In 2001, the bestselling book on business was “Good to Great”, by Jim Collins. That book was a field study of 11 companies who fit certain criteria for being “great” that Collins proposed. One can quibble with his definition, but I think the criteria represented a fairly reasonable business definition of greatness. One of the common elements he identified was that each of the eleven subject organizations employed a rather ambitious, measurable objective towards which the entire organization could focus its collective efforts. Collins and his team coined the defining acronym for this goal: BHAG, a “big, hairy, audacious goal”.
Long-term investing: the next 10 minutes…
It used to be that “institutional” investors were the paragons of long-term investing. The entities included in that title ranged from pension funds (defined benefit), to custodians and money managers of 401(k) plans (defined contribution), to insurance companies and others. In past decades, the actuarial requirements for payouts from these entities for beneficiaries were such that the institutions took a longer-term view of their investment returns, and “long-term” meant the decades to come.
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It ain’t no secret
From a flyer I received:
“This series of two one-hour teleclasses is for those who already have a specific goal. Do you want to learn the strategies and tools that successful achievers use to achieve their goals?
Successful achievers know that they have to take 100% responsibility for achieving the lifestyle, relationships, financial freedom, and career opportunities that they want to experience in life. During this class we will explore their secrets and you will leave the class with the knowledge of how to put a successful plan together that you can implement immediately. Your goals can be about anything – career, health, relationships, finances, career, etc.
Topics we will cover include:
- Getting very clear about what you want and why you want it.
- What will you gain by achieving your goal – what will you lose by not going for it?
- The importance of being able to visualize your goal.
- What is your biggest fear and how can you manage it?
- Setting boundaries and making sure how you spend your time honors your goal.
- Putting a plan together with specific action steps and benchmarks.
- Building a support system.
WHEN: Two consecutive Thursdays from 8-9PM ET (5-6PM PT), 11/10, 11/17
COST: $79 Members ($95 Nonmembers) “
When I’d finished reading it, getting more and more irritated, I sat back and asked myself, “Now why did that get you so riled up?” It was a flyer offering to teach people how to exert their will in their lives, to achieve what they want. How could that be irritating?
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When the ladder doesn’t elevate anymore…
In programming, there is an escalating scale of code development. The most basic level is machine coding, using numerical designators to provide instructions to the hardware and firmware of a computer. Machine coding is then collected into larger common strings, which can be used for real-time process control when a computer is connected to actuators that open and close mechanical and electrical connections. This language assembles common machine code sequences and is thus called “assembly” language. Letters combine to form words, words combine to form sentences.
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