When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going*

The rules of the game are changing. When else would be this *Robin Sharma´s quote more true than today when further economical development is uncertain and effects of crisis become even more visible. Managers at all levels lose jobs and those who keep them are playing it safe, being afraid of joining their ex-colleagues. Will they all be able to regain back their self-confidence and happiness?

New conditions require new skills and approaches. Turbulent times create new stars or send defeated individuals into apathy. Stormy days either elevate leadership skills of each individual and show hidden talents, or they may reveal weaknesses of those who are not strong enough to fight their fears of unknown or of those who are not able to adapt and find fresh opportunities offered by the new changed situation.

As Robin Sharma in his book The Leader Who Had No Title well said: “Things need to fall apart before they can be rebuilt. …You can´t reach a place of breakthrough without going through a period of breakdown. Being out in the wilderness of the unknown brings up our limiting beliefs and our greatest fears. You bump up against your insecurities. You meet face-to-face with your self-doubt. Anytime you are moving nearer to growth and embracing deep change, your fears will surface. Your old foundations and traditional structures need to fall apart so better ones can be constructed. Out of confusion always comes clarity. From chaos always flows order. 

“It´s amazing how far you can get when you decide that you simply will not give up – that failure is not an option….Obstacles just show up to measure how badly you want something. Setbacks are nothing more than tests to see if you are ready for the rewards that are available to you. Most people give up as soon as they see a wall.” 

Positive thinking, creating a new vision for own fulfilling life, accepting stepping up a new learning journey as well as persistency and patience are a must on the way forward.  

Uncomfortable conditions wake many leaders up to unleash the greatness within self. When they defeat their fear to go through the tough times, they become stronger. When they go to their limits, their limits expand. When they get ready to thrive in discomfort, they set themselves on the path of being ready to step up.
  
"Leadership really is about closing your ears to the noisy voices of others so you can more clearly hear the mission and call within yourself. It´s about feeling really safe in your own skin and learning to trust yourself so that you work under your values, express your original voice and be the best you can be. It´s about knowing who you are, what you stand for and then having the courage to be yourself – in every situation rather than only when it´s convenient.“ Robin Sharma

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” Neale Donald Walsch 

“We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world.” Helen Keller

.

Where Are The Next Power Women?

Everybody agrees to the logic of broadly pronounced claim that “Only Companies who have the best talent win”. However, in reality only very rarely a woman is upweighted alongside with her promoted male boss. Only very rarely a woman succeeds another woman into the board rooms of the corporate world. Does that imply scarcity of talent among women? Definitely not.

In the present knowledge economy that struggles with waves of economical crisis open discussion about women in leadership is relevant more than ever before. As the job market shrinks - we see downwards trend in Central Europe in No. of executive women in the top positions - women are perceived as highly risky to hire.

A woman is by nature different – being more creative, more people involving, more interested in results rather than in hierarchies. Women in high positions are – thanks to their small No. – still much more visible and exposed in media. An unintentional shining media star may put the other folks in the shadow and change the senior management team “club rules” that is seldom desired.

The male bosses would have to enter new waters and put their own reputation at stake in front of their male pals that is rather rare. It has a lot to do with corporate cultures that have as a norm masculine leadership styles and non-inclusive informal networks of men who support each other especially during the crisis times.

And women themselves too often do not help to solve the issue. Women are mistakenly assuming that they can make it through the hard work alone and not through networking and the social side of the corporate ladder. They do not realize that their more direct leadership style limits their putting up with the corporate agenda. Or they give up the battle too soon, accepting the “glass ceiling” status quo that can be as well a result of not having enough confidence while not seeing enough role models around. Or finally they do not see the value in combining forces, mentoring and helping each other up.

There are already few women role models who have made it to the top themselves and since then they are trying to push also other women up– like Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook or Arianna Huffington from The Huffington Post. Their initiatives (e.g. building women circles or opening new channel for Women in Tech) give courage to other women to make it happen as well.

It certainly does not mean that every woman leader has the desire to jump at the top or has the skills and capabilities to succeed there, however once we accept as a society, that women have a tougher time as they move through the higher ranks than they do at the more junior levels, there will have to be a discussion about what we ALL are ready to do about it. How can each of us make a difference - having in mind that natural evolution of the mankind toward greatness and balance is far better than emposed quotes from the EU Commission.

Should the initial question be rather rephrased into: „Where are the male leaders with guts to hire the next power female executives?

***
The unique value women bring to leadership positions,  bullet point list from Magus Consulting

• “…. Companies with three or more women in senior management functions score more highly on average (on nine dimensions of company excellence). It is notable that performance increases significantly once a certain critical mass is attained, namely, at least three women on management committees for an average membership of 10 people. “  (Women Matter, McKinsey 2007)
• “Fortune 500 companies with the highest representation of women board directors attained significantly higher financial performance, on average, than those with the lowest representation of women board directors.” (Catalyst, October 2007)
• “A selected group of companies with a high representation of diverse board seats (especially gender diversity) exceeded the average returns of the Dow Jones and NASDAQ Indices over a 5 year period.” (Virtcom Consulting)
• “An extensive 19-year study of 215 Fortune 500 firms shows a strong correlation between a strong record of promoting women into the executive suite and high profitability. Three measures of profitability were used to demonstrate that the 25 Fortune 500 firms with the best record of promoting women to high positions are between 18 and 69 percent more profitable than the median Fortune 500 firms in their industries.” (European Project on Equal Pay and summarized by researcher Dr. Roy Adler  in Miller McCune).

