Talking Success
By Patricia Ivanisevic
A few days ago, I was sitting at my desk in the office and the corporate trainer handles me a page with this:
Bob Parsons 16 Rules for Success
It caught my attention and it is worth reading and thinking how it applies to you. Here they are:
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 General George S. Patton 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!”
|
Talking Yarn – Amazing! by Lion Brand Yarn Company
By Patricia Ivanisevic
Today, as I was checking my tweets on Twitter, @crochetgal said : “I just ordered some wonderful new yarns, based on the names! how crazy is that???”
I replied that that she is not alone, I had done the same thing. A while ago I decided to order Lion Brand’s Amazing yarn and it was truly Amazing!
This yarn comes in 7 colorways. I ordered 1 bag of each color that means 3 skeins for each. It goes a long way. From each color I made: 1 cowl, 6 brooches and 2 headbands. It is pretty amazing, isn’t it?
The brooches are not finished, but here you can get a preview:
You will be able to find these products for the fall/winter season at my Etsy Shop, Urban Street Bazaar and Jingle Bash.
We’re having a GIVE AWAY!
By Patricia Ivanisevic
You may know that I am on the design team for Owl Tree Studio, a digital scrapbook kit club. The design team has put together an incredible August lineup (while you check it out on Facebook, go ahead and like OTS so you stay up to date on all things OTS and important) and the creative team has put together some incredible quick pages, blog posts, scrap challenges and page templates for you to enjoy.
As we get closer to opening day, the Owl Tree Studio crew wants to give you an opportunity to try them out for FREE.
That’s right…F-R-E-E!
On Sunday, August 1st, 2010 Owl Tree Studio plus each of the three resident designers will be giving away free memberships to Owl Tree Studio. You can enter to win as many times as you want between now and July 31st, 2010 at 10am (EST). Everyone’s contest rules are different, so you’ll have to visit each designers’ blog to find out exactly what you have to do to enter their portion of the giveaway.
Enter to win a free membership from the official Owl Tree Studio blog by:
Following OTS on Facebook – 1 Facebook follower will win a free 1 month membership
Follow OTS on Twitter and ReTweet:
“Follow @OwlTreeStudio & RT this for a chance to win a free month of great digital scrapbooking goodies http://bit.ly/aib6cA #digiscrap”
- 1 Twitter follower will win a free 1 month membership
Join the mailing list (and get a free beach themed digi kit) – 2 mailing list subscribers will each win a free 3 month membership
Sometimes, the studio owls get a little over excited and rumor has it one commenter on the Owl Tree Studio blog contest post might win a 1 month membership as well.
Follow OTS on Facebook and Twitter AND join our mailing list for the biggest chance of winning, then visit the incredible designers’ blogs to pick up more chances to win through the designer contests!
[Fine print: Winners will be selected using Random.org. You can only win one time. If you win, you will have to sign up as a paying member to continue accessing the OTS members’ area AFTER your free membership period ends].
Time Warner Cable/Road Runner Nightmare – Update – The Happy ending
By Patricia Ivanisevic
UPDATE – I received a call from Richard Harman, Regional Security Manager at TWC, my connection has been restored and I should be back in business. We had a nice conversation and he will look into what went wrong with my case.
So this is a happy ending!
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Good morning!
Nothing major happened. Yesterday at 12:30 PM CST I emailed , then 2 hours later got a reply saying that they are looking into it. After that, nada.
Not a phone call from the abuse department or anything and the connection, as this morning, is still dead.
To me, it is funny how fast they are to cut off the service and how slow they are to restore it. I’m afraid this is going to be a long battle.
We’ll see.
Time Warner Cable/Road Runner Nightmare – Dallas, TX
By Patricia Ivanisevic
Good morning!
This is completely off topic for my blog but I have to tell the story and spread the word.
Yesterday, when I got home I found out that my internet connection was dead. After looking around on my browser i got this message (click on the image to be able to read it):
This informs that it was some virus crawling , very generic. In any case, I scanned the desktop and the laptop, change the password for my wireless network just incase an intrusion even when I did not have any reports of that.
Then I called the 877 number for abuse, no human answered at 4 PM CST and I recorded a message saying all of this so they can call me back
As the message said I called next the local support number. After going around in circles, I get to a human. He was nice and tried to help but he said I should contact the 877 number, I told him I already did before I called him. He asked me for my email address so they can email me back which i said,”well how do you expect me to get my emails if I have no connection here?” In any case, he could not do anything else.
After that, I had to do some another stuff around the house and I missed the call from the Abuse team (877 number), I listened to the message which treats me like a criminal saying that I connected a computer infected with a virus, that this computer has not been online for over a month and they refuse to turn the connection back on.
Well, I have no clue what computer they are talking about or anything.
I called back and of course no human, I leave another message, not very nice.
I waited and waited.. no call back
I called again the local support number, the representative told me I should call the abuse line, which I did twice. I asked for the supervisor, repeated the whole thing and he said the issue was escalated.
So here I am still without Internet connection at home.
My expectations and comment about this are:
- Why a customer is not being contacted about disconnecting the service?
- Why is no way to get hold of a human?
- Why are they so rude , treat you as a criminal, quarantine the modem , do not give a clear explanation of the issue?
- Why the local support has also no way to contact them?
I want only one thing ” My internet connection back!”
Please spread the word on Twitter and Facebook. Any comments are welcome and if you have any similar stories, please share them
UPDATE – See comment from TWC- I emailed my account information at 12;30 PM CST
