See how much
you accomplish because you're SPECIAL
At the beginning of one football season,
the coach of the Buffalo Bills called
quarterback Jack Kemp (later to serve as
Secretary of HUD and Bob Dole's vice
presidential running mate) into his
office. He sat Kemp down for a brief
chat. The coach informed Kemp that there
was one player he kept his eye on
because he saw in this player a special
quality. Furthermore, the coach
continued, if that player lived up to
his potential, he would not only hold
the team together and bring it a
championship, but he would also go on to
greatness as a professional.
Kemp adds, "He told me that this
one player was me!" Kemp was told
to keep this conversation in strictest
confidence. "No one, particularly
no one on this team, is to know of this
conversation," said the coach.
Understanding that sharing that
conversation would only serve to upset
others, Kemp never shared it with a team
mate or anyone for a long time.
"Of course, when I left the room
that day," Kemp says, "I was
ready to run through a brick wall for
that guy. And that's what I did all year
long."
Kemp found out later that the coach
had virtually the same chat with every
other guy on the squad.
by Harvey Mackay, Sharkproof,
1993, Harper Business New York NY
Your PERSONAL
STAKE matters
There were two warring tribes in the
South American Andes, one lived in the
lowlands and the other in the mountains.
The mountain people invaded the
lowlanders one day and as part of their
plundering, kidnapped a baby from one of
the lowlanders and carried the baby back
to the mountains.
The lowlanders didn't know how to
climb the mountains or any of the trails
that the mountain people used. They also
did not know how to track or find the
mountain people. Even so, they sent out
their best part of fighting men to climb
the mountain and bring the baby home.
The men tried first one method of
climbing and then another. Despite their
best efforts over a number of days they
were only able to climb a few hundred
feet. Feeling hopeless and helpless, the
lowlanders decided their cause was lost
and they prepared to return to their
village.
As they packed their gear for the
descent, they saw the baby's mother
walking down toward them. They realized
that she was coming down the mountain
that they had not learned to climb.
They also saw that she had her baby
strapped to her back. One man greeted
her and said, "We could not climb
the mountain. How did you do this when
we, the strongest and most able men in
the village, couldn't do it?"
She shrugged her shoulders and said,
"It wasn't your baby."
It's not a
problem, just an OPPORTUNITY
A publishing company made an error
which resulted in printing a wrong toll
free number on more than 50,000 pieces
of promotional literature sent out. The
number printed belonged to a competitor
who markets similar kinds of products.
Soon the phones of this competitor were
ringing off the wall as the misdirected
phone calls were coming in every few
minutes. The competitor's staff was kept
busy telling callers they had not
reached the right company. In addition
to the cost of staff, each call was
being charged to the 800 number it the
competitor's office.
The solution? The competitor company
president figured that whatever she did,
there was no way she could avoid paying
for these calls. So she instructed her
staff to take down each caller's name
and address and then mail them a copy of
her company's catalog.
By reformulating the situation, she
relaxed and stopped cursing the ringing
telephones. It worked, her company is
still profiting from those
"unwelcome" calls.
by Tom Logsdon, Breaking
Through: Creative Problem-Solving Using
Six Successful Strategies, 1993,
Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA
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