What Matters Now

Analog

2010-07-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Analog, by George Dyson.

Analog computing, once believed to be as extinct as the differential analyzer, has returned.

Digital computing can answer (almost) any question that can be stated precisely in language that a computer can understand. This leaves a vast range of real-world problems — especially ambiguous ones — in the analog domain. In an age of all things digital, who dares mention analog by name? "Web 2.0" is our code word for the analog increasingly supervening upon the digital—reversing how digital logic was embodied by analog components, the first time around.

Complex networks — of molecules, people, or ideas — constitute their own simplest behavioral descriptions. They are more easily approximated by analogy than defined by algorithmic code. Facebook, for example, although running on digital computers, constitutes an analog computer whose correspondence to the underlying network of human relationships now drives those relationships, the same way Google’s statistical approximation to meaning — allowing answers to find the questions, rather than the other way around — is now more a landscape than a map.

Pulse-frequency coding (where meaning is embodied by the statistical properties of connections between memory locations) and template-based addressing (where data structures are addressed by template rather than by precise numerical and temporal coordinates) are the means by which the analog will proliferate upon the digital.

Analog is back, and here to stay.

George Dyson is the author of Baidarka, Project Orion and Darwin Among the Machines, as well as a recent short story, "Engineers’ Dreams."

Nobody

2010-06-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Nobody, by Micah Sifry.

Nobody has the answers.
Nobody is listening to you.
Nobody is looking out for your interests.
Nobody will lower your taxes.
Nobody will fix the education system.
Nobody knows what he is doing in Washington.
Nobody will make us energy independent.
Nobody will cut government waste.
Nobody will clean up the environment.
Nobody will protect us against terrorist threats.
Nobody will tell the truth.
Nobody will avoid conflicts of interest.
Nobody will restore ethical behavior to the White House.
Nobody will get us out of Afghanistan.
Nobody understands farm subsidies.
Nobody will spend your tax dollars wisely.
Nobody feels your pain.
Nobody wants to give peace a chance.
Nobody predicted the Iraq War would be a disaster.
Nobody expected the levees to fail.
Nobody warned that the housing bubble would collapse.
Nobody will reform Wall Street.
Nobody will stand up for what’s right.
Nobody will be your voice.
Nobody will tell you what the others won’t.
Nobody has a handle on this.

Nobody, but you, that is.

Never forget, a small group of people can change the world.

No one else ever has.

Micah Sifry is co-founder of the Personal Democracy Forum. He tweets @mlsif.

Dumb

2010-06-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Dumb, by Dave Balter.

A long time ago, starting a company that made software for computers was dumb. Microsoft and Apple may beg to differ. A company that manufactures cars: dumb. Putting a college yearbook online: dumb. Limiting updates to just 140 characters: dumb.

Here’s what’s easy: to recognize a really smart new business concept as just that. What’s hard is recognizing that the idea you think is just plain dumb is really tomorrow’s huge breakthrough.

But what makes dumb, smart? The ability to look at the world through a different lens from everyone else. To ignore rules. To disregard the ‘why’s’ and ‘how’s’ and ‘never-succeeded-befores’. Then you need conviction, and the ability to stand by that conviction when other (smart) people look you in the eye and say, "no way, nuh uh."

So, how do you tell a good dumb idea from a bad dumb one? Good dumb ideas create polarization. Some people will get it immediately and shower it with praise and affection. Others will say it’s ignorant and impossible and run for the hills. The fiercer the polarization, the smarter your dumb idea.

Of course, dumb can be just dumb. You just have to be smart to tell the difference.

Dave Balter is a serial entrepreneur and most recently founder and CEO of BzzAgent. He’s written two books, Grapevine: Why Buzz Was a Fad but Word of Mouth is Forever and The Word of Mouth Manual: Volume II.

Adventure

2010-06-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Adventure, by Robyn Waters.

