As the week winds down, we wind down with some tidbits for your information, education, health, and enjoyment.
Quote of the Week: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.†Thomas Edison
Humor Break: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.â€Â W. C. Fields
Stat of the Week: 12 Guidelines for Deciding When to Persist, When to Quit. Today’s tips come from Rosabeth Moss Kanter, one of my favorite writers. She recently wrote an article about persistence. As usual, she has some niffy observations. One she calls Kanter’s Law: “Everything can look like a failure in the middle.” So should one quit after 3 tries (W.C. Fields) or continue for 10,000 alternatives (Thomas Edison)? Kanter offers 12 guidelines to answer Kenny Rodger’s famous card playing song: “You’ve got to know when to hold them, and know when to fold them.” Don’t give up prematurely, because the middle is always messy, but know there may come a time when quitting is prudent.
Action Tip: Her advice is good for our personal lives too. Ask yourself if there is something going on in your life where these guidelines might be helpful.
The Self-Development Corner: By now you may be thinking I have gone a little overboard with this free online university Coursera. You are correct. And I still have a long way to go extolling the praise of Online Learning 2.0 and beyond. But I will refrain from extolling and excitations today. I will let the New York Times do it for me. The NYT says “these massive open online courses, or MOOCs, harness the power of their huge enrollments to teach in new ways, applying crowd-sourcing technology to discussion forums and grading and enabling professors to use online lectures and reserve on-campus class time for interaction with students.â€Â Read all about it at College of Future Could Be Come One, Come All.
Bill Bradley
Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.
