First Blog

 In the cemetery of blunders and mistakes grows the garden of all our knowledge. LEARNING IN LIFE.  Do you want to learn?  Do you want to achieve?  Do you want to know?  Go to school, say the educators. Sometimes schools feed information and learning; sometimes schools teach how to learn. The how is what you need, and these are the most important ways to learn.         First, we learn from reading books or being taught in the classroom. We learn by solving given problems. Practice and repetition, this is the role and scope of all school teaching. Occasionally, inspiration occurs.           Second, we learn from examples and experience. Seeing many examples, some working and some not, and knowing why helps. These build our knowledge and intuition of reality.  Knowledge is a pathway to solving problems, while intuition provides a pathway to innovation.  More simply, we learn by doing.   Attending the school of hard knocks  is an expression of

Dreams are the first steps of achievement.  Dreams are the basis of exceptionalism. You must dream it can happen even before you can begin to make it so. Dream for success.  It's not guaranteed, but without the dreams it will not happen.

You want to learn?  You want to achieve?  You want to know?  Go to school, say the educators. Sometimes schools feed information and learning; sometimes schools teach how to learn. The how is what you need, and these are most important ways to learn.         First, we learn from reading books or being taught in the classroom. We learn by solving given problems. Practice and repetition, this is the role and scope of all school teaching. Occasionally, inspiration occurs.           Second we learn from examples and experience. Seeing many examples, some working and some not, and knowing why helps. These build our knowledge and intuition of reality.  Knowledge is a pathway to solving problems, while intuition provides a pathway to innovation.  More simply, we learn by doing.  Attending the school of hard knocks is an expression of this.         Third, we learn from mistakes*.  Make no mistake about it; this is a key way we learn.  How many times have you and I learned this or that of

Have you heard the story about a young ballplayer?   He was quite good, quick, powerful, with a good eye, but made many, many mistakes in his game.   For some time an older gentleman watched this young man play.   After a couple of weeks, on a bright sunny day, the old man walked up to the younger man and whispered in his ear for a few minutes something no one else could hear.    Afterward, in the weeks and years following, the young man became a truly exceptional ballplayer, making few mistakes, hitting well, and often executing brilliant plays.   He went on to be a professional of great fame (and fortune).   Often this story was recounted in the press, and often he was asked just what the old guy had said.   All the ballplayer would ever say was, “I don’t quite remember. It happened so fast. I got excited, and just wanted to play and play.” So, the riddle is this: “What could the old man have said in just a few minutes that could affect a lifetime?” Answer to come..

In a recent interview with billionaire Mark Cuban, worth $4.1B, and self-made, “When I started in business, fear motivated me." In fact, all of us who have strived for something beyond experience this same fear.   We enter a world of uncertainty, which means we have made a bet on ourselves with little expectation but a lot of hope for a great outcome. We live in this fear, but we have a plan.    Not all survive. Some survive within measures in the interval.   Indicated (not said) by Cuban, “Fear is a tool if you can endure it. Difficult for many.”   To put fear in your service takes courage.   We have lots of expressions for such drives.   “Shooting the moon,” is one of them.   But this is a quality of our humanity.   Not just war, food, love, reproduction, money, and all, the big one is the quest . Are you   up to the challenge?   Maybe you want to be; maybe you’re afraid. Many try. Many succeed. Many fail.   P.S. Did you know he owns $1.0B in Amazon stock

Today’s word is passion : as emotion, an intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction. Notes : If you listen to business shows and the entrepreneurs they interview, you will note one characteristic they all have about their businesses and what they view makes them successful.  Passion.  They always had passion. Passion compels its holder to work harder, work smarter, and work longer. It gives a sense of mission, of caring, and of importance. It makes the labor easier, hours shorter, and satisfaction greater.  Passion is an important component of all success. Do you have passion for what you do?  If no, then consider a switch. Does passion create success, or does success engender passion?  Maybe a little of both. History shows passion is a quality that perseveres without success.  Yet, a little success surely helps your passion IQ.  On the other hand, success without passion is less certain. Get passion. 

A. Often the best assessment of your value comes from outside your personal sandbox. -----------  B. Quitting the here for a better there is the time-tested method for improvement. Loyalty sometimes interferes. But quitting altogether is a losing strategy.

Success involving good luck comes in equal measure to failure involving bad luck.  Sounds true, but is  it really? He had the wisdom of experience, not of intelligence.   Sounds true, but can it be really? Which is the more powerful motivator.:   Ambition or Politics? Politics or Power? Reward or Position? Action or Reticence? Beliefs or Money? Money or Power? Fame or Power? Answer.  Yes to all of them.  This is what make us so complex.  There is no simple order of priority. Mathematically, we not not ordered or even partially ordered.  Our motivations are not at all ordered much beyond ordering life or death. Even that has issues. To govern by regulations is just another form of dictatorship. 

Ways we learn. You want to learn?  You want to achieve?  You want to know?  Go to school, say the educators.  But there are other important ways to learn.        First, we learn from reading books or being taught in the classroom. We learn by solving given problems. Practice and repetition, this is the role and scope of all school teaching. Occasionally, inspiration occurs.           Second we learn from examples and experience. Seeing many examples, some working and some not, and knowing why helps. These build our knowledge and intuition of reality.  Knowledge is a pathway to solving problems, while intuition provides a pathway to innovation.  More simply, we learn by doing.  Attending the school of hard knocks is an expression of this.         Third, we learn from mistakes*.  Make no mistake about it; this is a key way we learn.  How many times have you and I learned this or that of what *not* to do, or what doesn’t work.  However, this is the latest in actual academic re

Bill de Blasio . It used to be that college students would imitate adults.  Wearing suits and elegant attire, they would act as mature as they could. Nowadays, it is the reverse.  Adults are imitating college students, supporting all manner of youthful positions, mostly extreme uncompromising views – the typical fair of sophomores.  Case-in-point.  With NY City in grief over the loss of a police officer to assassination, the mayor jets off to Europe to hang with a bunch of protesters with seeming goal simply to protest. The man seems to be singularly immature, usually a recoverable illness, but not in his case. --------------------- Presidents . Clinton was bogged down a lot by personal issues. Bush was bogged down by wars in the Middle East. Obama was bogged down by trying to remake the US and the world into a globally unified enterprise.   The question is: Who’s taking care of our country?  This includes the bridges and roadways, the waterways and schools, the power plan

The Latest on Study, Sleep, Sickness and Success   The recent wisdom on learning using technology tells us that we should all get with it, get laptops, get tablets, learn more and better.     We are just an iPAD from true success - some educators would have us believe.   But this is now disproven.   It just doesn’t happen.   Your grandmother could have told you to get plenty of rest, particularly when you are sick.   Grandma’s folk-wisdom/folk- medicine is now confirmed!   Finally, when you tell your students to study hard for the big exam, and that their success and even future depend on it.   Just a little scare to get them motivated to hit the books, you think.    Indeed, don’t depend on the veracity of your good advice.   It’s just plain wrong! ·          SLEEP AWAY YOUR ILLS .   A good night's sleep really CAN make you feel better: Researchers say long naps can boost immune system and help fight infection – if you are a fruit fly anyway.   Two researchers, led by Ju