Using mental models, can lead you to be strategic thinker and lead you to financial success

Be better than before, than yesterday...

The author  thinks in terms of chess most of the time, prescribes these  chess moves as mental models:

How to become a more strategic thinker 1 - Control the Center just like in boxing. This derives from chess. E.g knight controls 8 square at the center, But only 2 at the corner. 2- The True Value of a Piece Synergy. A powerful piece and a pawn in diagonal can be very strong 3 - Position Over Submission 4- The Initiative - The one who is the leader makes the other reactive is weaker. He is follower

5. The Hardest Move to Find - sometimes this is resting, retreating 6- How to go even deeper

Having a better mindset  is a key to success.   Peter Senge in 5th Discipline says that.  

Strategy - making a choice

It is about getting better...

From A. Lafley - author of Playing to Money, former  head of P & G. 

Strategy - strategy means making a choice to win.  Winning means creating more value for the customers.  It means finding who that customers are, and finding out the best way to deliver that value.

Recognition of SWOT:

   1.  Understanding the changing the customer wants and needs

   2.  Our capabilities:

        1.  Our strengths

        2.  Our partners

        3.  Scaling up our strengths

Its a relationship about the product.  Best expressed by BRAND

Customers change, competitors change.

Corrosive qualities in employees that must be stopped

From Inc

People are important aspect of an organization.  People connect strategy and process. There could be no success without people.  However, some people are truly destructive and corrosive (like termites) no matter how you try.  They are simply not fit to work, or be part of the organization and must be removed from the bus at all cost.

Here are the types of employees that must be removed from the bus.

Are you a TRUE believer? From Brian Tracy - the greatest modern motivational speaker

This is about personal strategic planning.  Just like any strategy, you must determine your values and mission in life.  Without that you are rudderless, lighthouse less individuals, and just like the proverbial shrimp, the current will just carry you anywhere.

Having determined your sub objectives, you determine your programs, your action plans to arrive at your desired goals destination.

In my entrep class, I ask students to fill up a learning agreement, which is a personal strategic planning.  Before you run a business, you must steer first yourself to success and know you own strategy.

The Secret of Success in Strategy - Applied

It is about getting better...

 

I was watching this HBO show on Pacific and there was this Marine General giving a pep talk to his Non Com officers prior to their leaving for their mission in the Pacific.  And he mentioned the greatest secret in strategy -  that the success of strategy lies in the execution by the middle managers - the sargeants.  He said that their success lies in the hands of the non com.  And the the sargeants agreed with his simple and yet powerful talk.

Thus the technical strategy books have to be junked in favor of:

1 Mintzberg commitment and collaboration by people towards a goal

2  Peter Senges shared vision and learning.

3.  Sun Tzu

4. Gen Giap

Without that common bond/and sharing of passion towards the goal, there cant be strategic success.  No swot, no EFE or IFE.  Just success, victory, victory.

Thus said the one the most brilliant modern strategist, the late Gen Giap of North Vietnam who defeated both the US and French Armies, despite superiority in numbers, technology and firepower.

                                                 


                                            

Get rid of your debt, control your finances and be wealthy

What can make you rich?  Get out of debt?

                                               


 From Brian Tracy files


How do you start?  By being disciplined.  Avoid being a consumer:  who according to Will Smith keep on buying things he doesnt need, with money he doesnt have to impress people he does not know/like.  This propensity for enjoying now and paying later has caused Americans the loss of the American dream.

According to stats:

• According to the web site creditcards.com, the average credit card debt per American household with credit card debt is $15,799.
• The average APR on a new credit card offer, according to the same site, is 14.89 percent.
• The total US revolving debt (98 percent of which is credit card debt): $793.1 billion (that’s right – billion).
• The total US consumer debt: $2.43 trillion. 

This comes from a culture of entitlement that culture, society and politics has wrought upon the American society/people

You can actually through mind control and discipline get over the plastic (credit card habit)  Brian Tracy has solution (and you must pay - still part of the consumer bandwagon)  His pitch:

When you listen to "Wealth Building Made Simple," you learn:

• The 5 reasons people DON'T become wealthy (you can overcome every single one of these – which ones are holding you back?)
• How to do the research you need to understand WHY and HOW you invest for success (Russian Roulette just won't work, here)
• The 7 principles for business success, and how to use them to your advantage
• The single biggest reason for failure in adult life – and how it can paralyze you when it comes to starting your own business
• The Great Law of real estate – knowing this can make your success, and not knowing it can break your success
• 3 main reasons creativity is so important in becoming financially successful
• An action you can take, starting today, to greatly enhance your chances of becoming wealthy
• And much more!

Order it now, for introductory pricing!
The recipes and formulas for financial success are tested and proven, year after year. Millions of people go from rags to riches in one generation. Why can't you?
To your financial freedom,.

                                   

Challenge for Power of Positive Thinking with Potato Penetration Challenge

                                        "I did it slowly"

January 12, 2013.  Ateneo Professional Schools.   MBAH Entrep Class.  At around 11 am, we had this challenge:   penetrating the potato with ordinary soft softdrinks straw through and through.

It is supposed to be an exercise on the power of positive thinking:   mind over matter, what the mind can conceive, the body can achieve, and an illustration of :

strategy:       key activities and key resources to reach a desired goal

entrepreneurship:    making a dream a reality

                               creating something from nothing (no resources at all)

Machiavelli:    the end justifies the means.

Some interesting languages were used to describe the strategy to penetrate the potato through and through:

"Pinuwersa"    -  Ramin Blanco

"Dahan dahan"   Dr Ching

"Chose the soft spot"

"Binaligtad"

"I screwed it"

There are many ways to meet the challenge.  There are many ways to achieve a dream.  And making the choice is very enterprising;  and very strategic.

This  example/challenge is a powerful way of explaining this complex subject.