Help me get 1000 posts

[The Story Teller]

May 6
​

Harry S Truman
​

“The buck stops here.”
—Harry S Truman
​

At the outbreak of World War I, young Harry Truman wanted to stand up and be counted. However, since he was virtually blind in one eye, he had to memorize the eye chart to pass the physical exam. Once in the army, he excelled and rose quickly to the rank of captain. His toughest assignment was commanding of one of the most unruly artillery batteries in France. As he faced the men for the first time, Harry was shaking in his boots. The soldiers made bets among themselves about how long their new captain would last.

Soon after taking command, Truman’s battery was sent into battle. The troops pounded a German position with the intention of quickly moving before fire could be returned. Things started to go awry when the horses needed to move the artillery pieces arrived late. The weather was stormy and the gun carriages became stuck in the mud. Before Truman’s unit could retreat, the Germans opened fire. With shells falling all about, the Americans began to run for their lives. Truman stood his ground and yelled at the top of his lungs, calling them back to their posts. He quickly reorganized his men and marched them to safety. None of his troops were lost in the action, and Truman won their allegiance for the duration of the war. This critical event in his life helped Truman define himself and his leadership capabilities. After the war, and after failing in business, Truman entered politics, rising from local commissioner to U.S. senator, to vice president of the United States. Upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945, Truman became our nation’s thirty-third president.

Consider This: If you want people to follow and respect you, take a stand for integrity when others are seeking the easy way out.

Submitted by Richard

 

[The Story Teller]

May 7
​

John D. Rockefeller
​

“The removal of human friction is 90 percent of the problem of handling people.”
—Dr. Paul Parker
​

When trying to resolve strife, the direct approach is often best, as working through third parties can take the personality out of any negotiation. Listening to individuals who have problems, talking directly to those who are hurting, and seeing for one’s self what is really happening can quell the storms of mistrust and anger. John D. Rockefeller knew he had a fight on his hands. For two years, Colorado miners had staged a bitter and violent strike. With no resolution to the conflict in sight, Rockefeller decided he had to approach the miners directly. After he had done his homework on the strike, Rockefeller was prepared to make the best of a bad situation and went to Colorado to see, talk to—and listen to—the disgruntled workers.

At a meeting with a group of miners that could easily have become a lynch mob, Rockefeller began by saying, “This is a red-letter day in my life … I am proud to be here, and I shall remember this gathering as long as I live.” He continued, mentioning that he had visited all of the mining camps, visited the miners’ homes, met their wives and children, and felt that he and the miners were meeting in a “spirit of friendship.” Making friends with the “enemy,” enabled the opposing sides to begin to see eye to eye, and they soon moved toward a solution to their problems.

Consider This: People who have ill feelings about each other will seldom reach agreement on anything. Friends, on the other hand, will make a strong effort to reconcile differences.

Submitted by Richard

 

[The Story Teller]

May 8
​

Vernon Jordan
​

“Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.”
—Oliver Goldsmith in The Traveller
​

Advice is critical when important decisions are to be made, but no one can make your decisions except you. No one else can have that responsibility. Sometimes you see a vision greater than any one else can imagine. Sometimes you have to go against the odds. Vernon Jordan fought against odds and the advice of others to become one of America’s best known and effective civil-rights lawyers. Jordan’s vision to move up in life came from his humble beginnings. He remembers his grandfather, a lifetime sharecropper, having the dream of someday using an indoor bathroom before he died. Jordan was brought up in a housing project. He often helped his mother cater meals at the Lawyers Club of Atlanta. There, Jordan listened to the speeches by the members and their guests, and began to see the legal profession as a way to break out of his poverty and to help others.

Jordan decided to become a lawyer, and the plan he devised for his life became a strong motivating force. Jordan’s high school counselor advised him not to attend DePauw University, but since that is where Jordan felt he would receive the best education, he went there anyway. A college counselor advised against entering a public speaking contest, but Jordan won first place in the competition. Vernon Jordan later received a law degree from Howard University and upon graduation began a fruitful career as an advocate of the poor and oppressed.

Consider This: If you have a dream, it can be a great motivator that will help you overcome formidable odds.

