A very cool link to learn many things :
http://sixrevisions.com/photoshop/top-50-adobe-photoshop-tutorials-of-2009/
Posts Tagged ‘learn’
What We Learn From GodFather Movie
October 2nd, 2012, posted in MESSAGEs, MOViES
What does a real-life CEO have in common with the central figures of a fictitious Mafia crime family in The Godfather? According to Justin Moore, CEO and founder of Axcient , plenty.
Moore is a serial entrepreneur, early-stage advisor, and angel investor. He’s currently at the helm of Axcient, a company he founded that provides backup, business continuity, and disaster recovery services to the small and mid-sized business (SMB) market. Right now, Axcient is protecting more than 2 billion files and applications for businesses across North America.
Moore also happens to think that The Godfather is “one of the best movies ever made†and had a chance to watch it again when the film was aired extensively last week to mark the 40th anniversary of its premiere. Though a decade had passed since the last time Moore watched it, his recent viewing offered an unexpected reward. This time he found the film rife with teaching moments for CEOs running a business today.
“I certainly don’t endorse crime or violence, and I’m not suggesting business should operate like the Mafia,†explains Moore, “but there are some universal themes in the movie I can relate to as a CEO.†Moore says The Godfather offers valuable lessons in community and team building, making tough decisions, and playing to win while not neglecting friends and family.
Here are five essential leadership lessons Moore distilled for Fast Company.
1. Build a powerful community.
Someday, and that day may never come, I’ll call upon you to do a service for me. ~Vito Corleone
Uttered in the iconic rasp of Marlon Brando, the words of Vito Corleone illustrate how he creates a loyal community among those he has helped. Moore says, “By granting these favors and helping people with their problems, Vito Corleone is building a network of influence–relationships that may or may not deliver a specific or quantifiable return, but all which serve to strengthen his power base and which have the potential to be reciprocal in the long run.â€
Moore says building strategic partnerships enables companies to work through challenging markets and fast-track overall success. “As a CEO, I see it as part of my job to be a super connector, networking with the technology and investment community without an expectation of reciprocation. Partnerships forged through time, trust, and mutual benefit–such as those Axcient has built with HP, Ingram-Micro, and a vast network of service providers and resellers–are the types of community relationships that bring about the greatest returns.â€
2. Hold people accountable.
What’s the matter with you? I think your brain is going soft. ~Vito Corleone
The Godfather reminds us of the importance of being tough when necessary. “As soon as Vito Corleone allowed a few moments of weakness to be seen by his enemy, they attempted to assassinate him. And it was largely because of failures of his team,†Moore observes.
“In business, accountability isn’t achieved by a murderous rampage. But the lesson is this–to be successful in business you have to be tough, and you have to be extremely focused on hitting goals and getting results,” says Moore. That doesn’t mean patience and understanding don’t have a place, he says, but ongoing tolerance of low-performing people or products just eats away at the success of the entire company. “You are ultimately responsible for all of your employees and shareholders, and that requires tough and swift decisions.
3. Don’t get emotional.
It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business. ~Michael Corleone
“Many people don’t like to talk about the fact that in business, there are winners and losers. When Sonny Corleone reacts impulsively and emotionally, he gets taken out. In business, if you don’t take the opportunity to out-sell, out-bid, or out-market your competitor, they’ll take you out. I’m not suggesting doing anything outside the boundaries of morality or rightness–simply pointing out that when people make emotional decisions, they start making bad decisions. To lead successfully, you have to take your emotion and ego out of the equation.â€
Likewise, Moore says it’s important to play to win. In business, that translates to knowing the competition and always staying at least one step ahead. “Operate your business with integrity and have respect for competition, but you also need to seize opportunities to eliminate your competition and win.â€
4. Be decisive.
Moore says that he, like most people who appreciate The Godfather, watch the movie with a combination of shock and respect. “Shock because he is so ruthless that he kills his own family member, but respect for the fact that Don Corleone knows exactly what he wants, executes decisively, and commands respect through unwavering leadership.â€
While you don’t have to kill anyone to prove a point, as soon as you know what choice to make, move forward. “Know who on your team is making the right choices, and trust them to take decisive action as well. Hesitation too often leads to missed opportunities.â€
5. Spend time with your family.
Do you spend time with your family? Because a man who doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man. ~Vito Corleone
Moore isn’t endorsing 1940s machismo, but he is decrying 100-hour workweeks that many entrepreneurs fall prey to in hot pursuit of the next big thing. Though he’s been dedicated like that in the past, Moore finds it’s not sustainable in the long run.
