« June 2006 | Main | August 2006 »
These kids are dancing. In the middle of the street. Okay, really, i have no issue with having fun and expressing yourself in public. But when you're freaking out drivers and putting yourself at risk, i get confused. I mean really, don't they have better things to do? Maybe they are filming something to put on myspace later :)
Technorati Tags: humor, funny video, jesus christ the musical
I'm playing around with my blog and in particular, with my feeds. I've started using Feedburner and trying out it's various tools, so let me know as you notice changes and if you think they make sense or are annoying. One thing I'm particularly curious about is my recent integration of my Yahoo! MyWeb links into my feed. I thought it might be kind of cool if I could regularly share the stuff that I'm saving on the web (ala Delicious or a LinkBlog) in my RSS feed, but it could be terribly annoying too. Let me know your thoughts, or if you care at all :)
Imagine being 50 years old and being able to say this: That you're both the wealthiest person in the world and that you intend to become the most successful philanthropist in the world. Your name is Bill Gates.
I've read a number of pieces about Bill Gates over the years, most of which take the "thinly veiled jealous critique" approach to talking about him or Microsoft. I must say that it's rather disappointing to see that it appears to be easier for people to tear down leaders and criticize them than to discuss their successes and attempt to learn from them. For every positive piece about the strategies that he and his colleagues have employed there are a dozen that discount those strategies and chalk them up to sheer bullying.
It makes me wonder if this is a common human trait; that we need to criticize and discredit those who become very successful in order to empower ourselves to go out and achieve. That doesn't feel right though. My instinct is that you can learn from others sucesses and their failures and build upon those experiences when creating your own reality. Although I struggle with it occasionally, for the most part I don't ever feel that someone else's success diminishes my own in any way.
As a result, I look at a man like Bill Gates, who has accomplished so much in just 30 years, and I'm inspired. I think it points to many positive aspects of America's economy, the capability of the mind and the sheer power of optimism. I am also inspired when I see that he can take his massive success and responsibilities and choose to walk away, seeking out another area of challenge and opportunity. It's not often that people stretch themselves in such ways, whether it's personally or professionally.
In any case, I find him to be an inspirational leader and thought I'd share a few interesting pieces that I'd read about him lately:
Bill Gates Reboots
What Money Can Buy
Microsoft's New Brain (More about how he set the wheels in motion for his transition plan)
Microsoft's Bill Gates page
The New Road Ahead (A small piece he wrote last year that is actually quite powerful if you stop to think about it)
Technorati Tags: bill gates, inspirational leadership, philanthropy, career evolution
Now, do you really think this is what subaru had in mind?
I try to regularly read John Mauldin's weekly columns. In addition to his weekly though, he works to highlight an article each week from another analyst and this week's struck as extremely insightful. Check it out here:
InvestorsInsight : John Mauldin's Outside the Box
To summarize though, James Montier takes the stance that most of us are terrible at learning from past mistakes. He uses some interesting study data to make four supporting points:
"Firstly, we often fail to recognize our mistakes because we attributeWhile this is all in the context of investing, really, I think it's a valuable lesson for all of us throughout our lives. We need to be aware of how poor we are at assessing our decision making and work on it. Personal, professional, what have you, try to examine the decisions that you've made the outcomes that they resulted in and how you can learn from them. Work to be more honest at it over time.
them to bad luck rather than poor decision making. Secondly, when we are looking
back, we often can't separate what we believed beforehand from what we now know.
Thirdly, thanks to the illusion of control, we often end up assuming outcomes
are the result of our actions. Finally, we are adept at distorting the feedback
we do receive, so that it fits into our own view of our abilities.
Check out this great piece from last year on Bill Gates and his foundation's work around the world, particularly with the problem of malaria: http://www.michaelspecter.com/ny/2005/2005_10_24_gates.html
Seems particularly relevant given his recent announcement of priority shifts. As many of you know, I'm mostly a fan of his - I think his business acumen is terrific and he's built a terrific company. It shocks me how many people can take his announcement and bash him for being self-serving when he's devoting all of his time and much of his money to incredibly important and underserved causes. Not only that, he's bringing an extremely effective mindset to it in order to be as effective as possible. How is this bad? *sigh* I suppose that the truth is that many people can't help but bash the leaders, no matter what they do. That's pretty sad.
Recent Comments