Note:  The EU commission has ambitious objective to increase women's presence on corporate boards to 30% by 2015 and to 40% by 2020, up from 12%. The EU Employment and Social Policy Council urged national-level action by 2020 to  "promote the equal participation of women and men in decision-making at all levels and in all fields ."  From the eyes of the year 2011 the goal seems unrealistic to achieve….

2011 World´s Most Powerful Women According To Forbes 

More On How Sheryl Sandberg Helps Other Women Up 

Why Women Have Barriers To Help Each Other Up? 

.

Social Media Flops Of Respected Companies

Many people claim to be the real experts on social media. Many people struggle to understand there is more than just “cool” conversation with fans and followers on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other sites, especially when shared on behalf of a company.

Although each social media site has its own culture, language and communication style, all have one thing in common. There are ethics to be preserved. Otherwise negative coverage explodes like a time bomb.

Take the recent case of Microsoft, building up on Amy Winehouse sudden death, trying to exploit mourning of twitter community for its own commercial benefit:@tweetbox360 Microsoft UK PR : Remember Amy Winehouse by downloading the ground-breaking ‘Back to Black’ over at Zune: social.zune.net/album/Amy-Wine… 25 Jul via web. A lot of people found this initiative insensitive and Microsoft had to change the tone: "Apologies to everyone if our earlier Amy Winehouse 'download' tweet seemed purely commercially motivated. Far from the case, we assure you." Following later with a compassionate tweet: "With Amy W's passing, the world has lost a huge talent. Our thoughts are with Amy's family and friends at this very sad time." 

Microsoft is not the only Company facing a debacle within its on-line (mainly Twitter) community, in that case due to underestimating community distaste for commercial usage of a celebrity’s misfortune. Some flops are built up incidentally, other time fiasco is a result of purposely issued tweet aiming to test the communication boundaries while getting the media coverage at any costs.

A blunder was most probably a reason for crisis communication of Chrysler Autos this March, after an employee from the hired New Media Strategies agency has mistaken her account for the one she was managing on behalf of @ChryslerAutos and issued following tweet: “I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to f#king drive.” Chrysler immediately after apologized for having their brand compromised and took steps to resolve the issue.

Another case was the one of Kenneth Cole, an American fashion designer, who tried early this year to use the upheaval in Egypt (#Cairo) to promote his own spring collection on Twitter. Luckily for him, the whole event faded while the huge initial negative feedback was replaced not just by instant apology of Kenneth Cole himself, but mainly because Twitter geeks started to joke under #KennethColeTweets about this brand: „People from New Orleans are flooding into Kenneth Cole stores!“ or „People of Australia: Water up to your ankles? We´ve got your Kenneth Cole Capri right here!“. Community sentiment changed from asking people to #unfollow the brand towards growing No. of Kenneth Cole followers laughing about the whole thing. 

Humor have already saved attractiveness of many brands, but one cannot count on it in crisis management. Much more appropriate is to stay authentic and real, truly tuned in the community mood. With system for effective monitoring of social media discussions 24/7 as well as with ready strategies and plans for immediate response to unintentional flops each Company can hope that the issue will fade away as the on-line community will move on to the next big thing.

. 
 Progressive CEO Changes Crisis Into Opportunity

When CEO Himself Tweets For His Company, Issue Turns Into Opportunity

When the news about tweeting CEO Pieter Uys on behalf of Vodacom - the South Africa´s largest cellphone Company - spread out on Twitter early July, I was happy there is the first CEO herald, who takes social media opportunities seriously.

Pieter has not just installed internal effective monitoring systems to track the Company´s reputation on 24/7 scale. When he got alert about connectivity issues being discussed on Twitter and Facebook, he immediately took the time to personally respond to subscribers of Vodacom, who experienced the service downtime. To an angry customer tweet:  "@Vodacom are you ignoring my last tweet. If we don't pay you chop us. If you don't provide service we don't pay! @uyspj",  Pieter Uys himself wrote back: "@marknel1. Hi Mark. I am not ignoring you. Working on making you smile again :-)". And later that night, Pieter continued to keep his customers aware, he is there for them to solve the issues: “Words can’t express how sorry I am about today’s problem. Flat out working at making sure all is 100%. Pieter.” He shared updates until the problems were solved.

Instead of probable consequent negative press coverage and a stream of customers leaving to competition, Uys not just attracted positive international attention, he won the respect of the hard to persuade tweeting community: “The fact that you are still working at 11pm speaks volumes Pieter -- as does your apology. Bravo,” Chris Moerdyk.

Customers were astonished, that a CEO himself took the time to speak with them. They got reassurance that the problems are temporary and being solved with high priority, as the CEO himself puts his credit into the game. And because Pieter Uys listened and cared enough, because his tweets were authentic and with clear intentions, he was able to switch opinions.

As Vodacom case shows, nowadays there is a huge benefit when a CEO acts as the public face of the company to both the customer community as well as the marketplace as a whole, when he shifts the emphasis from a broadcast and self-centered mentality to one of listening and serving the community.

