Shapiro Quotes

I did not know this, but excerpts from my blogs have been appearing regularly in a newsletter containing inspirational quotes.  Members of the Gaia Community select their favorite tidbits and then distribute them via email and the website. 

Click here if you want to read a bunch of my quotes.

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Idiots Out-Innovate Intellectuals

Here’s a great quote from Ville Keränen from Finland:

“One idiot who walks gets further than five intellectuals who only talk…”

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How to Be Unique

“The more you are like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique.” — Walt Disney

This quote is quite appropriate given my recent blog entries (and this one too).

This is great advice for any organization that wants to be more innovative.

I play golf — not well, but I play golf. My handicap is in double digits. For me to shoot par would be a dream. But for Tiger Woods, par would be a nightmare.

I am reminded of this comparison when I see companies that are satisfied to focus on their understanding of “par,” otherwise known as best practice. It was once an admirable aim, but is not sufficient today. Your competitors are more like Tiger Woods than they are like me. Par won’t keep you alive in the current environment.

Instead of copying what worked for someone else, find what makes you distinctive and target your innovation efforts there.

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Crazy Goals Drive Your Crazy

“43Things.com,” a community-based online to-do list, allows you to list your top goals in life. A blog reader, Antony, culled  some interesting statistics from that website.

• 5,716 people set the goal: “Decide what the hell I would like to do with the rest of my life.”
• 21,100 people set the goal: “Stop procrastinating”

What’s funny about the second goal – stop procrastinating – is that I once quoted Paul Graham as saying, “The to-do list is itself a form of type-B (something less important) procrastination.”

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What is Passion?

The other day I was having lunch with Mike Bell, the man who hired me for an engineering co-op job during university – an opportunity that changed my life. He has also changed the lives of over 250,000 students who have been educated with his math instruction methods.

During our time together, he gave me his definition of passion. He said:

“When I see the word ‘passion,’ I actually see three words. In the middle is ‘I’ and on either side are “pass” and “on.” To me, passion is when ‘I pass on’ something I love to others. It’s when I make a contribution to the world.”

Works for me.

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