Pursue Your Dreams!

Everyone is following someone's dream; whose are you following?

One of the things I've discovered about great leaders is that they are dreamers and visionaries. In addition to dreaming, they also have the courage to faithfully and patiently pursue their dreams. I personally believe John Maxwell's philosophy that "Leadership is Influence". I also believe that influence can be achieved when we solve problems that add value to people's lives.

John Spreitzer was a graduate of J. Reuben Clark Law School and practised at Dykema. Although he had become a very successful lawyer, John knew that his real dream was to become a teacher. According to his wife, "He was a fabulous lawyer but that was not his calling." In 2004 and at the age of 51, John left the legal profession and became a school teacher. According to Brian Dickerson, "John began teaching at Chippewa Valley in September 2004 and quickly established a reputation as a teacher who would do whatever it took to help his students succeed.". Seven years later, John collapsed at an athletic club and died shortly. Below are some of his former students' comments (taken from ratemyteachers.com):

***Mr Spreitzer was the best teacher I had in freshmen year. I'm a senior now and I wouldn't be the writer I am today without him. He cared more about his students more than any other teacher I know. He made me take honors English in 10th grade, which led me to go on in high school and take AP classes. He was a true inspiration to me. Thank you Mr Spreitzer. RIP***

***My favorite teacher I've ever had the pleasure of being taught by. He knew and loved what he taught, and his passion for it will not be forgotten by those who had him as their teacher. Like he always told us, he'd **** before he quit doing what he loved. Rest in peace, sir.***

***Rest in peace Mr Spreitzer. I'll never forget your class; you were incredible. You taught me more than just English.***

***You were such a great teacher and I will surely miss him and his passion for teaching. To his family give my deepest condolences and they are in my prayers R.I.P Mr Spreitzer you where truly a great person.***

I'm happy that John was able to follow his dream of becoming a teacher even though it occurred in the last 7 years of his life. I wonder what's stopping you from following yours

Every individual is born as a solution to a problem in the world. I believe that God sent each human being into the world as an answer to a specific cry. The passion to solve that problem is sown - at birth - as a dream in that individual. For most individuals, this dream -to solve a specific problem- is replaced by someone else's dream (or fear) and they end up living lives and building careers that have nothing to do with what they were originally made for. Whether it is the dream of our parents, family, friends, we must come to the point in life where we decide to step out of the dreams of others and follow our dreams. There are several reasons why many individuals never follow their dreams:

- It doesn’t make sense (of course it never made sense when the Wright brothers said that man could fly)

- I have the passion but not the knowledge (Graham Bell felt the same way about the telephone and his mentor told him to Get It!)

- It doesn’t look lucrative (at the start! Money follows value and not the other way)

- My mama told me that I would never make it (did she make it? According to Zig Ziglar, "The most important opinion is the opinion we have about ourselves.")

- I made a huge mess of myself the last time I tried using my gifts (that was yesterday, which ended yesterday)

- I’m afraid of what may happen, what others may think, of failing (False Evidence Appearing Real)

- I don’t look popular doing that (Rosa Parks did something unpopular that history stills remembers)

- No one’s ever done this before (Roger Bannister was told the same thing)

What is your reason!

“When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson


You Are Unique!

Innovate or Die!

“The vast majority of human beings dislike and even actually dread all notions with which they are not familiar... Hence it comes about that at their first appearance innovators have generally been persecuted, and always derided as fools and madmen.”― Aldous Huxley

In 1876 a young inventor in his late twenties approached one of the leading communications company in that era -Western Union- and offered them the opportunity to purchase the patents to his invention for $100,000 (equivalence of about $2 million today). Alexandra Graham Bell had just invented the telephone and was offering the invention to Western Union at a ridiculously cheap price. Western Union declined to purchase the innovation and the President (of Western Union), William Orton, famously said (regarding Graham Bell's invention)- "What use could this company make of an electrical toy".

Alexandra Bell and his partners launched the first telephone in 1878 and all it could do was provide communication for individuals within a couple of miles of each other. It was perfectly suited to short distance communication, a service that did not compete with Western Union -whose niche market was long distance communication via the telegram. Over a period of time the Bell company would improve on their technology and by 1910 purchased a controlling interest in Western Union - the same company whose president called Graham Bell's invention an electrical toy.

“In a world of change, the learners shall inherit the earth, while the learned shall find themselves perfectly suited for a world that no longer exists.” ― Eric Hoffer

As mentioned in an earlier blog, innovation is different from invention. Invention is the creation of a novel product, idea, service or process. Innovation does not stop at the creation of a better product, service or process but, includes the availability of the improved product, service or process to the community, market place, government.

