In yesterday's Brainzooming article about the misperception of finding the new magic answer in a new business book, I talked about the idea of creating your own, unique personal strategic tapestry.
The idea is you should continually add to your strategic leadership perspective with snippets all the news ideas you encounter. You should develop and challenge your cumulative perspective all the time, but never throw out your entire personal strategic tapestry based on what you read in the latest new business book.
Writing that post got me thinking about what threads are in my own personal strategic tapestry. My threads include both bigger and smaller learnings as you can tell from this list: the first eighteen personal learnings I wrote down off the top of my head. These are all in my personal strategic tapestry, pulled from some names you’ll recognize and others you won’t.
Weddings are optional, funerals are mandatory. - Rudy Giuliani
Ultimately, you can only control the integrity of your effort. - Jim Collins
Form reinforces function. - Dave Wessling
A leader should say what he or she thinks only after the people who work for the leader share what they think. - Greg Reid
Don't do anything stupid. - Bill Zollars
White space sells. - Cyndi Brown
The best social media people will have a customer service background. - Chris Brogan
Great content will work in any order. - Greg Reid
Don't decide for another person why you think they will say, "No." - Bernie Brown
When you reach a certain age, never pass up a bathroom on the way to the elevator. - Newton Graves
It takes at least nine repetitions for a future customer to recognize and potentially act on your message. - Jay Conrad Levinson
Everything is invented. - Benjamin Zander
Don't start your day listening to negative news. - Ed Foreman
You'll come back tomorrow. - Fr. Earl Meyer
Make assumptions, share them, and keep going with your analysis and strategic conclusions. - Gary Singer
Think of processes and even a whole business as the assets you can take apart and rearrange. - Joe Batista
Don't meet me there, beat me there. - Tony Vannicola
Treat people nicely. You never know what private hell someone is going through. - Susan Ayotte
These are all valuable learnings. Maybe you'd like to add one or two of them to your own personal strategic tapestry? – Mike Brown
