Fun on Friday- More Turnerisms (and a Parkerism)

My youngest son, Turner, just turned 4 years old. The combination of a developing sense of his world, an expanding vocabulary and a creative young mind have led to what we affectionately refer to as Turnerisms. Here are a few more:

"Daddy, I'm going to tell you something that will make you sad. New people become old people and you are too".

"Why did God make possums"?

When talking about Dollywood: "Is it hard for Dolly Parton to keep up with all of that"?

And a Parkerism:
Me: "Thanks, Big Guy".
Parker: "You're welcome, Extra Large Guy".

Great Quote Thursday

I have seen competent leaders who stood in front of a platoon and all they saw was a platoon. But great leaders stand in front of a platoon and see it as forty-four individuals, each of whom has aspirations, each of whom wants to live, each of whom wants to do good- General Norman Schwarzkopf

Book Review- The Truth About You by Marcus Buckingham

Marcus Buckingham's The Truth About You is a short read that helps the reader differentiate between his strengths and weaknesses. While conventional wisdom teaches that an individual should work to improve the areas they are weak in, Buckingham promotes the perspective that that time is better spent trying to enhance one's strengths. While you can't ignore your weaknesses, Buckingham suggests that time is better spent working to strengthen your strengths.

Here a some nuggets from the book:
Your interests are a very good clue to your strengths. Your interests aren't random.

Don't expect your organization ever to know you like you do. The organization will start with the performance it wants- a job that needs to get done- and then it'll work backward to you.

Don't you have some things you're good at, but they bore you, drain you, or frustrate you? You are certainly capable of doing them, and because you're capable of doing them, people keep asking you to do them- in fact, they come to rely on you to do them- but if you never had to do those things again it would be too soon.

People join because of the "Why". They stay because of the "Who". And, in the end, they quit because of the "What".

The Truth About You is worth your time.

Great Quote Thursday

A person first starts to live when he can live outside himself- Albert Einstein

Why the NBA Needs to Play a Complete 2011-2012 Season

The National Basketball Association (NBA) and the members of the National Basketball Players Association are currently in a lockout period during which the league owners want to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement that is more agreeable to them (meaning they want a larger piece of the large pie). Depending on whose financial statistics you believe, the owners are either losing money due to tough economic conditions or they're in a financial mess of their own making by signing players to bad contracts (see Eddy Curry).

But here are several reasons the two sides should start contract negotiations soon:
The National Football League will soon kick off its season.
The start of the college football season in about three weeks away.
The Major League Baseball season is winding down and headed toward the playoffs.
College basketball will tip-off this fall and will be televised on multiple channels every night.
The National Hockey League is as healthy as its been in some time.

Here's The Point: If the start of the NBA season is delayed or if the season completely lost, being "out of sight, out of mind" is no place for a professional sports league to be. The competition for the fan's dollars is too strong and the economy is too unstable to risk a league becoming irrelevant. It's very difficult for fan's to care when millionaires and billionaires can't make a multi-billion dollar pie work for everyone involved.

Book Review- Decision Points by George W. Bush

This memoir of former U. S. President George W. Bush is written around the major "decision points" of the Bush presidency. Rather than an entire life history of the former President, Bush instead focuses on topics such as the selection on his cabinet; his relationships with his wife, daughters and parents; his administration's work against terrorism; the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; and others.

Bush is candid in assessing his administration's successes (work for freedom and opposing terrorism) and its failures (the aftermath of Katrina; his ill-advised aircraft carrier landing). He devotes an early chapter of the book to sharing about his struggles to maintain sobriety during his early adulthood. Additionally, he is very open about his Christian beliefs.

As with any modern day government leader, your interest in this book may depend on your political leanings. But regardless of your politics, details of the discussions and arguments that proceeded (and followed) the administration's decisions is very interesting reading.

Great Quote Thursday

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat- Theodore Roosevelt