【特約作家Dennis/加拿大溫哥華】
2010年6月3日，旅美好手陳鏞基被奧克蘭運動家釋出。連同前不久被印地安人隊釋出的增菘瑋，恰好兩人都是4年前台中洲際杯和多哈亞運的投打功臣，不料兩人在那年國際賽後的旅美之路走得都十分坎坷，而且不約而同的分別都在最近幾個月被母球隊釋出，讓人感慨萬千。
2006年乃是陳鏞基旅外生涯最輝煌的一年。當年陳鏞基從高階1A出發，總共67出賽就打出3成42，48分打點，5轟，21盜的全能身手，接著就被水手拔擢上2A。而來到2A的陳鏞基絲毫沒有不適應感，出賽40場，繳出2成95，3轟，22打點的優越成績。當年除了水手對這位未來的二壘手十分看好之外，眾多球迷們都一致認為陳鏞基定能成為下一個在大聯盟發光發熱的台灣球星。
也因為如此，棒協為了當年在台舉辦的洲際杯和多哈亞運能有好成績，所以極力徵召陳鏞基陣守中華隊二壘大關。而陳鏞基在愛國心的驅使下，縱使有肩傷在身，為了國家榮譽，他還是義無反顧的選擇為國爭光。
【特約作家Dennis/加拿大溫哥華】
遙遠的史坦利盃，加人隊的淚與路(下)
溫哥華加人隊在歷經6季勝率不及5成的慘淡歲月中過後，終於在1999-2000球季撥雲見日，再次以NHL西區新貴之姿的態勢，開始邁入另一個嶄新的年代。而冰球之神似乎又開始眷顧這支被祂遺忘已久的球隊。
就在當時總教練克勞夫(Marc Crawford)和總管柏克(Brian Burke)的整頓之下，在過去6年裡被其他NHL強權欺壓已久的加人隊終於揚眉吐氣，於2001年史坦利盃爭奪戰裡，加人隊以第8種子之姿重回期盼已久的NHL季後賽。雖然被當年的史坦利盃得主科羅拉多雪崩隊(Colorado Avalanche)在第一輪就橫掃出局。但是溫哥華球迷們似乎從當年的陣容中，隱約的看到加人隊邁入NHL強權之列的希望。
“再好的工作也會有400次想辭職的念頭”。美國雅虎網，近日刊登了職業規劃師亞當·斯德爾《職場中應避免的10種不滿情緒》一文，也許對在工作中感到困惑的你能起到借鑒作用。
私生活。工作和生活不可混為一談。家裏的矛盾、夫妻間的摩擦都不要搬到工作場合來宣泄。這樣做只會讓你成為同事茶余飯後的談資，並損壞個人形象。不妨在休息時，與朋友細細商談。
伙食差。並不是每個公司都挨著酒店、咖啡館、酒吧。在郊區工作的你與其抱怨伙食差，不如自己帶飯。多準備些花樣，不僅省錢，而且更健康。
上司。老闆與員工的地位差異必然會産生矛盾。聰明的員工，會懂得隱藏個人恩怨，把精力放在公司的最終目標上。不然，你完全可以辭職單幹，嘗嘗做老闆的滋味。
升遷。升遷機會是可遇不可求的。獲得升職機會就要比別人做得更出色。與其抱怨老闆不能慧眼識珠，不如主動和他討論你的工作目標、需要提升的技能及發展計劃。
Polishing perfect
Perfect doesn't mean flawless. Perfect means it does exactly what I need it to do. A vacation can be perfect even if the nuts on the plane weren't warmed before serving.
Any project that's held up in revisions and meetings and general fear-based polishing is the victim of a crime. It's a crime because you're stealing that perfect work from a customer who will benefit from it. You're holding back the good stuff from the people who need it, afraid of what the people who don't will say.
Stop polishing and ship instead. Polished perfect isn't better than perfect, it's merely shinier. And late.
"Our biggest problem is awareness"
If that's your mantra, you're working to solve the wrong problem.
If your startup, your non-profit or your event is suffering because of a lack of awareness, the solution isn't to figure out some way to get more hype, more publicity or more traffic. Those are funnel solutions, designed to fix an ailing process by dumping more attention at the top, hoping more conversion comes out the bottom.
The challenge with this approach is that it doesn't scale. Soon, you'll have no luck at all getting more attention, even with ever more stunts or funding.
No, the solution lies in re-organizing your systems, in re-creating your product or service so that it becomes worth talking about. When you do that, your customers do the work of getting you more noticed. When you produce something remarkable, more use leads to more conversation which leads to more use.
Gradually and then suddenly
This is how companies die, how brands wither and, more cheefully in the other direction, how careers are made.
Gradually, because every day opportunities are missed, little bits of value are lost, customers become unentranced. We don't notice so much, because hey, there's a profit. Profit covers many sins. Of course, one day, once the foundation is rotted and the support is gone, so is the profit. Suddenly, apparently quite suddenly, it all falls apart.
It didn't happen suddenly, you just noticed it suddenly.
The flipside works the same way. Trust is earned, value is delivered, concepts are learned. Day by day we improve and build an asset, but none of it seems to be paying off. Until one day, quite suddenly, we become the ten-year overnight success.
