Sustainability
Oh, Can You See By the Dawn’s Early Light?
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
So begins the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence from Great Britain signed by the United States Congress on July 4, 1776. We in the US, celebrate July 4th as Independence Day this weekend with festivities, fireworks, picnics and devotionals to those whose lives were dedicated and often taken to secure these unalienable rights. In fact, the words could serve as anthem to peoples all over the world as a never ending objective and pursuit.
The instrument declared states as the independent parties, and in doing so established, “that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do.”
The Declaration of Independence was a consequence of a people rebelling against abuses with no responsiveness to appeals or due recourse for resolution. It is interesting to recognize that the only activity specified that is specific to an individual is the right to establish commerce. The document enumerates abuses by the Crown and intolerable and unendurable behaviors and, not surprisingly, many can be traced to actions to serve commercial objectives, those of the Crown and to the detriment of the colonists. (It took a subsequent Constitution and Bill of Rights to establish governance.) But, to continue the thread, business strategies are in fact conquest strategies and occupation strategies, and governments align to these to different degrees. Political colonies have typically as occupation entities to be harvested.
The consequences of the boldness of the Declaration of Independence and subsequent execution have enabled many of us to pursue happiness, enjoy liberty, and create life with hope. Three important dimensions are forever present in my mind:
1. Declaration was followed by sacrifice and vigilance to earn the liberties and the responsibilities to sustain them. Declaring that we are or we will be better or great can warm the tummy for a bit, but it is execution and on-going management that makes it real. Projects exist to create processes and processes must manage to the objectives of the entities. This applies to governance of individuals, organizations, enterprises, societies, religious orders, groups, and nations.
2. As the world changes and our prosperities grow, our opportunities are a powerful magnet for others seeking life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Although many believe that these rights come as a consequence of national versus global birth, perhaps through education or lack thereof, it is the right to earn them that effectively determines what we do and whether life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is achieved.
3. The first two create obligations and responsibilities, societal and commercial. Recognizing the unalienable rights do not come as a geographical or political birthright … not because of where we were born, but rather, because you were born is important, particularly if we are to be civil in our behaviors among our global community. We must not act in a way that denies the right to the pursuit of opportunity to earn happiness, personal or commercial, simply because we can at this point in time.
I cherish the opportunities life in the United States brings every day, and am grateful that my loved ones can pursue their own dreams. I honor and respect those that live and die daily to protect these opportunities and am ashamed of those that deny them to others, here or abroad.
Today, independence is more complex, perhaps because prosperity has redefined for many what the pursuit of happiness is or ought to be. Somehow, I find it is easier to find clarity in challenging times, and rewarding to reflect on the earned independence we enjoy and the responsibility to continue to earn and never deny.
Happy 4th!
A Gulf of Inconvenience
The oil well disaster events of the last weeks have been nothing short of ugly. In the background, the echoes of simplistic politicians ranting “Drill, baby, drill!” strike discordance with the fears and unavoidable harm playing out in the Gulf and spotlighted on the nightly news. Congressional hearings into the events are fraught with finger pointing at those called to testify and between those testifying with blame becoming the volleyball, destined to be set up, passed, and slammed until it hits a score. In the meantime, on-the-fly brainstorming is generating and testing ideas to stop the river of oil spewing from its lifelong imprisonment below the surface of the sea; and has rendered predictable disappointments. There are lots of spectators watching, pundits blasting, gladiators battling to survive the ordeal, and some hiding from repercussions.
In the ensuing panic and spotlight, another scary dimension reemerges, how ready are we to tackle what we have not experienced before? Executives of the drilling operations confess, in retrospect, inadequacies in the analysis, evaluation, and preparation for the failures leading to the explosion and the current river of oil. It is messy, the oil spill, the accompanying chaos, and the level of activity to assign blame from the bleachers and the court of public opinion. There is one huge problem with the court of public opinion; it is typically concerned with assigning retrospective blame and exacting a full measure of justice. Often that justice comes as punishment for the convicted and increased regulation for everyone else. On the other side of these events, we will have to contend with choices about getting less and paying more. I wonder what the real cost of our current energy enriched lifestyle might be? I believe we all may experience some level of repugnance and disapproval of these energy extraction accidents, indeed very ugly, but are they a dark side of the convenience we enjoy? These events could have certainly been less likely, with different choices by the operators, their leadership and our shopping demands.
