EMBA的小眼睛

How to draw an owl

The problem with most business and leadership advice is that it's a little like this:

How to draw an owl

The two circles aren't the point. Getting the two circles right is a good idea, but lots of people manage that part. No, the difficult part is learning to see what an owl looks like. Drawing an owl involves thousands of small decisions, each based on the answer to just one question, "what does the owl look like?" If you can't see it (in your mind, not with your eyes), you can't draw it.

There are hundreds of thousands of bullet points and rules of thumb about how to lead people, how to start and run a company, how to market, how to sell and how to do work that matters. Most of them involve drawing two circles. (HT to Stefano for the owl).

Eight email failures (and questions for those that want to do better)

A friend sent out an email blast (I hate that word, for good reason) to his ample address book to promote a new project and got a lot of blowback for it. He asked me for my feedback...

Just because you have had a previous relationship with someone doesn't mean you have permission to email them. Permission marketing is anticipated, personal and relevant messaging. The simple measure is this: Would they miss you if you didn't mail them? If not, then you're fooling yourself into thinking you have something you don't.
Blaming the tool. There are a wealth of powerful email tools out there (like Mailchimp). If your email campaign isn't working, it's almost certainly not their fault. Don't waste time looking for a better pencil--learn to write better.
Your mailmerge is broken. Dear is far worse than no mailmerge at all. Here's the simple test: if you're not willing to spend fifteen seconds per name reviewing the list and cleaning it up (why did you email me six times?), then don't expect that we have fifteen seconds to read what you wrote. If you have 4,000 names, that's 1,000 minutes. Don't have 1,000 minutes? Don't send the mail.

雖説20齣頭的小夥子應該變的成熟一些才能展現男兒魅力，但是還有些男性不以為然，他媽媽認為只有這樣做才能吸引女性。7個標誌説明你還不是個成熟男。

“千杯不醉”

天知道為什麼有些人就是能夠為了吸引女人的目光而沒命的喝酒。喝酒壯膽沒問題，但好歹也得掌握好個度。

所謂度，就是不要讓自己喝到在房子裏發酒瘋，別讓一開始幾杯下肚才塑造好的英勇形象就因為自己“千杯不醉”倒在污穢裏的表現而前功盡棄了。

緊身T恤展身型

完美主義者，顧名思義，就是爭取最好的，考試優異，工作細緻，處處都要比別人強。因此，人們可能會以為這個理想的驅動器轉換到成其他方面的良好，完美主義是對身體和心理的福祉。然而，科學研究表明，完美主義帶來身體素質的下降和死亡風險的升高。

完美主義與壓力

崇高目標意味著增加心理壓力，出現失誤時，就産生自我恐懼，反對來自別人的幫助，不願接受事實。 “完美主義是一種美德，一定要做到最捧，”加拿大西三一大學的心理學教授弗萊説，“但是超過一定的門檻，必然事與願違，變成一個障礙。”

完美主義傾向有兩個組成部分：積極的方面，包括像高標準完成自己的事情；消極的一方面，它涉及諸如疑慮、對錯誤的過份關注和感受別人的壓力，都是完美的有害因素。

完美主義與失敗體驗

【特約作家Dennis/加拿大溫哥華】

雖然離7月底的交易大限還有一個多月的時間，可是已經有許多隊伍開始放出交易的消息，其中芝加哥白襪隊正是常出現在交易傳聞中的球隊之一。

由於去年白襪隊從教士隊換來塞揚投手皮維(Jake Peavy)，和原有的左投伯利(Mark Buehrle)組成傲視美聯的左右輪值檔，因此開季之前，許多專家都認為白襪今年很有機會與雙城爭奪美聯中區的王座。但是沒想到，經過近3個月的球季，白襪至6月15日止竟然打出28勝34敗，勝率不及5成的成績，與中區龍頭雙城隊相差多達7.5場，這可與季前預測的成績有如天壤之別。因此，目前已有傳聞白襪打算放棄這季，準備開始清倉。

日前白襪總管威廉斯(Kenny Williams)在接受芝加哥太陽時報訪問時，並沒有對白襪是否於季中進行重建有正面的回應。不過他也表示，如果白襪有意做出任何交易，絕對是對現有的陣容進行徹底的洗牌，所找來的球員絕對是即戰力。

Trapped by tl;dr

TL;DR is internet talk for "too long; didn't read". It's also a sad, dangerous symptom of the malfunctions caused by the internet tsunami. (Here's a most ironic example of this paradox...)

The triathlete doesn't look for the coldest bottle of water as she jogs by... she wants it fast and now. That mindset, of focusing merely on what's fast, is now a common reaction to many online options. I think it works great for runners, not so well for learners.

There's a checklist, punchline mentality that's dangerous and easy to adopt. Enough with the build up, wrap this up, let me check it off, categorize it and quickly get to the next thing... c'mon, c'mon, too late, TL;DR...

Let's agree on two things: