Future Forward 2011

8/3/2019 Future Forward 2011

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Foreword

Irrespective of our religious persuasions, cultural belief or corporateroutine, the New Year always brings about an opportunity for us toreconsider our function in life.

A simple News Years resolution or statements of personal goals are theobvious things and unlikely to be life changing, they are instinctively defined by our existing values and our current perception of the world.

Imagine there was no past? Would the future be different - would we

dream grander dreams, would we change the way we view ourrelationships, would we love our job and country more? Would we live alife that really matters and would the world be a better place?

Philosophy drives behavior and it is the philosophy of the leaders thatdrive the behavior of the organization. It is important therefore that weexercise some introspection when we consider the future and I am hopefulthat the contents of this booklet assist in stimulating your thinking.

Thank you for considering Planet 10 a suitable business partner and for your love, kindness & professionalism, both in the past and in the future. We look forward to sharing with you our dreams and visions and building value based relationships.

Angus Young


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A Violinist in the Metro

A man sat in a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated thatthousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way

to work.

Three minutes went by and a middle aged man noticed there was amusician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and

then hurried up to meet his schedule.

A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw themoney in the till and, without stopping, continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, butthe man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late

for work.

The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother

tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist.Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turninghis head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children.

All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayedfor a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal

pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, noone noticed it.

No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the bestmusicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever

written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.


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Two days before playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theatre inBoston and the seats averaged $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station wasorganized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about

perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in acommonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an

unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:

If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written,

how many other things are we missing?


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Live A Life That Matters

Ready or not, someday it will all come to an end.There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days. All things you collect, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to

someone else. Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.

It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed. Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will

finally disappear.So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire.

The wins and losses that once seemed too important will fade away.It wont matter where you come from or on what side of the tracks youlived, at the end.

It wont matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.Even your gender and skin colour will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built not what youve got, but what you gave .

What will matter are not your successes, but your significance. What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage orsacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate

your example. What will matter is not your competence, but your character.

What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when youre gone.

What will matter are not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you.

What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whomand for what.

Living a life that matters doesnt happen by accident. Its not amatter of circumstance but of choice .

Choose to live a life that matters.


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Science and the appetite for wonder

We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are nevergoing to die because they are never going to be born.

The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in factnever see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly thoseunborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater thanNewton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA,so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying

odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here. After sleeping through a hundred million centuries, we have finally opened oureyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with colour, bountiful with life. Withindecades we must close our eyes again.

Isnt it noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it?This is how I answer when I am asked - as I am surprisingly often why I bother to get up in the mornings.

To put it in the other way round isnt it sad to get to your grave without ever wondering why you were born?

Who, with such a thought, would not spring from bed, eager to resumediscovering the world and rejoicing to be part of it?

Richard Dawkins in Unweaving the Rainbow - The Star Newspaper


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Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power arefeared; but only men of character are trusted.

No legacy is so rich as honesty.

William Shakespeare


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Clarity of Values

Man must first determine which things in life are most valuable to him. Hemust determine his feeling about such things as patriotism, pride, love,freedom, excellence, ownership and tolerance. These are values in society, themoral, ethical and fundamental judgments that we, as individuals, deemimportant. Without a clear system of values for ourselves, it is impossible to believe in something with a passion that has no value to us. Once we haveestablished our individual value system we are then able to determine how we

can achieve success based on our priority of values. What must we live up inone hand to accomplish what we desire on the other? Without a value system we can never move forward for we may be trading without increasing ourpotential for success.


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Do you have what it takes to live in a world withoutdishonesty?

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changinghimself. Leo Tolstoy

Honesty, we argue, is the best policy. And yet in much of our lives,dishonesty rules. Says Stepcase Lifehacks Dustin Wax.

Salespeople lie about the benefits of one product over another, or about how useful those extended service plans really are. Partners lie about whetherthey like dinner, or about what they did last night after work. Employees lieabout the reason a project is overdue. And of course politicians lie about ... thecolour of the sky.

We look down on dishonesty, yet we all know the benefit of a little white lie. Why disappoint your spouse when its so much easier to just say You look great honey? Why make a friend regret buying a new car by revealing all theterrible things youve read about it? Its hard to justify being completely honest.

But Wax asks if by saying things that are convenient rather than true, we dontend up losing sight of the truth in every area of our lives; whether is losing theability to be truthful for the sake of being truthful, we dont lose a little bit of ourselves.

