From Dale Carnegie’s book, “The Unknown Lincoln,” I learned that Abraham Lincoln
was friendly to everyone he met. He learned to respect other people and to be empathetic with their situations and struggles in life. Lincoln’s kindness was evident in the way he treated his enemies.
On one occasion President Lincoln hosted a dinner for former Confederates in the
short time after the war before he died. In the receiving line he greeted
them warmly and a Northern woman came through and said, “Mr. President,
These are your enemies. You shouldn’t invite them to dinner, you should
destroy them.”
When determining what KPIs will be valuable for your business to track, it is important for you to understand how your business defines success. Whatever is a success event for your business should be measured and optimized. Each business will have specific KPIs that are unique to them. That being said, there are many common KPIs for business verticals that can be measured. Your business should be aware of the KPIs that are critical for the industry that you are in.
Analytics or Key performance indicators (KPI’s) are a way to measure a company’s health or performance based on specific metrics. Metrics are identified by determining what information may provide insight or value to the specific business.
KPI’s can also give insight to the “value” of difficult to measure activities. The accuracy of the KPI to the non-measurable activity depends on the correlation of the metric used to the activity.
For instance, a retail store may be able to accurately predict its store revenue based on the store’s square footage. If the average revenue per square foot of a gas station chain is $5000 per sq ft per month, and one of the chains only has sales of $4000 per sq ft per month, then we know that this store is an under-performer based on sq footage.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.’ We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we subconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” – Marianne Williamson
When I heard about this guy I couldn’t believe it.
How would you like to climb the highest mountain, fly at the speed of sound, explore the ocean in a submarine, run a five minute mile, parachute from a plane, read the encyclopedia cover to cover, or play classical music on the piano?
These are some of the dreams John Goddard had as a child, and at age 15 he included these on a list — 127 things he would like to do or see or experience during his lifetime. Today, John is 74, and he has completed 109 of his goals.
This guy has some serious motivation. If we have a vision we can really accomplish anything.
Here is a great quote from Elder Holland, given in a talk delivered at BYU called ‘For Times of Trouble’:
“If there is one lament I cannot abide and I hear it from adults as well as from students it is the poor, pitiful, withered cry, “Well, that’s just the way I am.” If you want to talk about discouragement, that phrase is one that discourages me. Though not a swearing man, I am always sorely tempted to try my hand when I hear that. Please spare me your speeches about “That’s just the way I am.” I’ve heard that from too many people who wanted to sin and call it psychology. And I use the word ‘sin’ again to cover a vast range of habits, some seemingly innocent enough, that nevertheless bring discouragement and doubt and despair. You can change anything you want to change, and you can do it very fast.” “That’s just the way I am” is definitely a phrase to be erased!
What about changing from the way we were brought up. Some people have formed bad habits or have become complacent, many living life without ambition because of the way they were brought up, or because of their surroundings. The saying “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” comes to mind. But the question is what is the tree. Is it our parents? It could be, but we must also remember that we are children of our Father in Heaven – he can be the tree that we do not fall far from. Our potential is kept back only by our self doubt – see John 14:12.
This is one of the greatest accomplishments I have ever heard of. Below is an article out of Sports Illustrated – also watch the Youtube video at the end.
I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to payfor their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.
But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.
Eighty-five times he pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles inmarathons. Eight times he not only pushed him 26.2 miles in awheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars all in the same day.Dick also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his backmountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?
And what has Rick done for his father? Not much except save his life.
James Bender, in his book How to Talk Well (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1994) relates the story of a farmer who grew award-winning corn.
Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won a blue ribbon. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it.
The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. “How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?” the reporter asked.
“Why sir,” said the farmer, “didn’t you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn.”
He is very much aware of the connectedness of life. His corn cannot improve unless his neighbor’s corn also improves.
So it is in other dimensions. Those who choose to be at peace must help their neighbors to be at peace. Those who choose to live well must help others to live well, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others to find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all.
The lesson for each of us is this: if we are to grow good corn, we must help our neighbors grow good corn.
I just wanted to share my thoughts on the passing of President Gordan B. Hinckley. He has been the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, of which I am a member of for the last 14 years or so. This man has been a great influence on my life for the better. He lived a Christlike life and I learned much about Christ just by watching him, the way that he handled himself, and the strong testimony he shared. One thing that I really like about President Hinckley is his candid talk and approach to teaching. He covered topics ranging from racism, to anger, to education. From him I learned that we can be optimistic despite the seeming degredation of the moral environment in our world. “Things are just getting better and better and better,” he once said. I also like his appreciation for all that is good. He kept himself well educated and updated on the happenings in the world. He was well read and understood the problems that our generation was facing. To me he was the perfect example a disciple who was in the world but not of the world. He understood all the great and beautiful things but he also was well aware of the hardships taking place in the world.I was able to attend several conferences where he spoke. The first time I saw him speak live was at BYU in 1999 at a BYU devotional. I can not remember every message but I know I was touched and a remembrance of how he made me feel will never leave me.
I also remember on one occasion going to Abravenal Hall to watch a very young and very talented Chinese girl play the piano. I sat down the aisle from President Hinckley. There was nothing between us but about 13 empty seats. His wife had just passed a few weeks or months prior, and I remember seeing the pain in his countenance. He sat alone, save a few body guards a few rows behind him. But then I saw how he saw the talent of the young girl and I saw him applaud her enthusiastically. It helped me realize how much appreciation for talent and for all that is good as we read in the Book of Mormon. It was just cool for me to be so close to him, and see the pain and yet joy he was experiencing.
My favorite talk of his was when he bore his testimony about Jesus being his friend, redeemer, advocate, etc. It was a very powerful message, followed by a extremely emotional rendition of the Spirit of God. Here is a link.
I also found this tribute video to President Hinckley. As President Hinckley said of Elder Maxwell when he passed away can also be said of him, I suspect that we will not have another like him, and he will be dearly missed. I can’t wait for when I will be able to meet him and thank him in person. But I suspect that he will have none of it, because he is the type that does not want praise. When you point to him, he would look at you and probably say, don’t point to me, I didn’t do it, rather it was my Savior who did it. He would rather his example lead us to the Savior than to himself.