I want to be safe and comfortable, living the convenience that energy provides, but may be reluctant to bear the total costs. I don’t believe that I am alone. An interesting aspect of this scenario is fundamental to situations many industries may be facing. Do we create strategies with aggressive goals that lead to optimistic planning and biases in risk analysis? How much does the business strategy influence the science of decision making? Specifically, how are the random surprises of the variability in Mother Nature considered? When Mother Nature does not want to behave according to plan, do we change tactics? Do we change with deliberation or desperation? After all, when any of us are running behind schedule, the rise in anxiety and fear of failure is inescapable! How then, are choices made? Where do we anchor our thinking and decision making? How far do we explore the expensive options that Mother Nature may present, particularly when behind schedule and sunken investments are climbing!
What happens often is the juxtaposition of goals and decisions driven by the laws of economics and the subsequent actions driven by the laws of physics. We run the business with an economic lens, but Mother Nature can only behave with the physics lens (we can add the other sciences like chemistry, mathematics, geology). Sometimes we have to guess about what Mother Nature is going to do, and we’ll be wrong to some degree, sometimes really wrong. It happens to most of us, but we don’t necessarily think about it when things are going well at the well. As this plays out, we will discover poor decisions and we may be tempted to assign sinister or evil behind them. Right or wrong, we will seek blame and justice. Ugly positioning, influence peddling, legal battles, insurance nightmares and extended stalling strategies await us … these are driven by the laws of economics.
I want to be careful and keep the broad brush of judgment put away. I believe that regulation will constrain future actions and better protect us from harm, at a price. I still wrestle with my, or our, lifestyle and business decisions against this backdrop. Do I have the right scale when I choose? So, what price are we willing to pay and what risks are we asking some to bear?
How wide is the gulf that separates our convenience?
“Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice: It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.” William Jennings Bryan
Thoughts?
Going for the Gold
By now many of us are working through the withdrawal symptoms of POSD, or Post Olympic Stress Disorder. The quality of coverage keeps ratcheting up every time, particularly with the clarity of HDTV, bigger screens, and cameras suspended in truly agile systems. I am amazed at how the athletes perform at levels that continue to redefine what is humanly possible and just how little the difference is between the first and the fifth placers … often a fraction of a second. High performance is redefined.
The human interest stories take a peek under the hood and into histories revealing that the road to high performance is not easy, ridden with adversity, overcoming pain, loss and, a host of challenges. Hours of practice and more hours to build capability under the watchful and critical eyes of coaches deliver world class fitness. That fitness enables world class performance wherein the medal is but one definition of winning.
What rings very true is the recurring theme that fitness precedes performance. It is as true in sports as it is in life and particularly in the world of business. Achieving sustainable business performance does not come from buying tools and handing them out with “how to” manuals and books, on-line streaming, or the overused cheerleads of “You can do it!” It comes from relentless hard, focused, effort pointed towards a goal that demands excellence, not trying hard. High performance will always demand focus, discipline, and follow-through.
How fit are our organizations to compete in races where competitors are improving rapidly? Are the standards of high performance outpacing our fitness to keep up, win, or just catch up? Years ago I was speaking with a former Olympian who coached our high school gymnastics team. He was sharing what it was like and how his coaches set goals. He said, “John, for many years the standard for this event was set by the East Germans. Year after year, the kept raising the bar, literally. We would watch and believed that we would become winners if we could jump as high as the East Germans were jumping. Our coaches would not settle for such low goals. Our coaches demanded that we jump to the height that would beat where the East Germans would be jumping at the next Olympics or world event.” The bar is always moving.
High performance is a slippery slope, one that a former world ice skating champion learned all too well last week. Capability is now set dynamically by the moving requirements. Often, by the time we find out the requirements, it has moved again. For those who lock down requirements very early the development or innovation process, the planning rigidity will result in missed targets, oops, it moved. Ask the telecommunications providers who deliver 3G, particularly iPhones, what happens at high concentration events like football games …. Hmmmm … the models don’t always anticipate ….
Some say that the tea leaves foresee an improving economy, perhaps the beginnings of better times ahead. These leaner times have been an opportunity to build better fitness, better capability to compete.
