A NICE QUOTE FROM DILIP MUKERJEA

A nice quote from my good buddy Dilip Mukerjea, based in Mumbai, India:

"Humans often suffer from kainophobia, the fear of new things. 

Of course, this is a fear that most children do not experience. 

It is adults, be they policy makers, administrators, educators, who are beset by this fear.

They prefer to stay quivering in their cocoons, or should I say, fossilised in their mausoleums. 

We must move on from enclosing ourselves within bricks and mortar to liberating ourselves with brains and wits.

To this end, the time has come for humankind to become humane and kind. To ourselves, to our co-inhabitants of this planet. 

We have a primal need to address our spirituality. 

All of this comes from life, governed by the functions of the human brain... "

[Excerpted from his latest piece of writing, a 188-page 'MANIFESTO FOR A LEARNING REVOLUTION TO ADDRESS ALL SECTORS OF SOCIETY', targeted at policy makers, administrators and educators.]

UNDERSTANDING THE POWER OF PERTURBATION

I like what I am reading:

“Feeling uninformed is uncomfortable.

Feeling inadequate or under-skilled is uncomfortable.

Feeling like you are going to be exposed for these things is really uncomfortable.

And yet, that’s when our brains respond and our learning accelerates.”

~ Jason Lauritsen, who runs the Talent Anarchy’s consulting practice to build cultures that fuel innovation;

This phenomenon resonates with my understanding of the power of perturbation, an unique feature of our brain, which is an open dissipative structure, drawing on intellectual cues from Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine.

RAPID CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT...

A Smart Advisory:

"Rapid change is the only constant...

... In the near future, industries will be ruled by technologies that haven’t been invented yet...

... There’s a very good chance that over the next few years we are going to see a revolution in management that is just as profound as the revolution in management that gave birth to the industrial age...

... We literally live today in a world where change has changed... "

~ Gary Hamel, internationally acclaimed management expert and the bestselling author of 'What Matters Now';

[Source: Big Think Edge's 'Manage Change 24/7 with Gary Hamel']

IDEAS ARE CHEAP; EXECUTION IS WHAT MATTERS!

An astute observation!

"Performance improvement is blind to the lineage of good ideas."

~ Chris Brogan, CEO, Owner Media Group (dedicated to helping owners grow their business through improving their capabilities and connections), and author of 'Benchmarking for Best Practices';

Ideas, in and of themselves, are cheap. Execution is what matters.

Put it in another way: 

In business, the only thing that matters with an idea is whether it improves your performance.

Where the idea originally came from is strictly academic.

DEALING WITH UNCERTAINTY

I like what I am reading, about the burden of dealing with uncertainty:

"... To create what will be, you must remove yourself from the constant concern for what already is.

As for the uncertainty, accept the fact that it will weigh on you.

Accept the burden of continuous processing.

There’s no shortcut to deep-thinking and crunching through scenarios in the basement of your brain.

It is perhaps the most important personal investment (and sacrifice) we make.

Chalk it up as a burden of leadership.

No matter what your creative endeavor is, uncertainty will be lingering around every corner.

Embrace it and channel it, and you’ll gain the confidence to lead your team down a foggy path that always changes... "

~ Scott Belsky, Adobe's VP of Community, and Co-Founder & Head of Behance, the leading online platform for creatives to showcase and discover creative work; also author of the bestselling book, 'Making Ideas Happen';

GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE ABOUT THE FUTURE!

That's right!

In fact, this nice quote of technology futurist Daniel Burrus reminds me vividly of what author-filmmaker-futurist Joel Arthur Barker has said back in the nineties:

"It is the future where our greatest leverage is. We can't change the past, although, if we are smart, we learn from it.

Things happen in only one place - the present, and usually we react to those events.

The space of time in the present is too slim to allow for much more.

It is in the yet-to-be, the future, and only there, where we have the time to prepare for the present."

BEING AGILE OR STAYING PROACTIVE IS NO LONGER ENOUGH...

I like what I am reading:

"... Being agile or staying proactive is no longer enough in an increasingly competitive global business environment. 

In a world that’s moving at an unprecedented rate, it takes something more:

– the ability to take a sudden burst of insight about the future and use it to produce a new and radically different way of doing things – solving problems, crafting must-have products, creating high-demand services or building new businesses... "

~ technology futurist Daniel Burrus;

You may want to read his latest article:

'The New Principles of Leadership'

Interestingly, he takes his perennial favourite topics, cyclical vs linear, hard trends vs soft trends, for a new spin to convince businessfolks to focus more on building anticipatory prowess as a leadership imperative, instead of harbouring on agility.

TRAIN YOUR BRAIN TO THINK LIKE A FUTURIST

Just like to share a nice piece of writing about discovering and exploring the future! 

'Train Your Brain to Think like a Futurist in 2014'

and I like what I am reading:

"... The rise of Internet of Things, Big Data, and 3D printing is challenging everything we already know.

