Erfolg – Was wünschst Du dir denn nun wirklich?

Wenn es ein Zitat gibt, das mir mehr als alle anderen hilft, auf Erfolgskurs zu bleiben, dann ist es dieses von
Paul J. Meyer :

“Alles was Du …

• dir klar vorstellen,
• leidenschaftlich wünschen,
• aufrichtig glauben,
• und wonach Du begeistert handeln kannst …

… muss unweigerlich geschehen.”

In wenigen Worten hat er hier ein universelles Gesetz formuliert, das uralt ist, lange verschüttet war, jetzt aber wieder häufig diskutiert und in vielen Variationen beschrieben wird : das Gesetz der Anziehung.

Es ist ja auch unglaublich, daß es nur vier Voraussetzungen gibt, die nötig sind, um alles zu erreichen, was man will. Unweigerlich. Alle vier gleichzeitig, natürlich.

Das klingt zu einfach. Trotzdem ist es so : nicht leicht, aber einfach.

Schade, daß wir so oft nicht alle vier zusammen auf die Reihe kriegen, oder? Wenn es ums Wünschen geht sind wir alle groß dabei, aber dann die anderen drei?

Was wünschst Du dir denn nun wirklich?

Darüber solltest Du mal nachdenken : Berend

What’s the difference between Heaven and Hell?

Here is a little fun to brighten your Monday again :

What’s the difference between Heaven and Hell?

IN HEAVEN :

• The police are British
• The chefs are French
• The mechanics are German
• The lovers are Italian
• and it’s all organized by the Swiss!

IN HELL :

• The chefs are British
• The mechanics are French
• The police are German
• The lovers are Swiss
• and it’s all organized by the Italians!

Until next time, all the best from : Berend

Perspektive – Nach welcher Pfeife soll man tanzen?

“Die Tanzenden wurden für total verrückt gehalten – von denen, die die Musik nicht hören konnten.” Dieses Zitat von Angela Monet gefällt mir.

Das gleiche sagt Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) :

“Warum sollten wir uns so verzweifelt beeilen, erfolgreich zu sein, und in so dringenden Geschäften?

Wenn jemand nicht Schritt hält, dann hört er vielleicht eine andere Trommel. Lasst ihn doch im Takt mit der Musik bleiben, die er selbst hört – egal wie gemessen und fern sie sein mag.”

Es gibt nie nur eine einzige Perspektive von den Dingen, die wir sehen. Alleine wissen wir einfach nicht genug, um die gesamte Wahrheit zu erkennen.

Ich habe mir deshalb abgewöhnt, die Dinge, die um mich herum passieren, dauernd als ‘gut’ oder ’schlecht’ einzustufen. Meine eigene Sichtweise ist ja nur eine von vielen, und ich würde mit dieser Scheuklappe soviel Neues und Interessantes verpassen.

‘Leben und leben lassen’ ist für mich schon lange eine gute Devise, auch im Geschäft – vielleicht sollten wir Andere einfach öfter mal nur gelten lassen, während wir nach unserer eigenen Pfeife tanzen.

Willkommen beim ersten KOMPASS auf Deutsch heute. Die zunehmende Beliebtheit meines englischen COMPASS eNewsletters hat dazu geführt, daß ich immer mehr Anfragen erhielt, ob ich nicht auch etwas auf Deutsch schreiben könnte.

Besonders meine 5-teilige HORIZONS JOURNAL Serie hat viele Kommentare und eine Menge Anteilnahme an unserem Werdegang ausgelöst – sie beschreibt unseren Entschluß, nach fast 23 Jahren in Südafrika wieder nach Europa zu ziehen, und unsere Fortschritte auf dem Weg von Kapstadt nach Österreich. Irgendwann bald werde ich diese Serie wohl abschließen können.

Während mein englischer COMPASS betimmte Themen mehr in ausführlichen Artikeln betrachtet, wird der deutsche KOMPASS eher kurze Splitter enthalten – Überlegungen, die ich für relevant halte, um als Mensch und im Beruf zu wachsen.

Darum geht es mir : zu zeigen und daran zu erinnern, daß Wachstum immer passiert – ob wir uns dessen bewußt sind oder nicht, ob es uns gefällt oder nicht. Und daß zielgerichtetes Wachsen auf allen Gebieten zu erstaunlichen Ergebnissen führen kann – führen muss.