I’ve been thinking about how big our world is and how small-minded we’ve become; how quick we are to judge and how slow to understand. Technology places the resources of the world at our fingertips, yet we have trouble seeing past the ends of our noses.

For every trend there’s a countertrend worth considering. Resolve to leave the screens of your virtual world momentarily behind, and indulge your senses with a real world adventure.

St. Augustine said: "The world is a book, and those who don’t travel read only one page." My advice?

Adventure calls. Blaze a new trail. Cross a continent. Dare to discover. Escape the routine. Find a fresh perspective. Go slow; gaze absentmindedly and savor every moment. Have some fun! Invest now in future memories. Journeys are the midwives of thought; Keep a journal. Leave prejudice and narrow mindedness behind. Make for the horizon and meet new people. Navigate the unknown. Observe, and open your mind. Pursue a road less traveled. Quest for truth. Rely on yourself. Sail away from the safe harbor; Take a risk. Unleash your curiosity. Venture further. Why wait? eXpect the unexpected. Say Yes to adventure….journey with Zeal!

Robyn Waters is an Ambassador of Trend, a Champion of Design, and a Cheerleader of Possibilities. She’s the author of The Trendmaster’s Guide.

DIY

2010-06-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — DIY, by Jay Parkinson.

Do it yourself.

Most doctors prescribe pills, I prescribe empowerment.

We spend less than an hour per year with our doctor—and 8,765 without. Fortunately, we live in the age of DIY. And now we have the tools to create a new health experience. Dr. Google is always there for us. We can connect with the 500 people in the country all living with the same rare illness. We can email our doctor or meet them by video chat. We can find the nearest farmer’s market with our iPhone. We can use the web to find fellow runners in our neighborhood. Living healthy is getting easier every day.

Imagine if your doctor, acting as your consultant, prescribed all these tools for you to be the most empowered CEO of your health. What if you paid your doctor for advice to keep you out of their office? What if we looked at protecting our own health the same way we look at protecting the environment? What if being healthy became a social, not just a personal, cause?

Empowerment is the best prevention.

My prescription:

Jay Parkinson is co-founder of Hello Health and founding partner in Future Well, a new design firm architecting innovations in health and wellness.

Celebrate

2010-06-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Celebrate, by Megan Casey.

As I write this, all day long, it’s my birthday. I’ve gotten emails and tweets and Facebook wishes from friends. And I’m grateful to know they’re all thinking of me.

But what about the companies and products and services I have relationships with? Why aren’t they taking this perfect, regular, anticipated, ego-full chance to single me out from the crowd and make me think of them on my birthday? (Tactics aside...)

Why doesn’t iTunes send you a code for 1 free 99 cent song on your birthday? What if Dunkin Donuts gave you free coffee on your birthday, in a special birthday cup that people will notice (and remark on) when you walk in to the office?

Imagine if GoDaddy offered you, Birthday Girl, any 1 of these 10 available variations of your name, today only, for 1 year, free.

What if Twitter put a cupcake icon on your profile. Click and see a live list of everyone who said "Happy Birthday @neilhimself !" that day. It’s not just about free stuff and attention from followers. It’s about a business making up their minds to have an ongoing relationship with you, to invent fun ways to delight you, and mostly about following through in a way you’ll tell your friends about.

Happy birthday.

Megan Casey is Editor in Chief of Squidoo.com

Neoteny

2010-06-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Neoteny, by Joichi Ito.

Neoteny is the retention of childlike attributes in adulthood. Human beings are younger longer than any other creature on earth, taking almost twenty years until we become adults. While we retain many our childlike attributes into adulthood most of us stop playing when we become adults and focus on work.

When we are young, we learn, we socialize, we play, we experiment, we are curious, we feel wonder, we feel joy, we change, we grow, we imagine, we hope.

In adulthood, we are serious, we produce, we focus, we fight, we protect and we believe in things strongly.

The future of the planet is becoming less about being efficient, producing more stuff and protecting our turf and more about working together, embracing change and being creative.

