Success Through Leadership

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

My First Teleseminar with Success University

I wanted to pass along the replay of my recent Success University Teleseminar. After being asked to join their faculty and having my book turned into an achievement course, I was asked to be the featured guest on Wednesday's faculty call. Despite being my first time doing this, I think it went pretty good, and I wanted to share it with you.

Just click on this link to listen:
Teleseminar Replay

Here's to your Success!
Coach Morse

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Take Another Look...

You know, sometimes the thing we really wanted was in front of us all the time.
It helps to step back from time to time, just long enough to take a look around - you might discover the grass you're standing on is actually the greenest...

Coach Morse

Friday, June 01, 2007

Self Reliance

"Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half possession. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him. No man yet knows what it is, nor can, till that person has exhibited it. Where is the master who could have taught Shakspeare? Where is the master who could have instructed Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton? Every great man is a unique. The Scipionism of Scipio is precisely that part he could not borrow. Shakspeare will never be made by the study of Shakspeare. Do that which is assigned you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much. There is at this moment for you an utterance brave and grand as that of the colossal chisel of Phidias, or trowel of the Egyptians, or the pen of Moses or Dante, but different from all these. Not possibly will the soul, all rich, all eloquent, with thousand-cloven tongue, deign to repeat itself; but if you can hear what these patriarchs say, surely you can reply to them in the same pitch of voice; for the ear and the tongue are two organs of one nature. Abide in the simple and noble regions of thy life, obey thy heart, and thou shalt reproduce the Foreworld again." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Some terrific words to ponder...

Have a fantastic weekend!!
Coach Morse

Monday, May 21, 2007

Paradoxical Commandments

by Kent Keith

  • People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
  • What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
  • People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway.
  • Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world your best anyway.
  • People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
  • If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
  • If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
  • The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
  • Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
  • The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway

Never let the opinions or actions of another stand in the way of you doing what you know you should.

Have a terrific day!

Coach Morse

Friday, May 18, 2007

I got a great chuckle out of this one... Definately sad but true! A real head shaker, but kudos to the unknown author of this very clever, and oh so accurate, modern day parable.

Enjoy...

A Modern Parable -source/author unkown

A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (General Motors) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race.

On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action. Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order; American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.

Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents and 1assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1 person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the "Rowing Team Quality First Program," with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices, and bonuses.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles.

Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses, and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India.

Sadly, The End.

Sad, but oh so true! Here's something else to think about: Ford has spent the last 30 years moving all its factories out of the US, claiming they can't make money paying American wages. Toyota has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US. The last quarter's results: Toyota makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in losses. Ford folks are still scratching their heads...

Have a terrific day!!
Coach Morse

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Understanding Leadership

During my interview on May 10th, one of the topics WBO's Chris Curtis asked me about was the principle of understanding leadership that I talk about in chapter two of my book, "Take Charge - Get Results". One of the prevailing causes for failure I see, time and time again, is the absence of leadership. So while it's on my mind, I thought I'd share a short summary with you here:

"Understanding Leadership: Leaders are responsible for all outcomes (good or bad), not just some of the time, but all of the time. Leadership is not about giving orders, but about accepting the primary responsibility of leadership - to take charge. The common expectations of leadership - to lead, to guide, to enlighten, to direct, and to inspire action, - all stem from the acceptance of this primary responsibility. It is leadership that sets the course and provides direction for all achievement. Make a decision to take charge."

In the most basic sense, we are in charge of ourselves. Ultimately, we are responsible for that which we choose to do or say, so in order to achieve real success, we need ourselves to lead ourselves.

Best of luck!
Coach Morse

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Stupid Is What Stupid Does

Here's an interesting excerpt from the book 'Goals' by Brian Tracy...

"The Role of IntelligenceIn Gallup interviews of thousand of men and women to determine the root causes of success in life and work, the importance of "intelligence" was mentioned again and again. But when the researchers pressed for a definition of "intelligence", they recieved an interesting answer. Intelligence was not defined as a high IQ or good grades in school. Rather, intelligence was most commonly defined as a "way of acting."

In other words, if you act intelligently, you are intelligent. If you act unintelligently, you are unintelligent, irrespective of the grades you may have recieved or the degrees you have earned.

And what then, by definition, is an intelligent way of acting? An intelligent way of acting is anything that you do that is consistent with achieving the goals that you set for yourself. Each time you do something that moves you closer toward something that you really want, you are acting intelligently. On the other hand, an unintelligent way of acting is doing things that are not moving you toward your goals, or even worse, are moving you away from your goals.

To put it bluntly, doing anything that does not help you achieve something that you have decided that you want for yourself is acting in a stupid manner. The world is full of people who are acting stupidly every day, and they are not even aware of what a negative effect this is having on their lives"

hmm.... something worth pondering, eh?
Coach Morse