Submitted by Richard

 

[The Story Teller]

May 9
​

The Mother of Mother’s Day
​

“No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.”
—Calvin Coolidge
​

Anna Jarvis was never a mother herself. The daughter of a Methodist minister, she became a schoolteacher, worked as an advertising executive with an insurance agency in Philadelphia, and spent fifteen years of her life caring for her ailing mother. Anna never married. After her mother died in 1905, Anna wanted to find a way to honor her mother’s memory. She recalled the days after the Civil War, when her Virginia community held a yearly picnic on Mother’s Friendship Day to help heal the emotional wounds of those who had lost sons and to honor all the mothers who had given of their families in the war effort. With this in mind, Anna thought there ought to be a day to honor all mothers.

Obtaining a patent copyright for “Mother’s Day,” Anna next explained her idea to public officials in state and federal government. She even approached President Woodrow Wilson with a persuasive argument for making the day a national celebration. Anna’s years of persistence paid off when Wilson signed a proclamation in 1914 declaring Mother’s Day a national observance. Once the celebration was deemed official, Anna worked to keep Mother’s Day from becoming too commercialized and to ensure that honoring mothers remained the prime emphasis of the day. Her efforts spread throughout the world, and when Anna died in 1948, forty-three carnations were placed on her grave to signify the forty-three nations that had adopted “her” day.

Consider This: Who is it that you should honor? Do you feel strongly enough about a cause to give your time and energy to make it happen?

Submitted by Richard

 

[The Story Teller]

May 10
​

Black and Decker
​

“No idea is worth anything unless you have the guts to back it up.”
—Al Decker
​

S. Duncan Black and Alonzo Decker joined together in 1910 to start the Black & Decker Company. Black sold his prized Maxwell car for $600 and Decker borrowed $600 to launch the enterprise. At first they built a milk bottle-capping machine, a candy-dipping machine, and other devices. In 1916 their most successful machine was introduced, a hand-held portable drill with a pistol-grip trigger switch. To promote their drill and other tools to industry, Black and Decker built a showroom on wheels and traveled throughout the country. In 1929 they equipped a Travel-Air monoplane as an airborne showroom. In 1930, when they attempted to enter the consumer market with a washing machine, they priced it too high for the economically depressed era, and the venture was abandoned.

During Word War II, the company built a wide range of portable industrial tools. After the war, the two principals noticed a small newspaper article describing how workers were stealing electric tools from their respective companies. Black and Decker felt the time was right to make another attempt to tap the consumer market, but this time they carefully planned to introduce a home-duty drill with a popular price. Black & Decker’s production expertise enabled the firm to market an electric drill for only $16.95, a price that was as low or lower than that offered by most competitors. Building on that success, Black & Decker introduced a wide variety of successful, low-priced, high-quality do-it-yourself tools. After almost thirty years on the market, the successor to the $16.95 drill retailed for less than $10 in 1973.

Consider This: Often the key to expansion is to do what you do best, but perhaps expand the same idea to a fresh market.

Submitted by Richard

 

[The Story Teller]

May 11
​

Bill Veeck’s Home Runs
​

“The power of listening: it borders on the bizarre.”
—Tom Peters in A Passion for Excellence
​

Bill Veeck left a lasting impression on baseball. As the owner of several clubs, he introduced such new ideas as the exploding scoreboard, placing players’ names on uniforms, after-game fireworks, bat night, fan appreciation night, and a host of other special ballpark promotions. Veeck knew how to draw a crowd. In 1948, his Cleveland Indians attracted 2.6 million fans, an attendance mark that stood for more than a dozen years. Who could forget the night that the inventive Veeck sent three-foot-seven-inch Eddie Gaedel to the plate to bat for the St. Louis Browns in 1951? Eddie wore the number 1/8 on his uniform and drew a walk.

Veeck was interested in learning. He learned from the people around him, from the players and fans as well as the business types. Veeck read five or six books every week of his adult life. Baseball was not his only interest; Veeck was an expert on tropical fish and cultivated rare strains of flowers. He knew virtually everything there was to know about dogs and horses. People remember Veeck as a “people person.” He never used obscenities; he had the door to his office removed so that anyone could see him anytime. Often, during games, Veeck would take off his shirt and sit in the bleachers with the fans. He always wanted to know what they thought and what ideas they had. Bill Veeck paid attention to what the fans wanted and then gave it to them.

Consider This: Do you stay in touch with the “fans,” your customers? Do you really know what they want? Isn’t it time you found out?

Submitted by Richard

 

[Wilfred of Ivanhoe]

this is insane.... that is why I am here.

