Because that's the way we've always done it!

Written by: Dan McCarthy at Great Leadership by Dan

I first came across this story from an engineering colleague of mine, Kyle Smith. He said he got it from Howard Winsett, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. I have no idea if it's true, but it's a great story to help people see the need to challenge the conventional wisdom. Or silly HR policies.

Does the expression, "We've always done it that way!" ring any bells? The US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That is an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used? Because that is the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the US railroads. Why did the English build them like that?Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre railroad tramways, and that is the gauge they used. Why did "they" use that gauge then? Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used the same wheel spacing.

Okay!

Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing?

Continue reading the original article here.

Corporate Lessons

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CORPORATE LESSON # 1

A man is getting into the shower just as his wife is finishing up her shower when the doorbell rings. After a few seconds of arguing over which one should go and answer the doorbell, the wife gives up, quickly wraps herself up in a towel and runs downstairs. When she opens the door, there stands Bob, the next door neighbor. Before she says a word, Bob says, "I'll give you $ 800 just to drop that towel that you have on". After thinking for a moment, the woman drops her towel and stands naked in front of Bob. Bob has a close look at her for a few seconds, hands over $800 and quietly leaves. Confused, but excited about her good fortune, the woman wraps back up in the towel and goes upstairs! When she gets back to the bathroom, her husband asks from the shower "Who was that?" "It was Bob the next door neighbor," she replies. "Great," the husband says, "did he say anything about the! $800 he owes me?"

MORAL OF THE STORY: Share critical credit information with your stakeholders to prevent avoidable exposure!


CORPORATE LESSON # 2

A priest was driving along and saw a nun on the side of the road, he stopped and offered her a lift which she gladly accepted. She got in and crossed her legs, forcing her gown to open and reveal a lovely leg. The priest had a look and nearly had an accident. After controlling the car, he stealthily slid his hand up her leg. The nun looked at him and immediately said, "Father, remember psalm 129?" The priest was flustered and apologized profusely. He forced himself to remove his hand. However, he was unable to remove his eyes from her leg. Further on, while changing gear, he let his hand slide up her leg again. The nun once again said, "Father, remember psalm 129?" Once again the priest apologized. "Sorry sister, but the mind is weak." Arriving at the convent, the nun got out, gave him a meaningful glance and went on her way. On his arrival at the church, the priest rushed to retrieve a bible and looked up psalm 129. It Said, "Go forth and seek; further up, you will find glory."

MORAL OF THE STORY: Always be well informed in your job; or, you might miss great opportunities!


CORPORATE LESSON #3

Usually the junior executives and staff of the company generally play football; the middle level managers are more interested in tennis
and the top management usually has a preference for Golf.

MORAL OF THE STORY: As you go up the corporate ladder, the balls reduce in size.


CORPORATE LESSON # 4

A young executive was leaving the office at 6 PM when he found the CEO standing in front of a shredder with a piece of paper in his hand. "Listen," said the CEO, "this is a very sensitive and important document and my secretary has left. Can you make this thing work?" "Certainly, Sir" said the young executive. He turned the machine on, inserted the paper, and pressed the start button. "Excellent, excellent!" said the CEO as his paper disappeared inside the machine. "I just need one copy."

MORAL OF THE STORY- Never, never assume that your BOSS knows everything.


CORPORATE LESSON # 5

There were these 4 guys, Russian President Putin, Germany's Chancellor Kohl, America's Dictator Bush and French Premiere Chirac who found this small genie bottle. When they rubbed the bottle, a genie appears. Thankful that the 4 guys had released him out of the bottle, he said, "Next to you all are 4 swimming pools, I will give each of you a wish. When you run towards the pool and jump, you shout what you want the pool of water to become, then your wish will come true." The French Premiere Chirac wanted to start. He ran towards the pool, jumped and shouted WINE". The pool immediately changed into a pool of wine. The Frenchman was so happy swimming and drinking from the pool. Next is the Russian President Putin turn, he did the same and shouted, "VODKA" and immersed himself into a pool of vodka. The German was next and he jumped and shouted, "BEER". He was so contented with his beer pool. The last is American's Randy. He was running towards the pool when suddenly he steps on a banana peel. He slipped towards the pool and shouted, "SHIT!!!!!!!........."

MORAL OF THE STORY: Mind your language, you never know what it will land you in.

Be considerate and don't wear perfume/cologne.

Remember Common Courtesies

1. Whenever someone treats you kindly, show your appreciation, express your gratitude, and offer your thanks. For as Seneca taught, "There is as much greatness of mind in acknowledging a good turn, as in doing it."
   