We live in an age where people are starving in the midst of abundance and our greatest enemy is our own testosterone driven urge to control our territory and our environments.

It’s time we listen to children and allow neoteny to guide us beyond the rigid frameworks and dogma created by adults.

Joichi Ito is the CEO of Creative Commons, blogs at Joi Ito’s Web and is an Internet entrepreneur and early stage investor.

Empathy

2010-06-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Empathy, by Karen Armstrong.

Our word is dangerously polarized. There is an imbalance of wealth and power that has resulted in widespread alienation, suspicion, and resentment. Yet we are linked together more closely than ever before ~ electronically, politically, and economically. One of the most important tasks of our generation is to build a just and viable global order, where all peoples can live together in mutual respect.

We have it in our power to begin the world again by implementing the ancient principle that is often called the Golden Rule: Always treat all others as you would wish to be treated yourself. We need to make this compassionate and empathic ethos a vibrant force in private and public life, developing a global democracy, where all voices are heard, working tirelessly and practically for the well-being of the entire human race, and countering the dangerous mythology of hatred and fear.

At this crossroads of history, we have a choice. We can either emphasize the exclusive and chauvinist elements that are found in all our traditions, religious or secular or those that teach us to celebrate the profound interdependence and unanimity of the human race.

Karen Armstrong is a bestselling author, winner of 2008 TED prize and creator of the Charter for Compassion.

Forever

2010-06-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Forever, by Piers Fawkes.

You are immortal. The result of everything you do today will last forever.

Everything you buy, own, consume is likely to last forever somewhere in a landfill. Even the majority of the the recyclable materials you use will not be processed and these ‘green’ items will be found piled up in deep far-off valleys whether you like it or not.

When our great great grandchildren finally work out how to solve the selfish errors of our time, we will be considered primitive: our balance with our habitat ignored in pursuit of progress.

But as humans we strive for progress. We will not live alone self sufficiently on our rural hectare and therefore we must bring simple common sense to everything we buy, own & consume. If they will last forever, then we must make these items as useful as they can be for as long as possible.

Products needs to be kept, repaired, loaned and shared. Packaging needs to be reused and returned. That is progress.

Yes, the future will have smaller markets but tomorrow’s business leaders will be the first ones to build markets today that have a focus on forever.

Piers Fawkes inspires his PSFK.com readers, event attendees and corporate clients to make things better. His latest click to print book is Good Ideas in 2010.

Parsing

2010-06-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Parsing, by Clay Johnson.

How many times have you paid your taxes? Ever get a receipt back telling you what you bought? You’re paying for something, right? Why is everybody arguing about taxes and deficits when they don’t know how their money is being spent?

What if you went to Lowe’s, and paid to improve your home, then Lowe’s did work but didn’t tell you what they did. Would you notice if they fixed faulty wiring?

It is time for us to rationalize the debate. Let’s parse the data and free the facts.

Imagine if we organized around meaningful data instead of vapid rhetoric. What if you could see how much you spent on your commute to work this year, or defending your country, or keeping your neighbor healthy?

What if there was as much data about John Barrow (DGA) as there was about Manny Ramirez (LF-Dodgers). There are 750 players in Major League Baseball, and only 535 Members of Congress.

Most of the data exists and what doesn’t we need to demand. The answer to healthy democracy lies not in rhetoric, but in our data.

That’s parsing I can believe in.

Clay Johnson is the Director of Sunlight Labs for the Sunlight Foundation. He tweets at cjoh.

Knowledge

2010-06-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Knowledge, by Alisa Miller.

How does news shape the way we see the world?

Distorted, bloated, and not representative of what is happening.

Too often, American commercial news is myopic and inwardly focused.

This leads to a severe lack of global news. And increasingly, a shortage of "enterprise journalism" – journalistic depth built over time through original sources – that provides the context and enables thoughtful response.

Too often, the news sticks to crime, disasters, infotainment, and horse-race politics. Many important topics such as education, race and ethnicity, science, environment, and women and children’s issues are often less than 5% of all news combined.

