The Keys to Success

Some thoughts on success.

There is not one key to success; there are many.  There are many doors to success.  A problem we have is that neither the doors nor the keys are labelled. We don’t know which keys opens which door. While some keys can open several of the doors, some of the doors require multiple keys. We have to try the keys we have against the doors we find.  If we're lucky, we might open one of the doors.

The key to success is remembering these three rules:

1. Have an iron determination - never be swayed.
2. Be adaptable.
3. Know which of the first two keys is applies to a situation

Success consists of first defining what you mean by success.

If at first you don't succeed, try redefining what success means

Very often, success and happiness do not go hand in hand. The same way that success and good looks don't necessarily come hand in hand. If you achieve success, you achieve success; you don’t necessarily achieve happiness.

Hello there,

Going viral as an example of how NOT to communicate to your employees that more than 12,000 of them are going to be let go, is Stephen Elop's, "Hello there," memo:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2014/jul14/07-17announcement2.aspx

Prediction: the phrase "pink slip" will be replaced by "'Hello there' memo", as in "They just gave me a 'Hello there' memo!"

Elop is Microsoft's EVP for Devices & Services, and was previously CEO of Nokia.
 

Core Incompetency

Core competencies have been a corporate buzzword ever since Hamel and Prahalad popularised it in "Competing for the Future".  The idea was for organisations to understand themselves, know their strengths, their core competencies, so they can leverage it to advantage (or 'Stick to the knitting' as Peters and Waterman wrote in 'In Search of Excellence')

Perhaps companies can also benefit from understanding their core incompetencies.  Where do they compare badly to their peers?