 

[The Story Teller]

May 12
​

Jim Treybig
​

“Man seeks his inward unity, but his real progress on the path depends on his capacity to refrain from distorting reality in accordance with his desires.”
—Goethe
​

During the 1960s and 1970s, computers began to shrink as new and smaller electronic components were developed. Jim Treybig took note of that quickly changing industry and studied it in detail to find a niche where he could develop his own company. The area he chose was on-line transaction processing (OLTP), a relatively new field with applications in such diverse businesses as airline reservations and monitoring devices that require highly reliable non-stop computing. In 1974, the year Treybig was determined to begin his new venture, RCA got out of the computer business and IBM was at its pinnacle of success. It was hard to sell the need for a new computer company.

However, Palo Alto, California, in 1974 proved to be the right place and the right time for Treybig to pursue his dream of a fail-safe computing system. He received some initial backing from the venture capital firm of Kleiner-Perkins and began to recruit the technical expertise he required from his former employer, Hewlett-Packard. With a core group of five men, Treybig developed a business plan that included details on system design and architecture, financing, a people-oriented business atmosphere, and teamwork. After almost non-stop planning and brainstorming, Tandem Computers was incorporated in November 1974 and shipped its first NonStop computer in May 1976.

Consider This: Great events usually don’t just happen. They begin as someone’s dream, and they usually require a lot of work and heartache before they become reality.

Submitted by Richard

 

[The Story Teller]

May 13
​

The Chip that Jack Built
​

“We expected to reduce the cost of electronics, but I don’t think anybody was thinking in terms of factors of a million”
—Jack Kilby
​

Today, an electronic chip the size of a fingernail can contain millions of circuits. It can serve as the heart of a personal computer, keep your wristwatch accurate, determine the correct fuel mixture for your car’s engine, keep a satellite in orbit, and perform thousands of other tasks. However, in the 1950s, any of these tasks would have required a computing machine larger than a house. The postwar era was a transition period for electronics. The theory behind electronic computing was developed during World War II, but the technology of the day was too cumbersome and expensive. This resulted in a problem called “the tyranny of numbers.” There was too much calculating to do and not enough horsepower to do it!

In this environment, a young engineer named Jack Kilby, decided to “fool around” with the problem. He understood that complicated circuits required the interconnection of transistors, diodes, rectifiers, and capacitors, each of which was made from a different substance. However, Jack reasoned that if all of those components could be fashioned from of a single substance, such as a semiconductor, the resulting circuitry would be smaller, cheaper to manufacture, and more reliable. In September 1958 Jack built and demonstrated a strange contraption made of semiconductor material and wires glued to a slide. The invention was the first integrated circuit and provided the foundation for today’s enormous computing and electronics industry.

Consider This: Make the complex simple. Look around at the material you have to work with and determine how it can be used to its greatest benefit.

Submitted by Richard

 

[pro_odeh]

Its getting close.. only 50 or so left..

 

[The Story Teller]

May 14
​

The Beginnings of EDS
​

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
—Henry David Thoreau
​

H. Ross Perot was sitting in a barbershop reading Reader’s Digest when he saw this quote from Thoreau at the bottom of a page: “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Perot thought, “That’s me. There I am.” He was a good salesman for IBM, but felt he was not meeting his potential. As a salesman, Perot noticed that people were buying computers but really didn’t know what to do with them. He had the idea of selling companies not only the computers, but also the software and staff to run them—an entire data processing department. IBM listened to Perot’s idea but said that 80 cents of the computer dollar (at the time) was spent on hardware and only 20 cents on software. The 20 cents looked good to Perot, but IBM turned down his idea.

After the episode at the barbershop, Perot made the decision of his life. He quit IBM and spent $1,000 to start Electronic Data Systems (EDS). He had no computer and no staff, “just” an idea. At first, Perot bought time on an IBM 7070 mainframe computer and traveled throughout the country trying to sell that computing time. He visited seventy-nine companies before making his first sale. Since he had no staff, Perot had to find IBM 7070 operators who would help him during their off-time. Those individuals have never worked another day for Perot, but they remain on the payroll and received EDS stock when it was issued. According to Perot, “If those guys hadn’t done the job for me, there would be no EDS.”

Consider This: There is that one moment in our lives when we decide to break out of a rut and move on to something greater. Is that moment right now for you?

