July 29th, 2008 | Published in Life, Quotes, Writing
If you master the tools of the trade – the fundamentals of interviewing and of orderly construction – and if you bring to the assignment your general intelligence and your humanity, you can write about any subject. That’s your ticket to an interesting life.
—William Zinsser, On Writing Well, p. 250.
July 24th, 2008 | Published in Leadership, Life, Productivity, Quotes, Work
- Specialize in a very small niche; develop a core skill.
- Choose a niche that you enjoy, where you can excel and stand a chance of becoming an acknowledged leader.
- Realize that knowledge is power.
- Identify your market and your core customers and serve them best.
- Identify where 20 percent of effort gives 80 percent of returns.
- Learn from the best.
- Become self-employed early in your career.
- Employ as many net value creators as possible.
- Use outside contractors for everything but your core skill.
- Exploit capital leverage.
—Richard Koch, The 80/20 Principle: The Secret of Achieving More With Less (1998), p. 188
July 21st, 2008 | Published in Life, Links
Not sure what to do next weekend? Want to do something fun but free? Check out 100 Things to Do During a Money Free Weekend.
July 1st, 2008 | Published in Leadership, Life, Productivity, Quotes, Work
The key to earning more and working less is to pick the right thing to do and to do only those things that add the highest value.
—Richard Koch, The 80/20 Principle: The Secret of Achieving More With Less (1998), p. 188
June 16th, 2008 | Published in Finances, Life, Quotes, Religion
Jesus told us to be like the Good Samaritan, yet how many of you here today could afford to pay for a stranger’s hospital treatment and housing for a week? The Samaritan was able to help because he had the financial means to do so. Without it he could only have offered minor assistance.
—Kerry Heinz, as quoted in Richard Evans, The 5 Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me (2006), p. 3
June 12th, 2008 | Published in Life, Quotes
There are very few people who don’t become more interesting when they stop talking.
—Mary Lowry, as quoted in Guy Kawasaki, The Art of the Start (2004), p. 60.
June 10th, 2008 | Published in Leadership, Life, Productivity, Quotes, Work
It is often easier to make an enthusiasm into a career than to become enthusiastic about a career dictated by others.
—Richard Koch, The 80/20 Principle: The Secret of Achieving More With Less (1998), p. 167
June 6th, 2008 | Published in Leadership, Life, Quotes
If you can be sure of being right only 55 percent of the time, you can go down to Wall Street and make a million dollars a day. If you can’t be sure of being right even 55 percent of the time, why should you tell other people they are wrong?
—Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People (1981; orig 1936), p. 116.