The string

"Shirley is doing a great job at AIME," john informed me overt he phone, even without my asking.

One of my analogies I frequently use is to hand people a 12- inch string and offer $100 to the first person who can push it from one end of the desk to another in a straight line. Everyone's always motivated, but no one can do it. The string always coil and resists.

It's the same with people. If we push people, they resist. We can lead willing people, by training, coaching, answering questions and helping them. But we can't push them, and indeed, I won't. Somebody who has to be pushed has the wrong attitude.

Stay connected

"This is my big day," Sherly posted on FB

Most people think that love should always be magical and spontaneous. They loathe the concept of scheduling private moments with their loved ones for fear that this will suck the romance out of their relationship. 

Staying connected can be the biggest challenge a couple has to face. Life can move so fast that you don't set time aside for yourself and your loved ones, no one will bother to remind you about what's truly important.

Stand, don't sit.

"Shall we sit down?" Minte asked when the team came Into to my office for the goal setting discussion this morning

In some circumstances, I believe we shouldn't for sit a meeting at all. If the meeting is short and focused on making a decision of some sort, then I would  stand up for the conversation. This encourages participants to focus on the issue and come to a decision in a timely manner.

The difference makers

I have an award winning team.

The people side of running a sales operation is the most demanding, time consuming and difficult part of a sales leader's job. The ability to spot potential in others surpasses the value of being exceedingly capable himself/herself. If a leader does one thing well, it should be finding and supporting good team members. Nothing happens without the right people in the right job.

Our people make the difference.

No price tags

ACE and I just completed a 2.5 hour tour of sentosa this evening.....on a Segway. Moments like these don't have price tags.

The most important things I can give my son is not material things, rather the values that will carry him well through life. I must love him the best I can, leave the rest to God and hope for the best.

Tonight as like other nights, I will again go into ACE's room and wrap my arms around him and hold him close as he sleeps. I will whisper "I love you" into his ears. I don't want to someday regret what I didn't say.

New year, new growth

We achieved 26% YOY growth last year. I have scheduled a kick-off meeting later this month to talk about this year's growth and where it is going to come from.

A simple but often-overlooked premise in sales is that new growth comes from new thinking. For anyone under the impression that working harder at doing the same things in the same ways will generate new growth, please hop into a time machine and transport yourself back to 1960.

49

Bob Dylan sang of "days of 49", Ernest Hemingway had a collection: the first forty-nine stories, john Travolta acted in "Ladder 49", and I turn 49 today.

49 is a nice number for the telephone country code of Germany (perhaps next year's World Cup winner) but it is not a number I had prepared to have hung on me. 49 is supposed to be my father's age, but now I am stuck on these elevated number and everything they mean.

I have loads of stories to reveal about how aging feels to me -physically, mentally and emotionally. But I'd rather share how poet Robert Browning puts it:

grow old along with me
The best is yet to come!