It’s also accelerating the rate of change and of innovation.

To navigate this future, our thinking has to become as rich and varied as the world around us; a world that demands that each of us is thinking like a futurist."

~ Cecily Sommers, futurist and author of 'Think Like a Futurist';

THE ANSWERS TO OUR QUESTIONS ARE EVERYWHERE...

An astute observation:

"The answers to our questions are everywhere; we just need to change the lens with which we see the world."

~ Janine Benyus, science writer, innovation consultant, and conservationist; better known as the champion of biomimicry;

INSPIRING QUOTES FROM SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL

 A nice selection of fine and inspiring quotes from Sir Winston Churchill:

‘Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.’

‘If you’re going through hell, keep going.’

‘A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.’

‘Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.’

‘It is no use saying, ‘We are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.’

‘Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong.’

‘Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential.’

‘Play the game for more than you can afford to lose… only then will you learn the game.’

‘Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities… because it is the quality which guarantees all others.’

‘Never, never, never give up.’

A FINE LESSON FROM STEPHEN HAWKING

Good Advice, as I like the part, "... work on something else.":

"It is no good getting furious if you get stuck.

What I do is keep thinking about the problem but work on something else.

Sometimes it is years before I see the way forward.

In the case of information loss and black holes, it was 29 years."

~ Stephen Hawking;

PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS!

A valid observation, especially in today's quicksilver world:

"Just because something worked before, doesn’t mean it will continue to be relevant."

~ Josh Linkner of Detroit Venture Partners, writing at Forbes;

To put it in another way, past performance is no guarantee of future results!

UNDERSTANDING THE GAP

This is an astute observation:

"There’s always a gap between “what I have now” and “what I would like.”

The gap is all of your excuses.

All it takes to close the gap is to be creative and work your way through the excuses.

I repeat: this is ALL IT TAKES."

~ James Altucher, hedge fund manager, entrepreneur, and bestselling author, writing in his blog, 'The Ultimate Cheat Sheet For Dealing With Excuses', and author of 'Choose Yourself';

INNOVATION AS A PURPOSEFUL AND SYSTEMATIC DISCIPLINE

[In continuation of my earlier post:]

Just sharing one of my most favourite and inspiring quotes: 

"In innovation, as in any other endeavor, there is talent, there is ingenuity, and there is knowledge. 

But when all is said and done, what innovation require is hard, focused, purposeful work. 

If diligence, persistence, and commitment are lacking, talent, ingenuity, and knowledge are of no avail." 

~ Peter F Drucker, 'Innovation and Entrepreneurship';

INSPIRING QUOTE

A nice quote, which makes sense. 

"Whenever we're afraid, it's because we don't know enough.

If we understood enough, we would never be afraid."

~ Earl Nightingale, motivational speaker and author, who was often acknowledged as the "Dean of Personal Development";

As Bill Clinton says on a recent bigthink.com interview, "Never Stop Learning!"

INNOVATION DEFINED

I like what I am reading:

"Innovation is executing something real in a different way than has ever worked before. 

I emphasize execution because I believe ideas are all in the ether, and nothing under the sun is completely original. 

But how you put things together, for what purpose and how it is used, amplified and impacts the people it reaches has the potential to be completely unique. 

Real innovation has impact,... "

~ Paul Berry, Founder and CEO of RebelMouse, one of the world's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Advertising;

INSPIRING QUOTE FROM AUTHUR C CLARKE

This fine quote has always been one of my greatest inspirations:

"The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible."

~ Arthur C Clarke (1917-2008), in 'Profiles of the Future'; he was a British author, inventor and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them '2001: A Space Odyssey' (1968) which was made into a classic sci-fi movie; also, a visionary who predicted artificial intelligence and communications satellites that orbit the earth in fixed positions;

INSPIRING QUOTE FOR MONDAY MORNING

“... that in today’s economy, knowing things is more important than making them... ”

~ Bill Fischer, co-author of 'The Idea Hunter: How to Find the Best Ideas & Make Them Happen', as related by his co-author, Andy Boynton, in a Forbes' article, 'Ideas Trump Gadgets'; [Bill points to the back of his iPhone, which reads: “Designed by Apple in California; Assembled in China.” There’s a difference.]

INSPIRING QUOTE FOR MONDAY MORNING

"Every one is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its life believing that it is stupid."

~ Albert Einstein, (1879-1955), German-born theoretical physicist, who developed the 'Theory of General Relativity', effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the 'Father of Modern Physics';

INSPIRING QUOTE FOR MONDAY MORNING

“It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money -that’s all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do.

The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”

~ John Ruskin (1819-1900), leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist; he wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political economy;

Say Keng's comments:

This is analogous to the following quote, the short form of which had once been spotted by me, as displayed prominently in one of the Gucci boutiques in Singapore:

“The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price has faded from memory.”

~ Aldo Gucci of the Gucci Family;

The short form:

"Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten."