“One’s real life is so often the life one does not lead” (Oscar Wilde) Creative entrepreneurs, freelancers, and regular old people are forever searching for the secret to inspiration. Is it a flash, like lightning that strikes when you least expect it, or is it a slow burn that builds over a lifetime of paying…
Some of them get it right – these select chief executive officers manage to exude a hopeful, caring and determined leadership that inspires the staff contingent to aspire to greatness (quality, speed, professionalism, superb customer service, reduction of waste, innovation, good results, etc.). Others “fail” dismally – these CEO’s somehow use authority and positional power…
“Consistency is the only currency that matters” (Prudential Investment Managers) There are no short cuts to great leadership – great leadership is cultivated over time. In 1979, teenager Jadaf Payeng began planting trees on his small Northern Indian Majuli Island – it’s an action that he has repeated millions of times over the past 39…
My car had been having starting problems, so I took it into the local dealership to be repaired. As there was nothing wrong with the battery, the workshop manager outlined the diagnostic procedure for a diesel-powered engine – they start at the back (the fuel tank) with its fuel pump and work their way forward,…
We don’t know who to trust anymore! Many political and some business leaders keep letting us down. In fact, they deliberately manipulate circumstances (tenders, the system, etc.) to suit their own selfish desires. Money that should have been directed to infrastructure development and other worthy projects that uplift communities is diverted into the pockets of…
The expression ‘in the same boat’ is typically construed as a negative idiom – “you say that you have run out of money – well, I am in the same boat”, meaning that I have run out of money too. It implies that you find yourself in a similar situation or in the same position…
One of the major pressures today in production and process environments is to cut down on operational costs and aim towards achieving operational excellence. Production planning and control, manufacturing execution and operational effectiveness of the people, processes and equipment all need careful coordination if this is to be achieved. Many manufacturers fail to implement industry…
I sometimes get mildly irritated, no, maybe seriously aggravated, by the following: mobile phone conversations held at full volume on public transport; 20km/h speed limits outside junior schools still applying at midnight, sometimes with a speed camera to enforce it; public toilets that don’t have toilet paper or people that don’t flush public toilets; clothes…
When my children were very young, there were certain environments where my wife and I “let them loose” to play to their heart’s content. They were free to run around and use their pent-up energy in the most creative ways, playing hide-and-seek, jumping up and down, kicking a ball or being innovative with their toys….
David Thomas was born in 1932 to an unmarried mother that he never got to know – he was given up for adoption at 6 week’s old to Rex and Auleva Thomas. Auleva died when Dave was just 5 years old and he moved with his father (a distant man) around the United States of…