Much of widely-seen online news isn’t better – it’s often just re-circulates the same stories.

The result: much of our news can’t be called "knowledge media" – content that builds insight about our world.

It’s difficult to understand the world, if you haven’t heard much about it. But we also know many Americans want to know more.

Storytelling is powerful. It helps us understand, make choices and can inspire us.

Journalism as we know it is in trouble. The old models don’t serve us anymore with the content we need. Now is our chance to make it better.

By investing aggressively and entrepreneurially in the future of knowledge media – in both journalistic reportage and in powerful storytelling, we can ensure that people get the fullest global perspective. The Time is Now.

Alisa Miller is the President & CEO of PRI, Public Radio International, and her new blog is Global Matters Post. Follow her on twitter.

Compassion

2010-05-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Compassion, by Mitch Joel.

"It’s nothing personal, it’s just business."

We spend more than 50% of our lives at work. Why would anyone want to wake up in the morning and go to work with that attitude? If you don’t make it personal, and if you don’t make it count, what’s the point?

Business is missing one important core value: compassion.

"Between work and family, I have no time for community."

This is something everyone feels at some point in their lives. But think about it: What if we made community an integral part of our business? What if we recognized that we can’t have strong businesses without a strong community and we can’t have a strong community without compassion?

The real way strong communities are built is through the compassion we extend to others. Both to those we know, and to those we don’t know.

The Internet is amazing because it connects us all. Compassion for those around us now extends globally and beyond our physical boundaries.

We can all do more for each other and be better.

Be compassionate to everyone no matter the level of connection.

Make compassion a core business value.

Start with a smile to a stranger.

Start by getting others to nod in agreement when you say: "If we’re not compassionate to one another, what’s the point in the end?"

Mitch Joel is President of Twist Image and author of Six Pixels of Separation.

Evangelism

2010-05-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Evangelism, by Guy Kawasaki.

The future belongs to people who can spread ideas. Here are ten things to remember:

1. Create a cause. A cause seizes the moral high ground and makes people’s lives better.
2. Love the cause. "Evangelist" isn’t a job title. It’s a way of life. If you don’t love a cause, you can’t evangelize it.
3. Look for agnostics, ignore atheists. It’s too hard to convert people who deny your cause. Look for people who are supportive or neutral instead.
4. Localize the pain. Never describe your cause by using bull shiitake terms like "revolutionary" and "paradigm shifting." Instead, explain how it helps a person.
5. Let people test drive the cause. Let people try your cause, take it home, download it, and then decide if it’s right for them.
6. Learn to give a demo. A person simply cannot evangelize a product if she cannot demo it.
7. Provide a safe first step. Don’t put up any big hurdles in the beginning of the process. The path to adopting a cause needs a slippery slope.
8. Ignore pedigrees. Don’t focus on the people with big titles and big reputations. Help anyone who can help you.
9. Never tell a lie. Credibility is everything for an evangelist. Tell the truth—even if it hurts. Actually, especially if it hurts.
10. Remember your friends. Be nice to the people on the way up because you might see them again on the way down.

Guy Kawasaki is a founding partner and entrepreneur-in-residence at Garage Technology Ventures. He is also the co-founder of Alltop.com. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of nine books.

Tough-mindedness

2010-05-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Tough-mindedness, by Steven Pressfield.

We live in the age of distraction, of Twitter and multi-tasking and short attention spans. Even these micro-essays are part of it. Whereas what produces real work (and happiness for each of us, in my opinion) is depth, focus, concentration and commitment over time.

The antidote to these scattering influences is tough-mindedness, which I define as the ability to draw lines and boundaries within which we protect and preserve the mental and emotional space to do our work and to be true to our selves. Not to the point of insanity (we gotta keep a sense of humor about this stuff), but we also desperately need the ability to play real hardball with ourselves when we need it. Otherwise, we’ll all expire from sheer shallowness.

