Nobel Legacy
I can forgive Alfred Nobel for having invented dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize.
— George Bernard Shaw
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To Be Is To Do . . . Be Do Be Do
To be is to do — Socrates
To do is to be — Jean Paul Sartre
Do be do be do — Frank SinatraI posted this quote for the sole reason that it always makes me smile. But as I looked at the list of names, and their sequence, I realized that, in a simplistic way, these simple words also reflect our evolution of philosophy and thought. Socrates lived more than 2,400 years ago and his influence on thought is legendary. Jean Paul Sartre was a prominent French philosopher at the peak of the twentieth century. Frank Sinatra was born only ten years after Sartre but has come to embody a later generation.
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Drowning Your Sorrows
People who drink to drown their sorrows should be told that sorrow knows how to swim.
— Ann Landers.
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Tell Stories
I was trying to explain how the drug war doesn’t work. I would write these very careful, very well researched pieces and they would go into the ether and be gone. . . It was such an uphill struggle to tell this story with facts. When you tell a story with characters, people jump out of their seats.
— David Simon, creator, producer, and primary writer for The Wire.
If you have any interest in the drug war, the plight of our inner cities, or the power of finding your voice, set aside forty-five minutes this week and watch both parts of this Bill Moyer’s interview with David Simon. Great stuff.
Simon is insightful and inspiring on so many levels. He has a keen understanding of what is happening to our inner cities and, more broadly, to the “unneeded” classes of our society. His observations are poignant and delivered with restrained passion.
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Compulsive Quest for Certainty
The compulsive quest for certainty is not the expression of genuine faith but is rooted in the need to conquer the unbearable doubt.
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Consulting is a Relationship Business
Consulting is a relationship business. A special product may make you competitive. Differentiated services may make you distinct. But only carefully crafted relationships will create a breakthrough firm.
— Alan Weiss, Million Dollar Consulting
In preparation to launch Rizers — my new company — I am reading Alan Weiss’ classic tome, Million Dollar Consulting.