16 rules to live by

Here are 16 rules worth following if you’re up to something big in life. Bob Parsons, CEO of GoDaddy.com, shared his life and his 16 rules that he used for his survival. Go Daddy is well known domain name registration company. With his permission, let me share with you his 16 rules he tries to live by:

Here are the 16 rules I try to live by:

1. Get and stay out of your comfort zone. I believe that not much happens of any significance when we’re in our comfort zone. I hear people say, “But I’m concerned about security.” My response to that is simple: “Security is for cadavers.”

2. Never give up. Almost nothing works the first time it’s attempted. Just because what you’re doing does not seem to be working, doesn’t mean it won’t work. It just means that it might not work the way you’re doing it. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and you wouldn’t have an opportunity.

3. When you’re ready to quit, you’re closer than you think. There’s an old Chinese saying that I just love, and I believe it is so true. It goes like this: “The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed.”

4. With regard to whatever worries you, not only accept the worst thing that could happen, but make it a point to quantify what the worst thing could be. Very seldom will the worst consequence be anywhere near as bad as a cloud of “undefined consequences.” My father would tell me early on, when I was struggling and losing my shirt trying to get Parsons Technology going, “Well, Robert, if it doesn’t work, they can’t eat you.”

5. Focus on what you want to have happen. Remember that old saying, “As you think, so shall you be.”

6. Take things a day at a time. No matter how difficult your situation is, you can get through it if you don’t look too far into the future, and focus on the present moment. You can get through anything one day at a time.

7. Always be moving forward. Never stop investing. Never stop improving. Never stop doing something new. The moment you stop improving your organization, it starts to die. Make it your goal to be better each and every day, in some small way. Remember the Japanese concept of Kaizen. Small daily improvements eventually result in huge advantages.

8. Be quick to decide. Remember what the Union Civil War general, Tecumseh Sherman said: “A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow.”

9. Measure everything of significance. I swear this is true. Anything that is measured and watched, improves.

10. Anything that is not managed will deteriorate. If you want to uncover problems you don’t know about, take a few moments and look closely at the areas you haven’t examined for a while. I guarantee you problems will be there.

11. Pay attention to your competitors, but pay more attention to what you’re doing. When you look at your competitors, remember that everything looks perfect at a distance. Even the planet Earth, if you get far enough into space, looks like a peaceful place.

12. Never let anybody push you around. In our society, with our laws and even playing field, you have just as much right to what you’re doing as anyone else, provided that what you’re doing is legal.

13. Never expect life to be fair. Life isn’t fair. You make your own breaks. You’ll be doing good if the only meaning fair has to you, is something that you pay when you get on a bus (i.e., fare).

14. Solve your own problems. You’ll find that by coming up with your own solutions, you’ll develop a competitive edge. Masura Ibuka, the co-founder of SONY, said it best: “You never succeed in technology, business, or anything by following the others.” There’s also an old Asian saying that I remind myself of frequently. It goes like this: “A wise man keeps his own counsel.”

15. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Lighten up. Often, at least half of what we accomplish is due to luck. None of us are in control as much as we like to think we are.

16. There’s always a reason to smile. Find it. After all, you’re really lucky just to be alive. Life is short. More and more, I agree with my little brother. He always reminds me: “We’re not here for a long time; we’re here for a good time.”

The above article is included with the permission of Bob Parsons (http://www.bobparsons.com) and is Copyright 2005 by Bob Parsons. All rights reserved.”

Copyright © 2004 – 2005 Bob Parsons All rights reserved.

Jef Menguin facilitates people skills seminars and teambuilding and leadership workshops in Metro Manila, Philippines. Visit his website at http://jefmenguin.com to learn more about his seminars.

This is the start of the new beginning…

You must have observed that I am no longer regularly writing since January 2009.  It is because I have been busy  collecting materials for the books which I intend to write, and write the draft of my speeches,  conducting seminars, and writing articles for my new website – jefmenguin.com – which you can now visit because it is already content rich just like this blog. You may read articles arranged in various categories like leadership, management, personal development, comunication, etc. The resources category by itself is already filled with ebooks (very great ones from Scribd.com and ChangeThis), powerpoint presentations, videos, and articles from other bloggers.

I am creating a new blog – blog.jefmenguin.com – which you’ll be able to access in a month of two.  At first, I thought of closing this blog, but after much thinking I thought that deleting this blog is unwise. This blog still ranks high in google and yahoo search engines and people who are looking for public speaking seminar, customer service seminars, or stress management seminars in metro manila will still find this blog in the front pages of these search engines. Also, people still write their comments and email messages of thanks after reading some of the articles. This blog must therefore continue serving its readers.

Jef Menguin Workshops and Seminars will stay. This time, my entries will be focused on the lessons I have learned while conducting workshops, speaking before a group of managers and leaders and students, or even presenting a proposal to a prospective client who usually request for leadership, communication, and team building sessions. I was not able to capture these lessons. I intend to do capture them now, and share these lessons with you. And just like the way we do it in toastmasters, I will tell you about the “strengths” and the “points for improvement”.

Slowly, I will cleanse these pages. Unrelated topics must go. The good ones may find its place in my new website, and the not-so-got ones will be expunged from the internet universe forever (that is, if some good souls did not copy-pasted the entries on their websites).

Observe that I have already changed the template. This is the start of the new beginning.

That’s all for today friends. Please visit jefmenguin.com, share the beautiful articles to your friends in Facebook and Twitter, and please leave your beautiful message.

God bless you.

Palo Sebo of Success

I am the greatest.” When Muhammad Ali was in his prime, he thought that he was the greatest. Until old age made him kissed the canvass.

Many people associate greatness with success. The more successful the person seems to be, the greater he becomes. The world view a person to be great when he is able to acquire something which most people are just dreaming about. Thus, we declare somebody to be the greatest athlete of all time, the greatest opera singer, the greatest action star, the greatest writer, the greatest leader, etc. But time passes, and after a century, records will be broken, great names will be forgotten.

Success is temporary. It can be here for a moment, but only for a moment.

Success, oftentimes, is a game of Palo Sebo. Some have to struggle throughout their lives. They embrace the greased bamboo pole to can move up. Sometimes, it means kicking the faces of those who are following them, to move an inch higher. But when the prize is almost within their reach, they slide down. Energies wasted, they cannot go back again even if they want to. There will only be one great person, one winner in the Palo Sebo of success. Others will remain losers.

People play Palo Sebo at work. They play Palo Sebo in churches. They play Palo Sebo in schools, in government, in the smallest organizations. They play Palo Sebo everywhere. When I looked into the content of the seminars and workshops I have attended in the past, they all seemed to say the same things; set your goals,aim big, you can if you think you can, you can be the best, you can change the world. The unwritten, unsaid curriculum is that in the play of Palo Sebo, eveyone, but one, is bound to fail.

I don’t deny the fact that you can be successful. In fact, all of us can be more than successful. We can do that when we stop playing the Palo Sebo of Life.

It has been said many times before, and you will hear this again: whoever who wants to be great must be a servant.

Are we ready to become servants?