With all the changes and complexities in today's world, there are five things (or more) we can learn from the Western Union story:

- never underestimate the power of little innovations; they are the seeds for tomorrow's big breakthroughs;
- don't be afraid to consider new ways of doing something even if the old way seems to be working and relevant today;
- it is dangerous to be guided (only) by short term results without thinking about the sustainability of the current business model in light of current and future customer needs and tastes;
- be wary of disruptive innovations that focus on customers who are currently not being served (or underserved) by your product or services;
- it's either we continuously innovate -as businesses, organizations, community, country, individuals- or be ready to die!

“If humans can live for 100 years, why do companies die so young.”― Sukant Ratnakar, Open the Windows

You Are Unique!

How to kill your business

"Companies must solve a cultural and accounting dilemma that serves as a barrier to innovation" - Globe and Mail

In 1889 and at the age of thirty-five, George Eastman - a high school drop-out and bank clerk- founded a company that would go on to hold a dominant position in the photography industry: Kodak. Eastman was one of the great philanthropists of his time, donating over $100 million to charitable causes, establishing schools for music, medicine, dentistry, and clinics for low-income families. Kodak was so successful that by the late 70's the company had a 90% market share of photographic film sales in America.

In 1975, Kodak would go on to pioneer the digital film technology - an innovation that would later transform the world of photography. Unable to focus on this new innovative product, because of perceived lower returns, Kodak dumped it for their more profitable analog business. Fast forward 30 years and the digital industry has completely overshadowedthe analog business. It is estimated that around 2.5 billion people in the world have a digital camera. It wasn't until the 90's that Kodak began to plan a decade-long journey to move to digital technology. They were casual in their approach to innovation and became a casualty at the end of the day. Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on January 19th, 2012.

"If all you do is play it safe, the cost just to stay in the game will whittle you down until you’ve got nothing left."- Peter Pachal

One way to kill your business is to stop innovating. Some key lessons from Kodak's story are:

1. Continuous creative innovation must become a culture and not a buzz word or the flavor of the month.
2. Innovation must be practiced, recognized and rewarded throughout the organization
3. Short term gains must be balanced with a long term approach to planning and strategy
4. CEO compensation should have an element of innovation in it. Perhaps the present value of the future value creation of innovative products, services and processes can be embedded in the compensation formula
5. It's no more enough to keep up with the changing market; we must lead or drive the change in the market.
6. The key to sustained success is continuous innovation
7. We must not be afraid to let go of the old ways of doing things for a new and innovative way
8. We must constantly measure the relevance of our business models with current and future trends.
9. We must be passionate about innovation and be willing to take the necessary risks to promote innovative products, services and processes
10. Ideas are the seeds of innovation. We must create two things: an environment to nurture and encourage innovative ideas and, an innovation process for these seeds of ideas

"Innovation— any new idea—by definition will not be accepted at first. It takes repeated attempts, endless demonstrations, monotonous rehearsals before innovation can be accepted and internalized by an organization. This requires courageous patience."— Warren Bennis

You are Unique!

Innovation Matters

"Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship... the act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth."- Peter drucker

According to Wikipedia, "Innovation is the creation of better or more effective products, processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are readily available to markets, governments, and society. Innovation differs from invention in that innovation refers to the use of better and, as a result, novel idea or method, whereas invention refers more directly to the creation of the idea or method itself. Innovation differs from improvement in that innovation refers to the notion of doing something different (Lat. innovare: "to change") rather than doing the same thing better."

If I was to ask you to name the top five companies in the world, I would not be surprised to hear you mention Google, Apple, Microsoft, etc. What do these companies have in common? "Innovation"! With business complexities, monopoly of knowledge quickly disappearing, increasing and customers demand for better and cheaper products not diminishing, it is becoming apparent that businesses that will thrive in today's world have to be innovative on a daily basis. Innovation is no longer a buzz word, but has become necessary in order to survive fierce competition and continue to add value to customers. According to Gary Hamel "What limits innovation in established companies isnèt a lack of resources or a shortage of human creativity, but a dearth of innovation processes".

"Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have... It's not about money. It's about the people you have, how you're led, and how much you get it." -Steve Jobs

According to the authors of the Innovators DNA, the five skills of disruptive innovators are questioning, observing, networking, experimenting and associational thinking (drawing connections among unrelated fields). The late Steve Jobs is a prime example of a disruptive innovator. His innovative move with the Ipod led not only to Apple becoming a major player in the music industry, but began a chain of events that would lead to the downward spiral of the Blackberry.

