Comments

You are not out to lunch. I changed my screensaver and background to "Create Insanely Great Fiction." I also printed a poster of the same and put it up in my writing area. I also have it as my introductory message on my Blackberry.

Posted by Glenn H. Myers at February 17, 2005 1:25 PM

Mr. Peters, after reading quite a number of entries here the past few days I’m struck by the fact that one person can make such a difference. Can we even speak of the “culture” or the “DNA” of an enterprise when that seems to be the product of one individual? Lou Gerstner at IBM. Or Steve Jobs at Apple. So many have written here how exceptional Apple is. But what was Apple without Jobs? If I recall the saga correctly, the suits were brought in to bring some “professional” management to Apple. They drummed Jobs out of the company he co-founded. Apple floundered. Jobs went on to found Next. Next wasn’t successful at making boxes, but the technology that went into Next is the core of the current Mac operating system. (Even Jobs’ failures eventually turn into successes. eg. Lisa.) Apple continued its tailspin. Jobs went on to found Pixar. Pixar revolutionized movie-making. And only when serious people seriously began to question the survivability of Apple did they bring Jobs back to the comany he founded... for the princely sum of $1 per year. So it appears that Apple with Jobs is insanely great. Apple without Jobs is.... something else. I'm also reminded once again of the genius of Peter Drucker who wrote decades ago that there is no evidence that there is such a thing as a profit motive; that the first purpose of a business is not to make a profit but to create a customer. The second purpose is to innovate.

Posted by Doug Smith at February 17, 2005 1:42 PM

Well, I am working on the launch of my new book "Bumped into the Wall" and its companion website. Your post truly made me rethink of looking at my projct again and to add something insanely greta in it. Thankyou as always. BY the way do not forget to check the site on Monday. (www.youperform.com/bumped)

Posted by Amyn Lalji at February 17, 2005 1:47 PM

Doug, brilliant post!

Posted by tom peters at February 17, 2005 2:08 PM

Another great post. I've started a new business (PSA model) and with everything that needs doing its easy to focus on the marketing and business development rather than the early projects.
But you're a constant reminder that if the projects aren't insanely great then there is no business to market.
So the early projects - and all the rest - ARE going to be WOW.
Not sure if you've seen the book by Paul Arden ( ex Saatchis)"It's Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want to Be" which is more great inspiration. I highly recommend it - I give all our people and our clients a copy when we first starting working together and ask them to make sure we live up to it. Keep the faith.

Posted by Simon Andrews at February 17, 2005 2:43 PM

Dr. Thomas - so as we speak and think and act - thereby we become - more power to you and those who take it to the limit - who push the envelope.

Posted by John at February 17, 2005 3:24 PM

Inspired by Glenn Myers post (first in this string, I have changed my screensaver/background to " Insanely Great Clinical Development"...adapting for my work

Posted by Scott Segal at February 17, 2005 3:48 PM

I agree with Tom, Doug =)

Also, Tom, I have to say... you're pretty "Insanely Great" at what you do, too.

Telling people to be insanely great is easy. But you seem to be insanely great at it. Thew way you say it would be insanely difficult for most people.

[wonders if he's making any sense at all...]

Posted by hugh macleod at February 17, 2005 3:59 PM

In the spirit of going to the next level… Don’t just change your screen saver; create an image file with Paint (or any other drawing program) and make it inspirational. Mine has pictures of my little ones, my goals, objectives, events of interest. Included are two of my favorite messages from this weblog. The first one is “Make a dent in the Universe” with an image of a galaxy in the background. The second is “Do something different, odd, or unique, but do it in a world class way”. I want to see that message, not just while I am idle, but when all of the neurons are firing. To change the background simple right click the background and select desktop. (Not sure on an Apple how this is done).

Posted by RTodd at February 17, 2005 4:11 PM

Sorry Tom, but I'm confused here. About a week ago you posted, "Got a new laptop. My 3rd Gateway. Very happy!" If Steve Jobs is so great and you use his quote about "design = soul" then how come you aren't using a PowerBook?! Seems to me that all the good things about Apple (and I love their products) aren't really working if guys like you aren't switching. The iPod is a huge hit but Apple need to get greater penetration in the computer world. Design is good but it seems to me they've still to convince a mighty lot of folks that it's a better computer.

Posted by Mark JF at February 17, 2005 6:35 PM

Yo Tom... I have your page as my home page, and today I wanted to just get started and basically find a phone number, but I am awestruck with the simplicity of your post...

There is a god!

I, like others, have copied the points and printed them for my office. its so elegant it says it all.

"Personal power does not have the power to light a light globe, but it does have the power to enlighten others." Steve Gray

Posted by Steve Gray at February 17, 2005 10:21 PM

Doug, you are making a very good point. Marcus Buckingham, who wrote the best-selling book "First Break All the Rules," once said that a company has as many cultures as it has managers! Indeed, according to numerous studies conducted by the Gallup Organization (the consulting company for which both Buckingham and I used to work), we can not really speak of a "company culture" without taking into account the huge impact each individual manager has on her work group's (her team) performance/engagements. To read more about Buckingham and the Gallup studies check this excellent article: http://www.fastcompany.com/online/49/buckingham.html

Posted by S. Daniel Leon at February 17, 2005 11:19 PM

If you're so smitten with Steve Jobs then dump that Gateway PC and get a Powerbook!

Powerbooks rock!

Posted by Erick Blackwelder at February 18, 2005 12:29 AM

I just love the concept of insanely great - first time I have heard that expression.

I am now freelance and I want to be insanely great!

Steve - I am ALWAYS impressed by the simplicity of Tom's postings - Simplicity rules for me!!!

Posted by Trevor Gay at February 18, 2005 6:51 AM

Daniel Leon, I am an unabashed fan of Marcus Buckingham--and the Gallup research that underpinned his work. He has a new book coming that I both blurbed and blogged a couple of months ago.

Posted by tom peters at February 18, 2005 8:55 AM

Yes! One insanely great person can make an insanely great impact. One of my favorite examples: Jack Kerouac... whose radically inventive prose launched the "beat movement" and, some might say, planted the seeds for many aspects of the 60s cultural revolution.

So why not follow Kerouac's rules for business/management (actually titled "Rules for Spontaneous Prose". Here are a few:

• Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for yr own joy
• Submissive to everything, open, listening
• Be in love with yr life
• Something that you feel will find its own form
• Be crazy dumbsaint of the mind
• Blow as deep as you want to blow
• The unspeakable visions of the individual
• Visionary tics shivering in the chest
• In tranced fixation dreaming upon object before you
• Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition [managerial, philosophical]
• Write [work] in recollection and amazement for yourself
• Accept loss forever
• Struggle to sketch the flow that already exists intact in mind
• No fear or shame in the dignity of yr experience, language & knowledge
• In praise of Character in the Bleak inhuman Loneliness
• Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from under, crazier the better
• You're a Genius all the time

My favorites: "No fear or shame in the dignity of your experience, language, & knowledge".... "wild, undisciplined, pure...crazier the better"....

And best of all: "Be in love with your life"

Posted by AJ Hoge at February 18, 2005 10:19 AM