I’ve written about showing up in my "Writing Wednesday’s" series, drawing examples from Patricia Ryan Madson’s book Improv Wisdom. There’s tremendous power in putting your ass where your heart wants to be. Being there is just the first step. You must stay for more than a few minutes or one 140-character post.

Special Forces Major Jim Gant wrote the seminal report "One Tribe At A Time". He’s a husband and father, who was training for a one-year deployment to Iraq at the time, while also juggling the everyday issues we all face. No one asked him to write the paper. Conviction, passion and a dedication to hard work were on his side – that’s toughmindedness.

Steven Pressfield is the author of Gates of Fire and The War of Art. He blogs at "It’s the Tribes, Stupid."

Harmony

2010-05-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Harmony, by Jack Covert and Sally Haldorson.

The word harmony carries some serious baggage. Soft, namby-pamby, liberal, weak. Men who value harmony aren’t considered macho. Women who value harmony are considered stereotypical. Success is typically defined with words like hard (sell, line, ass). Successful people are lauded for being argumentative, self-interested, disruptive. But those assumptions are the dregs of a culture that celebrates the lone hero who leads with singular ambition all the while damning the sheep who follow him in harmonious ignorance.

No.

Harmony is a springboard. Harmony supports teamwork. And teamwork creates energy. An energy that fuels creativity. When focusing on harmony, success becomes defined by different terms. Contribution. Dedication. Cooperation.

Harmony takes bravery, an open heart. It takes lying awake at night when one of your co-workers is having a rough patch and dreaming up ways to help.

In the true sense of karma, to achieve harmony, you must always do the right thing with no eye on a reward. The reward will come because there is trust on the other side.

Harmony creates a workplace where you and all the people around you love to be.

Jack Covert is the head honcho at 800ceoread. Sally Haldorson is the company’s resident wordsmith.

Power

2010-05-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Power, by Jeffrey Pfeffer.

Power provokes ambivalence. Power-seeking is politically incorrect. So power remains cloaked in mystery and emotion, the organization’s last dirty secret.

John Gardner, the founder of Common Cause, noted that nothing gets done without power. Social change requires the power to mobilize resources. That’s why leaders are preoccupied with power. As Michael Marmot and other epidemiological researchers show, possessing the power to control your work and social environment—having autonomy and control over your job—is one of the best predictors of health and mortality.

Obtaining power requires will and skill— the ambition to do the hard work necessary, and the insight required to direct your energy productively. Power comes from an ability to build your reputation, create efficient and effective networks of social relations, act and speak in ways that build influence, and from an ability to create and employ resources—things that others want and need.

Stop waiting around for bosses and companies to get better and complaining about how are you treated. Build the skills—and use them—that will permit you to create the environment in which you want to live.

Jeffrey Pfeffer is a professor at Stanford Business School and author of Power: How to Get It, Use It, and Keep It. Read more here.

Consequence

2010-05-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Consequence, by Saul Griffith.

There is little evidence that we will solve the environmental challenges of our time. Individuals too readily allow responsibility for the solutions to fall on larger entities like governments, rather than themselves. I find one very significant reason for hope amidst this largely hopeless topic. We are learning to measure consequence. Galileo said something akin to "measure what is measurable, make measurable what is not." We are slowly gaining expertise in measuring our impact in terms of carbon, energy demand, water use, and toxicity production.

Why is this hopeful? Now that we can say definitively that even the production of a soda bottle has a measurable (if tiny) increase in greenhouse gases, it’s hard for a thinking individual not to acknowledge that they are working against the things they say they want. After a century of isolating the product or service from its resulting impact, the tide is turning. We are making consequence visible. We will witness the first generation who can truly know the impact of everything they do on the ecological support systems that surround them.

My hope is that we will use this knowledge wisely. We will put aside old ideas of what is good and bad for the environment and ourselves, and will quantitatively make the changes we need with new foresight.

Saul Griffith is a MacArthur Fellow and new father who blogs at energyliteracy.com and designs solutions for climate change at otherlab.com.