Beyond the dictionary sense of the world, he says, theres the way that beinghonest acts in the world ... honesty is about trust its about convincing othersthat we are to be trusted, and its about trusting others to be able to deal withthe truth as we report it.

Consider some of the situations that might lead us to be dishonest. Wereafraid we may miss out on something, that someone will be better than us, were afraid well punished for something that well hurt someones feelings or


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that someone will think badly of us. The point is that more often than not ourdishonesty is provoked by fear.

The salesman lies because he is afraid of losing a sale.

The employee lies because she is afraid of losing her job. The spouse lies because he is afraid of breaking up his marriage. The politician lies because heis afraid of losing the next election.

We live in a world full of lies because we dont trust each other.

Ultimately, honesty makes us vulnerable, and dishonesty protects us. But at what cost?

Every dishonesty is an admission that we dont trust the person were lying to we dont trust them per se or we dont trust them to trust us enough to know we dont intend to hurt them.

Either way, a lie says you think little of the person youre lying to ... can youreally think highly of a person you dont trust?

Therefore we should think good and hard before allowing ourselves even thesmallest dishonesty, says Wax, lest it become a habit; not just a habit in thesense of the way we act, but a habit in the way we see other people, especially those close to us.

And the next time someone lies to you, you might want to ask yourself why it isthat maybe they dont trust you enough to tell you the truth.

Business Day, Friday 18 September 2009 MICHEL PIREU:


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Changing the World

"When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world. As I grew older and wiser, I discovered the world wouldnot change, so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country.

But it, too, seemed immovable.

As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I settled for

changing only my family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have noneof it.

And now, as I lie on my deathbed, I suddenly realize: If I had only changedmyself first, then by example I would have changed my family.

From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to better my country, and who knows, I may have even changed the world."

Inscribed on the tomb of an Anglican Bishop in Westminster Abby (1100 A.D.)


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A Closer Look at Purpose

At some point in your life you are going to think about the following 3questions: Why, how and where? As in, why does a company exist? How doesit exist? And, where is it going? Purpose is concerned with why someone orsomething exists, and specifically in this article, why a business exists. Any business, especially yours. A value system describes how a company exists. And goals describe where a company is going. Purpose describes what acompany, your company, actually does. Values can be thought of as the houserules of an organisation - values define the way that you operate. And goals arethe milestones you constantly set and aim for.

I am going to jump right in with a quote from the son of the founder of Merck,one of the world's largest corporations. In 1950, George Merck II said, "We try to remember that medicine is for the patient. We try never to forget thatmedicine is for the people. It is not for the profits. The profits follow, and if wehave remembered that, they have never failed to appear. The better we haveremembered it, the larger they have been." This description of Merck'spurpose captures the sprit that I am trying to share with you here. Merck saveslife through medicine. And the more they do so, they more people pay them. Itas simple as that. Merck would not sell a placebo that didn't help anyone, evenif it meant they could boost the bottom line. People trust them because they stand for something more than making money. And as a consequence of them being true to their mission they make a fortune. People trust them becausethey are trying to make a difference in the world. The compelling wisdom thatstems from this is as follows: the more of a difference they do in fact make, themore money they take in.

Purpose is something you can never realise. Merck can never complete themission of saving life through medicine. Why? Because there are always new illnesses in the world and everyday more and more people get sick and needhelp. Purpose is something that does evolve over time but it can never becompleted.

Ronnie Apteker log.Vottle.com


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Friend

Around the corner I have a friend,In this great land that has no end, Yet the days go by and the weeks rush on, And before I know it, a year is gone, And I never see my old friends face,For life has become a swift and terrible race.He knows I like him just as well, As in the days when I rang his bell, And he rang mine, but we were younger then, And now we are busy, tired men.Tired of playing this foolish game,Tired of trying to make a name.Tomorrow I say! I will call on him,

Just to show Im thinking of him.But tomorrow comes and tomorrow goes, And this distance between us grows andgrows. Around the corner, yet miles away,Heres a telegram sir, he died today. And thats what we get and deserve in the end, Around the corner, a vanished friend.

Anonymous


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Goal Setting

In truth we all set goals, things we want to do, to achieve, to work towards - but mostly they are passing thoughts and ideas and they too often remaininside our heads.

Research has shown that people who write down their goals are much morelikely to achieve them than those who don't. Goals gives you the overallperspective that shapes all other aspects of your decision making.

Life is a 24 hour a day process and to live a balanced life goals should cover atleast the following areas

Career & LearningHealthFinancialFamily & FriendsSpiritual

Goals should be cumulative with short term (this year), mid term (next 3-5 years) and long term. Long term goals are more visionary and reflect thepurpose of your life/ organization.


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I am Being Led Through Life

I love with such a passion now that death is imminent,for what I love is easily so true to methat God would hardly let me know the pleasure of it,even one more day.

No man could have such happiness

and still be left to walk this good green earth.I so dedicate what life I haveto you I loveand pray you spend it generously on what you love and what you'll come to love.

Rod McKuen


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Everything Counts!

These two words make for one powerful philosophy. Believe in sweating thesmall stuff, and that every action, word, and thought has a direction that eithermoves you closer to, or further from your goals. Every moment offers anopportunity for advancement or retreat, and that the only direction worthmoving in life is true north!

There are no neutral thoughts, choices or actions. Everything accumulates,and even the smallest gesture has a direction to it. For that reason, we must

ensure that everything we do counts.There will never be a day that will not require dedication, discipline, good judgment, energy, and the feeling that you can improve. Each day offers anopportunity for improvement.

Self-knowledge grows as you subject your life to examination. Listening to your own speech, reflecting on your own thoughts, looking at your own actions these are the processes by which you master yourself. You shape yourphilosophies and yourself by observing and striving to understand the eventsof each moment. A focus on virtues to attain and vices to forego is crucial.

Everything Counts! is a call to awareness, not to neurosis. It offers a fresh,honest perspective on living, an ongoing investigation of truth. In thisinvestigation, everything counts. The examined life is the one worth living.Lead your life as you would read a love letter. In a love letter, everythingcounts. You read everything between, above, and below the lines and in themargins as well. You notice the cute dot over the "i" and examine the stamp formeaning. You turn over pages, hoping to find something on the other side. Yousmell the envelope for any hint of fragrance. You study the salutation and feel warmed by the close. Every little detail has importance.

Like falling in love, the process of acquiring a goal may defy explanation. But you know when it's happening.

www.thegoalsguy.com


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Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond imagination. It is our light more than our darkness which scares us. We ask ourselves who are we to be brilliant, beautiful,

talented, and fabulous. But honestly, who are you to not be so?

Marianne Williamson

I start with the premise that the function of leadership

is to produce more leaders, not more followers.

Ralph Nader


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10 Rules for innovation

In a very competitive world, where things change overnight, radical innovationis an imperative. Here follows 10 rules for such innovation:

1. Set Unreasonable Expectations: No company outperforms itsaspirations. If your objectives are outlandish it forces people to think very differently about their opportunities they must innovate.

2. Stretch Your Business Definition: Dont define your company by what you do. Rather define it by what you know (your core competencies)and what you own (your strategic assets).

3.

Create a Cause, Not a Business: Employees should feel they arecontributing to something that will make a genuine difference.4. Listen to New Voices: Management must listen to three groups: a)

Young People: anyone with a youthful perspective; b) People Near theGeographical Edges: radical innovation increases with each mile youmove from HQ; and c) New Comers: people who escaped thestultifying effect of group thinking.

5. Design an Open Market for Ideas: Radical ideas are the only way tocreate wealth corporately and individually.

6. Offer an Open Market for Capital: Your financial goal must be tomake sure you have a big winner, not no losers you must be willingto write off a few failed experiments.

7. Open Up the Market for Talent: Companies pursuing the bestopportunities attract the best talent. Offer people the upside of opportunities within the company.

8. Lower the Risk of Experimentation: Make small bets a lot of small bets. This is low-risk experimentation. It is a critical rule for consistentrevolution.

9. Make Like a Cell Divide and Divide: Division and differentiation arethe essence of growth. Cellular division drives innovation in thefollowing ways: a) it frees resources from tyrannical orthodoxy; b) itcreates space for new thinking and business models; c) it providesopportunities to nurture entrepreneurial talent; d) it puts generalmanagers close to the customer; and e) it undermines the powers-that-be to kill projects.

10. Pay Your Innovators Well Really Well: Innovators need more thana stake in the company. They need a stake in their own ideas.

Gary Hamel Fortune


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Teamwork

A few years ago at the Seattle Special Olympics, nine contestants, all physically or mentally disabled, assembled at the starting line for the 100-yard dash. Atthe gun, they all started out, not exactly in a dash, but with a relish to run therace to the finish and win.

All, that is, except one boy who stumbled on the asphalt, tumbled over acouple of times and began to cry. The other eight heard the boy crying. They slowed down and looked back. They all turned around and went back. Every

one of them.