- How prepared are we?
- Are we jumping to the heights of the last competition or where the competition will jump tomorrow?
- Have we overcome the adversities and come out stronger, or has performance obesity found a way to ride out the storm?
- How do we measure and determine if our fitness will win? What motivates us?
- What do our coaches demand from us?
- What does focus, discipline and follow-though look like, and feel like?
- Do we compete as individuals or as teams?
Toyota’s Headache and Tylenol
Toyota’s woes continue. This week they’ve announced production idles at two US plants, their recalls have grown to 8.5 million vehicles globally, allegations of cover-ups are blazing across the news wires, and dealers across the nation are experiencing further drops in demand. Toyota’s chairman has apologized to their customers and the US government has posted a statistic of 34 alleged deaths attributed to the acceleration defects in their cars. The picture has the uncomfortable sensation that some of the Toyota leadership responsiveness to the issue has been provoked by data becoming visible to many where it was being hidden beforehand. It is disturbing, and if true, it challenges the credibility much of what we and the world has celebrated as “The Toyota Way.” Their projected business forecasts are frightening and no one forecasts a speedy recovery. With regulators and hearings dragging the giant into more limelight, apologies may sound hollow to many.
Contrast the current Toyota calamities to the response we observed from Johnson & Johnson in September 29, 1982. Seven people died in the Chicago area from Tylenol capsules containing cyanide. The cause was clearly caused by sabotage and malice and the incident could have killed their flagship brand. The response was immediate, uncompromising, and massive. The products, 31 million were pulled off the shelves, all shelves, at all locations. No wait and see, no “we’re working on it”, no “special task force” or recommitment to quality. Customer comes first, integrity must be common cause not special cause, and leadership leads from the front as chairman James Burke did. Today they are a pharmaceutical giant. Today recalls are so commonplace that they often fall under the radar.
Johnson & Johnson did not have an established recall process as none existed anywhere. Johnson & Johnson demonstrated agility. Tamper proof bottles did not exist, but Johnson & Johnson innovated. This took place in 1982, before the rest of the world learned to manage quality and flow, some of it from Toyota.
So, is this a surprise? Is the hubris unexpected? Do we see similar patterns as great performance brings a great image and the great image brings wealth or power? Does the importance of the image ever become more important than the foundations that earned it?
As the allegations and discoveries mount, regulators join the party, hearings ramp up, and the press has a global media event, what behavior should we expect? Currently, regulators at the FDA are critical or Tylenol’s poor responsiveness to a 2010 recall requirement. Hmmmm ……
Enterprises lose capability from disruption or decay ….. leadership can lead into or out of either.
Last year I wrote about how we earn more regulation and the impacts leaders have on this process. I suggest that it may be relevant again.
He is heavy, … , he ain’t my brother …
Also: A Tale of Two Tigers
Love that Potential!
A long time ago I studied engineering, mechanical engineering. I loved the subject and the lenses it brought. It was and is about transformation, solving problems, creation, leverage, and making new things that work and making old things work better. Engineering teaches how to open the hood on what we observe and appreciate the many systems at play when something happens or doesn’t happen. Later on, when I studied business, the engineering lenses were very helpful again, but now I could apply the business lenses to the engineering world and, wow, I could really see great stuff happening.
I recall several lectures on the subject of energy, particularly the contrasts between potential energy and kinetic energy. Basically, potential energy is work that we’ve done (force stored in a bottle) that is in a state that can be used to work we want to do (make something go or move), kinetic energy. Some may bristle at this folksy definition, but it will do for now. The battery in our car has potential energy stored that can be unleashed to turn a motor to start our car. When the car is running, it turns a generator that sparks the plugs (so that we can use the potential energy in the fuel) and returns some energy back to the battery for storage. Our bodies do the same thing with what we eat. By the way, if we let the battery stand around long enough it drains and loses the potential energy inside (sort of leaks out slowly). All the potential is gone and has to be recharged or replaced. Use it or lose it.
The business lens is the same isn’t it? We hire, develop, train, build capability and skills, staff up, put money away, and buy all kinds of equipment and supplies, right? All of that has lots of potential. Why? We do so use it to start and run our processes, projects, and respond when necessary. We make it kinetic! In doing so, we trade the deliverable for another type of potential energy, money. The cycle goes on and on between potential to kinetic and then again, but not always. We tend to waste lots of kinetic energy in activity that doesn’t produce something. We also leave lots of potential underutilized, and if it goes too long before we use it, we may find it as useless as a dead battery.