Vodacom´s CEO clearly understood, that social conversations nowadays have turned the tables. Customers are more and more empowered to publish their thoughts, there is no way to stop or control them. Brands and companies are no longer expected to be perfect, quite the opposite. And the ones that continue to repeat the good old message of "You - customer- are lucky we exist. We are perfect. It is you that is not" are definitely heading to face a big surprise.

Reputation is not just something to "protect".  Reputation is something to be built - every day, each moment, every single step. Social media offer a great opportunity to enhance it for brands and companies, especially if they are led by brave and progressive CEOs.


.

Google Made Her Rich, Facebook Made Her A Legend

Some people become famous for what they say. The outstanding ones make their quotes reality. Like Sheryl Sandberg. Woman, who has made it last year to #16 place of 50 Most Powerful Women in Business in the world selected by Fortune magazine and this year jumped to #5 place of 100 Most Powerful Women in the World by Forbes (#2 in Business).

In 2007, Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook, felt a desperate need to turn Facebook from a “cool” social network to a real profitable business. Sheryl Sandberg, Google’s thirty-eight-year-old vice-president for global on-line sales and operations, was recommended to him as a potential partner. They started to talk at a Christmas party, they continued their discussions at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January. The deal was done and Sheryl Sandberg became the first COO of Facebook in March 2008. She started to write a history of a legend for herself.

Influenced By Her Mentor´s Career

Sandberg has benefited from sponsor Lawrence Summers, who was very powerful. First he was her thesis adviser at Harvard Business School. Later when Summers became the chief economist at the World Bank he recruited her as a research assistant. Finally when Lawrence advanced to Treasury Secretary, in 1999, Sandberg became, at twenty-nine, his chief of staff. After the Democrats lost the 2000 election, she decided to move to Silicon Valley to join the technology boom. Sandberg is still very grateful for his support, for encouraging her and helping her to develop: “Nobody can succeed on their own,” she believes.
                                                                                                

Risk Taking Business Builder

Sandberg has joined Google even when she knew that they didn’t have a business plan. It was a private company, barely three years old, with no steady revenue stream. Her title was business-unit general manager, even though there was no business unit. At the time, Google had four people working on AdWords, a program for selling the small text ads that appear next to related search results. Sandberg volunteered to oversee sales and operations for the project. Before long, AdWords was making money. Soon, Sandberg was working on AdSense, which placed advertisements on external Web sites, with Google taking a slice of the revenues.And finally she got the AOL deal running. She was tough and fearless.

Profit Driven
Her biggest worry was financial. “There was this open question: Could we make money, ever?” The engineers in Facebook were primarily interested in building a really cool site; profits, they assumed, would follow. Thanks to Sheryl, by 2010, a company that was bleeding cash, when she arrived, had become profitable. Within three years, Facebook grew from a hundred and thirty employees to twenty-five hundred, and from seventy million worldwide users to nearly seven hundred million.

Hands-on, Attention To Detail

 “Sheryl always believed that if there were thirty things on her to-do list at the beginning of the day, there would be thirty check marks at the end of the day,” Summers says. Zuckerberg says he’s grateful that Sandberg “handles things I don’t want to.”

Listening, Approachable And Collaborative

Sandberg began to work at Facebook asking questions and listening. “She walked up to hundreds of people’s desks and interrupted them and said, ‘Hi, I’m Sheryl Sandberg,’ ” recalls Chris Cox, the vice-president of product. She goes around the room and asks people, ‘What do you think?’ ” She welcomes debate.
                                                                                      

Being Close To Employees
The people who are her friends at work are her friends outside work. With Sheryl, everything is personal. There isn’t a separation with this thing she does at work and everything else. Sandberg says: “I believe in bringing your whole self to work. We are who we are. When you try to have this division between your personal self and your professional self, what you really are is stiff. . . . That doesn’t mean people have to tell me everything about their personal lives. But I’m pretty sharing of mine.” Being open with your employees, she believes, means that nothing is a surprise to them—even if you fire them.


Helping People Advance

 “A key part of what Sheryl does in her life is helping people advance, to be seen and to be heard,” David Fischer, who was her deputy at Treasury, and has worked for her at Google and now at Facebook, says.

Supporting Other Women In Their Career

Early this spring, Sandberg gathered twelve female Facebook executives for the company’s Women’s Leadership Day. Each of them was expected to lead sessions encouraging all the female executives there to step up “into leadership” roles. Sandberg believes that women need the equivalent of “the old-boys network.” That is why Sheryl is putting together a new-girls network inside Silicon Valley. She invites to her home each month rotating cast of two hundred women for a buffet dinner and to listen to and question guests, who have included e.g. Microsoft C.E.O. Steve Ballmer, the educator Geoffrey Canada, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Being Always Honest

“She builds trust because she’s honest,” Cox says. “People can be intimidated by Mark. Sheryl just cuts right through that.” Summers sees it similarly and appreciates her boldness: “If I was making a mistake, she told me. She was totally loyal, but totally in my face.”

