Game over

Definitely, the game is over

We both are back

I am not a resource

August is over. Vacation time is over as well. It's time to go back to work, at least for me. I'm trying to find out what is the post-vacation syndrome and how to cope with it. I'm affraid I have no choice but deal with it.

Why employees are called (human) resources?

It’s OK with energy resources. It’s OK with financial resources as well. It’s OK even with natural resources.

But man... we are not resources, we are human. So why we call ourselves human resources?

I do share opinion with Ron Lubensky and Rol Fessenden.

Have you read Unshrink? I've found the following text here, and says:

The theme of the book is basically that most people of today are shaped into a misform - or shrunken! - by our surrounding working civilization: We define ourselves in terms of what we do or how much we earn and in what way we weight certain job-situations above others. In that way we are shrunken, because if we are merely workers then we are like ants - small and without own goals. We must therefor unshrink ourselves, be people.
One of the authors wrote "Because we are not resources" in his dedication to me and that easily summarize the viewpoint of the whole book. I will agree to that statement and also to the book thesis - if we really define ourselves only in terms of our present job, then we really has a problem.

While I do sympathize with the book I have some regrets about its form. The book is published in UK but the style is directed towards american readers, especially the first chapter. That is really terrible written, I must say! The style can be found in about hundreds of self-proclaimed "heal-yourself" guru-books poured out from the USA and they have all the same "we-know-better" way of talking. I have found the same attitude in New Way religious pamphlets and I loathe that style! To demonstrate what I mean, I have just picket at random the following sentences: "There is more to you than you know. More to me than I know. Isn't that exciting?..." - That is badly written: "Isn't that exciting?" The answer could easily be a sarcastic NO IT ISN'T !

Another irritating thing is the insertion on almost every second page of a catch-phrase written in bold typeset and with a bigger font, phrases like the one here: "BUT MOST MANAGERS BELIEVE THAT THEY ARE SUCCEEDING." These phrases can be used if the authors are adressing the audience in a oral way - you can SHOUT the phrases to the people LISTEN TO THAT. They are directions to the speaker, but they do no good to the book.

What is good are the table-like constructions (suggestions for considderations) and the very good notes at the end of the book. And after we have tolerated the first pages of religious sounding sentences then the book actually unshrinks itselfs and become quite good and thought-provoking. My own thoughts was directed towards Alvin Toffler's "The Third Wave" - the Unshrink book is a Read.Me-book or entry level manual for us who want to catch the wave. I am sure that many would benefit from reading the book.

Opening doors in life

Do you remember these advices?

Besides, I already talked you about the 2 success rules, but I'm gonna try to be a little more specific today.

There are 2 words that will open you a lot of doors in life. Wanna know them?

Push and pull. What did you expect?

Hoping you people have a good sense of humor...

Awareness test

The perfect swing

Have you ever played golf?

They say it's quite addictive... I don't know at the moment.

If you wanna know how to perform the perfect golf swing, it is explained here:

The customer is always right

Have you ever heard the expression "the customer's always right"?

Randy Pausch

This post is dedicated to those fighting against cancer. Seeing this man give his last lecture made a deep impression on me.



It takes more than an hour to see it all. Maybe you'd rather see an abridged version right here.

He's still alive. Here you can read his medical and day-to-day news.

Restaurants cannot feed the obese

J. Justin Wilson from the Center for Consumer Freedom asks for a brake and launches a question: Is the food that we eat the Government business?

Food Police in Mississippi from now on?

Don't miss this video:

It's official

It is. Bill Gates left Microsoft, with an extraordinary sense of humor.

Hilarious:

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

The 2 success rules

1- Never say everything you know.

Good advices

Maybe these are, but please don't miss this video. I think this is the best video I've ever seen on the Internet.

Goog advices for a lifetime.

Turn your speakers on and enjoy (subtitles in spanish):

Teamwork

Do you know what teamwork is?

Just have a look:

Record with controversy

Last summer, Barry Bonds got the home run’ record: 756!!!
He got the last one against Washington Nationals, playing at home.

Hank Aaron is not number one anymore, Mr. Bonds has taken his place.

He’s the new baseball hero. His crown is beyond doubt. But… what happens with his honesty?

In spite of his new record, I’m afraid steroids have tarnished his whole career, staining his name. Apart from the exception of San Francisco Giants’ supporters, he’s used to hear a murmur of disapproval when playing on the road.