So,
- Do we know how well we build our “potential energy” within the enterprise?
- Where is that potential stored? Is it available and convenient?
- How much potential is leaking out and becoming unusable?
- Do we buy or build too much potential? Do we know?
Living in Florida, we need to prepare for hurricanes. We store potential in batteries, fuel, food, even a generator. If you ask me where they are stored, I would have to show you, because they keep moving from potential to kinetic and replaced with fresh potential capacity. Otherwise, they will be of diminished value when we really need them.
Do we have storms in our enterprises?
It’s Not in the Bag …
It’s hard to miss the green. Bordering on fashionable, sometimes imitating political correctness, tugging at our sensibilities of responsibility, the green movement is here. The issue is enormous and affects everything from choices about the water that we drink in or out of plastic bottles, how we sort and take out the trash, our transportation choices, and even the faddish colors of the cloth bags some carry to the market. I suspect that I’m not alone in the surrealism of the duality of playing a participant actor in my micro world, and simultaneously as a spectator to the unfolding of the global drama. Surrealism emerges in that I may “feel good” about my cloth bag, but am skeptical of how the big drama will end, and whether the writers of this bigger play have blinders as I may.
Let’s stipulate that environmental responsibility is essential and that we have far too many that chose to ignore it or value their other interests far more, or simply are ignorant of the impact of choices. Let’s also stipulate that the consequences of being wrong are asymmetrical in that being wrong in one direction is far worse than being wrong in the other. We should all do more and debate less about the doable and personal choices. But there are questions that I don’t yet see being discussed sufficiently. The foremost is what if global warming is not arrested? Be it from what we do or what happens from climactic changes outside of our influence, then what? I’m convinced that the answer lies not in whether I carry my little cloth grocery bag.
What’s the plan for a hotter, wetter, or drier world? What are our strategies for living and thriving in that very, perhaps uglier and different world? Climactic change has had enormous change on life and extinction. While our current version of Homo sapiens (knowledgeable man) survived changes precipitated by ices ages, the Neanderthals could not. Man-made or climatic depletion of food production have wiped out civilizations (read Jared Diamond) and triggered migrations and adaptations for those who survived (we have some of their genes….) Yes, we do it to ourselves, but change comes also. The rigid lose to the agile.
Awful as or cynical as it may sound, we must have at least one path in our thinking, debate, and development of solutions that treats global warming, the changes in climate, sea levels, and countless other changes as an opportunity. Yes, an opportunity! If we consider that change may come as one possible and highly probable future, we may harness focused creativity and strategies that bring essential solutions. Solutions need to be developed addressing the fundamental ways that people, governments, leaders, technology, scarcity and abundance collaborate. Or we can degenerate into might makes right, war or subjugation of the weaker. I pray we become better than that.
Proactive thought may bring out what is best in us. I fear that waiting for calamities and scarcity to come, will surely bring out what is worst in some.
What are some questions we should be asking?
Who’s responsible?
What’s the cost of not asking?
“One Thing …”
It’s really great to be surprised, particularly when it’s a good one. For close to two decades I’ve been ranting about three rules, the only three rules we need to execute, improve, or accomplish close to everything. There are many attributes that contribute to success, brains for example, but those are not what this is about. The three rules are focus, discipline, and follow-through. They are applicable to better golf, getting a prom date, getting through school, and an endless list of goals to meet or ends to achieve. I have found that trying to get “there” and stay “there” without following all three is unlikely, geniuses included. What most of us call luck in the successes of others may have the hand of randomness, but more likely you’ll find the rules behind the “luck.” I’m pretty sure that by now some have figured out that “luck is when preparation meets opportunity.”
My surprise came at a conference this past week, one dedicated to performance improvement. These conferences almost always have gems and nuggets of insight and success stories, and this last one had a real humdinger. My first inkling that this was going to be good came when the presenter turned out to be the President and CEO of the organization. You typically don’t see folks from the C-suite presenting a story about performance improvement to a room full of professionals, consultants, gurus and geeks. With his story, Robert Weiner of PAS Technologies need never fear. I will leave the details out, but available to those with enough initiative to hunt him down and request a copy of the presentation. Those in the aerospace industry should jump on this, like now! It has ample examples of the three rules and lots of brains to boot. The three rules were evident and brilliantly executed. I can’t say that often, sadly.
