Glimmerick

The entitled quote is from Thomas Alva Edison. If anyone knows about hard work and success, he would.  Some people get the illusion that successful people all of a sudden became successful one day. One of my favorite quotes from Sam Walton is this:

Like working weekends [referring to long work weeks], it’s just something you have to do if you want to be successful in the retail business.

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Ah, it’s been a very busy past few days. Classes started this week, and so did work-and so did the beautiful weather. It’s hit the 90’s here past few days, and right now its 70… at 130 in the morning. I love this wonderful weather, but it’s hard to concentrate on studies and work. Oh well, it’s a good time to practice perseverance. Consequently, I’ve been home only a few hours all weekend, so no posts over the weekend, sad I know!

Anyways, after my life update, I was reading over Sam Walton’s book, and just wanted to share a short post about it. He said that he raised his kids on these values, and believes them to be the bedrock in helping his kids learn how to act when growing up.  Sam Walton’s recipe?

1. Hard Work
2. Honesty
3. Neighborliness
4. Thrift

Of course, there were others that Mr. Walton used when raising his kids, but these were the ones that he specifically highlighted in the text, and they are good ones.  His biggest concern was that his kids would turn into the “idle rich.” I think this is really cool. I know some people that are very well off, and they spoiled there kids- a lot.  It’s one thing to give nice things to your kids, if you can afford it. But to make them learn a good work ethic (a really high paying starting job in your company doesn’t count) is key.

Currently reviewing: Sam Walton: Made In America

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I was recently reading a interpersonal communications book, Looking Out, Looking In, and they wrote about a list of “certain moral duties”, that as human beings, we ought to be obligated to abide by in relation to others around us. I read over the list, and I became very intrigued. Here were just seven principles, yet if everyone followed them a majority of the time, the world would drastically change.  Now these are no Ten Commandments, but these guidelines focus mainly on interactions with people, rather than additionally focusing on religion.

1. Fidelity: Strict observance of promises and duties; loyalty.  Just imagine how much more efficient the world would be if we all just kept our promises.  No second guessing, or backup plans, just staying true to your word. Back in the day, a man’s word meant the world to him.

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In each of us there are unknown possibilities, undiscovered potentialities— and one big advantage of having an open self-concept rather than a rigid one is that we shall continue to expose ourselves to new experiences and therefore we shall continue to discover more and more about ourselves as we grow older. ~ S. I. Hayakawa

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I often have a problem with procrastination.  I frequently put off a large portion of a project/job/report/etc until the last minute. Let me explain, in terms of a paper.  When I need to write a paper, I know that I should work on it as soon as possible, so that I don’t leave it all until the very end. So I jot down an idea here, write a few sentences there, and I think that I am making progress. As soon as I know it, the paper is due at tomorrow, and I have a paragraph or two.  All along, I had deceived myself that I was actually working on it, while actually I had just been picking at it, accomplishing nothing.  The blog Organize IT writes a nice post about the idea of dealing with something as it comes up, and I recommend you read it.  While reading his book, Sam Walton has a great answer to looming projects that I find really helpful to keep in mind:

Let’s be out front. Let’s do it right. Let’s get it done now and get on with it.

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In the June issue of Fortune, in an article “Going, going…” , they state that some of the first gas pumps have become so archaic, that they will soon be obsolete. But the reason is not quite obvious at first glance.

The spinning dials don’t have the ability to show prices beyond $3.99, and total sales can’t register beyond $99.99

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A common idea has been running through my mind lately, and that is commitment is strongly correlated to ownership. Let me explain.  Take for instance a rental car.  I’m sure we’ve all either driven one, or at least rode in one. And let’s be honest, we just don’t take as good as care of these cars, as we do the cars we actually own.  In many cases, the care to make sure food doesn’t get on the seats is much less, the car is driven harder, etc.  Recently I heard this analogy about a hotel.  We treat a hotel much differently than we do our own house.  We leave things all over the floor, leave the bed unmade, don’t tidy up the bathroom, etc.  My point is, we care less about keeping these things nice because we have no ownership in these items.  Sure if we cause severe damage we are responsible to some extent, but the basics seem to go out the window.

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