simplicity

The man who goes alone can start today, but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.
~ in Walden

Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.
~ in Walden

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.

A man is rich in proportion of the number of things he can afford to let alone.
~ in Where I Lived, and What I Lived For

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book!
~ in Reading

I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.
~ in Solitude

Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

Moreover, any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one already.
~ in On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience

There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living.
~ in Life Without Principle

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.

There is no remedy for love but to love more.

The world is but a canvas to the imagination.

We should come home from adventures, and perils, and discoveries everyday with new experience and character.

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.

__________

Master List of Great Quotes

We often make the mistake of assuming that navigating a complex world requires complex answers. As a result we end up with even more complexity … confusion … chaos. The absurd behavior of key players in the recent meltdown of the American economy is a macrocosm of the nonsense which results from such thinking and which is ubiquitous in today’s business and social organizations, including the Local Church.

Maybe the current crisis will provide the impetus we need to cut out the nonsense. In some ways it now seems that there is developing a cultural zeitgeist in which people are demanding more common sense in our institutions [perhaps everywhere except in politics and in our churches]. It is time to re-evaluate what we are doing and how we are doing it. It is time to cut through the nonsense and do things right.

So, I heartily recommend Jack Trout’s book The Power Of Simplicity: A Management Guide to Cutting Through the Nonsense and Doing Things Right.

Trout introduces his book to us with the following quote from John Scully, “Everything we have learned in the industrial age has tended to create more and more complication. I think that more and more people are learning that you have to simplify, not complicate. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

It that sense, Trout’s book is very sophisticated. He argues his thesis straightforwardly in clear language, short chapters and concrete action steps. This book organization is not only consistent with the premise but allowed me to conveniently imbibe bite-size portions. I read it a few minutes each day over the course of a couple of weeks.

The Power Of Simplicity is composed of twenty-three mini-chapters (206 pages) and is broken into four parts; The Basics of Simplicity, Management Issues, Leadership Issues, and People Issues. That sounds like pretty standard stuff, but do NOT expect the routine business book /self-help book mumbo jumbo. Trout is a contrarian in many ways.

– He believes mission statements add needless confusion
– He believes long-term planning is just wishful thinking
– He believes that goals sound nice but accomplish little
– He believes growth can be bad for your business

Sound intriguing? Maybe, … but Trout keeps it simple.

Tolle lege.

* * * * * *

And, here is a reading list which he shares in an appendix to the book.

The Dilbert Principle: A Cubicle’s-Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads & Other Workplace Afflictions, by Scott Adams

Laugh out loud funny but dead on when it comes to management fads and other nonsense.

The Practice of Management, by Peter Drucker

The Effective Executive, by Peter Drucker

Managing in a Time of Great Change, by Peter Drucker

[Drucker is] The fountainhead of common sense and sound advice. Read any one of his dozens of books and you’ll be the wiser for it. These are three of our favorites.

How to Write, Speak and Think More Effectively, by Rudolph Flesch

The late Dr. Flesch staged a lifelong battle against muddy thinking and murky writing. This is one of his most significant books, packed with examples, exercises, and checklists.

The Witch Doctors: Making Sense of the Management Gurus, by John Micklethwait and Adrian Woodridge

Two staff editors of The Economist make sense of the management gurus and debunk a lot of loony thinking. Good sections on the prophets (Peter Drucker), the evangelists (Tom Peters), and the new age preachers (Tony Robbins, Stephen Covey).

Enterprise One to One, by Don Peppers