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"My life will mean shit all! No kidding!....But I am sorry. Sorta" !! No shitting me Maaannnnnn.. "The secert of seccess is constancy of purpose" - Benjamin Disraeli

If one is not true to themselves..how the heck are you going to be true to the rest of the world eh ?? It important, imperative and literally truthfull to be oneself.. as you say "the unvarnished self" ..thats the true purpose of life and those who don't get ..dont getit !!PERIOD!!

Posted by /pd at November 12, 2004 10:53 AM

In the same vein of "Built to Last," here's something to read from Pat Croce's (ex-President of Philadelphia 76ers basketball) new pirate museum venture:

http://www.piratesoul.com/notable_detail.aspx?id=1

Posted by Lee H. Igel at November 12, 2004 11:15 AM

Tom, I know you have issues with Jim Collins. But I think you are not as far apart as you make it to be.

Collins' key point is that a solid company is one that consistently performs in the moment. Customer after customer. Presentation after presentation. Punch press operation after punch press operation. And, in sum, it creates consistent value.

You do the same...your fanatic committment to your audience, to communication, to ideas that ignite action. And, you've lasted. I've bought all your books...and I write on your blog. Yeah, consistency, action.

And it lasts

And it is in the moment.

Thanks!

Posted by Joe Ely at November 12, 2004 11:35 AM

Being able to live in the moment is a gift. We grow up taught that everything we do is to get to the next step ... learn so you can take the SAT's, take the SAT's to get into college, go to college to get a job, take an entry level job for the chance to have some bureaucrat annoit you with an assitant manager title, and so on. We have to un-learn this mortgaging of the present for the future (and its flip side, ingoring the present while we dwell in the past).

Being present in the moment is not only better for you, it makes it better to be with you. (My 18 year old daughter attended one of my speaking engagments last year. She said, "Dad, I could tell when you were present and when you were presenting.")

At the Jewish new year a few months ago a friend and I decided to choose a word to live by for the year. We both chose 'presence,' for just this reason. Shortly afterward I happened to listen to Joni Mitchell's Chelsea Morning:

"The sun poured in like butterscotch and stuck to all my senses. Why don't you stay, we'll put on the day and talk in present tenses."

Talk in present tenses! Wow!

Posted by Steve Yastrow at November 13, 2004 1:24 AM

Steve, a great duo, your daughter & Joni Mitchell. Both profound observations. There's a slide somewhere in my Education material where students are talking about great teachers, and one makes the comment that it really doesn't matter whether the teacher is a lecturer or a listener, the usual distinction between good and bad; but whether the teacher is "there" or not!

(And what a hero you are for having your daughter in the audience--when one of my boys or Susan is in the audience, let alone my mother or mother-in-law, I become unglued. It's as if you know they know what a phoney you are ... and see right through you. I feel as if I'm speaking stark naked when Ben or Max or Susan is 20 feet away. I have given up on letting them near the first row!)

Posted by tom peters at November 13, 2004 4:39 AM

This is a "yes, but" comment. American industry suffers greatly due to managers that only look ahead as far as the next quarterly report. Emotionally, we as individuals must live for the moment, and apply are all to the here and now. But what seems to be missing is that long term vision, at least a long term energy, a long term and viable theory.

No, I don't have my life planned out for the next 20 years. And I've done things in the past 10 years I would have never expected 10 years ago. But I believe I am following a vision, a consistent management and statistical philosophy, and riding it to the hilt to whereever it may go.

Posted by Steve Prevette at November 15, 2004 6:36 PM

Apology accepted.

In our Center, you can do just about anything you want, as long as you do it professionally.

For example, people late to meetings apologize quietly TO THE MEETING as they come in.
Someone, anyone, in the meeting accepts the apology on behalf of the group. It doesn't have to be the leader or boss or whoever has the floor.

This can happen quietly, unobtrusively, or more publicly and visibly, and the meeting can stop or not as it takes place. Either way, someone accepts the apology sincerely given, and we move on.

Many people, especially men, fear apologies. The current national leader is an example. They may think it makes them look weak and vulnerable.

Yet professionals, if they're real, make mistakes. They stick out their heads, and get them handed back to them for their pains on occasion.

Support fast failures! (Peters [1987]Thriving on Chaos, Chapter I-8).

And if you make a mistake, apologize and move on.

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