TED Talk Tuesday: Leading with Lollipops

Do you consider yourself a leader?
Chances are that you are, but are uncomfortable admitting it.


Drew Dudley, founder of Nuance Leadership Development Services, believes that this is because we've made the concept of leadership something monumental and unattainable; we've made it about changing the world, and reserved it for the extraordinary.


He says in his concise and funny 6-minute talk, "We spend so much time celebrating amazing things that hardly anybody can do, that we've convinced ourselves those are the only things worth celebrating.  And we start to devalue the things that we can do everyday.  We start to take moments where we truly are a leader and we don't let ourselves take credit for it and we don't let ourselves feel good about it."


He tells an incredibly funny story about how the simple act of giving a girl a lollipop changed her life immeasurably (you really have to watch his talk to hear the story), and the crazy part was that if she never told him about the impact he made on her life, he would't have even remembered the moment.


What a mind-blowing thought:  maybe the biggest impact you've ever had on someone else's life, was a moment that you don't even remember.


Drew's talk underscores the truth that we are THAT powerful.  Our actions can matter THAT much to others.  If we continue to make leadership this big thing reserved for those extraordinary people that are going to "change the world," we give ourselves an excuse not to expect it from ourselves and each other.


Drew's call to action is powerful, but most significant to me is that it's completely attainable.  He challenges us to get over our fear of how powerful we can be in each others' lives.   We need to redefine leadership about lollipop moments, about how many we create, how many we acknowledge, how many we pay forward and how many we say thank you for.

Have you had a lollipop moment?   
Have you told that person the impact they've had on your life?
What's stopping you?  

Motivation Monday: If "Plan A" Didn't Work

If "Plan A" didn't work, the alphabet has 25 more letters!
Stay cool.

Photo Friday: Africa

Guide Dog Saves Blind Man's Life at the 9/11 Attacks at The World Trade Center

This is the story of Salty, the guide dog that saved his owner's life during the attacks on the Twin Towers on 9/11.  It was one of the stories featured on the National Geographic program, "Where Were You?"


Salty was awarded an award for her bravery.  

Not all heroes are people.

Keep Away from People Who Try to Belittle Your Ambitions

Powerful advice from Mark Twain.

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.  Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

-Mark Twain 

TED Talk Tuesday: The 12 Lessons I Learned from Steve Jobs by Guy Kawasaki

Guy Kawasaki is just rad.  He's a venture capitalist who was born and raised right here in Hawaii (yay!).  He was Apple's chief evangelist for four years before starting his own business, Garage Technology Ventures.  He is the author of 10 books, and the co-founder of Alltop.com, an "online magazine rack."


He credits Steve Jobs as having a monumental impact on his life, and in this incredible TED talk, he talks about what he personally learned from Steve Jobs.

Here are the 12 lessons Guy Kawasaki learned from Steve Jobs:

1.  "Experts" are clueless.  If there's anything that Apple has proven is that experts are often wrong.  Learn to ignore experts.  Experts usually define things within established limits.  Break those limits.

2.  Customers cannot tell you what they need.  They can only describe things in terms of products or services they already have.  If you truly want to change the world, you need to ignore your customers.

3.  Jump to the next curve.  Don't stay on the same curve.   Great innovation occurs when you jump to the next curve.

4.  Biggest challenges beget the best work.  Steve Jobs had such great expectations of his people and his people tried to rise to his expectations.

5.  Design counts.  Many companies can say they care about design, but Apple is one of the few companies that truly cares about the design.  

6.  Use big graphics and big font.  When doing a presentation, If you just do this, your presentation will be better 9/10ths of those in the world.  The rule of thumb for font size:  find out who the oldest person in your audience, and then divide that number by 2.  That should be your font size.

7.  Changing your mind is a sign of intelligence.  If you change your mind, if you change the way you do things in response to how customers actually consider you, it is a sign of intelligence and it will lead to success.

8.  "Value" is not the same as "price."  It's not that you need to have the lowest price, you have to have the best value.

9.  A-players hire A+ players.  When you are in the position of hiring, hire people who are better than you.

10.  Real CEO's demo.  Steve Jobs proved the CEO can do the demo.  Because to be a good demonstrator of your product or service, you truly have to understand your product or service, you also have to understand your audience.

11.  Real entrepreneurs ship.  You don't have to worry about getting to a state where things are perfect, you have to ship.

12.  Marketing = unique value.  Marketing is all about finding unique value.

BONUS:  Some things need to be believed to be seen.  If you want to change the world, you have to believe in things before you'll see them.

Motivation Monday: Three Simple Rules in Life

Three Simple Rules in Life

1.  If you do not GO after what you want, you'll never have it.
2.  If you do not ASK, the answer will always be NO.
3.  If you do not step forward, you'll always be in the same place.