Neue Perspektiven unseres Daseins sind der Anfang und das Ende dieses Vogangs : Wachstum ist Menschsein für uns, Menschsein ist Wachstum.

Viel Spaß dabei und Frohe Pfingsten wünscht : Berend

Mark Shuttleworth : Cultural Choices We Make in Democracy Right Now

I stumbled across Mark Shuttleworth’s Blog on Sunday and his latest entry there impressed me SO much that I’d like to call your attention to it today.

I have often said that everyone gets the government he deserves, and Mark Shuttleworth confirms this when he speaks from my heart about making, and constantly remaking, cultural and political choices.

In Defense of Independent Governance comments on the value of three key principles across continents and decades :

• That human nature is unchanging across the world and across time
• That the presumption of innocence until the proof of guilt is a vital choice in the maintenance of a free society
• That freedom of speech is essential for a healthy society

Close to the end he concludes : “These principles are not written in the laws of physics – we create them in society, and we must defend them. They cannot be taken for granted, even in countries like the USA, which have them written into their constitutional DNA.

Since they are a choice that society makes, and since society is reborn in each generation, they are a choice that society must make, and remake, constantly. Sometimes, we fail.”

If you can, I’d like to urge you to read the whole article – it’ll only take you five minutes, but here is another excerpt (my emphasis underlined and bold) :

“It is a tragic thing to impose ones own cultural, religious or political views on people who see things differently. That tragedy has played out far too many times – from Apartheid, to the Holocaust, to the invasion of Iraq in recent history, to the acts of the Conquistadors centuries ago.

It shows up when a new government renames the streets and cities of the old government, which renamed them from the previous government. We lose our own identity when we lose the voice of history, even if it is a history of which we are ashamed.

It also shows up in the homogenization of global culture, with McDonalds and Disney turning the rich culture of the world into large swathes of barren desert. I am very sensitive to the beauty of the cultures that I’ve been privileged to experience in depth – South Africa, Russia, England, America. And I find it sad when one culture arrogantly suppresses another. I believe in letting people make their own choices. The future belongs to those who embrace global thinking without losing their identity and their culture.

At its largest, grandest level, “making choices” is what democracy is all about. However, sometimes the illusion of democracy is used to give legitimacy to choices that were not, at all, democratic.

In Zimbabwe, for example, we have a government that is in power “democratically” because of the systematic culture of fear that was created every time people expressed an interest in making a different choice. I cannot therefore pay much respect to the idea that the government of Zimbabwe is a true reflection of the cultural choices of Zimbabweans.

In such cases, we are obliged to question the decisions made by governments who claim to hold power by democratic mandate, when in fact they hold it by brute force.“

Until next time, all the best from : Berend

Official Language in Europe to Change : “Euro-English”

This is hilarious and will make your Monday – one of my loyal readers in Sydney sent this over the other day; read it out loud and you’ll laugh your head off :

Official Language in Europe to Change :
From German to English = “Euro-English”

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as “Euro-English”.

In the first year, “s” will replace the soft “c”. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard “c” will be dropped in favour of “k”. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome “ph” will be replaced with “f”. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent “e” in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing “th” with “z” and “w” with “v”.

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary “o” kan be dropd from vords kontaining “ou” and after ziz fifz yer, ve v! il hav a reil sensibl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl.

Ontil next tim, al ze best from : Berend

Have a little Laugh : Fun Vocabulary for the Office

Here’s a little laugh for you on a Monday morning : if you are working in an office and are not familiar with the following vocabulary, you are seriously out of touch.

I found it on business coach Philip Humbert’s eNewsletter TIPS a while ago, have fun :

BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager, who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.

SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.

MOUSE POTATO: The online, wired generation’s answer to the couch potato.

ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard

CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles.

PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people’s heads pop up over the walls to see what’s going on.

SITCOMs: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What Yuppies get into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids.

STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.

SWIPEOUT: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.

XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one’s workplace.

IRRITAINMENT: Entertainment and media spectacles that are annoying but you find yourself unable to stop watching them.

ADMINISPHERE: The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.

404: Someone who’s clueless. From the World Wide Web error Message “404 Not Found,” meaning that the requested site could not be located.

GENERICA: Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls, and subdivisions.

OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you’ve just made a BIG mistake. (Like after hitting send on an email by mistake).

WOOFS: Well-Off Older Folks.

Until next time, all the best from : Berend