What is the hardest task in the world?

To think, according to philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, to which I fully concur.

The sentiment is echoed in what Henry Ford had asserted:

“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.”

As I read and ponder, I believe this elegant quote has often been attributed to Henry Ford: 

"I am not the smartest, but I surround myself with competent people." 

Just sharing from another perspective, David Ogilvy, widely revered as a founding father of modern advertising is credited with the following: 

'If you ever find a man who is better than you are - hire him. If necessary, pay him more than you would pay yourself.'' 

He is also reputed to have once presented each of his board directors with a set of Russian dolls. When they opened the dolls, the smallest had a piece of folded paper inside on which Ogilvy had written: 

''If you always hire people who are smaller than you, we shall become a company of dwarfs. 

If, on the other hand, you always hire people who are bigger than you, we shall become a company of giants.''

Oh, Yes! As Champions Of Team Culture: The Whole Is Greater Than The Sum Of Its Parts!

The essential points of these astute observations of Dr Maxwell Maltz are, at least from my perspective:

- to stay calm, serene, and always in command of yourself;

- to stay true to your self image of being engineered as a goal-seeking and success mechanism, just as Dr Maltz put it; [also, not forgetting the words of wisdom from Zig Ziglar:

"You were designed for accomplishment, engineered for success, and endowed with the seeds of greatness."

- to pause and reflect, contemplate and introspect about what has happened;

- to reset, re-adjust, re-start and re-focus on the next move;

- to draw inspiration from the Chinese phrase for "crisis": 危机 (pronounced as "wéijī") ~ interestingly, the first part stands for danger; the other part for opportunity.

So in a crisis, just be aware of the danger – but recognize - and seize - the opportunity!

- to draw lessons from Henry Ford's elegant words of wisdom:

"Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently."

What do you think about this assertion by the late Bob Proctor?

All I like to say is that it reminds me of what Henry Ford once said:

"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it."

To me, it's one of the most crucial cognitive skills one can develop. 

By practicing well-thought-out thinking, both our thoughts and decisions can make a positive change in our life, on both a professional and personal level. We can hugely improve our life by working on our critical thinking skills as often as you can.

Nevertheless, here's a nice comment from IT expert and philosopher Anand Damani:

"Thinking is never hard but a natural function that is always happening. Thinking is an activity done by one of the subatomic particles of the life-atom. 

It is a precursor and a prerequisite for any action that a human being can take. 

It is an activity that every human being is always doing. 

Being endowed with the power of imagination, human beings can keep thinking of anything and make their perception a reality that may not actually exist. 

Aligning thoughts with the actual reality is the purpose of life."

The essential points of these astute observations of Dr Maxwell Maltz are, at least from my perspective:

• to stay calm, serene, and always in command of yourself;
• to stay true to your self image of being engineered as a goal-seeking and success mechanism, just as Dr Maltz put it; [also, not forgetting the words of wisdom from Zig Ziglar: "You were designed for accomplishment, engineered for success, and endowed with the seeds of greatness."
• to pause and reflect, contemplate and introspect about what has happened;
• to reset, re-adjust, re-start and re-focus on the next move;
• to draw inspiration from the Chinese phrase for "crisis": 危机 (pronounced as "wéijī") ~ interestingly, the first part stands for danger (危); the other part for opportunity (机). So in a crisis, just be aware of the danger – but recognize - and seize - the opportunity!
• to draw lessons from Henry Ford's elegant words of wisdom: Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.

Enjoy your reading, exploration and assimilation!

Just sharing a musing of mine:

In life, making mistakes is part and parcel of the learning process, as we traverse the Highway of Life.

We can more or less say this is going through the University of Hard Knocks.

The most important thing for each and every one of us, is evaluating - and learning from the mistakes made, and ensuring that we don't make the same mistake on the forward trajectory.

The fear of making mistakes (as part of my intellectual concoction The Triunity of Fear, with the remaining two being Fear of the Unknown and Fear of Ridicule or Looking Stupid Among Our Peers) is quite natural.

As Dr Maltz had asserted, face it and deal with it.

As another wise one once said, FEAR is spelt as Face Everything And Rise!

In doing so, as I have had discovered from my own fair share of making mistakes, I have had indeed eventually gained the advantage of outgrowing and outperforming my own perceptions of fear.

As a parting shot, I like to share the life philosophy of Henry Ford:

1. Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.

2. The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.

3. What is life, but attempting to triumph after failure, anyway?

Enjoy!

A GREAT WAY TO INNOVATE

"A great way to innovate is to take an idea from another place and be the first to apply it in your field.

Take as an example the assembly line. 

Henry Ford (1863 – 1947) is often credited with the innovation of the assembly line in mass manufacturing and he was the first to use it in automobile manufacture.

Ford got the idea from an abattoir. He was impressed with the efficiency of the Swift slaughterhouse in Chicago where carcasses were butchered as they moved along a conveyor.

Ray Kroc (1902 – 1984) adopted the idea and applied it to the restaurant business when he ran the McDonald’s chain. 

He applied the assembly line principle to hamburger preparation and transformed productivity and speed of service in restaurants.

An Indian ophthalmologist, Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy (1918 – 2006), admired the McDonald’s approach and decided to try a similar method for the low-cost treatment of cataracts in India.

He trained paramedics to do 70% of the work required in each surgery freeing up doctors to perform the more demanding tasks. He brought assembly line thinking to the process and reduced the cost of each cataract operation to around $10 (compared to say $1700 in the USA).

In a nut shell, an idea from a slaughterhouse transformed car assembly, fast food restaurants and eye surgery."

[Thanks to innovation strategist Paul Sloane, writing in www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/]