Said Mr. Drucker...

Peter Drucker said (something like) Corporations as they are will die in 25 years (couldn't recall the exact wording, if you got the original quote pls share with us here, thanks!).

He said it in year 2000.

So where are we now?

Idea of the day – Blogging 2.0 (or 3.0?)

Story as process, not product.

In the spirit of my previous post and Jeff Jarvis' insight in Replacing the Article, I’m onto a large project to empty the arsenal and blaze away all my ammunition, including those still lying on production line...

highlight of Jeff Jarvis' insightful post:
To recap, I think the new unit of coverage needs to include:
1. Curated Aggregation. Do what you do best, link to the rest…
2. A blog that treats the story as a process, not a product, with continuing coverage and conversation, asking and answering questions, giving updates, filling in gaps…
3. A wiki that give us a snapshot of current knowledge…
4. Discussion. Where do you think the best – most intelligent and illuminating – discussion is going on?

Blogging 2.0. Are you ready?

Genuine Authenticity?

It’s been uplifting seeing the trend for authenticity in modern business thinking; yet worrying while many people wired with ‘skills’ (+zero-sum game) mind-set are so keen with learning & using this new ‘skills'...

It's kind of funny being genuine & authentic now becomes something we have to pay to learn..

...and in the worst case scenario, it could turn out to be something like what we’ve seen in movies for years, skilled & charming jerks cheating young innocent virgins...

Highlight of a recent FT article:
Comedian Stephen Colbert coined the term “truthiness” to describe the authenticity that Americans yearned for. Truthiness was not, he explained, the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but rather “something that seems like the truth – the truth we want to exist”.

Revealing. At least to naive people like me.

So the convergence of material/commercial benefits and virtue is not yet under way. It’s just development in the field of strategy & tactics.

Reality shows, I realized, are still shows.

It brings back the question: what’s the role of ethics in our society? Does it matter? Does it Really matter? Anymore?

Update: Just a guess
Ethics/morality/virtue, could just be a tool for social elite. Needless to say, it’s to facilitate their governing/leading/managing you and me (are we really free?).

Blaze away your ammunition...Now!

I bet many of you dudes/bloggers/dreamers out there have behind your head an arsenal full of ammunition. I mean a ton of ideas that overload your head. And for some reason you haven’t yet turn it into a concrete blog post...

If one of your reasons is, ‘I’m still not quite ready’, ‘I’m still not quite sure how to present it in the right way’, ‘I may as well wait for a while’, ‘I may need a bit more time to figure it out’ etc… read point 8 & 9 of this post by Seth Godin.

8. Show up. Not writing is not a useful way of expressing your ideas. Waiting for perfect is a lousy strategy.
9. Say it. Don't hide, don't embellish. (Read the post here)

Don’t worry about grammatical mistakes or imperfect analogy or messy reasoning or inaccurate quotes or possible stupidity, in Seth’s words, you can, and should, always “edit yourself ruthlessly”; in John Wooden’s words, “he who makes the most mistakes wins.”

Blaze away your ammunition...Now!

Christmas Launch:"Change the World with Ideas"

What causes changes in our world? A lot. It starts with ideas. PLUS: tons of action, experiments, failures & persistence. Ideas, however overrated or underrated nowadays, are not enough.

"...ideas are easy, try to do it - that's the test..."
--Guy Kawasaki

Not enough, not deciding, yet absolutely necessary. Inspirational ideas are the origin (see related post) of all great changes. And we can all contribute to this and be part of the changes.

"Change the World with Ideas" is not just a grand yet empty statement, it's not just the business of so-called gurus or innovators. It's something we can practice every single day and yes, it's Our Business. We all have a role in it, if we give a damn.

We develop or refine or improve ideas ('Think'); we experiment new ideas and put 'em into practice ('Innovate'); we share brilliant ideas and encourage innovative practices ('Spread').

We don't have to be thinkers with superb ideas or innovators with hyper elastic minds to do our part. The easiest way for us to contribute and "Change the World with Ideas" (and what this blog attempts to do), is to spread those brilliant ideas & practices, value-add a bit if possible, and pray for someone with great potential out there to get inspired, then go on to create something and change our world for the better......and that someone, ladies and gentlemen, may very well be You.

Wish You A Merry & Meaningful Christmas!

Einstein Quote, Rocker Buddy, Thanksgiving

* "Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving" -- Albert Einstein

An Einstein quote*.
A documentary on de Band.
A song dedicated to John Lennon.
A night of living inspirations, swirled and shredded with wild hearts, moonlight proudly carved.

24. A promise unfulfilled, yet never expire.

there are moments in life when you just want to drop a few lines for someone, without expecting any reply. She/he can be your buddy, or sb. you befriended 28 mins ago. Just go do it, write your heart, slip your signature into his/her life, and expect nothing in return.

