yourself.  I cannot help someone who is close minded, quick to blame others, and unwilling to apply the standard you have set for others to yourself." 

Then the older and much wiser gentleman proceeded to wish the younger man good luck in his journey, returned to his house, and closed the door.  As the younger man walked away, he could be heard muttering...

"It was JUST salt......"

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So.. that's the story and I'm sticking to it!  Now before any of you run off to SNOPES.COM to determine if this is reality or fiction let me just ask...Does it really matter?

We all know what the moral of the story is - an individual who is close minded, unwilling to try new things, which  MIGHT possibly fail, and has an inability to admit mistakes is never going to be a true learner.

Learning is about being open to new experiences, it's expanding your mind to include things you never thought of before.  It's changing your patterns of thinking and hopefully through the learning comes growth.

Without growth - we as individuals become outdated, stale and stuck.  As a corporation or a business it's much, much worse.  We simply become obsolete.  How many of you know a business owner or two that didn't shift to digital photography or the DVD?  A great example is Barnes and Noble - it didn't shift early enough to digital sales and tablets and they are taking a HUGE hit.  Amazon is crushing them with the Kindle and online book sales.  Bookstore?  What's a bookstore?

Do we want to live that out in our personal lives and our professional jobs?  EMBRACE becoming a learning organization.  Do some research!  Look up what a Learning Organization looks like and test yourself against the prototype!  Can you grow?  Can you change?    Are you willing to communicate and support the learning of your staff and embrace an ongoing philosophy of improvement?

These are the types of questions you have to ask yourself in order to thrive and survive in our rapidly changing environment.  BE THE CHANGE!  Be the environment that encourages and supports continuous employee learning, risk taking and out of the box thinking.

I wish you best of luck on this journey - SW
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"A Learning Organization is all about uncovering what we don't know."
"A Learning Organization is not about what we can do today but tomorrow."
"Learning is the Silver Bullet to successfully completing our objectives."
"We live and die based on Learning!" 

Quotes from Gus Valen, Owner of The Valen Group - 2014 - thevalengroup.com

Forks in the Road

"Most people fail in the art of living not because they are inherently bad or so without will that they cannot lead a better life; they fail because they do not wake up and see when they stand at a fork in the road and have to decide. They are not aware when life asks them a question, and when they still have alternative answers. Then with each step along the wrong road it becomes increasingly difficult for them to admit that they are on the wrong road, often only because they have to admit that they must go back to the first wrong turn, and must accept the fact that they wasted energy and time." -Erich Fromm

These past couple of months have been daily decision's at forks in the road.  There is a component of fear and anxiety that is consistent without the foreknowledge of how those decisions will turn out.  That truth of 'we are not aware' is so true.  We are people capable of great self-deception.  What we 'feel', our life experiences, our tinted-sunglasses that offer us a perception that leads us to one path or another isn't necessarily the same as a tried and true map. 

That ability to go back and admit that we are on the wrong road involves a humility that many of us do not posses.  It requires a light to shine brightly on the path so that we can see all the dangers.  Even with the light we can stick our head in the sand, close our eyes, and stubbornly keep on pressing forward.  This happens in our personal lives, our business lives, and it does affect not only ourselves but those around us.

Each of us has that 'fork in the road' choice.  A brief moment in time where we need to choose right/left, up/down, right/wrong and sometimes that 'moment'  isn't as clear and defined as we would like.  I recently saw an article that had several quotes on the choices we make in life.  Several of them were great to pull out, review the fork in the road and to humbly say..."My bad - I made the wrong choice".  Only we have the power to do that in our own lives. 

Because the quotes really sparked my interest I wanted to most definitely share them here with you.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.  Please feel free to add your own choice quote or to share which of the quotes impacted you the most.  SW

Dr. Shad Helmstetter’s book titled “Choices.” 

1 – “No one else can ever make your choices for you. Your choices are yours alone. They are as much a part of you as every breath you will take, every moment of your life.”

2 – “You may think that in life,a lot of things happen to you along the way. The truth is, in life, you happen to a lot of things along the way.”

3 – “Choosing to live your life by your own choice is the greatest freedom you will ever have.”

4 – “It is only when you exercise your right to choose that you can also exercise your right to change.”

5 – “It is your programming that has created your choices in the past. It is the choices you make today that are creating the programs of your future.”

6 – “If you were given only one choice: To choose or not to choose, which would you choose?”

7 – “The choices we make by accident are just as important as the choices we make by design.”

8 – “Another person’s choice is nothing more than another alternative for you to consider.”

9 – “There is no life as complete as the life that is lived by choice.”

10 – “There may be a thousand little choices in a day. All of them count.”

11 – “Whatever you choose, you  might as well enjoy it. It is your choice.”

12 – “When you have a problem,make a choice…you’ll feel better.”

13 – “If you’d like to know what your choices have been, look at yourself and the life you have lived. What you see is the choices you have made.”

14 – “Who knows what you could accomplish in life if you made more of the right choices along the way?”

15 – “Some people choose to live by complaining. Other people choose to live.”

16 – “You cannot manage your life if you do not manage your self. You cannot manage your self if you do not manage your choices. Manage your choices, and you will manage your life.”

17 – “Learning what to choose,and how to choose, may be the most important education you will ever receive.”

18 – “The choices we make in the heat of emotion would be better if left for some other day.”

21 – “It is the big choices we make that set our direction. It is the smallest choices we make that get us to the destination.”

22 – “Each day that passes, your choices will come and go. They are like diamonds in a chest of jewels, each waiting to be discovered.”

23 – “Those who choose to succeed always do better than those who never choose at all.”

24 – “The highest levels are most certainly filled with those who chose to be there.”

25 – “If you have to take time to make a choice, take time. Then make the choice.”

26 – “The end result of your life here on earth will always be the sum total of the choices you made while you were here.”