I am writing this, not because Michael Bloomberg is going for the Office of the President, but because everyone you come in contact with, read about or talk to has something you can learn from them.
While I use technology to communicate with others, I also put down the computer or phone and just plain talk to people. That is the best way to really connect with people. Just strike up a conversation. It's not rocket science and not meant to be rocket science. Get out there and talk to people.
Anyway, I find this an interesting quote by Michael Bloomberg. Often, kids graduating from high school, college or grad school, think they have a firm grip on what they are going to do in life, when they are going to do it and how they are going to do it. Seasoned veterans out there know that this is, in most cases, far from what really happens.
"Don't devise a Five-Year Plan or a Great Leap Forward, Central planning didn't work for Stalin or Mao, and it won't work for an entrepreneur either. Slavishly follow a specific step-by-step strategy, the process gurus tell you. It'll always work, they say. Not in my world. Predicting the future is impossible. You work hard because it increases the odds. But there's no guarantee; much is dependent on what cards happen to get dealt. I have always believed in playing as many hands as possible, as intelligently as I can, and taking the best of what comes my way. Every significant advance I or my company has ever made has been evolutionary rather than revolutionary: small earned steps - not big lucky hits."
-Michael Bloomberg, Bloomberg by Bloomberg
In the movie “Money Ball”, the focus of the Oakland A’s general manager to recruiting changed from trying to get players who are the big home run hitters to getting players who can get on base. In essence, getting those small hits to get on base was more important that the slugger who hit home runs, but often struck out. It is interesting how this was once on the outside of accepted thought and has now become mainstream. In football, data is now being collected by microchips in the ball and on the players.
As I always tell my kids, things are the same, but different.