It's beautiful, knowing there's someone out there who cares.

And this one is for you my Rocker Buddy, specimens for the moments we reached to our souls. I'm just grateful.

It's tremendously motivating and meaningful, knowing there's someone out there on the same quest, same mission, same struggle.

what could be the worst?
A lifetime of pain, for evanescent yet huge, aesthetic, soul-moving moments.

year after year, life rolling on.
man, now i'm pretty sure we are never gonna change.

So Keep on Rocking...

How Ideas Change the World?

Rough generalization of my guess:

I. Blow Minds
=> people get inspired, determined and committed

II. Innovate
=> inspired people engage themselves into tons of action, experiments, failures, more trials & experiments, insights, discoveries, design, practice => innovation
[ yes Innovation is about Doing instead of thinking!]

III. Spread the Practice
=> people share, communicate and market resulting practices of innovation, until they gain enough acceptance to scale into the main stream.

By the way, modern/scientific corp. management practices took nearly 100 years to scale (And if we are lucky the next-generation practices will take substantially less time to replace it).

Mr. Maeda, you never knew...

John Maeda, some computer scientist in MIT who wrote some book that caught Tom Peters' attention and was interviewed by tompeters.com a couple of years ago(you can read the interview here). What I can really remember about him, however, is (20mins ago I couldn't even remember what his book was about)...

- He got an MBA simply because he wanted to know more about business
- He considered studying Law (i have no idea if he did) simply because he wanted to know more about the subject
- He reads a book every week (yes, just this simple!)

I was thrilled by these just as i was thrilled by the fact that Bill Gates reads insatiably simply out of curiosity... (as opposed to "i'm reading this book to learn these skills to enable me to increase my 'value' and income...", anyone?)

what I want to say is...

Ladies and gentlemen, you never know what you've said or done is in what way making what kind of influence/impact on others' lives.

So say it, do it, and live, with your heart.

Update:
John Maeda is now the President of RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) and his appointment was a surprise to many, read Fast Company's report here. His latest blog here.

What do I know about Denmark?

Not much. At least nothing worthy enough for your precious time.

But I read about a Danish today who happened to be the chief of Carlsberg (by the way the founder named the brand Carlsberg because of his beloved son Carl) who said something worth sharing:

1. The Most Important Thing for Leadership - Be Yourself

As simple as this. Many people look up to great leaders or superstars in business and imitate, and just fail.

2. On Success (?) - Be Yourself and No Regret for What You've Done

If you have to do it all over again, you'd still make the same choice.

3. "Say What You Think"

A Danish trait (or he said so). Pretty admirable in any case.

What do you know about Bill? Steve? Pete?

If a relative from Mars pays you a visit and he/she/it knows nothing about Bill Gates, would you care to do some story-telling? If yes, how?

Below is my take:

...he believes with enough IQ any problem in the world can be solved...
...he grew up reading encyclopedia and got insatiable thirst for knowledge + mega sized curiosity...
...he was sighted reading while driving on freeway...
...he never read business/management literature but biographies...(I heard but never verified)

did i miss anything?
Oh he happened to be the founder of a huge company entangled in anti-trust cases...

Update 1
How about Steve Jobs?
Beat me.
The only thing I know: He regards himself an aesthete.

Update 2
How about Peter Drucker?
...he regards himself a writer, a 'loner'...
...he taught religion in university...
...he said what managers really should read is proses and poetry...

Words of The Day (again): Incentive Compatibility

Incentive Compatibility...the corner stone of Mechanism Design...the magic behind a great human invention, Markets... ..... .........I can go on and on and on on this, with messy sentence structure shallow opinions untested guesses and incoherent logic. So I won't.

Just think about it, in the context of financial regulation, activists' causes...
For anyone who wants to make lasting changes, consider it the priority.

Word of The Day: INDEFINABLE

If you can't find a slot in the market to fit in, if you aren't quite happy with the label you're given, if you have trouble finding the 'proper' description of what you can do in your CV, if you're having problem with the 'right' category of your personality... chances are...

you are INDEFINABLE (or what you are born to do is so far INDEFINABLE).

Congratulations!!!!! (the extra exclamation marks are to smash the shadow imposed by 'them' on your uniqueness)
In a society where people were busy doing categorization, simple labeling, standardization,etc to give things order keep cost lower make life easier, being Indefinable was a sin.

No longer. Welcome to a world where any spot on the Long Tail got its place.

If you find yourself indefinable, you are one of a kind. If you find yourself indefinable, it's up to you to figure out what you can do with your uniqueness. If you find yourself indefinable, embrace the ambiguity, charge forward, leverage the ambiguity for infinite creativity & possibilities.