“A leader can’t be successful in creative problem-solving and making excellent decisions unless that person is connected to people and passions outside of work. I find that it’s often time with family and friends that gives me the perspective I need to build the relationships and make the decisive actions required for continued success in business,†says Moore.
Think we missed any big leadership themes from The Godfather? Get thee to the comments and let us know.
The Beat Of Silence
January 21st, 2012, posted in MESSAGEs, Scarface'S DIARY
How there is so much silence, a lack of communication and not enough understanding in Friendships these days. Friendships does seem to be a very favourite topic of mine, but what can I do? I have gone through so many things, seen the many facets of people and life, that nothing surprises me any more.
There is a popular saying of Marilyn Monroe, “If you are going to be two-faced, at least make one of them pretty.” I agree there are two-faced people, but more than two-faced people, their are people with many facets to their personality. For me personally, that facets of personality are more important, than whether a person is a two-faced individual or not. Multi-faceted people are more unpredictable. They are more dangerous in a way.
You literally cannot predict what will happen with them. At least with two-faced people, to some extent, you know that it is either this or that and when someone lies to you, you think in your mind ‘I know he/she is lying, but I am going to enjoy it anyway.’ Now, back to the point of what I am writing and why. I have noticed many a times these days, people end up losing their friendships over petty reasons. Usually and most of the times I have observed is that, it is the lack of communication which causes many issues to arise.
Silent. Silence. Why be silent? When you can talk to your friend and sort out the issue. I have been thinking about this a lot the past few days. People have become too lazy to communicate with other people. People sometimes don’t even bother when something happens and they don’t make the effort to sort something out. It hurts when friends say they love you or care about you, but then they do something or act in a certain way to prove you wrong. Loving someone or caring about someone is not inconsistent, it is not a break even graph, that one month the love is in deficit and the other month, love is in abundance and there is a profit.
Loving and caring about someone should be synonymous to walking on a straight smooth path which leads to somewhere. Also, there should be a purpose behind walking on that path with your friend. Things go wrong, when instead of choosing the smooth path, you travel on the rocky road and instead of steering clear of the bumps and the rocks, you hit them straight on. Things also go wrong, when you don’t know why you are walking with the person in the first place. Why is it that this person is in my life in the first place? Is having this person in my life worth it?
How do things go this wrong that you go adrift from the relationship and lose your friend? Some people think about what happened with their friendship after it gets ruined and the ship has sailed without them. A lot of people don’t even bother to go over what had happened with them and they keep making the same mistakes over and over again, which leads to them having no friends and people in their life at all.
Majority of the issues that start and are not resolved are because of the lack of communication, or what I am calling it ‘in the name of silence’. Communication and understanding are very important in a friendship or any kind of relationship. Without both of these, there would be huge trust issues. Some people blindly trust just about anyone, without even getting to know a person well or understanding how that person’s mind works.
You wouldn’t want to tell all your secrets to a person, who is a gossip monger and will most probably tell whatever you are saying to them, to other people would you?Â
You would love to talk to a person who understands you, who you are comfortable talking to, who you know will not tell all your secrets and whatever you two talk about, to other people.
Understanding and communication are key. Some people say, they are being silent to get back at a person. Psychology calls it Mind Games. Few people have this tendency to have revenge on a person, by being silent and forcing the other person to get paranoid and get in to this guessing game. They would remain silent for days and then suddenly reappear in a person’s life. Then these people actually have the audacity to say, we love you or we like you or we care about you.
If you care about someone, you don’t force them to be paranoid and you don’t play mind games on them. You don’t disappear and then just reappear in their lives, hoping everything is normal and it will be okay. A true friendship is consistent and no matter what happens, the other person still somehow manages to come back to you. They don’t just leave you. Why would this happen though? Why would a person leave you, break the friendship, when something happens? Two reasons mainly. They have heard something about you from someone else and they didn’t talk to you enough and trust you enough to keep you above what they have heard and from whom.