Momentum

2010-05-14T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Momentum, by Dave Ramsey.

Malcolm Gladwell says it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an "Outlier." He is, of course, right. My mother says practice makes perfect. She is, of course, right. A billionaire friend once told me to read one of the best stories on successful living, The Tortoise and the Hare. He says, "Every time I read that book, the tortoise wins. Slow and steady wins the race." He is, of course, right.

Whether it is branding or wealth building, I call it The Momentum Theorem.

FOCUSED INTENSITY over TIME multiplied by GOD equals Unstoppable Momentum.

Not many people in our A.D.D. culture can stay FOCUSED, but those who can are on their way to winning. Add to the focus some serious pull-your-shirt-off-and-paint-yourself-blue-at-the-football-game INTENSITY, and now you have a person who is a difference-maker. But very few companies or people can maintain that FOCUSED INTENSITY over TIME. It takes time to be great, it takes time to create critical mass, it takes time to be an “overnight success.” Lastly, you and I are finite, while GOD is infinite. So, multiply your efforts through Him and watch the areas of your life move toward winning like never before.

Dave Ramsey is a nationally syndicated radio talk show host, best-selling author of The Total Money Makeover, and host of The Dave Ramsey Show on the Fox Business Network.

Poker

2010-05-12T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Poker, by Tony Hsieh.

BUSINESS IS A GAME

Everything I know about business I learned from poker: financials, strategy, education, and culture.

FINANCIALS

The guy who wins the most hands is not the guy who makes the most money in the long run.
The guy who never loses a hand is not the guy who makes the most money in the long run.
Go for positive expected value, not what’s least risky.
You will win or lose individual hands, but it’s what happens in the long term that matters.

STRATEGY

Learn to adapt. Adjust your style of play as the dynamics of the game change.
The players with the most stamina and focus usually win.
Hope is not a good plan.
Stick to your principles.

EDUCATION

Never stop learning. Read books. Learn from others who have done it before.
Learn by doing. Theory is nice, but nothing replaces actual experience.
Just because you win a hand doesn’t mean you’re good and you don’t have more learning to do. You might have just gotten lucky.

CULTURE

To become really good, you need to live it, breathe it, and sleep it.
Be nice and make friends. It’s a small community.
Have fun. The game is a lot more enjoyable when you’re trying to do more than just make money.

Tony Hsieh is the CEO of Zappos.com and the author of the soon-to-be-published book Delivering Happiness. Tony’s (longer) blog post is Everything I Know About Business I Learned from Poker.

Autonomy

2010-05-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Autonomy, by Daniel H. Pink.

Management isn’t natural.

I don’t mean that it’s weird or toxic – just that it doesn’t emanate from nature. "Management" isn’t a tree or a river. It’s a telegraph or a transistor radio. Somebody invented it. And over time, most inventions – from the candle to the cotton gin to the compact disc – lose their usefulness.

Management is great if you want people to comply – to do specific things a certain way. But it stinks if you want people to engage – to think big or give the world something it didn’t know it was missing. For creative, complex, conceptual challenges – i.e, what most of us now do for a living—40 years of research in behavioral science and human motivation says that self-direction works better. And that requires autonomy. Lots of it.

If we want engagement, and the mediocritybusting results it produces, we have to make sure people have autonomy over the four most important aspects of their work:

Task – What they do
Time – When they do it
Technique – How they do it
Team – Whom they do it with.

After a decade of truly spectacular underachievement, what we need now is less management and more freedom – fewer individual automatons and more autonomous individuals.

Daniel H. Pink is the author of A Whole New Mind. His new book, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, comes out in late December.

Unsustainability

2010-05-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Unsustainability, by Alan M. Webber.

Everyone is pursuing sustainability. But if change happens when the cost of the status quo is greater than the risk of change, we really need to focus on raising the costs of the unsustainable systems that represent the unsustainable status quo.

