A good storyteller is a person who has a good memory
and hopes other people don\'t.
--Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb
Let me share with you what I\'ve learned about what to do and not to do on a book tour by sharing my experiences. I\'m sure you can do better with a little advance warning and preparation.
Having heard that authors go on book tours when their books are published, I naturally...
Never confuse movement with action.
--Ernest Hemingway
I\'ve learned never to assume that people have read and remembered what is in books I\'ve written. Since I would like you grasp and use the key lessons in how to accomplish 20 times as much, this article will give you the basics.
If you haven\'t already read my longer writings on this subject, I hope the information will...
In explaining success, some people are quick to assert that \"It\'s all in who you know.\" But how many act on that observation to get to know more people?
Relatively few, I believe. More often, this statement serves merely as an excuse to explain why the speaker hasn\'t accomplished more.
But should you seek out people just for what they can do for you in making you more successful? It...
Many people would like to start their own businesses and prosper. Unfortunately, few people are properly prepared to succeed as entrepreneurs. Before starting a new business, gaining any practical knowledge they lack, learning what would pay off in producing better growth, profits, and cash flow, would help new leaders to succeed.
To understand what kind of education new business leaders...
Novelist P.G. Wodehouse humorously portrayed the lightly populated English county of Shropshire as a sort of modern-day Eden where the worst thing that could happen to anyone was to slip on a banana peel while displaying too much self satisfaction. Wodehouse made sure that no bad happening created any lasting harm. In Wodehouse\'s novels, the character slipping on the peel was usually caught in...
What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens.
--Benjamin Disraeli
Within weeks of submitting our proposal to business book publishers, we had a contract for our business book, an advance check, and brimming confidence that the worst was past. After all, we had a great idea, a finished manuscript, and a great publisher!
We soon learned that publishers are...
Read more novels and fewer business books.
--Tom Peters
Many people dream of having an international best seller. Naturally since most books never reach that status, writers and would-be authors can\'t get enough information about how others did it.
As most authors discover, the reality is a lot different from the advice or what you read in magazines. There\'s a lot of trial and...
We can do anything we want to do if we stick to it long enough.
--Helen Keller
Helen Keller\'s quote means more when you consider that she was born deaf and blind and went on to become one of the great educators in American history. If she can overcome that difficult beginning, certainly we can do whatever we need to accomplish . . . as long as we persevere.
While some might have seen...
More people are limited by their beliefs than by the realities of the opportunities. Here are two questions to help you check on your beliefs:
1. Do you believe that only those with advanced degrees can gain and succeed in senior management positions at top-performing companies?
2. Do you think that leading a technical team isn\'t possible unless you graduated from a top college?
If...
From error to error, one discovers the truth.
--Sigmund Freud
When I started the project to find how to make 400 years worth of normal improvements in only 20 years (the 400 Year Project), I had no idea where to start.
Fortunately, I was able to gain by trying lots of things . . . most of which didn\'t work. I suggest you do the same.
While it would take a much longer article to...