There is a quote on silence that I particularly like and it is “Spiteful words can hurt your feelings, but it is the silence which breaks the heart” and it is true. Being silent and treating a person as if they don’t exist hurts and I am sure no one would want to go through this, so why do we inflict this pain upon others? We shouldn’t do this to our loved ones. If there is a problem, sort it out and talk it out. Being silent will not solve the problem.
Silence can sometimes be good, but most of the times it can be really bad. Silence is comforting when you are hurt and your friend is there with you in your time of need and shares silence with you. Sometimes silence is all that exists between the best of friends. A friend would not even need to say anything and the other would know what has happened. Like you have this connection with a few people and when they are sad, you can feel it. They don’t need to tell you.
The other time when silence can help you is, when you are angry at your friend for whatever reason. Silence can help cure the anger. In American slang terminology, this is called taking a time out. A break from what is going on between two people. There is this silence that envelops both of them and then there is nothing to say. More than time, it is silence which heals as well. Silence which makes you reflect and then forces you to make a decision, make a choice.
Usually though, silence is bad. Silence is only helpful in the first place, because you let increasing silence and lack of communication in the friendship affect it. If the friendship had communication, if there was understanding between the two people, even if something had happened, the person would be able to sort it out with the other person and everything would be back to normal. However, people don’t do this. If something happens, they go silent. Misunderstandings are created by silence. Silence is evil. Silence plays evil tricks on the mind. People go crazy because of silence.
It is different if you want mental peace, but after a while silence comes to bite you and haunt you. You miss the noise. You hate the darkness in your life, you miss what it used to be. Don’t let silence destroy your life and friendships. Communicate with people. Try to understand them. Make the right choices. Be a better person. Most importantly, learn from your mistakes and experiences. Do not make the same mistakes twice.
Learning To Learn
October 19th, 2011, posted in Ink On PAPER, MESSAGEs, Scarface'S DIARY, Sufism|
When the great Sufi mystic, Hasan, was dying, somebody asked “Hasan, who was your master?” He said, “I had thousands of masters. If I just relate their names it will take months, years and it is too late. But three masters I will certainly tell you about. |
| One was a thief. Once I got lost in the desert, and when I reached a village it was very late, everything was closed. But at last I found one man who was trying to make a hole in the wall of a house. I asked him where I could stay and he said ‘At this time of night it will be difficult, but you can say with me – if you can stay with a thief.
And the man was so beautiful. I stayed for one month! And each night he would say to me, ‘Now I am going to my work. You rest, you pray.’ When he came back I would ask ‘Could you get anything?’ He would say, ‘Not tonight. But tomorrow I will try again, God willing.’ He was never in a state of hopelessness, he was always happy. When I was meditating and meditating for years on end and nothing was happening, many times the moment came when I was so desperate, so hopeless, that I thought to stop all this nonsense. And suddenly I would remember the thief who would say every night, ‘God willing, tomorrow it is going to happen.’ |
| And my second master was a dog. I was going to the river, thirsty and a dog came. He was also thirsty. He looked into the river, he saw another dog there — his own image — and became afraid. He would bard and run away, but his thirst was so much that he would come back. Finally, despite his fear, he just jumped into the water, and the image disappeared. And I knew that a message had come to me from God:Â one has to jump in spite of all fears. |
| And the third master was a small child. I entered a town and a child was carrying a lit candle. he was going to the mosque to put the candle there. ‘Just joking,’ I asked the boy, ‘Have you lit the candle yourself?’ He said, ‘Yes sir.’ And I asked, ‘There was a moment when the candle was unlit, then there was a moment when the candle was lit. Can you show me the source from which the light came?’ And the boy laughed, blew out the candle, and said, ‘Now you have seen the light going. Where has it gone? You will tell me!’ My ego was shattered, my whole knowledge was shattered. And that moment I felt my own stupidity. Since then I dropped all my knowledgeability. |
| It is true that I had no master. That does not mean that I was not a disciple. I accepted the whole existence as my master. My Disciplehood was a greater involvement than yours is. I trusted the clouds, the trees. I trusted existence as such. I had no master because I had millions of masters I learned from every possible source. To be a disciple is a must on the path. |
| What does it mean to be a disciple? It means to be able to learn, to be available to learn, to be vulnerable to existence. With a master you start learning to learn. |
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The master is a swimming pool where you can learn how to swim. Once you have learned, all the oceans are yours. |