If you can't find the answer among choices A,B,C,D, it's because people haven't yet discovered possibility E. And you stand a good chance to be the first one to discover it. Better yet, be the innovator to bring it onto the table.
Or you can squeeze yourself between B and C until someone else discover and bring us the E.

* If you find yourself Indefinable, Stand Proud, Walk On, You are Not Alone.

Idea of The Day: Spectrum

Originally from an interview of Tim Brown by McKinsey Quarterly.

llllllll ll lll ll l l il it &^ -< style="font-style: italic;">CAN happen...

"...and you can't just pick a spot on the spectrum, you've got to move around..."

Aficionado (The Quote)

Talk is cheap, ACTION is EVERYTHING.

Quote from an 'extremist' friend who did something really cool that I regret I didn't do (which was to drop out of college that does not really teach you much).

Thanks dude, that was a great one, charged through my mind and made my day.

It's not just about being aggressive, impatient, or hyper-enthusiastic, man, it's not for everyone and no one should just imitate, to me it's more about standing for your own belief, genuinely living your own values, and being true to yourself...

Another quote I remember, not quite my cup of tea but some readers may like it...

Sniper Mindset: Winners Focus, Losers Spray.

de Zone

Vincent was there, W. AXL Rose was there, who else?

Elation and Pain.

'cos they reached to their souls, 'cos they gave a damn.
Who else?

Life-mission Entrepreneurs

We got entrepreneurs who sets up businesses...
We got social entrepreneurs who sets up schools, hospitals...etc
And if you can't find a place or passion in the categories above (or you found fitting yourself into either category kills your creativity...), try this:

Life-mission Entrepreneurs...

Figure out & Do what you TRULY care (it may happen to be what you do best and/or have fun doing), Do what gives your life Meaning.
You do this not for profits, not for acknowledgment from others (yes it's hard), but to make your life TRULY meaningful. And you can do it part-time.

Don't ever think about profits or to please anybody or your 'social responsibility/obligation', you're doing it for your own life (and life's Not a rehearsal). You may meet people who appreciate your work along the way, or you may not.

But when u look back fifty years from now, you'll be glad you have not been blinded by the mist around you today, and you didn't fail your life and let yourself down.

I repeat: Life Is Not A Rehearsal.

Push & Pull

Came across this Leading Philosophy, Push & Pull.
It made me think, and with all due respect, share my view below:

You push, you pull, and you don't do no back-slapping.
People love you, or people hate you, that's it.
Nothing in between.

If you 'succeeded' in making everybody 'like' you, you may no longer deserve the love from people who love you.

The Same Old Saying(for fellow TM): Be Yourself

"instead of trying to improve by 'imitating' others, why not bring the best out of yourself? "
"...if you feel comfortable standing still, then forget abt those stage trotters & surely you will figure out how to make a superbly amazing inspirational passionate sincere brilliantly elegant speech with you feet on the same spot for 15 freaking mins..."

on the other hand, you may want to
"...try a bit of something, new techniques old techniques...try anything...comfortable or not, go try em all... ...just remember to ask yourself, 'is it me?', 'does it reflect my personality?', 'could i feel my soul and heartbeat when using these techniques?' '' or 'have i lost yourself trying to be sb. else?'"

"Benchmarking is stupid," said Tom Peters and a bunch of cool fellas.
It's not, it's just so outdated, and we no longer wear corset in 21st century.

The (Awkward) Conversation

"...when my work is squeezed between the covers it loses its freedom...", said the writer.

"...sometimes we need finite form, as a platform, to help explore the infinity in our souls...", replied the philosopher.

The Speaker

"I'm smaller than my ideas"
"...and my ideas would be so much smaller compared to what they may help trigger in your thinking..."

"...I'm not here to show you my speaking skills, I'm here to deliver a message..."
"...I'm here not just to deliver the message, but to explore new possibilities together with you guys..."

Are you ready?

Thus Spoke The Philosopher's Mentor II

Foucault in debate or Berlin in contemplation?

"...but you don't pin yourself down under one label...the fact is you can be them all...go do & create something first before you limit your potential with some stupid categorization..."

"Go explore, son, 'cos this world is so beautifully chaotic..."

Thus Spoke The Philosopher's Mentor

"..maybe we just have to be modest...with lots of action (learning, thinking, creating)...'cos we don't have all the answers, son...focus not on changing the world with your ideas...but to take part in the debate and conversation...that's how we contribute...to help explore the possibilities, ideas and aestheticity...and hopefully inspire people to change the world..."

"...that is, instead of imposing your ideas on the world, you are opening up the possibilities for people to create even more brilliant ideas and to make the world better..."