Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Wellbeing by Tom Rath and Jim Harter
Saturday, June 19, 2010
A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity by Bill O'Reilly
Bold Fresh is a memoir written in an attempt to explain the source of this phenomenal approach. This book is as an insightful view into Marcus Buckingham’s point that everyone sees the world through their own unique perspective which is a result of their predisposition, upbringing, education and life experiences.
A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity has remained on the top seller lists for what now seems like forever and the book is definitely an experience to recommend in the fullest. Presented here are the gem’s of Bill O’Reilly’s accumulated wisdom.
I am personally proud to share in his Irish, Catholic, Long Island heritage.
The most interesting part of life is achieving goals and overcoming challenges.
Harness criticism. Bill O’Reilly has personally proven that you can drive career success by working harder to disprove critics. As O’Reilly put it, “Living well is not the best revenge. Succeeding in your career and humiliating your critics is.” And O’Reilly has certainly showed up innumerable critics!
Be a calculated risk-taker and allow yourself the chance to fall flat on your face. Not allowing for this makes one risk averse and they stop trying. Ensure that failure is only a prelude to trying again. (Remember the model of perseverance that is Abraham Lincoln, having failed at so much before eventually becoming one of the most revered US Presidents of all time.)
Work hard, keep a clear head, don't compromise when you know you're right, give most people the benefit of the doubt, don't fear authority, and definitely have a good time.
Every person can, and should, design their own life. Individual responsibility is the key to success in life. Expect—and accept—nothing from anyone else. Do it yourself.
Present your case or belief then stand back and let the listener decide. Remember, it is ok to disagree on how to see life (although not necessarily issues or facts) so long as the disagreement is sincere.
Bad things will happen, prepare for it! Life is a series of challenges and that is by design of the Creator.
- Ignore - Most choose to ignore and then hold it inside of them, breeding resentment.
- Confront - Confrontation leads to a situation. You need power to fight. Fighting can make you stronger but a wiser, more effective approach can spare you a lot of grief.
- Deal with later, using a well-thought out strategy. A patient approach allows all options to become clear.
- Those who take it
- Those who don't take it.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Outliers Secrets of Success:
- Being born early in year (or right after any cut-off for qualification and training) is an advantage that is cumulative.
- Natural talent is nowhere near as important as practice.
- Expertise is the product of 10,000 hours of practice. This is roughly achieved in 10 years of dedicated, sustained development.
- Smarts are important but only up to a point. Smart enough is all it takes. Genius is not required.
- Opportunity is critical. Being in the right place at the right time to take advantage of the small windows of game-changing opportunity.
- Drive, as a result of cultural legacy is the most potent filter for success.
The quote of the book: “Hard work is a prison sentence only if does not have meaning”
- Autonomy
- Complexity
- Effort-reward direct relationship
The review:
In summary, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell is, typical of his works, chock-full of richly researched statistical and cultural gems that are valuable to any organization but there are some that are especially pertinent to the US-Philippines outsourcing challenges, which I have preliminarily presented in THE Biggest Challenge to American-Philippine Work: How Cultural Differences Impact Effecive Communication (http://jamesmirasol.com/)
Western communication is transmitter-oriented where it is the responsibility of the speaker to communicate clearly, while Asian communication is listener-oriented where it is the responsibility of the listener to divine what the speaker is saying. This is a cultural issue that I have encountered many times in many organizations. This culturally-based communications gap is what I consider to the biggest challenge in US-Philippine outsourcing execution.
Exacerbating the communications gap is the cited work of Geert Hofstede for IBM worldwide and which was termed the Power-Distance Index (PDI) which measures individualism-collectivism attitudes. Interestingly but not surprisingly, Americans are at one extreme in the PDI scale where individualism is highest and the Philippines is on the opposite end where collectivism is highest. This is another frequent source of execution gaps in US-Philippine outsourced work, I have found. I will expound more on this and the communications gap in another article soon on http://jamesmirasol.com/ so check back again soon.
On work ethic differences between America and Asia, Outlier’s was particularly insightful about the Agricultural differences and how this has led to significant Educational differences. This was one of the great revelations of the book to me.
The discussion on American-Asian cultural differences are astute and an on the money which leads me to a personal question:
What happens to those of us who are hybrids, the result of American AND Asian upbringing?
In my case, I feel that being raised largely American by an Irish-American mother and a US-educated father, in the Philippines has resulted in a dual-cultural hybrid that is truly native in both and yet able to view either from a single perspective. Granted, this ability is not always a conscious decision which can then become challenging in itself but overall, it is my feeling that is a unique hybrid which delivers a unique value proposition.
Shoot me an email at james@jamesmirasol.com if you would like to discuss this and perhaps share an opinion that may be posted as a follow-up to this review.
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Notes:
I feel that in Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell made some generalizations that I have a hard time accepting on face value. In particular, Gladwell stated that "Even the most gifted of lawyers, equipped with the best of family lessons, cannot escape the limitations of their generation." This simply cannot be true as every generation has to have a some single lawyer that must rise to the top of their profession unless we consider that generations can be skipped, bridged by an older generation hanging around for extended service and then subsequently supplanted by a younger generation leapfrogging to the top.
Additionally, I need to wonder out loud about Outlier’s assertion that Jewish Lawyers and Doctors became professionals because of their humble origins rather than inspite of their humble origins. Specifically, what of the cliche of the Jewish parents pushing their offspring to become lawyers or doctors or marry them? Could that have something to do with what is presented as an inevitable career? Later on in the book, Gladwell also points out that Jewish immigrants from Europe were largely urban professionals because they were prohibited by law from owning land and thus clustered in city centers where urban professional pursuits were their only economic recourse. There is a disconnect here that I cannot resolve.
Shoot me an email at james@jamesmirasol.com if you can shed some light on this.