Even no congratulations from the White House… suspicious. Of course, Tony Snow tried to dissociate the absence of congratulations from this reason.

Straight to the point

The following text is a write-up I found last week when trying to find out which is the best management book written ever. Obviously this is not one of the candidates:

"It is strange how so many businesspeople I meet tend to be right-wing, anti-communist and great believers in personal freedom, yet run their businesses like Stalin's Russia. Workers are motivated by a mixture of fear and ambition and any individual opinion taht deviates from the party line is seen as a threat.

I'm a manager. All I ask of my staff is that they're honest, work hard and treat everyone with respect. That's it. For my part I give them a clear idea of what I expect and make sure that they have the tools to do their job and receive recognition of their achievements. What I don't do is mess with their heads.

This book is symptomatic of trend in management culture where it is not enough to ask people to do their jobs well; we now have to re-engineer their souls. The aim of this book is to motivate staff with "fun" activities in staff training sessions, but the reality is intrusive and patronising. One game invites workers to mention a childhood achievement that they were particulary proud of and then get other members of the team to discuss it. Well, I believe in personal freedom and a part of that is not feeling obliged to talk about personal things in a work setting.

Chairman Mao had his "Cultural Revolution" and this smacks of the same attitude. It's not enough for people to do as they're told, they now have to have the right attitude and if they're not willing to be team players, they're out. It's like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers".

Buy this book to find out how emotionally dysfunctional people struggle to motivate teams and get it horribly wrong."

For me, the most striking feature of this review is its spontaneity. I mean, lots of people use to participate and discuss about books, but this one gets straight to the point.

Who are you?

It seems easy right?
So are you really able to tell me who you are?

This is an Anger Management dialogue:

- "Who are you?"
- "Well, I am an executive assistant at a major pet products company..."
- "I don't want you to tell us what you do. I want you to tell us who you are."
- "All right... I'm a pretty good guy. I like playing tennis on occasion..."
- "Also, not your hobbies, Dave. Just simple: tell us who you are."

I'm sure you haven't asked yourself this question... have you? You should.

Let's try it out. Are you...

... a man/woman?
... a son/daughter?
... a father/mother?
... a boss?
... optimistic?
... pessimistic?
... realistic?
... religious?
... sporty?
... extrovert?
... happy?

So I do know now what you do and your hobbies as well, but I still don't know who you are. So far I'm affraid you haven't answered enough to cover the question.

Unfinished business to settle

PGA Championship, the last Major of the season, commences today. It lasts until Saturday, and takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in Southern Hills Country Club to be precise.

Tiger Woods is obviously the focus of attention, because he’s the current champion, and he also won 1999 and 2000 series.

Is bad luck over him? I mean, he came within an inch of winning Masters and US Open, but he finally lost.

In case of losing again, it will be a blank season… That’s indeed pressure!

The power of Sport

You may be surprised after reading my first post, especially when reading that sport can drive the world…

Are you? If so, please watch the movie “Remember the Titans” and you’ll understand me. Superb! It’s worth it.

Changes only happen when someone dares to defy the status quo. Somehow, Herman Boone and Bill Yoast knew it and they both were able to improve the world by doing what they did the best: sport.

There’re no important changes without pain, that’s the harsh reality of the matter.

Here you have a couple of samples:





And of course don't miss this motivation speech...terrific!:

Business leaders

The most influential business leaders of the past 25 years are, as ranked by USA TODAY:

1) Bill Gates, Microsoft

2) Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve chairman

3) Steve Jobs, Apple

4) Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google founders

5) Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airlines

6) Andy Grove, Intel

7) Jack Welch, General Electric

8) Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway

9) Charles Schwab, investments

10) Michael Milken, junk bonds

11) Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com

12) Rupert Murdoch, News Corp.

13) Frederick Smith, FedEx

14) Phil Knight, Nike

15) Ken Lay, Enron

16) Oprah Winfrey, Harpo

17) Michael Dell, Dell

18) Meg Whitman, eBay

19) Howard Schultz, Starbucks

20) Edward C. “Ned” Johnson 3d, Fidelity Investments

21) Martha Stewart, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia

22) John Bogle, The Vanguard Group

23) Robert Johnson, BET

24) Barry Diller, Expedia, IAC

25) Steve Case, AOL