Unsustainable failed educational systems, obesity-producing systems, energy systems, transportation systems, health care systems. Each and every one is unsustainable. It’s more "innovative" to talk about bright, shiny, new sustainable systems, but before we can even work on the right side of the change equation, we need to drive up the costs of the unsustainable systems that represent the dead weight of the past.

The road to sustainability goes through a clear-eyed look at unsustainability.

Alan M. Webber is co-founding editor of Fast Company magazine and author, most recently of Rules of Thumb: 52 Truths for Winning at Business Without Losing Yourself.

Ripple

2010-05-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Ripple, by John Wood.

Education has a ripple effect. One drop can initiate a cascade of possibility, each concentric circle gaining in size and traveling further. If you get education right, you get many things right: escape from poverty, better family health, and improved status of women.

Educate a girl, and you educate her children and generations to follow.

Yet for hundreds of millions of kids in the developing world, the ripple never begins. Instead, there’s a seemingly inescapable whirlpool of poverty. In the words of a headmaster I once met in Nepal: “We are too poor to afford education. But until we have education, we will always be poor.”

That’s why there are 300 million children in the developing world who woke up this morning and did not go to school. And why there are over 750 million people unable to read and write, nearly 2/3 of whom are girls and women.

I dream of a world in which we’ve changed that. A world with thousands of new schools. Tens of thousands of new libraries. Each with equal access for all children.

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now.

John Wood is Founder & Executive Chairman, Room to Read, which has built over 850 schools and opened over 7,500 libraries serving 3 million children. He is the author of Leaving Microsoft to Change the World.

Strengths

2010-05-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Strengths, by Marti Barletta.

Forget about working on your weaknesses —> Focus on supporting your strengths.

I worked on my weaknesses for 40 years to little avail. Still “needs improvement,” as they say. Why? Easy. We hate doing things we’re not good at, so we avoid them. No practice makes perfect hard to attain.

But my strengths – ah, I love my strengths. I’ll work on them till the purple cows come home. When we love what we do, we do more and more, and pretty soon we’re pretty good at it.

The beautiful thing about being on a team is that, believe it or not, lots of people love doing the things you hate. And hate doing the things you love. So quit diligently developing your weaknesses. Instead, partner with someone very UNlike you, share the work and share the wealth and everyone’s happy.

Relatedly, women are rather UNlike men and often approach problems and opportunities with a different outlook. Yet books and coaches often encourage us to adopt male strengths and, lacking understanding, to relinquish our own. The irony is, studies show that more women in leadership translates unequivocally into better business results.

Wouldn’t it make more sense for both men and women to appreciate each other’s strengths so we all work on what comes naturally?

Marti Barletta, speaker, consultant and author of Marketing to Women and PrimeTime Women; is currently working on her next book, Attracting Women: Marketing Your Company to the 21st Century’s Best Candidates.

Most

2010-04-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Most, by William C. Taylor.

Imagine any and every field possible. There are so many brands, so many choices, so many claims, so much clutter, that the central challenge is for an organization or an individual is to rise above the fray. It’s not good enough anymore to be "pretty good" at everything. You have to be the most of something: the most elegant, the most colorful, the most responsive, the most accessible.

For decades, organizations and their leaders were comfortable with strategies and practices that kept them in the middle of the road—that’s where the customers were, so that’s what felt safe and secure.

Today, with so much change and uncertainty, so much pressure and new ways to do things, the middle of the road is the road to nowhere.

As Jim Hightower, the colorful Texas populist, is fond of saying, "There’s nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos."

We might add: companies and their leaders struggling to stand out from the crowd, as they play by the same old rules in a crowded marketplace.

Are you the most of anything?

William C. Taylor is a cofounder of Fast Company magazine. His forthcoming book is Practically Radical.

Excellence

2010-04-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

This is an excerpt from What Matters Now — Excellence, by Tom Peters.

(Click to enlarge)

Tom Peters blogs at tompeters.com. His new book, The Little BIG Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence is available in March 2010.