Powerful, Still True To Herself

“Sandberg could go be the C.E.O. of any company that she wanted to,” Mark Zuckerberg says. “But I think the fact that she really wants to get her hands dirty and work, and doesn’t need to be the front person all the time, is the amazing thing about her. It’s that low-ego element, where you can help the people around you and not need to be the face of all the stuff.”  Howard Schultz, the C.E.O. of Starbucks, says, “Most people you meet who are highly qualified and accomplished tend to want to tell you all the things they’ve done and how smart they are. Or they want to impress you. Sheryl is not like that at all.”

With An Unplanned Future

Surely Sandberg is on track to one day become a C.E.O., if that’s what she wants. Or she may decide to return back to a potential career in politics. When she was asked, what she can imagine doing next, she responded simply, “I’m actually quite happy with Mark and the company. I always tell people if you try to connect the dots of your career, if you mess it up you’re going to wind up on a very limited path. If I decided what I was going to do in college - when there was no Internet, no Google, no Facebook . . . - I don’t want to make that mistake. The reason I don’t have a plan is because if I have a plan I’m limited to today’s options.”

During her Barnard´s Speech Sandberg said to fresh women graduates, “Don’t let your fears overwhelm your desire. Let the barriers you face—and there will be barriers—be external, not internal. Fortune does favor the bold. I promise that you will never know what you’re capable of unless you try. You’re going to walk off this stage today and you’re going to start your adult life. Start out by aiming high. . . . Go home tonight and ask yourselves, What would I do if I weren’t afraid? And then go do it!”

Written based on inspiration from following sources: The New Yorker Magazine:http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/07/11/110711fa_fact_auletta?currentPage=all, the interviews in various newspapers, TED Talk and Barnard´s Speech.

Going Into Own Business For The Right Reasons

I have recently observed many managers quitting the corporate job for their vision of starting their own Company. Right or wrong, the future will tell. They have to be sure they do not join the entrepreneurship world just because of their need to achieve bigger personal freedom, money or fame. Or because they think they have no other choice and look for an easy escape. These internal, personally driven reasons for launching a start-up are wrong. They are predetermined for failure.

For creating the next big thing an entrepreneur must have dreams that are externally driven, focused around improving customers´ well-being. Only those succeed in the longer term, who look at the outside opportunities thinking about how to best seize them in a unique way. Only those succeed who are making meaningful products and services, who bring the future closer towards the present time. Only those succeed, who are passionate about changing the status quo, about improving the quality of lives of people on this planet.

Formalized Companies purposes bring the visions down to the Earth – for customers, potential employees, business partners or investors. Leaders, who are able to make the purpose clear, inspiring and unique for the benefit of others, eventually surf on the wave of success. Freedom, money and fame come to them only as a bonus, afterwards.

The Company purpose formulation needs to be made prior launching of a new venture. It gives the direction. It guides the investments decision path. It helps customers to understand what the Company stands for, how does it fit in this world.

Starbucks rewards everyday moments. “Starbucks´mission is to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.” “Expect More than Coffee – we are a neighborhood gathering place, a part of daily routine.” (Source: Starbucks.com)

Coca-cola refreshes the world, inspires the moments of optimism and happiness, creates value and makes a difference. (Source: The Coca Cola Company 2020 Vision)

Apple was never about selling boxes to people to get their jobs done. As per Steve Jobs: “Apple at the core, it´s core value is, that we believe that people with passion can change the world for the better.” … “The goal was never to beat the competitor, or to make a lot of money, it was to do the greatest thing possible, or even a little greater.” (Source: You Tube)

Having the objective of giving a meaning to your Company still does not guarantee lifetime success, but it definitely gives a fulfillment coming from aiming for something more than ordinary, not for self, but for the others.

“In real life being an “entrepreneur” is not a job title. It is a state of mind of people, who want to change the future.“ - Guy Kawasaki

“You should carefully observe, where you heart leads you, then to choose this path and devote your maximum energy to it.” Hasidic proverb

Hot News: Twitter & The Pope

The Pope Benedict XVI.  is on Twitter (@news_va_en). These top news were hot enough this week for a wide twitter community discussion, even though Vatican is already tweeting for some time (until today with 1300 tweets, and ca 65 thousand followers). The spread of the news started only when the Pope Benedict XVI. has sent his first - by his team pre-prepared - tweet from his iPad (great choice by the way…). Becoming the first Pope to tweet in history. Learning “THE” thing:

@news_va_en Vatican - news

Dear Friends, I just launched http://t.co/fVHpS9y  Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI

28 Jun via Twitter for iPad

The Pope received positive and negatives WOWs in the twitter discussion. But what is more important, there is a clear signal, that to be a leader in this world one must participate on Twitter (or Facebook) . To influence the masses while being accessible. To start to understand the youngsters, to come closer to their world.

The Pope became by this tweeting act another role model within the social media world, mainly for the mid age plus generation, that - especially in Europe - still consider Twitter not being their cup of tea. As they do not understand why they should use it. Now they can come closer to the Pope every day. Not only to the Pope, but towards many other gurus and leaders, they can get real time news, from the spot, before anybody else has it.

If an 84-old man of many obligations gets easily excited about twitter (and Facebook and YouTube, where his messages will be from now on posted), when will you?

CNN commentary and video about the Pope tweeting

P.S. By the way -  a great free PR for twitter and iPad!
.