There are two gems that stand out and can serve as benchmarks for those seeking to transform. Transform can apply from self to enterprises and everything in between. The first application has to do with understanding that fitness, typically governed by the laws of physics, is a precursor to exceptional business performance, typically governed by the laws of economics. Obese enterprises will not win races and sustain leads. Business fitness makes winning possible. The second part has to do with how to measure success and when to change focus, discipline, and follow-through. Robert Weiner got it right. As a consequence, his team was able to snatch success from the jaws of failure. If you want folks to get aligned, then they need transparency into what matters. If you want them to improve, they need the means to build capability that is measurable and scalable. If you really want this to work, focus on the essential. Then make sure all the consequences match. It’s hard to “walk the talk” when the signals “stumble the mumble.”
The coolest surprise came when he described the transformation that was executed with only one metric for fitness, then, and only after fitness was achieved, he shifted to only one metric for winning. Yep, one metric for each phase and that’s for the entire enterprise. It worked and will work. But this is not for the faint of heart or feeble in resolve. Many will moan that their metric is not there or that certain metrics belong for correctness and balance. Get the presentation from Mr. Weiner, read and weep. It is good stuff. When we pick the right one, the secondary stuff finds its place and aligns to contribute, rather than distract. Fitness requires all the systems to work in sync with clarity of purpose and outcome. It is hard and is likely to hurt, and that is good.
As Curly, the crusty cowboy in City Slickers said, “Do you know what the secret of life is? … One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don’t mean …” we know the word …..
The Real Deal
While driving this morning I caught some news on the radio. One disturbing bit of news reported that a large defense contractor in Great Britain is facing potential fines of over $1 billion for alleged bribery paid in pursuit of business. This contractor is a major supplier to the US Department of Defense and the alleged acts took place outside the US. Still, the news should be disturbing to all of us. Many have heard the line, “That’s just the way it is over there. If you want to get business, you have to play the game.” The government of the United Kingdom does not agree! So, what’s the net value of that business when we deduct the penalties and fines? What will that do to their competitive position over the next ten years? Will people understand that bribery is abhorrent here, but acceptable there?
To the overwhelming number of ethical and principled firms, this is not about you!
After this last year of colossal failures in the financial system and unrepentant players, what should we expect from captains of industry? Last year we heard a similar line, “Everybody’s doing it. If we don’t follow suit and make the loans, we will not get our share of the money to be made.” Where is the money now?
I’ve read many written statements of values, ethics, behavior, and respect for investors, customers, employees and the public at large. So, how do we know they are more than paper? How should we know? The very saddening answer is that more regulation will precipitate. More controls, inspections, reports, hearings and constraints on productivity and value creation. What’s the real cost to the many precipitated by others? Do we really believe that we should know because a regulator will tell us it is so?
I know organizations that live, breathe and behave in accordance with great values and ethical standards. They are successful, competitive, and a magnet for people seeking employment. In fact, I wrote about one a few months back, May I have a word with you? …. Values. These folks are the real deal.
Let’s go back to respect for the stakeholders. How will the stakeholders benefit if those values and behaviors are the real deal?
- Investors will benefit from the confidence that their moneys are not sitting on a time bomb waiting to destroy returns and long term value.
- Customers will benefit because their prices don’t carry the burden of graft and decisions are easier when the integrity of the supplier is unchallenged by a clean track record.
- Employees will benefit from never facing a choice between earning a livelihood and behaving in alignment with personal values and beliefs about honesty.
- Society at large will benefit the most from the reduced costs, increased employment and better value without the burden of regulation and constraints to growth.
The list of benefits is big, too big for a blog.
So, who decides what is next? Who has the responsibility?
Let’s ask the person in the mirror for starts. How will that person make choices today? When we ask the same question tomorrow, what will be the answer?
“Good, or Got Lucky?”
