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dispatches from the new world of work

Good as It Gets!

If there are two better quotes than this pair I came across yesterday, which capture the spirit and practice of innovation as I see it, I don't know what they are:

"America is probably the best culture in the world at failing. We're willing to navigate in a fog and keep moving forward. Our competitive advantage tends to be at the fuzzy front end of things when you're still finding your way. Once the way has been found, we're back at a disadvantage."—Geoff Moore, Mohr Davidow Ventures, on the importance of investing in innovation (New York Times, 0104.09)

"We normally shoot a few takes, even if the first one is terrific, because what I'm really hoping for is a 'mistake.' I think that most of the really great moments in my films were not planned. They were things that naturally occurred and we said, 'Wow, look at that—that's something we want to keep.' That's when you hit the truth button with the audience."—Robert Altman, on his Academy Award winning Gosford Park

Both emphasize the role of failure and the unplanned—the twin centerpieces of effective innovation.

Tom Peters posted this yesterday.
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2009: Week One

I started jotting down a few summary thoughts about innovation this past Saturday. Next thing I knew I had a list of 110 items. I decided to break the list into four parts. One part will appear each day through Thursday of this first full week of the new year. On Thursday we will also offer a PDF of the entire list.

Tom Peters posted this yesterday.
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Innovate or Die: The Innovation110
A Menu of [Essential] Innovation Tactics
Part One: Tactic #1 through #16

Recession or no recession, deep recession or not, the challenge to add more and more value grows, and the importance of innovation, and a culture of innovation, grows exponentially. A "culture of innovation" covers "everything." There is no halfway. There, of course, are "first principles." Or are there? I started a list of "stuff" that's imperative to creating an innovative enterprise. The list of 10 or so grew to 25, then 45, and at the moment includes no less than 110 "tactics." Of course you can't do all of them. Or must you? Well, you can't do all 110, or maybe even half that number, but the absence of any one or two or three or six weakens and perhaps even imperils the entire structure. Use what follows as you will.

Trying Stuff.
Screwing Stuff Up.
Fast.

1. Tries. Darwin rules. More stuff goin' on, more interesting-good stuff happenin'. Innovation is to a large extent a "numbers game": He-she who tries the most stuff wins. (Astonishingly true.)

2. Culture of "Try it! Now!" Culture! Culture! Attitude! Attitude! Mindset! Mindset! "The way we do things around here." "Around here, we try things first, fix 'em fast, try again, talk about it later, when we've got something to talk about."

3. Philosophy/F.A. Hayek/"spontaneous discovery process." Firm as market economy. New stuff emerges "spontaneously" from lots of trials and lots of errors. The innovator's life is life on the run, zigging here and zagging there—but always hustling.

4. Failures encouraged/celebrated/cherished. Failure is the key to success. Period. Fast failure is the key to fast success. And so on. This must be "cultural" to the core.

5.Transparency. All info on all these tries and cock-ups available to all to inspire, to chew over, to add to, to attract adherents and champions, etc.

6.Connection/Ubiquitous. No barriers! Across-the-wall communication is as normal as breathing!

7. MBWA/Managing By Wandering Around. An informal, in touch, high-camaraderie, on the move atmosphere underlies the "try it"-"screw it up"-"learn from it"-"fast" "culture."

8. Fail to share yields "death penalty." Sharing-transparency are the innovation organization's lubricant; therefore those who hoard must get the boot.

9. Fast prototyping/Serious play. Prototyping skills-attitude are more central than almost anyone can imagine. Entire organization as "playpen" with "playmates" gathering spontaneously to try stuff. Quickly. Quickly.

10. Tempo/OODA Loop mastery/RFA. "Ready. Fire. Aim." is the premier cultural trait. Try it-learn from it-try it again-spread the news-recruit adherents-etc. The organization has a high metabolic rate ("metabolic management"), a rapid tempo. The Observe-Orient-Decide-Act cycle, invented by military strategist John Boyd, is quick and the quickness per se confuses one's competitors.