Why Lufthansa Does Not Care About Its Customers

It seems that still today there are some companies who view customer service as a one-off transaction and who believe that "Customer in not our boss". Like in the recent case of the Czech Lufthansa subsidiary.

Living in Germany for several years, often flying back and forth to Prague, I was loyal frequent flyer customer of Lufthansa, the German airlines Company I had always fully trusted. One day this March I have got a call from a Lufthansa customer service operator to check if my frequent flyer stored data are up-to-date. Next day my credit card was charged with cancellation fee for a flight ticket issued in my name last year that I have not been aware of, I have never booked or paid for. Lufthansa claimed afterwards that because the ordering person identity does not exist anymore, someone has to pay. I have to pay. Because the name and frequent flyer number match.

This real-life story leaves a lot of unanswered questions behind, like: Why does Lufthansa solve their financial claims 12 months after they occur, in a different fiscal year and with a wrong person? Where the rest of the flight tickets money ended, when the ordering person is after one year untraceable? Do we all have to start to worry, that somebody from now on uses our names and frequent flyer data and we will be obliged to pay for cancellation fees of flight tickets we have no idea about?

I have asked Lufthansa Czech exactly these questions (by e-mail and registered letter). Until now, being it already four months, I have not received their answer to my worries. I have only got e-mail talking about standard procedures, no apology, no interest.

This case shows ignorance of ethics. The Czech Lufthansa team was putting the total Company reputation and trust in the bin, all because of 820 Kč (ca 50 USD), that in the end Lufthansa anyhow never obtained from me, because my UniCredit Bank was able to dispute and stop this transaction based on no rights for this claim from the Lufthansa side.

This case shows ignorance of business sense. As my loyalty to Lufthansa has been vanished, Lufthansa has lost tens of thousands Crowns or even Euro. The amount of money I and my close family and friends would pay them for flight tickets for our entire lives. Lifetime value of a customer is what matters. Not a one-off shot.

This case shows the mother Company can operate efficiently and ethically in the home country, but not having invested in small countries in staff training and check-ups, the whole case can backfire and influence the mother as well.

Cases of mistreating customers are unfortunately common all over the world. However thanks to the rise of social media, they are not anymore secrets. They spread out really fast. The Companies can either infuse proper customer service attitude among ALL staff, or they pay much more money for reputation tracking and firefighting.

The decision is theirs.

P.S. See 7 Customer Service Blunders That Went Big Scale Viral 

.

Career Heights And Valleys

We are living through ever changing periods of victories and downsides. Professionally or personally. It is not just us. We all have experienced it, even though we do not like to talk about it. Just the depth of each valley and the height of each peak is individual. As well as timing and lengths of each life phase.

All great leaders experienced setbacks. Yes, they have nearly lost their businesses, marriages or health. Steve Jobs, Anthony Robbins, Rhonda Byrne and many, many others. What differentiated them from others is that they were able to find the way back to achieve even higher peaks. They were able to re-start and re-new themselves.

They have understood that “the pain you experience in the valley (of a career or life setback) can wake you up to a truth you have been ignoring about yourself“, as Spencer Johnson stated well.

The bigger heights they decided to achieve, the more efforts it took, the more resistance they faced, the more inner strengths they had to make use of. They had to have the guts to go for victory, for the excitement of conquering the summit. Otherwise they may as as well decide to live „in the valley“ - comfortable, no risk, but empty everyday life, without adrenalin. The decision was only theirs.

The really strong leaders could not stay in the „valley“, as they intuitively knew, that the more up in „the mountains“ (of career or life heights), they manage to get, the wider perspective they obtain. They could learn more about this world, about their small tiny valley, as well as about the other, even higher peaks interesting to reach in the future. They have diged deeper in their soul. They came to piece with themselves. They have possessed even higher confidence in their ability to positively deal with life trials which for sure will come back again in future. They have managed to conquer themselves.

There will continue to be peaks and valleys in life of each of us. Without valleys how would we know we are at a peak? We can shorten the time in the valley if we learn to find the good things from the downtimes. We can prolong the time at the peak if we will be grateful and modest, if we continue to improve things, help others and understand that to value the peak achievement, one has to conquer it himself and one has to go to from time to time back to the valley – not just to recharge the batteries and get stronger for the next climb up.
  
According to advice of Spencer Johnson: ”The errors you make in today’s good times create tomorrow’s bad times. And the wise things you do in today’s bad times create tomorrow’s good times. People who use a Peaks and Valleys approach during bad times make things better when they return to basics, and concentrate on what matters most.” … „Be of more service at work and more loving in life. Uncover the good that is hidden in a bad time and use it to your advantage.” 

Each way to the peak always starts in the valley. Each valley will one day end, when we get outside of ourself. No-one can reach its heights without a journey. No-one stays on the one summit for the rest of his life. There are more summits to conquer. There are more valleys to start the journey at, or to spend rest of each life.

The decision is yours!

"When you want something, the Universe conspires to help you" ( Paolo Coelho - The Alchemist)

“The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” (Marcel Proust)

P.S. Inspiration for this blog came from the book of Spencer Johnson: "Peaks And Valleys". Spencer Johnson is the best-selling author of "The One-Minute Manager", "The Gift", and "Who Moved My Cheese?".

