Day 544. When I am about to start something or do something new, I am always asked: « Are you ready? » And my answer is invariably: « I don’t know, but I’m going to do it anyway! » If I were to wait to be ready to do something, I would almost do nothing. You can never be ready, but you’ll always have to start. Not ready is an excuse for not doing things that matter, for not producing what you have to, and for turning down in front of your fears.
You only know if you were ready if you try. This means accepting you may not be ready, you may face failure, and you may learn something valuable. Next time you are asked if you are ready, say yes and go for it, who knows, it may work.
Day 543. Below is the mail I sent yesterday to my team to help deliver their best in the last mile of the fiscal year. The title is a quote from Sir Edmund Hillary and the picture from an unknown source, but I found it beautiful. Enjoy!
Friends,
I woke up this morning with butterflies in the belly. Are we going to make it? The first thought that came to mind was the last 2 kilometers of any marathon I ran. Those two kilometers are hard, your muscles ache, your whole body aches, and your mind asks you to quit. It’s ironic to know that most quitters quit in these last two kilometers, so close to the finish line. But it’s understandable, you have to shut down the little voice inside your brain who asks you to stop, you have to look beyond the finish line, and you have to decide to cross the line.
I leave you with the below picture and quote from Sir Edmund Hillary who first climbed Mount Everest. We are three days away of an extraordinary year! Decision is ours!
Oh, did I mention we are in the making of an extraordinary, extraordinary, extraordinary year for Office 365? Butterflies are flying away!
Thank you and let’s bank a HUGE EXTRAORDINARY year. All cents count!
Day 542. Doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity. I am paraphrasing the great Albert Einstein, but this is so true. In a fast changing world, we have no other choices but to embrace change. Trying to resist it is like staying aboard a sinking ship hoping it will stay afloat in the end. Of course change is hard. Change requires we drop activities, behaviors, ideas to start new ones. Change requires we wipe out the status quo.
In the crisis opposing the taxis to Uber in France and in many other places on the planet, we have two systems that collide. It should be a great occasion to rethink the models, to shake old fashioned way to do stuffs, but instead it becomes confrontational, taxis trying to preserve the status quo and their privileges, if any. Competition has always been a driving force to reduce pricing while increasing quality. In France, our paranoid government wants to forbid SFR to purchase Bouygues Telecom to save competition that they recognized behind healthy and a contributing factor for better pricing and quality, while at the same time wants to kill competition in the transportation area by forbidding Uber to operate. Try to understand the logic of those guys stuck in a 19th century mentality.
Taxis have no choices than to slowly disappear if they do not reinvent themselves. I confess I have not taken a taxi in France for years for two reasons: they are awfully expensive (an airport-downtown trip will cost up to three times in Paris what it costs in the US or Dubai for instance), and most of the time the driver is unpleasant. With what happens, I will not be inclined to take a taxi soon.
Of course change is hard, but it is necessary. It’s only by embracing change that we find peace of mind and can smile at what the universe throws at us. As Robin Sharma says: Change is hard at the beginning, messy in the middle and gorgeous in the end. Are you ready?
Rule number 2: Manage your money like a company – First Part
https://pixabay.com/fr/users/jarmoluk-143740/
Day 541. Money is an energy. It’s used to fuel the world. A lot of people say money is the root of evil and therefore encourage others to live in poverty or at least with a minimum money. I believe that money can be a blessing and a curse. It all depends on how you manage your money. It’s true that money can make people go crazy and commit crime. It’s although true that money can save people’s lives, can cure disease and can positively contribute to the well-being of people. As for many things, charity begins at home and it’s crucial to know the basis management rules of money. Personal money should obey the same rules as an entreprise money.
You are your own company, let’s call it yourself, inc. Yourself, inc. has an accountant: you! And if there are one guy in a company that knows how to handle the company’s money, it’s the accountant. He can be, or has to be, the bad-ass who ensures money is well treated. A financially sound company can weather any storm and will resist any crisis. Same for an individual. However, to handle your personal finance well, it has to obey the following 3 simple principles:
Pay everything cash, except for case number 2
Use credit only if the asset you acquire allows you to make money
Put aside a share of your monthly revenue to weather storms or to treat you (in cash)
Of course, this is not what a majority of people will tell you. I will however show you why these three simple, though not easy to apply, principles will be at the start of sound money management.
Day 540. In 2013, many newspaper and online news sites revealed that the French were spending, on average, 3h50 in front of their TV every day ! I assume other countries will have similar statistics.
If I do a quick calculation, this represents close to 27 hours every week in front of a TV set. This is actually more than 3 full working days. Just imagine if half of that time was dedicated to a form of enjoyable work like, for instance, personal development or professional training. With an additional of 13 hours of training every week, we would have a country infinitely more competitive that any other developped country, with a skilled workforce. Of course, we could think of transforming that time into other fun activities that help individual to have a more fulfilling life.
However, making the choice of switching TV time with something that really matters to each of us is a choice. A personal choice and a political choice. Because TV is the best way to convey political propaganda, therefore from a political standpoint, the power has nothing to gain for their own rights in trying to cut TV watching time. Therefore, all that is left is the personal choice. Are you willing to cut your TV time to grow? It’s easy, it’s simple, it’s just a matter of chosing it. Are you ready?