11. FFFF/Find a Fellow Freak Faraway/"The Sri Lanka Strategy." Try cool-scary-risky stuff out in the boondocks, well away from HQ and typical HQ stuffiness. Find a playmate in "Sri Lanka" ready to give your idea a whirl; eventually, the network of Champions-from-the-boondocks become the premier carriers of the innovation.

12. Demos/Heroes/Stories. Tries and screw-ups and sagas of bold champions become the "stories" that animate the organization—and induce everyone to climb aboard, play with vigor, or lose out.

13. Social Networks. The emerging social networking tools become the accelerator for the process described and implied in these first dozen ideas. Nothing automatic about this—must be thought through, overseen (but also loose-as-a-goose, not judgmental). Emergent leadership from hither, thither, and yon becomes the de facto "leadership for innovation" in the organization.

Discipline.
Accountability.
Execution.

14. Department of Sanity/"Dreamers with Deadlines"/Fiscal responsibility/Budget skills. Warren Bennis called hot groups of innovators "dreamers with deadlines." Innovation is not pie-in-the-sky, "let's all have a blast, yo my man, cool, eh?" in nature. There is a compelling and disciplined "execution" thread that is central to the innovating organization. The innovating organization is focused on "new stuff," "cool stuff"—but is pragmatic to a fault. The project "budget and milestones guru" is as honored as the true believer-dreamer-champion.

15. Department of Sanity/Accountability. Screwing up, for instance, is essential to innovating. But there is as much accountability around screwing up as there is around inventory management in a traditional outfit; that is, the innovator takes responsibility for the screw-up and for insuring rapid learning and dissemination of lessons learned and for mounting the follow-up experiment posthaste.

16. Department of Sanity/Implementation training. Execution and Implementation are paramount skills, highly rewarded and cherished. Bunkmates to the end.

Tom Peters posted this yesterday.
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Status Check for 2009: Is Your Job Safe?

As we approach the new year, there is a big uncertainty looming everywhere. For a large majority of people, the uncertainty is about their job. Is it safe? In other words, will they have a job or not?

I think the real question should be "Is someone really employable in the new economy or not?" but that's a topic for another discussion.

This is a quick exercise to do a status check on the "safety" of your job. The questionnaire is in no way complete. The focus is to make you think beyond the "job responsibilities" outlined in your offer letter.

Note: Not all questions are relevant for people at all levels.

1. Is your job core to what the company stands for?

When there is a crisis, an organization tends to drop non-core and adjacent activities. The approach will be to play to their strengths to survive and thrive. If your job does not contribute to the strengths of the organization, you have to quickly re-invent yourself so that it does align with the company core purpose. If what you bring aligns with the strengths of the company, the follow-up question is "how much capacity are you adding to the company?"

2. What will the company/department lose by eliminating your job?

Please note that the question is not, "What will the company gain by keeping you in that job?"

During a crisis, avoiding threats (rather than going after opportunities) will take center stage. If there is no significant threat, there is no big safety net for the job. Even when you are in a strategic R&D project, look at what this R&D project will mean to the company. If you are not happy with the answer, it's time to re-think, re-invent, and re-act.

3. Who is borrowing the brand power?

Is your department proud of you because of your personal brand? OR

Are you proud of the brand of your department?

The answer should ideally be: Both

4. What is the assessment of your "value" in the eyes of the stakeholders?

If the answer is vague, such as "A lot" or "Significant," you have to re-visit the topic. Can you quantify your value in some measure, and is that value justifiable?

5. Is your job "offshorable?"

If your job can be moved offshore, then chances are it will be—in some form or fashion. In other words, you have to question yourself about whether you are doing commodity work. If you are doing work that a machine can do or someone in another country can do for a smaller fee, the chances of those moves may be very high. The thing is that you may not have control of your job if you are engaged in commodity work.

