Anyone can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend’s success.  — Oscar Wilde

It seems all to rare these days to find people who are genuinely happy for other people’s success.  If you were on a quest to find even an elementary age child free from the language and spirit of envy programmed into them by parents, media and society - I fear it would be a far too lengthy journey. 

To hear from the mouth of an uncoached teenager a natural and genuine exclamation of delight for the success of another is rare enough in today’s society to qualify it as a rare gem.  To combat this societal deficit we adults must lead out – our examples must not be so hard to see, our words so hard to hear.  Envy is such an unattractive thing… Grateful I am for friends who genuinely treasure my successes, some seemingly even more than I do.  They are rare…they are treasured.

Gratefully Yours - Kirk

I disagree with at least one of these… at least in part.  I think there are words more appropriate than “forced” ….words like “inspired” or ”choosing”.  Maybe it’s just semantics…but I don’t think so.  Either way, I’m going trick or treating tonight.

Happy Halloween! 

“It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him.” John Steinbeck (1902 - 1968), American Novelist

“To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.” Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894), Scottish novelist

“Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle never know.”  Charles Kingsley (1819 - 1875), English Novelist and Clergyman

“If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.”  ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be.” Abraham Maslow (1908 - 1970), American Psychologist

Accurate analysis of over 25,000 men and women who had experienced failure, disclosed the fact that lack of decision was near the head of the list of the 30 major causes of failure. This is no mere statement of a theory - it is a fact.

Procrastination, the opposite of decision, is a common enemy which practically every man must conquer.

You will have an opportunity to test your capacity to reach quick and definite decisions when you finish reading this lesson, and are ready to begin putting into action the principles which it describes.

Analysis of several hundred people who had accumulated fortunes well beyond the million dollar mark, disclosed the fact that every one of them had the habit of reaching decisions promptly, and of changing these decisions slowly, if, and when they were changed. People who fail to accumulate money, without exception, have the habit of reaching decisions, if at all, very slowly, and of changing these decisions quickly and often.

The majority of people who fail to accumulate money sufficient for their needs, are, generally, easily influenced by the “opinions” of others. They permit the newspapers and the “gossiping” neighbors to do their “thinking” for them. “Opinions” are the cheapest commodities on earth. Everyone has a flock of opinions ready to be wished upon anyone who will accept them. If you are influenced by “opinions” when you reach decisions, you will not succeed in any undertaking, much less in that of transmuting your own desire into money.

If you are influenced by the opinions of others, you will have no desire of your own.

Napoleon Hill
From Think and Grow Rich

The remarkable thing we have is a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. — Charles Swindoll

So let’s play our one string and play it well….. Heck, let’s play it loud, play it clear and play a happy catchy tune.  Today - Today I am going to be extra happy, so happy in fact that people will suspect that I am either on something or up to something!!  I invite you to do the same. 

 Kirk Out

Thanks to “Trez” in Maryland for sending us this great Drucker quote.

Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. A product is not quality because it is hard to make and costs a lot of money, as manufacturers typically believe. This is incompetence. Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value. Nothing else constitutes quality. Peter Drucker  American (Austrian-born) management writer (1909 - 2005)

Many of the things you can count, don’t count.  Many of the things you can’t count, really count.   ~ Albert Einstein

 At least one thing that counts is you and I and the spirit of contribution to the world.  It’s the “why” or the intent behind everything that we do.  We must not let the weakness of our nature overcome possibilities of our potential.  We must keep ourselves in a state of growth and of “becoming”.   Let serving and lifting others be a significant part of the genuine intent that is behind all the things that we do.  Then those things that we do, may count for much much more.   ~  Kirk Weisler 

Today is your day - Make It Count!

I like the quotes below from Lao Tse and Ralph Nader.  To me they imply that effective leadership can be nearly invisible especially as it involves and inspires more participation and the accompanying requisite growth of all those connected to the desired outcome.

When the effective leader is finished with his work, the people say it happened naturally.
- Lao Tse

I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers - Ralph Nader

 Kirk Out

Leadership consists not in degrees of technique but in traits of character; it requires moral rather than athletic or intellectual effort, and it imposes on both leader and follower alike the burdens of self-restraint.  ~ - Lewis H. Lapham

Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with the important matters. ~ - Albert Einstein

Kirk Out

I thought for a little something different today I would try to find a top ranked qoute from a movie.  I came across this Top 10 list.  It’s pretty good…. and I totally agree with at least the first one.  :)  My other favorites from this batch are 2, 3, 5, and 8.

‘Top Ten’ Favorite Movie Quote List

Favorite Movie Quote #1

Smile, it enhances your face value. Truvy (Dolly Parton) in ‘Steel Magnolias’

Favorite Movie Quote #2

Stand up wherever you are, go to the nearest window and yell as loud as you can, ‘I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.’ Howard Beale (Peter Finch) in ‘Network’

Favorite Movie Quote #3

We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. Professor Keating (Robin Williams) in ‘Dead Poet’s Society’

Favorite Movie Quote #4

Colonel Jessep (Jack Nicholson): You want answers?Kaffee (Tom Cruise): I want the truth.Jessep: You can’t handle the truth. ‘A Few Good Men’

Favorite Movie Quote #5

How to deal with death is at least as important as how to deal with life. Admiral Kirk (William Shatner) in ‘Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan’

Favorite Movie Quote #6

Eve (Anne Baxter): I’m afraid Mr. DeWitt would find me boring before too long.Miss Caswell (Marilyn Monroe): You won’t bore him, honey. You won’t even get a chance to talk. ‘All About Eve’

Favorite Movie Quote #7

Michael Corleone (Al Pacino): My father is no different than any powerful man, any man with power, like a President or senator. Kay Adams (Diane Keaton): Do you know how naive you sound, Michael? Presidents and senators don’t have men killed.Michael Corleone: Oh. Who’s being naive, Kay? ‘The Godfather’

Favorite Movie Quote #8

You don’t have the sense God gave a donut, do you? Newspaperman Jack Buggit (Scott Glenn) to Quoyle (Kevin Spacey) in ‘The Shipping News’

Favorite Movie Quote #9

Scarlett (Vivien Leigh): Sir, you are no gentleman.Rhett (Clark Gable): And you Miss, are no lady. Don’t think that I hold that against you. Ladies have never held any charm for me. ‘Gone With The Wind’

Favorite Movie Quote #10

In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns. Fabrizio (Angelo Infanti) in ‘The Godfather’

So my favorites(1,2, 3, 5, and in summary might sound like - “To enhance your value and learn how to better deal with life -Smile out the window while you poetically yell for a smarter donuts.”  How would you summarize your favotites on this list?

“I have yet to find a man, however exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than under a spirit of criticism.”
- Charles Schwab

I am Chief Morale Officer Kirk Weisler and I while I am NOT running for president of United States and I still approved this message!