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I am now legally allowed to love you in NY is a special wordbonerism that commemorates the New York Senate passing the same-sex marriage bill. Get it on a tee to support the cause and/or as a souvenir of this day!

“A lot of people try to over-complicate sales and marketing. It is neither difficult nor mysterious. Don’t try to be too clever, just think, who is my customer, what do they want, where do I find them and how do I talk to them? It is important to have a clear image of your typical customer… Although they are fictitious people, they embody the essence of the customer and serve as a constant reference for communications - would this person read this? Would they say that? It also serves as an excellent tool for all people working in the organisation or consulting for the organisation to put a face to the people they are dealing with.” - Deborah Meaden

#Deborah Meaden #dragon's den #sales #marketing

The problem was the problem. MacCready realized that what needed to be solved was not, in fact, human-powered flight. That was a red herring. The problem was the process itself. And a negative side effect was the blind pursuit of a goal without a deeper understanding of how to tackle deeply difficult challenges. He came up with a new problem that he set out to solve: How can you build a plane that could be rebuilt in hours, not months?

When you are solving a difficult problem, re-frame the problem so that your solution helps you learn faster. Find a faster way to fail, recover, and try again. If the problem you are trying to solve involves creating a magnum opus, you are solving the wrong problem.

Aza Raskin

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1663488/you-are-solving-the-wrong-problem?partner=homepage_newsletter

#fast company #aza raskin

Laurence refuses to read reports from his product managers with more than five of the vital key performance indicators on them. “The amount of data is obscene. The managers that are going to be successful are going to be the ones who are prepared to take a knife to the amount of data… Otherwise, it’s like a virus.

“Where did it all go wrong?” he continues. “My kids weren’t taught that huge volumes of data were great. Was there a university professor who stood up and said, ‘If you have over 100 indicators you’re a good boy’? Because whoever that professor is, we need to shoot him.”

Laurence has just won a wager with his team over the number of Vodafone VIP members who bought tickets for concerts. His team, based on the data, bet on one number. Their boss, based on what he knows about people, thought it would be higher. Data plus hunch equals a powerful combination. Or, as Laurence concludes: “Data on its own is impotent.”

Guy Lawrence, Vodafone UK CEO

http://thinkquarterly.co.uk/01-data/executive-insight-guy-laurence/

Each of us has many, many maps in our head, which can be divided into two main categories, maps of the way things are (realities) and maps of the way things should be (values). We interpret everything we experience through these mental maps. We seldom question their accuracy; we're usually even unaware that we have them. We simply assume that the way we see things is the way they really are or the way they should be. And our attitudes and behaviours grow out of those assumptions. The way we see things is the source of the way we think and the way we act.

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The way we see the problem is the problem.

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"Inside-out" means to start first with self, even more fundamentally, to start first with the most "inside" part of self, with your paradigms, your character and your motives... if you want the secondary greatness of recognised talent, focus first on primary greatness of character.

- Stephen R Covey

#Stephen R Covey #7HOHEP #problem-solving

Good ideas alter the power balance in relationships.

That is why good ideas are always initially resisted.

- Hugh MacLeod

#Hugh MacLeod #gapingvoid #ignore everybody

When a pitcher ascends those stairs and stands before us I am immediately looking for them to define, within that first minute, what is unique about their business or idea. The fundamental key to a successful business is almost ridiculously straightforward: either it must be something completely new or it has to be offering something appreciably better than the existing competition.

It really is that simple. There is nothing else.

I want them to say: "I have a new product" or "I am going to do this better"

- Richard Farleigh

#Richard Farleigh #Dragons' Den #pitching

The minute you become ready is the minute you stop dreaming. Suddenly it's no longer about "becoming". Suddenly it's about "doing".

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Power is never given. Power is taken.

- Hugh MacLeod

Employing people with promise is a key element of my success.

I'm looking for somebody who walks into the meeting room looking sharp and clean cut, and who has investigated the business they're coming into. I want to know, "Why should I employ you? What is it about you that's going to make a difference? What can you tell me about my own business? What can you do differently?"

Let's get down to the bottom line.

The bottom line is, are you good enough to work for me?

Peter Jones

#Peter Jones #Dragons' Den #hiring

1. Be a good coach.

2. Empower your team and don’t micromanage.

3. Express interest in team members’ success and personal well-being.

4. Don’t be a sissy: Be productive and results-oriented.

5. Be a good communicator and listen to your team.

6. Help your employees with career development.

7. Have a clear vision and strategy for the team.

8. Have key technical skills so you can help advise the team.

- Google's Project Oxygen re Being a Better Boss

#Google #Project Oxygen #managing

There's no correlation between creativity and equipment ownership.

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All we can do is keep asking the question, "Is this a pillar?" about every aspect of our business, our craft, our reason for being alive, and go from there. The more we ask, the better we get at spotting pillars, the more quickly the pillars vanish.

Ask. Keep asking. And then ask again. Stop asking and you're dead.

- Hugh MacLeod

#Hugh MacLeod #gapingvoid #creativity

“I’m a very confident person, and I think confidence is catching. People buy from confident people.”

- Deborah Meaden

#Deborah Meaden #Dragons' Den #sales

In the short run, in an artificial system such as school, you may be able to get by if you learn how to manipulate the man-made rules, to "play the game". In most one-shot or short-lived human interactions, you can use the Personality Ethic to get by and to make favourable impressions through charm and skill and pretending to be interested in other people's hobbies. You can pick up quick, easy techniques that may work in short-term situations. But secondary traits alone have permanent worth in long-term relationships. Eventually, if there isn't deep integrity and fundamental character strength, the challenges of life will cause true motives to surface and human relationship failure will replace short-term success.

As Emerson once put it, "What you are shouts so loudly in my ears I cannot hear what you say."

Stephen R Covey

#Stephen R Covey #7HOHEP

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