Confront and Surmount Challenges to Improve Life’s Strategy - Part 1

 “Success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.” —Orison Swett Marden

True happiness doesn't arise from a life devoid of problems but emerges when one possesses the capacity to confront and surmount challenges. Imagine a mountain climber who embarks on a challenging expedition to conquer a formidable peak. Along the way, s/he faces harsh weather, treacherous terrain, and physical exhaustion. Despite the numerous obstacles and difficulties, the climber persists, relying on h/her skills, determination, and resilience. True happiness doesn't come from avoiding the challenges or having a trouble-free journey. Instead, it arises when the one reaches the summit, having confronted and overcome those challenges.

The sense of accomplishment, self-discovery, and the breathtaking view from the peak are the sources of h/her genuine happiness, emphasizing that happiness often emerges from the capacity to confront and surmount life's difficulties. True happiness is not found in the pursuit of external possessions, but in the contentment that comes from realizing your inner potential and appreciating the beauty of the present moment.

"True happiness is not a destination to reach but a state of being to embrace." - Byron Pulsifer 

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A Company’s Success Depends on Collaborative, Motivated and Enthusiastic Culture

"Company culture is not a foosball table. It's not a set of values that hang on a wall. It's not perks and benefits. It's the personality of the company. It's how people feel about working there." - Stacy Zapar

 

Several years ago, I worked as a management consultant for the operations and strategic approach of a company referred to as PP Food Development company (PFD, not the actual name), which specializes in developing food and beverage products for the Consumer Product Goods (CPG) sector. The company is medium-sized, with about 20 employees, and it outsources manufacturing and supply chain activities. It allocates a substantial yearly budget of $30 million for research and development (R&D) to ensure customer satisfaction with a high degree of probability.
 
PFD's core competence lies in its skilled team, including food scientists, dietitians, chefs, and quality control experts, enabling advanced R&D to create natural, healthy, and delicious processed food products. Its strategic objective is differentiation, aiming to stand out from competitors by offering products with natural flavors, colours, and preservatives, along with lower sugar and salt content while maintaining taste.
 
The company maintains a sustainable competitive advantage by achieving economies of scale to reduce costs, allowing it to offer competitively priced products. This advantage is supported by inimitable and non-substitute resources and capabilities. PFD combines a best cost provider strategy with a broad differentiation strategy, delivering quality-value to customers while striving for efficient cost management. It also collaborates with global suppliers for manufacturing and partners with customers like Walmart, Costco, and Whole Foods for effective value chain management.
 
"Culture is simply a shared way of doing something with a passion." - Brian Chesky

A notable aspect of PFD's culture is the collaborative and enthusiastic bonding among its team of food scientists, chefs, and dietitians. This cultural environment supports creative experimentation and collaborative strategy execution, where every team member's opinion is respected and contributes to accomplishing strategic objectives.
 
Overall, the company’s success highlights how it utilizes its core competence, strategic differentiation, cost management, and collaborative culture to succeed in the competitive market of food and beverage products.

"The only thing that works is management by values. Find people who are competent and really bright, but more importantly, people who care exactly about the same values as the rest of the team." - Steve Jobs

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Walk the Talk!

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal. Nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. — Thomas Jefferson 

 

One of the best qualities you can develop as part of your life’s strategy is the ability to do what you say and walk the talk. Anyone can learn to achieve that quality and simply start by doing only the things you really mean to do.

 

It is certainly acceptable to change your mind for good reasons if circumstances change. Even your adversaries will hold you in high regard if you walk the talk by doing what you say you will do. You will gradually develop an esteemed character of integrity and reliability when you consistently walk the talk.

 

Sometimes, telling people what you think they want to hear is easier. However, unless you can read people’s minds, you will be wrong most of the time, and you could find yourself in a very problematic situation.

 

Therefore, it is best to just honestly tell the truth or explain your viewpoint based on real-life experience, which could be consistent with what you anticipate or are planning to do. Again, you can always change your mind based on new information, but you must explain the reasons behind your change of heart so that you do not give the impression that you are going against your word.

 

Even in business, effective leadership demands the courage to speak the truth, even if that truth is sometimes unpleasant, uncomfortable, or painful. Speak the truth, follow through on your word, walk the talk, and you will be remarkably successful in accomplishing things.

 

Learn to take small actions daily, which will produce significant results when done consistently. Make a solemn effort to repeat positive affirmations for a few minutes Every morning and night. This simple daily effort could help you to improve yourself, help others and bring joy into your life. By choosing to walk the talk, you will also be setting an example for others to follow. 