2. Scatter the dark clouds of gloom and spread sunshine with your smile. Remember, a smile is a curved line that can straighten many problems.
   
3. Be as thoughtful as the 82-year-old woman who was more concerned about others than the pain she was in. "I may be in pain," she said, "but I don’t have to be one."
   
4. Recognize the achievements of others, not with shallow flattery, but with sincere and warm praise.
   
5. Respect the opinions and decisions of others, even if you disagree with them.
   
6. Here is some good advice in the form of a Persian proverb: "Treat your superior as a father, your equal as a brother, and your inferior as a son."
   
7. Be a good friend. Express your good manners with your emotions. When your friends arrive, say, "At last!" And when they leave, say, "So soon?" When you treat your friends kindly, you will be greatly rewarded. St. Basil (329-379) explains how, "He who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love."
   
8. Treat others with respect. Treating royalty, political leaders, or movie stars with respect is a common occurrence, but treating beggars, the homeless, and ex-cons with respect is the mark of greatness. It is not only the downtrodden that need respect, it is our children, too. If we don’t already respect them for what they are, how can we help them become more than they are?
   
9. Act kindly toward others without expecting anything in return. To act in the expectation of a reward cancels out the kindness.
   
10. Instruct your children. For as R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) wrote, "Parents are usually more careful to bestow knowledge on their children rather than virtue, the art of speaking well rather than doing well; but their manners should be of the greatest concern."
    
11. Respond to rudeness with kindness. For what better test of good manners is there than politely putting up with bad ones? We become kind by being kind. And when every act we do is a kind one, the world will rejoice.
    
12. Be gentle in your dealings with others. As someone else wrote, "To find out what others are feeling, don’t prod or poke. If you want play with a turtle, you can’t get it to come out of its shell by prodding and poking it with a stick, you might kill it. Be gentle not harsh, hard or forceful."
    
13. Cherish your family and reinforce it with courtesy. Oddly enough, we often treat strangers more politely than we do members of our own family. This has to stop, and we need to implement a policy of "courtesy begins at home."
    
14. Never underestimate the power of your small acts of kindness. They are the pebbles which form a solid foundation for our civilization. Without them, society will collapse.

Proof Read

Don't let stigmas hold you back.

Quiting Things and Flakiness The #1 Productivity Anti-Hack

"Modern life has us enmeshed in a web of unwanted and unnecessary commitments. Most of us spend the majority of our time doing things we don’t want to do. We join committees because we think they’ll look good on our resumes, go to birthday parties out of obligation, attend inane meetings, stay in bad relationships out of fear, take on unwanted work projects to gain favor with our bosses, stay in jobs we don’t like instead of quitting.

Unwanted commitments seem to beget more unwanted commitments. They’re like lies: they multiply fast. If you take on an unwanted project to please your boss, then the next time a similar project comes by she’ll throw it in your lap. If you unhappily go to an acquaintances birthday party out of sense of obligation, they’re likely to invite you over for dinner, or call you more often. You get my drift.

What Does this Have to do with Productivity?"

Read the full article at
The Growing Life: Quiting Things and Flakiness The #1 Productivity Anti-Hack

Don't Forget to Always Eat Breakfast!

Take Responsibilty

Do “bad things” happen in your life? I’m sure they do. What is your first reaction when they happen (hopefully not all at the same time)?

Complaining?

Blaming others?

Accountability

You must take the responsible for whatever things that happen to you. (Both good and bad)

Most people prefer to blame others because that’s the easier way to get out of troubles but on the other side of the coin, it keeps them from being a successful person.

Picture this. If a thief broke into someone’s house and when he (let’s assume that he’s a male) find that out, he gone mad, curse the thief, blame the policemen and the security guard.

Think of this for a moment. Will that help him at all? Yes, it probably makes him feel good but it would not help him to prevent the thief from breaking in for the second time in the future.

That’s what I mean of killing the success by not taking a proper responsibility.

Not only you should not blame others or push the responsibility to others but you should not feel bad of yourself too.

Why?

It’s because, that won’t solve the problem, help you to grow or accelerate you to success either.

The responsible thing to do is identify the problem and rectify it such as install a better alarm and security system.

That may be a smarter move to take. Why?

Because, if you take it as a lesson, you will learn more things and become more mature.

Find the original article here

Rescue Yourself, No One Else Will

Oh my god, I don’t know it I can take this anymore. When will it end? Haven’t I paid my dues? When will life get easier?