Submitted by Richard

 

[The Story Teller]

May 15
​

FlightSafety International
​

“When we cannot invent, we may at least improve.”
—Charles Caleb Colton
​

Al Ueltschi (yule-chee) was a military pilot trainer before World War II. Al particularly remembers the time he fell out of the plane as he was demonstrating a snap roll. He managed to struggle out of his seat and pull the ripcord just in the nick of time. Inspired by the likes of Charles Lindberg in the 1930s, Ueltschi began flying as a teenager. After World War II, as he piloted Pan American Airways Chairman Juan Trippe around the globe, he noticed a swell of interest in business travel. Ueltschi also noticed that, except for the military, there were few places where pilots could acquire training. With $10,000 he obtained by taking a second mortgage on his house, Ueltschi opened his first training facility in a leased space at New York’s La Guardia Airport.

Ueltschi was also aware that small plane manufacturers wanted to get out of the pilot-training business, so he managed to contract with the manufacturers to provide that service. Several corporations that employed pilots became his first backers as Ueltschi sold them five years’ worth of training to get the capital he needed to purchase his first flight simulator. Al Ueltschi continued to work as a pilot for Pan Am until 1968 when his FlightSafety International went public. Aircraft manufacturers increasingly became convinced that Ueltschi’s company could provide better training, and as a result, FlightSafety has grown to include dozens of simulators. The company also has broadened its curriculum to include simulation training for employees of nautical shipping firms and power companies.

Consider This: Can you offer a service for a company that is superior to its own in-house service?

Submitted by Richard

 

[The Story Teller]

May 16
​

Holiday Inns
​

“Learn the art of being aware; our success depends upon our power to perceive, to observe and know.”
—Henry Miller
​

Before World War II, a large portion of the hotel-motel industry catered to the business traveler. After the war, families began to take to the road to discover America. The nation’s new interstate highway system was expanding, automobile production had resumed, and postwar affluence put vacations within the reach of millions of American families. In 1952 Memphis businessman Kemmons Wilson took his family on a vacation. What he repeatedly found on that excursion were uncomfortable, inconsistent, and overpriced lodgings. As a result, Wilson came to believe that the hotel-motel market was “the greatest untouched industry in the country.” Wilson constructed his first Holiday Inn on the outskirts of Memphis, Tennessee, his hometown. The facility had 120 rooms, each offering a private bath, air conditioning, and a telephone. Other features included a swimming pool, free ice, free parking, and a kennel. Children under the age of twelve stayed free.

This first Holiday Inn offered a wide range of amenities that were revolutionary for the hotel-motel industry of the mid-1950s. Kemmons Wilson’s idea proved to be a major success, and his hotels began appearing across the country. The company went public in 1957, and its entire offering was sold on the first day. The first international Holiday Inn was built in Montreal in 1960, and in 1968 the company opened its 1,000th hotel.

Consider This: If something bothers you, it probably bothers a lot of other people. Is this a business opportunity?

Submitted by Richard

 

[The Story Teller]

May 17
​

From Failure to Success
​

“Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm; it moves stones, it charms brutes. Enthusiasm is the genius of sincerity and truth accomplishes no victories without it.”
—Edward George Bulwer-Lytton
​

Success usually has less to do with one’s innate talent than it does with one’s attitude. Some people’s lives are guided by negative attitudes, and as a result, they handicap themselves and never recognize their potential. Other people learn that by changing their attitude, they can improve their chance of realizing their dreams. The power that attitude can exert is illustrated by Frank Bettger in his autobiography, How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling. Frank started out as a baseball player in the minor leagues. He had ability but was traded from team to team, often at a lower salary. Then, someone told him that the reason he wasn’t getting anywhere: He had no hustle, no enthusiasm for the game. Frank agreed and determined that he would improve his attitude. As a result, he turned his career around and was soon signed by the St. Louis Cardinals.

When Frank left baseball and embarked on a career selling insurance, he found himself in the same boring mold that had plagued him in the minors. Frank was getting nowhere fast. His sales were mediocre and he wasn’t enjoying what he was doing. The answer to his problem proved to be the same one that saved his baseball career. Frank began to deliberately cultivate enthusiasm for his work, and his improved attitude helped him move to the top of the sales force. Although Frank’s solution may sound simplistic, it contains a key ingredient to the recipe for success.

Consider This: Are you enthusiastic about your work? Are you deliberately cultivating enthusiasm?

Submitted by Richard

 

[pro_odeh]

man, the story teller. you are just pasting and posting.. but good job, youve certailny posted a lot so far. exciting, isnt it?

