Orthodoxy?

ARE YOU ORTHODOX? OR UNORTHODOX? by Dr. Dennis Price

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Eventually orthodoxy gets criticised.

It is harder to play an unorthodox bowler. It is harder to argue with someone coming from an unorthodox position. So unorthodoxy seems like a good thing.

Eventually orthodoxy falls into disrepute, is accused of being stale or irrelevant. And sometimes some of that is true.

But often it is simply the swing of the pendulum that is forcing you to think the other way is better. The grass is greener and all that.

People who fall victim to the swing of the pendulum are victims of a force of nature (momentum) just as much as people who hang on to orthodoxy are victim of a force of nature – inertia.

The lure of unorthodoxy is its shiny new-ness; because human beings are intrepid explorers and we all suffer to some extent from neophilia. And in the new-ness you will find innovation and improvement.

But in tradition and orthodoxy, you find stability and efficiency and comfort. It is also where you have proven results.

Consultants are by definition geared to suggest change and improvement because that is what feeds their families and without realising it, that perspective will always bias their thinking and their advice. How often does a consultant tell you to keep doing what you are doing?

Like with most things in live, it is about finding the balance... and there are no easy answers to that particular conundrum. The best I can offer is be aware of your own 'default setting' and make decisions accordingly.

Failure before Success

Would you like me to give you a formula for success?



It’s quite simple, really.

Double your rate of failure. 

You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success.

But it isn’t at all.

You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, so go ahead and make mistakes.

Make all you can.

Because remember that’s where you will find success.

~Thomas J. Watson

ON NOT UNDERSTANDING PEOPLE...

By Dennis Price

From what I have learned about people's online behaviours, I can say this quite unequivocally:

1. People don't really want to learn, they want a shortcut.
2. People don't want to think, they want to be reminded of what they know.
3. People don't' want to work at figuring something out, wrestle with an application - but want it given to them.
4. People don't actually grow their own purpose through self-reflection, they want to follow the crowd.
5. People invariably mistake the obvious for the truth.
6. Almost everybody reading this will think the above don't apply to them.

OUR GRAND ERROR OF JUDGMENT:
Words of Wisdom are seen as wise if everyone else previously agreed that those words are wise. Business advice is taken from people who are perceived to have been successful.

The TRUTH is that words of advice may be true or untrue irrespective of the past record of the person speaking them. The truth is the truth, no matter where it comes from. Someone who has spoken a past truth does not necessarily have a monopoly on the truth; it can come from anywhere - even from a child.

Taking advice from someone who has succeeded in business (or anything) is actually rationally not the smartest thing that you can do. They may have tried once or twice and succeeded wildly and admirably. Good for them. But that means they have not gone to school on that particular challenge.

Here is the thing though:

• Because they have succeeded at one thing does not mean they will succeed again.
• Because they have succeeded in their way, does not mean it is relevant to your situation.
• Because they have succeed, does not mean they understand why they succeeded because they may actually not have the self-awareness or the understanding of the true factors of success.
• Because they succeeded, they don't know what causes failures.

If ANYONE had the real secret or recipe, we would have no more failures. Polio may have been eradicated, but failure hasn't; because there is no antidote to failure

Are you living each day?

Had reunion with my schoolmates, most of whom I've known for over 30 years.
One of them tells me he's moving back to Taiping. Taking it easier. 
I think he's living life the way it should be lived.
And so I declare.

I will not die an unlived life. 

I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. 

I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible, to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise. 

I choose to risk my significance; to live so that which comes to me as seed goes to the next as blossom and that which comes to me as blossom, goes on as fruit.

Eyes wide shut

Once we recognize the fact that every individual is a treasury of hidden and unsuspected qualities, our lives become richer, our judgment better, and our world is more right. 

It is not love that is blind, it is only the unnoticing eye that cannot see the real qualities of people

Carry on

Every mistake you make,
Every failure, every disappointment,
To keep going on this journey of life
Is sometimes the hardest thing.
But remember,
Every great person, who has beaten adversity,
Whether from within or without themselves,
Has fallen and stumbled a thousand times.
But they pick themselves up,
Dust themselves off
And carry on.

--- Copyright © 2006 Dylan Jacobs