- Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915)
American publisher and writer

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Give more thought…

You can draw value from a naysayer or cynic by remaining objective and positive in your thinking (yes, it can be tough).

Occasionally, they’ll point out valid hurdles or challenges you haven’t seen (even if they present it like an @ss). With their help, if you can remain objective/detached (and keep your ego in check), you’ll have a better chance of getting something valuable from the interaction.

Stay objective. Be no ego. Get value. (Seriously)

(5 ways to get your ego out of the way)
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Today’s quote is by Elbert Hubbard who wrote A Message to Garcia (1500-word classic on Initiative and Responsibility). Do you have your free downloadable copy? It’s one of our favorites. We’ve even created a fun version for kids.

(No Gomo printable reminders are here.)

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- Chinese proverb

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Give more reminder…

For those who depend on customers, clients, or patients…

Remember… It took a lot to bring those people in. Make sure you keep them by continually radiating a service culture internally. When you see an opportunity, seize it (for the good of everyone).

Through your interactions with other departments, help and encourage each other to embrace the fact that it’s the customer/ client/ patient who keeps the lights on (metaphorically and literally). Don’t encourage, condone, or contribute to negative discussions about them. Focus instead on how your organization helps people solve their challenges and/ or improve their business or personal lives.

This is what keeps the lights burning bright (and you shining bright).

(smile & move)
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To help you kick off the day… A beautifully shot and scored video of New York (5 minutes). I’ve found it puts me in a great state of mind to make good things happen. (Thanks to Mark Hurst for tipping us off. Surround yourself with good people, you’ll learn about good things.)

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- Albert Einstein (1879–1955)
Swiss physicist

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Give less ego…

ego: noun: 1. the self 2. an inflated sense of self-significance

Imagine a world without ego. No…

• Toes to step on
• Feelings to hurt
• Fair shares to grab
• Territory to defend
• Fault to allocate
• Back to watch
• Last words to get
• Ideas to hold back
• Embarrassment to bear

• Battles to win
• Knowledge to prove
• Entitlement to have
• Encouragement to withhold
• Credit to seek
• Grudges to hold
• Jealousy to feel
• Revenge to take
• Hidden meanings to construe

Speak no ego. Be no ego.

(5 quick points to getting closer to less ego)
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So many of our GiveMore quotes are hidden within greater thoughts and passages. The quote above is pulled from the excerpt below from Einstein’s essay, The World as I See It (in his book Ideas and Opinions).

"How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people – first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy. A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving." (Got kids? Pass this one along.)

Einstein was a Smover.
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Sometimes we get feedback from people who feel Einstein was German or American.

Here’s what we know… He was born in Germany and moved to Switzerland at the age of 17. Five years later (1901), he acquired his Swiss citizenship. Apparently in 1914, he became a German citizen but "renounced his citizenship for political reasons and emigrated to America." In 1940, he became a U.S. citizen. (according to the Nobel Foundation).

That combined with the following quotation in a letter he wrote to Alfred Kneser in 1918 had us believing he would much prefer being referred to as Swiss rather than German.

"I am by heritage a Jew, by citizenship a Swiss, and by makeup a human being, and only a human being, without any special attachment to any state or national entity whatsoever."

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- Albert Einstein (1879–1955)
Swiss physicist

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Give more kick off…

Focus on giving more for the dollars you earn (with your effort, with your product/ service) and you’ll find more will come your way. It may not always happen as quickly as you’d like, but it’s the better bet in the long run.

(pace your expectations… give more… enjoy more)

Have you started your LUKSA revolution?
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So many great quotes are hidden within even greater thoughts and passages. Here’s Einstein’s complete thought from above…

For a successful man is he who receives a great deal from his fellowmen, usually incomparably more than corresponds to his service to them. The value of a man, however, should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.

It’s from his book, "Out of My Later Years." Print the whole thought below.
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Sometimes we get feedback from people who feel Einstein was German or American.

Here’s what we know… He was born in Germany and moved to Switzerland at the age of 17. Five years later (1901), he acquired his Swiss citizenship. Apparently in 1914, he became a German citizen but "renounced his citizenship for political reasons and emigrated to America." In 1940, he became a U.S. citizen. (according to the Nobel Foundation).