One girl with Down's Syndrome bent down and kissed him and said, "This willmake it better."

All nine linked arms and walked across the finish line together.

Everyone in the stadium stood, and the cheering went on for several minutes.People who were there are still telling the story. Why?

Because deep down we know this one thing:

What matters in this life is more than winning for ourselves.


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Torchbearers

The Olympic Games torch relay kicking off the involves carrying a singleflame from a remote place to the host city. This event focuses on oneathlete, one flame. If the torchbearer doesnt make it, everyone is let down.

Theres one thread that runs through the challenges that make up businesslife: people are torchbearers, or theyre not.

Heres how you recognise a torchbearer:

1. Torchbearers dont make excuses: They run uphill with the samegrace and style that they bring to gliding downhill.

2. Torchbearers often attract a crowd: Individuals who are willing tocarry responsibility fascinate people. The followers are usually delighted, loyal and hard-working enough to follow the torchbearersuphill and downhill.

3. Most torchbearers dont realise how unique they are, how powerful their role is, or how hard their task is: Most of them are happy just toperform their role and handle their task, without making outrageousdemands or insisting on all kinds of special treatment.

4. Torchbearers often care more about forward motion than they doabout which route to take: Theyre out on the road moving, moving,moving. Movement is often the best way to get where theyre going.

5. Real torchbearers dont stop until they finish: They never forget orshort-change a duty, even when that means postponing joy.

Seth Godin Fast Company


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We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world .

Buddha

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow-men; and along those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions runas causes, and they come back to us as effects.

Herman Melville

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughlyused up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. Life is no 'brief candle' to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for amoment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

George Bernard Shaw 1856


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Self Actualisation

Self actualisation means to develop and achieve ones full potential. There aresome who believe that the whole universe is a diverse pool of energy. Energy is never lost it is merely transformed from one element to another. We arepart of the universe and therefore part of the dynamic pool of energy. In orderto become one with the universe and its energy, we must first become one withourselves. This is the essence of self actualisation

The way we act is what well attract; life reciprocates and responds in kind with whatever our actions show that well accept. The extent to which we act

with confidence or trust in lifes invisible hand tends to match the degree that we see it confirmed in our life because life is like a Rorschach ink blot test where we tend to find whatever we look for.

Maslow implied that maximum self-actualisation is achieved by what he calledpeak experiences or altered states of consciousness these can come at any time in life to any person. Some authorities, such as the Zen Buddhists,identify peak experiences and altered states of consciousness with non-ego, non-judgmental or pure contemplative states.

All that I have seen teaches me to trust the universe for all that I have not seen.

Emerson


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An Old Farmer's Advice

*Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong.*

*Keep skunks and bankers at a distance.*

*Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.*

*A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.*

*Words that soak into your ears are whispered... not yelled.*

*Meanness don't jes' happen overnight.*

*Forgive your enemies. It messes up their heads.*

*Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.*

*It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge.*

*You cannot unsay a cruel word.*

*Every path has a few puddles.*

*When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.*

*The best sermons are lived, not preached.*

*Most of the stuff people worry about ain't never gonna happen anyway.*

*Don't judge folks by their relatives.*

*Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.*

*Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'llenjoy it a second time.*

*Don't interfere with somethin' that ain't bothering you none.*


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* Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a Rain dance.*

*If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.**Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.*

* The biggest troublemaker you'll probably ever have to deal with, watchesyou from the mirror every morning'.*

* Always drink upstream from the herd.**Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad

judgment.*

*Letting' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than putting' it back in.*

*If you get to thinking' you're a person of some influence, try ordering'somebody else's dog around.*

*Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply.*

*Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.*

*Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight,he'll just kill you!*


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Only You Can Make The Difference!

Every day you should wake up having become more fully

you. Don't settle for so little. Laugh and smile more.

Anything you dream is possible.

The purpose of life is to help others, and if you can't help

them, at least don't hurt them.

YOU alone can bring magic to the person you encounter.

The time for life is now.

All of life is a choice.

To reach out to another person is to risk involvement. The

alternatives are loneliness and despair. To expose your

feelings is to risk exposing yourself. To share your ideas and

dreams is to risk ridicule. Remember, each one of us has the

right to our ideas and dreams. The person who does not risk

does not feel, grow, live and love. A person who takes risks is

truly free.

We must let people know we truly and genuinely care about

them and that they are more important than things.

To be is to do...and to do is to do now.... because tomorrow

may never come. The time for action is now and only you

can make the difference.

Leo Buscalia

Documents

Future Forward 2011