The Law of Priorities

I've been reading alot of principles from the book "The 21 irrefutable laws of leadership" by John Maxwell. This was one of the topics that impressed me alot. Allow me to share some thoughts and quotes.

"Leaders understand that activity is not necessarily accomplishment"

This statement hit me like a hard brick. I always gave myself a pat on the back to encourage myself for doing many things at one time. This is made even worse by the fact that I'm a choleric. Howver, I do admit that the quote above bears merit. I can be doing so much, but does the things that I do really matter? Not everything that demands for my attention is important, even though they are urgent.

I believe that every task falls into 4 categories:

Urgent and important
Urgent and unimportant
Not Urgent and important
Not Urgent and unimportant

The challenge for myself is whether I can differentiate them at all times. Everthing single thing should be viewed from the 4 categories and dealt with accordingly. Therefore, the appropiate amount of time should also be allocated according to its severity. A major question arises: Are we spending enough time on the things that really matter?

A fine example of an effective leader is displayed by Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric. When he assumed leadership in 1981, the company stock traded at $4/share & was worth $12 billion. It was a HUGE and diverse company that included 350 strategic businesses. Jack began a total revolution and changed the entire profile of the company. He simply asked whether their businesses and products could be No.1 or No.2? Of the 348 businesses or product lines that could not, he closed some and divested others. He used the money earned to reinvest in the ones that remained and further strengthened them with acquisitions. He focused on a few supporting operations and 14 world class businesses, all well positioned for the 90's, either being the 1st or 2nd in the world market in which it participates.

Since he took over, GE's stock experienced a 2:1 split 4 times. And it traded more than $80/share since the writing of the book. It also became one of the most valuable company in the world with a market capitalisation of more than $250 billion.

What made GE one of the best companies in the world? Jack knew that it was always important to align people to what really matters and the end of the day. Thus this brought tremendous success.

My question for you today is:
What are we going to focus on the few things that will bring us the highest reward? If not, we might just be like a headless chicken, running around with no aim.

Innovation and Creativity

You know, I'm always disturbed the terms innovation and creativity. I somehow never knew what is the difference between both of them. Are they the same words; just used inter-changeably or totally different words? A quick search in www.dictonary.com revealed this:

Creativity: One who displays productive originality. Characterized by originality and expressiveness

Innovation: The act of introducing something new. Something newly introduced.

Despite of whatever school of thought you come from, allow me to speak from my understanding of it. Creativity is some original ideas that are derived from someone's thinking, but it may not neccessary translate into action. However, innovation demands not just the thinking, but physical action. Henceforth, a thought exclaimed by someone could be considered as creative, but to only put into action can one be considered innovative.

We usually think of creativity or innovation as a step by step procedure, one that needs to build upon the success of another idea. However, I believe that it can be rather explosive and huge when it comes around, eg. the invention of aeroplanes by Wright Brothers, the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell. These are revoluntionary ideas that took the world by storm. These are not small ideas that came out from others' minds but rather creative and innovative at the same time. My challenge to you is "Are you going to settle for small breakthroughs or HUGE ones?" Don't settle for the small stuff, but go for the BIG idea.

Its all the same effort, we just need to bring it to fruitation. Take action!

Chaotic thoughts

Chaotic Thoughts were derived from the numerous thoughts that keep reappearing in my mind. This blog is dedicated to 'verbalising' these thoughts. It will be concentrated on Creativity, Innovation, Marketing and Entrepreneurship; these topics are very dear to my heart.