That combined with the following quotation in a letter he wrote to Alfred Kneser in 1918 had us believing he would much prefer being referred to as Swiss rather than German.

"I am by heritage a Jew, by citizenship a Swiss, and by makeup a human being, and only a human being, without any special attachment to any state or national entity whatsoever."

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-George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
Irish writer

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Give more reflection…

Think about your work (contribution).

Whether you feel lucky or not with what you’ve been given (or earned) as your opportunity to work, you’re ultimately just a steward of it for a relatively brief period in time.

It will be handed off to someone else at some point.

If you thought of that work as being put in a box to be given to someone else, what would you want the recipient to think when they opened it up?

Wouldn’t you want it to be something that’s difficult to improve on?

Wouldn’t you want them to crack open that box… look in… smile… and say… "Wow. That’s great work."

No Gomos. No D-grunts.

Just Smove.

(gomo: someone who goes through the motions, d-grunt: someone who’s disgruntled… wristbands here)
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So many great quotes are hidden within even greater thoughts and passages. Here’s Shaw’s complete thought from above…

"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy."

Print out the full version.
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Another favorite minute from Nike to get you revved up. I watch this one at least once every couple of weeks. I love how it builds and then pops at 0.38.

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–Ray Bradbury (1920 – )
American writer

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Give more thought…

We do well in our work by being valuable to someone else.

That’s it.

It seems to me that too many of us forget this too often… allowing ourselves to slip in and out of some state of ego-driven entitlement rather than obsessing over making good things happen for other people (so sad).

We need to get over ourselves and kick@ss for others. We do that and everything works.

The people at Netflix get it. They call it being a "stunning colleague." (more on this here).

Don’t you love that… a stunning colleague? Aren’t stunning colleagues what we all want from the people we work with (and what we all want to be for others… yes, you do or you wouldn’t be a GiveMore subscriber)?

We need to get tired of mediocrity and indifference and be positively surprising to our colleagues and customers/patients/ guests/ clients (and managers). We need to encourage each other more.

How?

Stop seeking the complex answer and embrace the simple one. Handle what it is you’ve been given to do. Contribute your piece of the equation.

"You gotta take responsibility for the place you hold here." – Oprah Winfrey

If you lead a team of people and you’ve not read my expanded thoughts on this (no gomos, no d-grunts), they’re here.

Smile & Move.
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1 minute from Nike that still gets me after watching it more than 100 times.

–Rita Levi-Montalcini (1909 – )
Italian scientist, senator
Nobel Prize winner

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Give more reflection…

Think about your work (contribution).

Whether you feel lucky or not with what you’ve been given (or earned) as your opportunity to work, you’re ultimately just a steward of it for a relatively brief period in time.

It will be handed off to someone else at some point.

If you thought of that work as being put in a box to be given to someone else, what would you want the recipient to think when they opened it up?

Wouldn’t you want it to be something that’s difficult to improve on?

Wouldn’t you want them to crack open that box… look in… smile… and say… "Wow. That’s great work."

No Gomos. No D-grunts.

Just Smove.

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Gomo: someone who goes through the motions
D-grunt: someone who’s disgruntled

(printable No Gomo and No D-grunt reminders are here – a few simple ideas on leading people)

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake.

Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch, which I have got a hold of for the moment; and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”

–George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
Irish writer

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He was a rancher, captured an outlaw, authored 35 books, served as president of the American Historical Association, led two major scientific expeditions for prominent American museums, served as president of the United States (started as the youngest in history – 42), won the Nobel Peace Prize, and was the father of six children.

After he left the Presidency in 1909, he went on a safari in Africa. When he returned, he ran for President in 1912 as an independent because he lost the Republican nomination. While campaigning, he was shot in the chest by a fanatic and ultimately recovered. His words at the time…

"No man has had a happier life than I have led; a happier life in every way."

When he died in 1919, the vice president said, "Death had to take him sleeping, if he had been awake there would have been a fight."

What are your plans today?

Be Two-Twelve.

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Roosevelt’s inspirational words from "The Man in the Arena."

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, 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, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the 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."

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