As companies downsize and jobs become harder to come by, the innovative responsibility has now become a shared one. Employees can no longer afford to put all the blame on the companies they work in for lack of innovation. Employees must now begin to take the initiative to innovate- looking for opportunities to improve their processes and, themselves. Some companies do encourage innovation while it is not impossible to come across organizations that discourage innovation.

"We ought not be over anxious to encourage innovation, in case of doubtful improvement, for an old system must ever have two advantages over a new one; it is established and it is understood."- C.C. Colton

Can Innovation be learnt? What is the innovation process? How can I build a culture of innovation in my company? These are some of the questions I hope to answer over the next few days.

You Are Unique!

Follow Your Dreams!

Everyone is following someone's dream; whose are you following?

One of the things I've discovered about great leaders is that they are dreamers and visionaries. In addition to dreaming, they also have the courage to faithfully and patiently pursue their dreams. I personally believe John Maxwell's philosophy that "Leadership is Influence". I also believe that influence can be achieved when we solve problems that add value to people's lives.

Every individual is born as a solution to a problem in the world. The passion to solve that problem is sown - at birth - as a dream in that individual. For most individuals, this dream -to solve a specific problem- is replaced by someone else's dream and they end up living lives and building careers that have nothing to do with what they were originally made for.

John Spreitzer was a graduate of J. Reuben Clark Law School and practised at Dykema. Although he had become a very successful lawyer, John knew that his real dream was to become a teacher. According to his wife, "He was a fabulous lawyer but that was not his calling." In 2004 and at the age of 51, John left the legal profession and became a school teacher. According to Brian Dickerson, "John began teaching at Chippewa Valley in September 2004 and quickly established a reputation as a teacher who would do whatever it took to help his students succeed.". Seven years later, John collapsed at an athletic club and died shortly. Below are some of his former students' comments (taken from ratemyteachers.com):

***Mr Spreitzer was the best teacher I had in freshmen year. I'm a senior now and I wouldn't be the writer I am today without him. He cared more about his students more than any other teacher I know. He made me take honors English in 10th grade, which led me to go on in high school and take AP classes. He was a true inspiration to me. Thank you Mr Spreitzer. RIP***

***My favorite teacher I've ever had the pleasure of being taught by. He knew and loved what he taught, and his passion for it will not be forgotten by those who had him as their teacher. Like he always told us, he'd **** before he quit doing what he loved. Rest in peace, sir.***

***Rest in peace Mr Spreitzer. I'll never forget your class; you were incredible. You taught me more than just English.***

***You were such a great teacher and I will surely miss him and his passion for teaching. To his family give my deepest condolences and they are in my prayers R.I.P Mr Spreitzer you where truly a great person.***

I'm happy that John was able to follow his dream of becoming a teacher even though it occurred in the last 7 years of his life. I wonder what's stopping you from following yours

Today's dreams can become the seedlings of tomorrow's reality

You are Unique!

Waiting for the Green Light

I’ve been in Canada for more than eight years and always amazed with the way so many things are ordered and structured. One of these amazements is the traffic lights. It’s so cool to come to a red light and stop without anyone telling you to. I’ve been in another country where you had to look very well and possibly wait for 20 seconds before moving, even on a green light. This is because a crazy driver on the other side would most likely ignore the red light as everyone is in a hurry to get to theri destination.

Observing the lights and moving only when they are green is a great practice; nevertheless, I’ve seen so many people in life who never leave home, never get married, never write a book, never sing a song, never start a business, never go on a date, never preach a sermon, never go back to school, never embark on their dream adventure because they are waiting until all the lights are green

If you wait until all the lights are “GREEN” before you leave home, you’ll never get started on your trip to the top… Zig Ziglar

There are several reasons why people want all the lights to be green before the move, but the most common reason is because the last time they ran a red light, they were involved in an accident. Isn’t it funny how someone knows about someone who ran a red light and also had an accident?

Failure is an event, not a person… Zig Ziglar

What green lights are you waiting on/for? It’s fun to see the green lights all come on automatically and signal that it is time to move on. It's interesting to note that not all green lights will come on automatically. There are some green lights that will come on, when you turn them on. The truth is that most times we are wait on life to turn the green lights on but in reality, life is waiting on us to get started on our dreams and start moving