How To Become Successful Entrepreneur

Many times mid-age managers have enough of the corporate world and play with the idea of leaving the established business to run their own piece of cake. Many times they are surprised this piece of cake is too small to provide them public exposure and the living standard they were used to. They struggle. At least at the beginning. But it does not always have to be that way.

Most of the time there IS NOT THE right time to start your own business. Most of the time there IS THE right time to start it. The answer depends on your attitude and expectations. It also goes deep down to the market opportunity and your level of understanding how to seize it better than anybody else. It all depends on your passion, perseverance and drive to put things through towards prosperous end.

Thoughtful preparation and planning are key. Using your existing area of experience and expertise puts you on the faster track for success. Because you understand your customers´ needs. You understand the rules of the game. You have built your reputation. You can exploit much more the network you have been connected throughout years. You can collect valuable advices as well as get the right doors to be opened for you.

You can pair up with a network buddy, who you already know well in terms of his/her visions, values, strengths and weaknesses as well as his/her response to crisis situations. Solo entrepreneurs do not get such a jump start and such a high level of final results as pairs or triplets. Most of the time it is about teamwork, challenging one another, pushing each other to the limit, covering each others gaps. But in the same time it is as well about clarity in roles and responsibilities and keeping things simple and agreeable.

Planning for the start-up costs ahead is crucial point in the hesitation period. You need to build your financial reserves already during the corporate tenure. As it can anyhow happen, that your job will be made redundant and you will be suddenly forced to find the idea, energy and money for your start-up, under pressure, immediately.

Be ready to take your time at the thinking, conceptual phase, but drive things through full speed afterwards, working long hours at the beginning and taking on your shoulders more work - even such you were used to delegate before. The initial energy and passion are critical for total success of your project. They bring you the critical momentum in the months to come.

The investment budget should be prioritized towards critical business enablers. There may be even options to get some external funding of your idea from state grants, EU funds or private investors. But nothing like that is possible without properly developed business plan, including 3-5 years strategic plan, realistically evaluated new business opportunity, key drivers of growth and an outlook for a one-year cash flow. The cash flow calculation will already reveal the need to keep start-up costs on low level. No fancy offices, cars or secretaries. Just a common sense as well as a back-up plan for financing the initial costs if the business plan proves to be unrealistic and needs to be twisted afterwards.

Learning quickly, also from mistakes, self discipline to keep yourself on the right track and focused on the target, operating effectively and efficiently, wearing multiple hats, surrounding yourself with great talent and leveraging efforts of others - all these points are critical, if you want to run highly successful business.

Becoming entrepreneur can be one of the most rewarding decisions of your life. Understanding how to separate yourself from the rest in competition race, how to put yourself in control of your own life can be incredibly empowering. In the same time there is no one else to blame if things go down the road and failure is on the horizon.

Successful entrepreneurs all confirm that their perseverance in the time of obstacles, their ability to put things through to the end enabled them to bring something new and exciting to the world.

You can get the rewards Chris Zane obtained - see more in the other blog (double click on the link).

Stop being worried about age - see more in the other blog (double click on the link)

Most Important Success Factors (double click)

Many of The Best Entrepreneurs Started After 40

Picture: Shutterstock

Some myths have to be dissolved. Fast. Like „the 40+ are too old for starting their business“. New business owner age cannot be the decisive factor for predicting any business success, similarly as it should not be gender or race. Not just in the IT/Internet sphere, but overall. Ageism campaigns do not result in a good business discussion, they just widen the inter-generational gap.

Adeo Ressi (39), the founder of The Founder Institute and TheFunded.com (who himself started first Internet business at the age of 22), has had enough of reading recent articles, proclaiming that „25 is the peak age for entrepreneurship“. He published in TechCrunch thorough data driven response, observing e.g. that: „It does not take but one minute to look around the world and prove any thesis of a peak tech founder age incorrect. There are countless entrepreneurs over the age of 30, including Reid Hoffman (age 35 in 2002), Evan Williams of Twitter (age 35 in 2007), Mark Pincus of Zynga (age 41 in 2007), Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post (age 54 in 2005), among many others.“

“In some cases, older entrepreneurs paired up with the younger founders, like Google (Larry Page and Sergey Brin were both age 25 in 1998, and Eric Schmidt was age 46 in 2001). In other cases, more successful clones were launched by older entrepreneurs, like Amazon (Jeff Bezos was age 30 in 1994). And, many young founders were pushed out or sidelined for more seasoned leaders, like with PayPal (Peter Thiel took over from younger founders when he was age 31 in 1998)."

There is no best age to start a business. Opportunity is what is needed. As we grow older, we simply trade off one set of advantages for another. There will continue to be stories of „older entrepreneurs“ who have been able to drive step change innovation while thousands of youngsters copied them. As well as „American dream“ hero stories of young undergraduates who dropped the university to become multi-billionaires (like Apple´s Steve Job did after one semester at the age of 18).  As long as we are able to identify in these real life stories the victories of great business idea, of personality traits, of perseverance and passion to change the world for the better, the age will not matter, neither for the critics, nor for the investors.

