Lawrence Fine

Why do some people constantly look for ways to fail? Whenever they see an opportunity, instead of looking for ways to make it work, they look to find fault in the plan.

I consider this to be different than being an optimist or a pessimist. A pessimist might think something is going to fail (or to use the common example, the glass is half empty) while the optimist might think something is going to succeed (the glass is half full). However, what I’m talking about is a bit different. The person who looks for ways to fail would look at the glass and try to find a way to break it to make sure it ends up with no water at all. The person looking to make things succeed will look for ways to fill the glass up completely so there is plenty of water for everyone.

The person looking for ways to fail will try to anticipate ways people will try to succeed and create fault with those plans. The person looking to succeed will anticipate ways it might fail and look to overcome them.

Being optimistic isn’t good enough because optimists frequently don’t take into consideration the negatives so they aren’t prepared to overcome the negatives when they arise. The person looking for ways to succeed takes the negatives into account and prepares to overcome them.

People who look for ways to fail usually are successful (at failing). People who look for ways to succeed are usually success as well (at succeeding)

Have a great day

Lawrence

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There comes a point in everyones life where they need to remove some, if not all, of the drama from their life.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the day to day drama of peoples lives that you can’t get any work done.

He said this…she said that…they did what?

Some people seem to strive on creating drama. Others strive on pointing it out to others. Others sense when drama is dying out so they stir it up some more.

If you want to live a more productive, more meaningful and more enjoyable life, there will come a point where you have to rid yourself of these drama makers and realize there is so much out there that is truly stimulating.

I realize it’s easy to say you are going to avoid drama and much more difficult to do it but even temporarily, living in a drama free zone can make a HUGE difference in your life. Give it a try!

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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How often do people jeopardize the long term survival of an organization simply because they are more intent on winning an individual “competition” than in achieving the goals of the organization?

Do you know people who look at all negotiations as zero sum negotiations (for there to be a winner, there must also be a loser) as opposed to people who look to find ways to maximize the results for everyone involved?

People who look at all negotiations as zero sum tend to limit themselves tremendously while those who look to make sure everyone benefits will end up further along, as will those around them.

Any negotiation that results in zero sum (one side loses the same amount that the other side wins) was a bad negotiation overall. With creative thought and an open mind by all concerned, much more can be achieved

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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There are so many opportunities to develop a network of “friends” online these days via sites such as Twitter.com (followers), Facebook.com, Linkedin.com, MySpace.com etc that sometimes, I think people forget what real friendship is.

I know a lot of people. A lot more people know me (whether they really know me or just think they know me is debatable). Just because I know someone, whether in “real life” or “virtually” doesn’t mean they are a real friend.

A friend is someone who will be there for you in good times and bad. A friend is someone you want to be around and are willing to do anything for, even if it’s at great inconvenience to you.

A friend is someone who doesn’t care what you do, or who you know or how much you have.

You might have a friend you see everyday or you might have a friend you see very rarely. You might speak non stop to a friend or you might be with your friend and say very little.

Friendship is about quality, not quantity.

If you have 3-5 friends in your life, you are truly fortunate. When I hear people refer to their hundreds of friends and buddies, I feel bad for them because I wonder if they really have any friends or for that matter, even know what a true friend is.

Sadly, it’s also easy to take friends for granted. Because you know they will be there for you, you don’t worry about them as much as you should.

If you get a chance, thank your friends for being who they are.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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When looking at people in an organization you can usually break them down into A’s, B’s and C’s.

The people in the A group are the “stars”. They far exceed expectations and create positive results.

The people in the B group usually meet expectations and get the job done.

The people in the C group, don’t meet expectations and for lack of a better word, they fail.

When recruiting for an organization (this can be a business or a team or any organization) the key is to try to replace the C’s with A’s and B’s. That might seem like an obvious thing but so often I see organizations replace their C’s with other C’s. If you are going to do that, you might as well keep the original C’s (the theory being the known sometimes is better than the unknown).

Ideally, if you were to rank your “team” from 1-50, you would get rid of 45-50 and bring in new 1-5′s. This will challenge the previous 1-5′s to step up to the challenge.

The only thing better than replacing your C’s with A’s is to train your C’s to become A’s and B’s and then bring in even more A’s.

If you aren’t regularly ranking, evaluating, reviewing the people in your organization, you should!

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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I’m a big fan of strategic planning and tactics of all types. I love being able to beat an opponent because of a better scheme.

Each week I play in a local table tennis league and frequently, I’m able to beat better opponents because of a better game plan. Whether it’s attacking their weakness or taking advantage of my strengths, a good game plan will let me win many matches I wouldn’t normally be able to win.

However, there are certain players I can’t beat with better tactics. Until I develop better fundamentals, they will always beat me because my tactics can’t overcome the foundation they have from their fundamentals.

This is a great lesson to carry over to business, coaching and life. Tactics, strategies, game plans can take you to a certain level but without strong fundamentals, we can’t make it to the top.

If you have strong fundamentals, combine that with tactics and the sky is the limit. If you only have strong tactics or only have strong fundamentals, you are limiting yourself

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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There is a saying that those who fail to plan are planning to fail.

The question that comes to mind is, why are we assuming planning to fail is so bad? I agree that failing to plan is bad it’s a good idea to plan to fail a certain number of times a year. If you aren’t willing to fail, you wont be willing to take chances and that takes away the likelyhood of success

I have launched numerous web sites knowing some will fail and others will succeed. Admittedly, I don’t know which ones will fail and which will succeed but they are done with the thought built in that some will fail (these aren’t client sites, but rather experimental sites I do for myself). In fact, I’m not sure what would be worse, if they all failed or if they all succeeded (if they all succeeded, I’m not sure how they would be managed).

Failing to plan can be fatal to an organization. Planning to Fail can be vital.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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