Daily Inspiration 6-13-12

"He that undervalues himself will undervalue others, and he that undervalues others will oppress them." -- Samuel Johnson I had a craving last night and for the last several days to watch a movie that I've seen before, so I decided to follow that, went to the store, got the movie and watched it. The movie is Moneyball with Brad Pitt, which was also produced by him. The first time I watched it, I was watching a movie, enjoying the characters, interested in where it was going, how well it was made and such. This time was very different. This time, I saw so many lessons to pay attention to and reap the rewards of. I'll highlight just a few here. The first one that stood out made me relate to a quote of Henry Ford's that I've come to admire. He said, "Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching around for what it gets." This was the situation with the Oakland A's at the time where they had so little money in comparison to the wealthy teams, yet their strong desire, and that of the general manager found a way to succeed anyway. Because of their budget they had many options not open to them; however, at the same time, because of their budget, they still had a lot of options, many of which were under layers of tradition. Lesson two: They succeeded by changing the way they had traditionally thought and how they saw everyone else in the industry thinking (culture). Doing things the traditional way, the way they were taught to do things, was not only ineffective with their small budget, it was downright frustrating. I can relate to that in some smaller car dealerships that I worked at. It would have been so nice to have all the money we needed to do what we wanted to do, but like Henry Ford said, a certain amount of scratching around, finding a different way of thinking of things and doing a thing was effective and successful regardless of the budget. I use that thinking today in my own business. The third lesson was about how the traditional thinking undervalued a lot of players by overvaluing the "star" players. That's the ego in all its glory and we think it is doing us a service, but it is a mirage. This reminds me of so many things such as the music industry and the handful of songs, artists and groups who we hear about compared to the tens of thousands that we don't, and how what we hear about is not the best just because we hear about it. That is what Simon Cowell brought to the forefront by showing how much talent is really out there. As with baseball, there were hundreds of unknown superstars given the chance by an eye that can see. There were many other lessons in this movie as well, such as, being open to having the assistance of others to help you get something done, or open your own mind to different ideas, paying attention to what the real goal is instead of the phantom goal that we think is the target, and more. It is a wonderfully instructive movie about life and about business. I'll end with some questions to consider. Let me look at what and who I value. Am I overvaluing some and undervaluing others? Who or what am I undervaluing? What is right about this situation? If there were a way to get there in my circumstances, would my current thinking help or hinder me? Our perspective is everything.

"We Cannot Solve Our Problems With The Same Thinking We Used When We Created Them." -- Albert Einstein   Spread Some Joy Today--by sharing a portion of your abundance with someone today.