 

"One of the most beautiful compensations in life is that no man can help another without helping himself.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson 

 

“A diamond with a flaw is better than a pebble.” – Confucius

 

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This Year, it’s Acceptable to Change your Mind

“If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hopes.” —Andrew Carnegie

 

“Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal.” —Earl Nightingale

 

Change the channel. Be a good driver of your mind and thoughts. If you don’t like the thoughts that are going through your mind, just change the channel. Every created invention starts from the mind. For example, the creation of an airplane started from the mind as it was first conceived there.

 

First, know what you want and write it down. Next, if some thoughts go through your mind and are inconsistent with your goals or what you want, just change your thoughts and focus on anything that will help contribute to your goals.

 

Mozart is known to conceive the musical notes of a new concerto in his mind before putting them on paper. Einstein also perceived the beam of starlight in his mind before creating the famous equation of relativity. He’s also known to change the channel. For example, whenever he was stuck in solving a complicated mathematical problem, he would stop and then play the violin for a while to allow the mind to relax, free up any tension and then “viola,” the solution would pop up in his mind. 

 

Leonardo Da Vinci did something similar by focusing on other endeavours, changing the channel, while trying to free his mind from a complex problem by providing his thoughts with an opportunity to come up with the best solution to solve a problem or complete a monumental task. 

 

This new year, if you don’t like the thoughts that are going through your mind, just change the channel and think of something beautiful, happy thoughts of your loved ones, your own joyful experiences, or other people’s happy experiences. 

 

If you have any comments or a specific topic that you would like to discuss or know more about, please let me know by adding your comments below, and I'll do my best to research and share more light on the subject on my next blog at Elliot Wilson's Blog. 

 

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“When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.” – Confucius

 

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Transformation - Improve Yourself

“A Saint was a sinner who never gave up” — Sri Paramahansa Yogananda

“Never Never Give Up” — Winston Churchill

Most successful people experienced some type of adversities like all humans, but they always emerge even stronger because they face them head-on.

Anything is possible, and so you just go ahead and make the change! Improving little by little is worth the effort, and it's even self-fulfilling.

A thoughtful process to consider during transformation to improve yourself:

1. Recognize the problem because you are not happy with the current situation. Honestly confronting the facts of the current reality helps to make it easier, and to make the right decisions

2. Feel the urgency of your condition and that you want better results. Seek help - get a coach or mentor as your guide, or form/join a support group. You may also take a relevant course

3. Develop a strategy with the support of your coach or mentor as to how you are going to achieve your objectives. Communicate any change in vision and objective with your support group

3. Commitment to take action. Be empowered to take daily action based on your vision or objectives. Commitment helps to see the goal in your mind's eye daily, morning or night, waking up with that in mind, and before you go to sleep – so that nothing deters you to give up, but only motivated to achieve results no matter what, which leads to point #4

4. Persevere to never give up until the objective is achieved. Celebrate short term wins and then look forward to the next win

Just Keep on keeping on no matter what.

Here are some examples of things people can improve on:

A. To increase or double income - by when? Time it reasonably - maybe to get a new job by what date?

B. Change in lifestyle from unhappy life to a peaceful, joyful, fulfilling life…

C. To increase productivity at work or work/life balance by using your best resources - 'time' effectively and efficiently…  

D. To lose weight from 200 to 170 pounds…

E. To create something that no one has ever created...

The Stockdale Paradox: When Prof. Jim Collins interviewed Vice Admiral James Stockdale regarding how he survived as a Vietnam POW, Stockdale said "You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be."

Therefore, in addition to retaining absolute faith and conviction that you can and will overcome and succeed no matter what, you must also be pragmatic for as long as it takes to succeed. May you grow in intelligence and compassion as much as you grow in strength!

“Nobody trips over mountains. It is the small pebble that causes you to stumble. Pass all the pebbles in your path and you will find you have crossed the mountain.” -- Wolfgang Riebe

“Winners never quit and quitters never win." -- Vince Lombardi

“Most of the important things in the world have been done by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all. -- Dale Carnegie”

You may connect with Elliot Wilson @: https://twitter.com/Ell_Wilson; https://www.ellwilson.blogspot.com; https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliotwilson6/

Social Justice; All Lives Matter

Social justice promotes fair and equality in society whereby everyone is treated fair and equal under the law and guiding principles of society regardless of race, colour, caste, creed, religion, or sex. Throughout history, where there is social justice, you would consequently find peace, harmony, and prosperity in society as a whole.

