Lawrence Fine

For most of us, we need a rival.

Rivals challenge us, they push us, they make us better.

Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics made Magic Johnson and the LA Lakers better.

The Boston Red Sox made the NY Yankees better.

Bing makes Google search better.

Without a rival, it’s easy to grow stagnant and complacent.

Without Wile E Coyote, the Road Runner would have been insignificant! Wile E Coyote was needed.

Just something to think about.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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It’s easy to assume that everyone is (or should be) speaking to you. The reality is, just because we hear someone doesn’t mean we are their target market.

Monday night was the NCAA Division One basketball finals (I’m a big basketball fan so yes this is my second time using the NCAA tournament as an example). After the game, which the University of Kentucky won, their coach was interviewed and he deflected all of the credit to the players and then started talking about the next goal which is to go 40-0. The next day I spoke with a graduate of UK and he thought the coach was overdoing things and should have admitted that yes, he was happy and yes, he proved his point. The reality is, the coaches message wasn’t intended to a 50 year old alum but rather to 16-18 year old recruits he was interested in getting. He was letting them know that if they come to UK and play for him, they could achieve even greater things. The problem wasn’t that the coach was sending the wrong message but rather the alum didn’t realize this message wasn’t for him.

When you overhear someone speaking it’s important to understand that the message this person is sending might not be intended for you. This doesn’t mean it’s a lie, but rather it frequently means the person has a different story for different audiences.

A simple example might be a Realtor selling a house. For one person the Realtor might be emphasizing the school system a house is located in which might be perfect for that persons family. That same Realtor, while speaking to a different person might be emphasizing the vicinity to restaurants or work. Does this mean the Realtor was lying to one person or the other? No. It simply means the Realtor has a different audience so tells a different story.

Just something to think about.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Is it too easy to excuse someone for being naive when it’s really ignorance?

Is there really much of a difference?

A person who is a non tech type and non designer who is asked what size font they prefer and responds by saying “what does that mean?’ is naive. This person has no reason to know the differences so while an experienced designer might be surprised by the answer, the truth is the typical person has no reason to know. This person might be looked upon as a bit naive IN THIS SITUATION.

A person claiming to be a professional designer who responds to the same question with the same answer isn’t naive but rather is ignorant. A designer would be expected to know this type of situation.

A person who is learning to cook who asks “what is meant by a pinch of an ingredient” might be considered a bit naive. A person claiming to be an experienced chef who answers the same way would be ignorant.

The point is whether one is naive or ignorant isn’t dependent only upon the situation but also on the experience of the people involved.

A naive person can be easily taught. An ignorant person…might be a different story

Just something to think about.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Think about the things people complain about. They might be bored. They might feel they are out of shape. They might not like their job. People complain about all types of things.

Instead of complain, why not change? Instead of complaining you are bored, go out and do something fun! Instead of complaining you are out of shape, go work out. Instead of complaining you don’t like your job, either find a way to enjoy it more OR find a new job.

We have so much control over our lives, I don’t understand why people would prefer to complain about things they aren’t happy about rather than going out and doing something about it.

Remember, next time you want to complain, change instead!

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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This past Saturday I was watching the pregame show for the NCAA basketball Division 1 semi finals. The commentators were talking about how much more difficult it is to shoot in a dome than in a regular arena and this conclusion was made by looking at the last few years of final fours when the games have been in domes and compared the shooting percentages to the teams regular shooting percentages. Based on the fact the shooting percentages in the final fours are significantly lower than the rest of the season they all seemed to make the conclusion that shooting in a dome adversely affected shooting percentages. While this conclusion might be true, the dome was not the only variable they should have considered. For example, in the Louisville vs Kentucky game, Louisville shot 34.8 percent from the field. For the entire season they shot 42.2 percent from the field. Based on this one might conclude the dome had a dramatic affect on their shooting percentage. If you watched the game you might conclude differently. The fact that Kentucky has an amazing defensive team led by the best shot blocking player in the country MIGHT have also affected this percentage. Interestingly, Kentucky didn’t not seem to be affected by the “dome affect” as it shot above it’s season average.