 

[The Story Teller]

May 18
​

Andy Griffith
​

“Act the part and you will become the part.”
—Anonymous
​

Andy Griffith was born in Mt. Airy, North Carolina, and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At one time he considered becoming a minister but soon decided on an entertainment career. For seven years he appeared as Sir Walter Raleigh in the Carolina Playmakers production of The Lost Colony. He also taught music in Goldsboro and performed at various functions. Once, he was scheduled to appear before the same group a second time and was forced to come up with a different act. The result was a monologue based on a joke, called “What It Was Was Football.” Orville Campbell, head of a small recording company, heard Andy’s act and asked him to make the comedy routine into a record. A Capitol Records executive heard the recording on radio and signed Andy to a contract.

Griffith made his first nationwide appearance in January 1954 on The Ed Sullivan Show. “I was not an overwhelming success,” he admits. Continuing to perform his act in the South, Griffith read the Mac Hayman novel No Time for Sergeants and believed he could play the part of Will Stockdale better than any one else. He was persuasive with the show’s producer and got the part for the TV production, played 354 performances on Broadway, and starred in the movie version. In 1960, the William Morris Agency got Andy together with Sheldon Leonard, who created the pilot for The Andy Griffith Show, which was a spin-off from the popular Danny Thomas program. The Andy Griffith Show lasted eight years on television, often commanding the number-one position in the national Nielsen ratings.

Consider This: Sometimes you just have to keep going and look for the breaks that will move you one step farther down the road toward success.

Submitted by Richard

 

[The Story Teller]

May 19
​

What the Customer Really Wants
​

“The customer is always right.”
—Anonymous
​

Some of the most successful American companies have a reputation for aggressively seeking to find out what it is their customers really want. Sam Walton visited each of his Wal-Mart stores every year and made a point to talk to the salespeople on the floor as well as to the customers. He worked only a half-day each week in the corporate office and spent the rest of the week “wandering around” his various stores. A former chief operating officer at PepsiCo spent as much as 40 percent of his time on the road in order to find out how business was faring on the front line. At Hewlett-Packard, computer engineers often leave their work on display so that co-workers passing by can play with it and offer their comments. At 3M, all of the corporation’s research and development people are required to take part in sales calls.

A number of companies regularly send their accountants, assembly-line workers, and executives to local department stores to act as sales clerks for a day, selling the products their companies make and finding out what people actually think of those products. There is simply no substitute for direct human interaction. Statistics, reports, computer printouts, and seminars cannot accurately tell the story of what is actually taking place in the marketplace. To gain a real understanding of what people feel and what they want, you have to get out of your office and see it for yourself.

Consider This: Are you sitting in a corporate ivory tower, believing that you really know what is going on in the real world? Wake up, and get out there and find out for yourself!

Submitted by Richard

 

[The Story Teller]

man, the story teller. you are just pasting and posting.. but good job, youve certailny posted a lot so far. exciting, isnt it?

All good information. Check it out, you might enjoy some of the information..

 

[homestarrunner]

here you go!!! good luck

 

[The Story Teller]

May 20
​

Pepperidge Farm
​

“An enterprise when fairly once begun, should not be left till all that ought is won.”
—Shakespeare
​

How many people have become successful doing something other than what they set out to do? Margaret Rudkin had never baked a loaf of bread in her life. But her young son had asthma, and the doctor suggested that, as part of her son’s treatment, she bake whole wheat bread from only natural ingredients. As her son remembers, the first loaf came out like a brick, but gradually, as Margaret experimented with the recipe, the bread became quite tasty. It was soon the only bread served at the Rudkin house, and visitors often would ask where they could purchase it. To see how marketable her bread really was, Margaret baked twelve loaves, took them to the local grocer, and had him taste it. The grocer immediately ordered more of the bread, and Margaret was in business.

The bread was first baked in the family kitchen, but as its popularity grew, the enterprise was moved to the family barns, which had been converted into kitchens. Margaret Rudkin was very particular about her product. If a loaf had not been wrapped neatly or if anything about the bread looked wrong, she would not let it be sold. Pepperidge Farm became well known for its tasty, high-quality products that consumers perceived to be a cut above other baked goods. Today, the company’s products, including fresh baked products, biscuits, and frozen foods, are sold nationwide.

Consider This: Even someone who has never tried his or her hand at a task can become a master, with patience and practice.

Submitted by Richard