We can definitely view the issue of social injustices using the 3-legged stool philosophy to approach how we endeavour to solve this problem. The platform of the stool is the social injustice including racism, gender bias, etc., that needs to be completely eradicated.

The first leg of the stool is the systemic injustices as beautifully elaborated by Seth Godin: “The systemic, cruel and depersonalizing history of Black subjugation in my country has and continues to be a crime against humanity. It’s based on a desire to maintain power and false assumptions about how the world works and how it can work. It’s been amplified by systems that were often put in place with mal-intent, or sometimes simply because they felt expedient. It’s painful to look at and far more painful to be part of or to admit that exists in the things that we build. We can’t permit the murder of people because of the color of their skin. Institutional racism is real, it’s often invisible, and it’s pernicious.”

Therefore, we have serious work to do to treat all men and women as equals.

The second leg is the data that supports the social injustices as factual and truthful. There are historical evidence that have been collected for over 400 years! Hence, it is absolutely unjustifiable to deny that social injustices exist in our society.

Finally, the last leg, probably the most important part of the equation, is the ability for each individual to speak up and stand by one’s conviction of change to a critical point of the willingness to die for what one believes is right for our society. The founding fathers were willing to die for Liberty when they signed the Declaration of Independence. Socrates, Galileo, Mahatma Gandhi, and Dr. Martin Luther King died for what they believed in. This may seemed drastic but are you willing to die for what you fervently believe is the positive change our society needs? If so then stand up, speak up, look up, motivate up, encourage up, and vote up!

“We need a voice against racism, we need many voices against racism and brutality. And we need to stand up and say that black lives matter.” — Senator Mitt Romney

“If, going forward, we can channel our justifiable anger into peaceful, sustained, and effective action, then this moment can be a real turning point in our nation’s long journey to live up to our highest ideals.” —  Former President Barack Obama

I end with a quote from Kaleth O. Wright, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force:
“I must do better. Like you, I don’t have all of the answers, but I’m committed to seeing a better future for this nation. What have I been doing? Not enough. I can only look in the mirror for the solution.”

You may connect with Elliot Wilson @: https://twitter.com/Ell_Wilson; https://www.ellwilson.blogspot.com

Grateful to be Alive

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.” — Henry David Thoreau

“If you can't do what you want, do what you can.” — Lois McMaster Bujold

The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a lot of damage and we are yet to see the cases declining globally. However, this is also the time for mankind to take a step back and reflect on those things and virtues that are more important in life, such as love, family, kindness, gratitude, generosity, peace and humility.

In addition to wearing masks and washing our hands frequently, physical distancing (social distancing) and self-isolation have proven to tame the widespread of the pandemic and save lives exponentially. However, we sometimes miss the ordinary human connection of shaking hands, hugging friends, tapping the shoulders of colleagues/co-workers, and the way we are simply accustomed to the exchange of human energy. 

Nevertheless, we can rest assured that this too shall pass as it is a temporary situation for mankind to learn something that would make us stronger, better, and kinder in the future. At the same time, we would miss and honour all those dear ones who couldn’t make it and have passed on.

We are grateful that through video and digital technology, we can somewhat still see and talk to people globally as most of us would like to be seen, heard, and have our expressed emotions valued. 

We can use You-Tube, Zoom, WhatsApp, text-messaging, phone calls and emails to connect with love ones, family, and friends to express our love. We can also check up on those long-forgotten acquaintances in this inauspicious times just to see how they are doing. This is the time to also reach out to some old folks or physically challenged people in your community to see if they need any kind of help taking into consideration physical distancing. It would definitely warm their hearts as any act of kindness goes a long way! 

This is also a time for reflection - taking inventory of our lives, where we are, how did we get here, and where are we going? It is also a time to start working on some of the good/great ideas that we have been hoarding at the back of our minds for a long time, and start planning and working on them virtually/remotely. This way we will be able to bring them to reality when we are able to go out again from self-isolation. Have fun pursuing your passion!

Stay safe and be well! 

“The only way to see a rainbow is to look through the rain. Happiness is a journey…not a destination” — Wolfgang Riebe

“We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience.” — George Washington

You may connect with Elliot Wilson @: https://twitter.com/Ell_Wilson; https://www.ellwilson.blogspot.com