Well, nobody’s gonna show, so you are going have to do something about it yourself.

1. Stop waiting to be rescued. Others might help, encourage, support and even cheer you on (all good things) - but ultimately the only person who can genuinely change your life is you. So stop looking for some miracle. It’s not about finding the right book, program or one-stop fix all, it’s about finding some courage and self control. Most of us know exactly what we need to do, the only problem is… we’re lazy! Take control of your life today; your relationships, your body, your finances, your career and your attitude. Do what you can and don’t waste energy on what you can’t.

2. Achieve at least one goal per day. Do something every single day, that you should do but probably would have put off. It might be something huge like taking a college course, it might be something like calling a friend you’ve lost touch with or it could be something simple like parking a little further away so you’ll get a more exercise. As you tick those boxes day after day, your thinking will change, your motivation will increase, you’ll become more productive and proactive, and pretty soon you’ll be living in a different place. But make sure you do it every day, not just when it’s convenient!

3. Stop hoping for a solution and start creating one. They say that a person without hope is lost. Well, I gotta tell you that hope by itself ain’t gonna getcha there. Wherever there is. “Let’s hope for the best and see what happens” - nice sentiment and all, but not a very helpful or practical strategy for a better life. Useless in fact. The let’s-keep-our-fingers-crossed mentality doesn’t usually (okay, ever) result in positive long-term change. A better future ain’t about luck, destiny, fate and it definitely ain’t about hoping that success will find you or that things will work themselves out (one of my least fave cop-outs). Things don’t work themselves out; we work them out.

4. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and get some perspective. Easier said than done, but very possible. The truth is that all too often we make our life harder than it needs to be. Of course life is one lesson after another, but that’s the best part isn’t it? That’s where we grow, learn, adapt, get strong and become more effective. Or… get a little deeper in our rut. Sometimes we need to step outside of our reality (problems, challenges, environment) to understand and appreciate what we really have and how tough our life isn’t. A few years back I went to South Africa with a friend of mine who works for a charity. For two weeks we worked with children infected with the A.I.D.S. virus. When I returned home my problems didn’t really seem like problems. At all. I was the only problem I had. The only thing that really needed to change was me. It wasn’t about my life, it was about me in it.

5. Change your attitude. Yes an obvious statement I know, but the attitude we take into every situation, circumstance and conversation LARGELY determines the results we create in our life; good attitude - good (or better) outcomes, bad attitude - bad (or worse) outcomes. Don’t believe me? Hang out with someone with a bad attitude for a while and tell me what you discover. It seems that I’m one of the few who espouses the ‘attitude is a choice’ school of thought. Contrary to popular opinion (of some), I believe that the vast majority of us can make today, or any day, good or bad, positive or negative - by choice. Of course we’ll have better and worse days, a few hurdles, problems and unforeseen speed humps (we call that life), but let’s create the best outcomes possible despite what happens to us, or around us. I spoke to a woman recently who has transformed her life over the last six months. I asked her what made the difference and she told me “I got to a point where I was honestly sick at the sound of my own negativity, complaining and excuses. It was like one day I woke up, realised what I was like and I didn’t enjoy what I saw, so I changed. Sounds unbelievable but it’s true.” And I can tell you; it is true. She is a different person - because she made that decision.

6. Get involved in a project other than yourself! The more self-absorbed we are, the unhappier we’ll be and the longer we’ll stay in our rut. Ironically, sometimes the answer to overcoming some of our issues is to not focus on (obsess about) our issues. Weird huh? When we become more focused on giving (rather than getting) amazing things happen. We often find a new sense of purpose, we feel needed, wanted and appreciated and we start to shift from a negative to a positive mindset.

7. Get in shape. The research (and observation) does tell us that if you’re out of shape physically, there’s a high likelihood you’ll be out of shape emotionally and/or psychologically (in a rut). Of course we are much more than a mere body, but it’s no small coincidence that both obesity and depression are both reaching epidemic proportions at about the same time. And no, the obesity is not (necessarily) causal (the sole reason for the depression), but there is definitely a significant relationship.

8. Make yourself Accountable. If you’re serious about this, then it’s often a good idea to have consequences for not doing what you are supposed to (other then the obvious one). Use a coach, mentor, friend (etc.) to kick your butt, encourage you, provide feedback, keep you accountable to your commitment and to periodically stop you from sulking. Find a organization that you HATE and donate to every time get lazy.

Find the original article here.