One of my clients sells apparel online and for the past few days has sold over 600% more than they did last year at this time. Is this a trend they can count on repeating next year? No. They are taking advantage of a current event that will not happen again.

Make sure when you make conclusions, that you take into account all variables when looking at facts.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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Today can be wonderful. Today can be awful.

You can be extremely efficient. You can be extremely inefficient.

You can be happy. You can be sad.

You can do something significant. You can do nothing at all.

The thing that is GREAT is it’s YOUR CHOICE. You control how today goes. It’s a lot of responsibility but the best news is that for most of us, we can make the choice again tomorrow!

Choose to be GREAT!

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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A person can say they are open minded but that doesn’t mean they really are open minded.

A person can say they are an environmentalist but that doesn’t mean they aren’t polluters.

A person can say they are pro business but if their actions show otherwise then they aren’t.

It’s easy to say you are one thing but remember that your actions will show what you really are, not your words.

Just something to think about.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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If the objective of educators is to educate, logic dictates that their compensation would be fairly based on testing to determine how much the students have learned. The higher the test scores (assuming the test scores are developed fairly) the higher the compensation.

While that might seem logical, it doesn’t mean it’s right. This would be fair if all students were starting at the same level and had the same resources available to them

If students entering one school can barely read while students at another school start off at a reading level two grades about their real grade, should the teacher be evaluated based on a general level of reading at the end of the school year? Is that really an accurate way to evaluate the teacher?

If the majority of the students at one school have Internet access at home while the majority of the students at another school don’t have Internet Access at home, wouldn’t that affect their learning? If so, shouldn’t that be factored into the evaluation?

Does the socio/economic situation in a school district affect learning? Do resources affect learning? Are there other factors?

Once you start thinking of all of the things that are affecting learning it, it should make you rethink the logic of some of the arguments for merit based compensation using standard metrics.

In looking at your own industry, are you using metrics that maybe aren’t fairly representing the real issues?

Just something to think about.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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So many people have a “great idea”.

They are convinced it’s going to make a million/billion dollars.

The reality is many people have a “great idea”. It takes a lot more than an idea to be successful.

In looking at ideas it’s important to look much further.

Is it truly a great idea?
Do you have the ability to execute it?
Is there a market for it?
Do you have access to the market?
Is it something you can be passionate about?

Let’s look at each of these?

Is it truly a great idea? This is difficult to figure. To some extent it’s actually the least important because if the answer to the other 4 questions are “yes” this question isn’t as important

Do you have the ability to execute? This includes everything from the expertise (or the access to expertise) to the funding to execute. Without the ability to execute, even a great idea will fail.

Is there a market for it? A great idea executed perfectly will fail if the market isn’t interested.

Do you have access to the market? Access might be through a great marketing plan, connections, a client etc but without access, even if there is a market for the idea, it wont do you much good. Too often, we still believe the theory “if we build it they will come” and that has lost a lot of people a lot of money.

Is it something you can be passionate about? Without the passion it’s difficult to put in the time and effort to take something from an idea to a successful venture.

There are exceptions to these five questions but they are rarer than most care to admit. One example would be something so innovative that there isn’t a market for it because nothing similar exists. In that case, you need to figure out how to create the market before trying to execute. Another example would be something that truly is so innovative that you are willing to take a chance on finding a way to access the market. The thing to remember is there are a lot less of these truly innovative ideas as people think.

The next time you are presented with a “great idea”, see if the person can answer yes to all of these questions.

Just something to think about.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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You want something done with technology so you tell the IT person what you want done and he then does what you requested. For some, this would be satisfactory.

For others (and I’ll include myself in this group), this will frequently be seen as an inadequate outcome. I want more than “just what I asked for”. I also want to know what is possible. What I asked for might not be the best way to do things but since they gave me what I asked for, I’ll never know what I could have received.

The key is to find out what is possible and then determine what is best for you. Just because something is possible doesn’t mean it’s what is best (it might cost too much to do everything that is possible, it might take too long or many other issues).

Like many other areas, knowledge is power. Be willing to share what you are trying to do and then find out what is possible and then make the best decision. It might take a little bit longer but in the long run, it might save a lot of time and money.

Just something to think about.

Have a great day!

Lawrence

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