Entrepreneurship may not be actively pursued by many people. It comes with the right opportunity when a person is ready to seize it. The readiness of the market has to match entrepreneur´s visions, missions, abilities, skills, personal traits and timing.

Entrepreneurship may not be for everyone. You either have a passion and courage to drive a business of your own or you don´t. The discriminator however should not be the age. Especially when you are not yet retired.

Full article of Adeo Ressi: "Is There A Peak Age for Entrepreneurship?" (source: TechCrunch, 28-05-2011) 

Why Business Women Don´t Help Other Female Up?

Photo. Shutterstock

"We need women at all levels, including the top, to change the dynamic, reshape the conversation, to make sure women´s voices are heard and heeded, not overlooked and ignored," said Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg in her recent May speech to Barnard´s Graduates.

To achieve that goal, isn´t it about the highest time for business women to stop undermining each other and beginning to think of other females as allies, to build each other up instead of tear selves down?

Isn´t it the highest time to build professionally supporting women role models, people can talk positively about, unlike the former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, the Republican Senate candidate in California, who did not get it during a 2010 TV interview, and instead of attacking her female opponent Boxer´s political record, she went after the senator´s hair style - thinking her microphone was off.

Why on Earth are the highly educated, hard-working, intelligent women so scared of their female colleagues? Why are they sabotaging careers of each other? Why are they not supporting one another in business as much as men do?

According to Susan Shapiro Barash, teacher of gender studies at Marymount Manhattan College and author of several books - e.g. "Tripping the Prom Queen: The Truth About Women and Rivalry", "It´s a dirty little secret among women that we don´t support one another." In the predominantly male society, women have the scarcity feeling, that there´s not enough to go around for them. This perception leads to jelausy and resentment among women fighting for a smaller piece of the pie. "If you´re the gender that yields the power, you don´t have to feel that way," Barash said.

Her research has revealed the age aspect as well: "I found that women would not befriend women who were eight or 10 years younger than them because of the competition. But someone who´s 28, if they were 58, they wouldn´t see that threat because they were going to be gone by the time that woman rose through the ranks."

For a start it would be enough if women stopped focusing on their gender and rather looked on the bigger picture, visualizing that there is plenty of abundance and possibilities for all. Feeling more confident in themselves and in their abilities, not minding to ask for a favor, being able to forgive and handle rejection as well as being able to offer an extended hand to other women in need.

Even though there are now already few dosens of women who actively promote, support and develop other female, we still have a long way to go in general. There is a chance for us all to do something more than we do at present. Leadership starts with each of us.

And if you look for role models in supporting others women up - read my blog about Sheryl Sandberg: Google Made Her Rich, Facebook Made Her A legend.



P.S. Note: Evolution of women through ages is well explained in Terry Prone´s book   "What Every Working Women Should Know .. .And Do  "  in which she - among other topics - also investigates the history of lost trust among women. She has made an interesting link between women rivalry and the 15th - 16th century´s movement against witchcraft during which approximately one million women across Europe were executed based on the testimony of other women who were under the Church´s grace. And because the characteristics of so-called witches i.e. infidelity, ambition and lust (exceptional beauty was dangerous.) were vague and hard to prove, they were fatal to many women, even though perfectly acceptable in a man. The Prone´s learning is that  "A man may kill you, but a woman may betray you to him. "

Facebook´s COO Sandberg Speech - The Women Of My Generation Blew It So Equality Is Up To You Graduates

Video: Fiorina on Boxer´s Hair

Jaromir Jagr Gets The Point More Than Politicians

Jaromir Jagr / Foto: CTK

„I am very happy  that we could - thanks to our achievements - give away great delight to all people. Only few of us can in their lifetime experience the feeling that they are able within two weeks to shift people´s opinions, that they are able to help others to forget their problems. Our fans have vice versa helped us. It is an exchange of energies from success,“ said Jagr in an interview with Sport.cz after the official end of the Worldwide Ice-hockey Championship.

Jaromir Jagr (39) has definitely gone a long way since the beginning of his career to understand key principles of success, of giving and receiving, of influencing and inspiring masses as well as of a need for a vision and personal humbleness in its implementation.

George Sheenan statement that „Success means having the courage, the determination and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be“, needs to be enriched for the link between the individual success and its benefits for others, be it the sports´s team, the fans, the nation or the society as a whole.

The winning itself will not bring long lasting personal satisfaction, if it is not linked to helping other people as well. If it is not in the interest of a wider majority, who can in the end magnify this victory as well.

We cannot be selfish if we want to shift people´s opinions for a good cause. We cannot be selfish if we want to achieve true success - build a better world for our children and grandchildren, if we want to know that even one life has breathed easier because of us.

We cannot miss the great opportunity to define what is the world we want to create for others and to start to act now to take control of our future instead of letting the future to control us.

 „Success is doing what has to be done, when it has to be done, the way it ought to be done, whether you want to do it or not.“ (anonymous).

Unless we act, we become vulnerable. Now we have a choice, but will we have it also in future?

P.S. I would wish these thoughts resonated with majority of our Czech politicians, with the Czech business leaders and entrepreneurs. I would also wish the people who decided to pursue life philosophy of „I want to do in my life what I enjoy myself. Whenever I achieve this state of mind I will consider myself successful“ would add the social dimension to their thoughts as well, or there will be nobody left wanting to fight for the better future of the Czech nation as such.