“To the victor belongs the spoils” is the famous quote by New York Senator William Learned Marcy (1786-1857), recited in the U. S. Senate, 25 January 1832. This one sure gets lots of traffic. It brings with it a lot of imagery of the uglier side of politics, graft and an all or nothing perspective. I can recall, as I read world history in high school, images of conquerors doing all the pillaging and other stuff. Certainly, the principle still has legs today, ugly legs at that.
An interesting cousin to that principle is the one, “To the survivor belongs the story.” We have to always apply it as a warning when reading accounts of witnesses, history, and especially pundits. We should reflect on whether the advice or point of view we’re getting is supportable beyond the sole attribute of survivorship, since survivorship can be due to chance, accident, or many other possibilities. Survivor bias provides a limited retrospective (backward looking view) image, one that does not include participants that did not survive. I can’t truthfully tell you about what I did not see, because I did not see it, so I may just fill in some of the gaps with what must have happened. How often might that be happening?
When we combine the victor-spoils and survivor-story couplings we end up with the perfect formula for revisionism (cooking the history books). This bias is not limited to a particular discipline and can affect our judgments and subsequent actions across our businesses, health, investments, purchases, sales, insurance coverage, and even misplaced confidence or fear. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and other indices continually replace the defunct companies with survivor companies, so it’s less industrial than it used to be.
Survivorship bias is, interestingly, pervasive, be it entertainment and entertainers, sports and commentary, fashion and trends, lots more, and often, management principles. It’s the last one, management principles that deserves more of our attention. Given the experience of the last year, particularly some of the devastation and shifts between winners and losers, survivors will be the ones telling the story about winning on the back end of this mess. Does the condition of survival extend to the validity of the stories? Are there more or fewer heroes that did not survive military battles than the ones that did?
It is important to study survival. It’s important because often there is critical knowledge to be gained and real learning and improvement to be harvested. Survival by accident or random chance is no crime as long as we don’t invent a cause, or create new rules, or lucky charms. Understanding why is the real gain and skepticism is an essential lens.
So, which is it better, to be good or to be lucky? The obvious answer is Yes!
“It’s a Swing and a Miss …!”
Sports are a big part of life for players and fans. Sports can consume weekends and represents a big chunk of profits for beer brewers, chip makers, hot dog stuffers and the myriad of commercial entities from logo-wear to HDTV manufacturers. We use sports as a handy metaphor for many examples, particularly the competitive type. I like them a lot, but there is one that is troubling if used inappropriately. It’s the misuse of the “Three strikes and you’re out” metaphor that may do more damage than good. We’ll come back to it in a bit.
Competitiveness means that we have a range of capabilities that enable us to outperform those striving for the same things, be they customers, jobs, attention, a prom date, or a race. We are better at something than others and are more likely to be rewarded. Becoming competitive is hard and sustaining competitiveness is harder still. Looking around the world today, it looks more challenging than ever. Jobs migration gets lots of press, but our competitive gap is growing in several areas. In some key engineering and manufacturing areas, essential areas, such as nuclear power plant components and high speed trains, going outside the US is currently our only option. What about the future? What else?
This Tuesday, President Obama addressed the youth of our nation. He delivered a powerful message about the power of education, hard work, and persistence. His charge to our youth was spot on, essential to their futures and our enterprises. I believe that more of our current and long term sustainable success will depend on accessibility to knowledgeable talent, ready to solve problems, than on macro stimulus or similar money booster shots may bring. Finding some of that talent today is a living nightmare for many leaders looking to shape the future.
Below are some of the President’s powerful remarks. They are equally powerful for us as we steer our enterprises and wrestle with transitioning our resource and talent mix with tomorrows needs, needs different than today’s. They are powerful because, regardless of how much enabling and prodding we may do, individuals must chose to invest in themselves, do what is hard, and become competitive talent.
- Personal responsibility to a larger cause; “We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.”
- Shaping and creating the future; “Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.”
- Don’t give up, resilience, commitment to succeed, purpose; “The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.”
It sure did not sound like a “Three strikes and you’re out” message. The President’s speech is available at http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/09/07/obama.school.speech.pdf. I wonder if we quit too early on ourselves, give up on the third strike? Thomas Edison certainly did not in his search for an incandescent bulb, as countless other successful individuals and teams. Regardless of our political bias, knowledge, creating a better future and hard work sure sound like some great ingredients for cooking up competitiveness.
Would you like to pitch?