Meet the Ex F-1 David Coulthard, the Brand Ambassador

Feeling still young and sexy David Coulthard (40) did not want to leave the lime-light. Quitting the Formula One racing he refused to be placed into the box of "sport´s pensioner", not as much desired role for somebody who loved high doses of adrenalin every day.

David Coulthard decided to capitalize on the relationships he had with brand owners from his Formula One times. Besides his work as a commentator for BBC, adviser for Red Bull and as a DTM racer, David travels the World to spread the passion for brands he loves. David´s work is similar to the brand evangelists. He wants to see his favorites to succeed. He is not ressuring customers to buy a product, he stands up there on the stage to share with his fellow customers passion for his life style as well as for his favorite brands. He is empowered to spread the message about the brand, within his space.

Using Brand Ambassadors for word-of-mouth marketing is nothing new. Endorsement from a celebrity has been long-time the foundation of marketing. What is new, however, is that the bar for what customers expect from the communication with the celebrity and service obtained during the V.I.P. treatment is higher today. Customers are spoiled to purchase a brand just because a celebrity likes it. To create a customer WOW nowadays demands significantly more creativity and efforts.

Celebrity monologues are being replaced by dialogues. "Celebrity advices" are being based on attentive customer listening and offered round the clock - stimulating communication on all the key social media networks. "Soft sell" for luxury brand image building outweighs "hard sell" connected with special offers.

Values and attitudes of a celebrity are being carried over to the brand, thus contributing to building the high profile image and being more important than the goods itself.

Customers trust an outstanding V.I.P. treatment only if it is consistent over time and through the line at each single point of contact with the brand. Only when we continuously exceed expectations, customers become "raving fans", enthusiastically referring about our brands to their family, friends, co-workers and neighbors. These devoted fans themselves have the desire to be of service and influence others. Meeting a celebrity is for them an impulse to start to act as brand evangelists themselves.

It is hard to debate which of F1 pilots will be remembered even after the official ending of their career. The World champions or those who are charismatic and representing an idea? Those who win at all costs or those who make us feel that we, too, can become great?

Final Note:

David Marshall Coulthard, born in 1971 in Scotland, was a former British Formula One racing driver. David made his Formula One debut in 1994 and won 13 Grands Prix in a career spanning 15 seasons. For his successes he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2010. Currently he lives in Monaco with his Belgian wife and a 3 years old son. He is also supporting the Wings for Life Spinal Cord Research Foundation, that was established in 2004 by Red Bull CEO Mateschitz and motocross World champion Kinigadner. David´s autobiography was released in 2007 entitled "It Is What It Is".

During his visit of Hugo Boss Store in Prague, David Coulthard handed over his F1 helmet to the Czech Top model Tereza Maxova, for her Charity. The event was organized to celebrate 30 years of co-operation between Hugo Boss and Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. Founded in Germany in 1924, Hugo Boss has grown to become one of the world´s most recognizable fashion brands, specializing in high-end clothing and fragrances.David Coulthard´s involvement with the Hugo Boss brand goes far beyond officially opening high-profile new stores or going yacht racing, it goes beyond simply modeling the clothes and attending the fashion shows

The Victory of Love And Common Sense Over Prejudice

Many stories have been written about the equal rights of people. Comparing history and present gives the mankind hope. Regardless of country of origin, race, sex or age or aristocratic roots, being it at work or in private life, we are putting back on the table discussion about personality traits, rather than personal origin. We are becoming more liberal than our ancestors were. We are giving more value to the vision of living fulfilled life vs. blindly following the historical rules.
 

In the case of Kate Middleton and Prince William the victory of love is known to everybody by now. We can only wish them, that their fellowship will be long-lasting as a confirmation that the cause was worth fighting. As we never know what the future brings. 

As in the case of my grandfather, a son of a countess, who belonged to the group of "pre-chosen" men who were supposed to merry a girl from the same class. But my grandpa was living ahead of his time. He has rather followed - regardless of the objection of his whole family - his heart and passion. He has married my not so "classy", but beautiful and clever grandma. He has chosen to live under his own terms and fully - the short life the destiny has given to him.

Maybe because of his "blue blood" origin or because of his high influence on many people thanks to his leadership role in the regional "Sokol" sports union, or just because of his work as a Professor, as an Artist (cubist painter) and a man who could play seven instruments and having rich social life, he was escorted during the second World war directly from the school, where he was teaching, into the concentration camp. He has died there at the age of 32 in physical pain but with mental strength that he is supported by a beloved women who is expecting his son to be born - born from a true love.

He has left behind himself many warm feelings as well as a wide collection of paintings, that will remind us and generations to come about his work and passion for living. Nevertheless one painting is more precious than others. The not finished one of my grandma ...

You cannot take full control over your life, but you can always give your best. And when you give your best, there are no regrets, just a sense that you would not like to return the clock and redo your life differently.

P.S. The municipality of the town Mlada Boleslav granted - after the velvet revolution in 1989 - a street name to honor my grandpa Vladimir Regner. In memory of his 100 year´s birth anniversary this year a public exhibition of his paintings is being organized in the Mlada Boleslav castle starting with a grand opening on August 6th, 2011.