6. Do you care as if it's your own?

If you don't care about your product as if it's your own, you can't expect the company to do that (about you) either. When you care as if it's your own, the passion is clear. Passionate people win—all the time. In troubled times, an organization needs passionate people to keep the place alive. And, the thing about passion and caring is that you can't fake them.

7. Can you handle office politics well?

OK, you may not like office politics, but if you are working in an office, you better learn to deal with it. All else being equal, someone who knows how to deal with office politics will always come out a winner.

8. What is the cost of maintaining you?

There is the cost that you can measure (money, overhead, etc.) and there is the cost that is "real"—which includes, but is not limited to, the emotional cost of dealing with you everyday. For example, if you like to whine a lot, you increase your cost of maintenance. In troubled times, if your real cost to the company is significantly higher than the measurable costs, you are in trouble.

9. Are you likeable?

Unless you work for NASA, you don't have to be a rocket scientist. In tough times (and probably all times) a combination of 7 out of 10 on skills and 9 out of 10 on attitude is preferred to the other way around. If you are not likeable, it will hurt you in ways you would never imagine. People don't always make rational decisions, but they will definitely rationalize it after they have made the decision. So, people may not dismiss you because you are not likeable, but they will find a way to justify why they dismiss you beyond the likeability factor.

[Thanks to Cool Friend Raj Setty for providing us all with these questions for self-examination. Raj works with entrepreneurs to bring ideas to life and spread their adoption. You can learn more about him at www.rajeshsetty.com or follow him on his blog, Life Beyond Code, or on Twitter @UpbeatNow.]

Raj Setty posted this yesterday.
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Radically Thrilling.
Lickable.
Recession Cure.

Tuf-E-Nuf hammer

Steve Jobs says that the definition of a perfectly designed product is one you want to lick.
BMW claims that one of its models is radically thrilling.
Economists agree that inducing people to open their wallets is the cure to the recession.
And I claim it all boils down to the right kind of hammer.

A hammer you want to lick.
A hammer that is radically thrilling.
And a hammer that induces you to make an expenditure that you hadn't intended to make.

Hence: See the photo above of the Tuf-E-Nuf hammer.

This gorgeous little hammer is a true innovation, even an earth-shattering innovation. The head is the head of a [normal] heavy hammer. But the handle is only five inches long, half the standard length. And the grip is great, up to the OXO standard. The net result is the ability to maneuver in tight spots while retaining almost all the power of a full-size hammer. And, as a bonus, owning a piece of sculptural art. So I ended up buying six of the bloody things for Christmas presents—including, Christmas spirit be damned, one as a present to myself.

Great design rules!
Innovation is king!
Functionality scores!
Lickability and Radically Thrilling are the standards worth shooting for!
There is more to life than iPods!
Beating the recession occurs at the checkout in the R.K. Miles hardware-home-building supplies store in Manchester Center VT!
Excellence knows no bounds!
Happy 2009!

Tom Peters posted this on 12/30.
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100 Ways to Succeed #149:

Excellence!
Now!
More Than Ever!
Happy New Year!

Excellence is the best defense.
Excellence is the best offense.
Excellence is the answer in good times.
Excellence is the answer in tough times.
Excellence is about the big things.
Excellence is about the little things.
Excellence is a hammer.
Excellence is a relationship.
Excellence is a philosophy.
Excellence is an aspiration.
Excellence is immoderate.
Excellence is a pragmatic standard.
Excellence is execution.
Excellence is selfish.
Excellence is selfless.
Excellence keeps you awake.
Excellence lets you sleep well.
Excellence is a moving target.
Excellence knows no bounds.

Excellence2009!
What else?

Now!
More than ever!

Tom Peters posted this on 12/30.
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Brand You: Ten Years Later, Needed More Than Ever

[Julie Anixter was a key part of the Tom Peters team behind the Reinventing Work books. His R&D gal, Tom called her "Official Muse," as she had the passion and stamina to go toe-to-toe with him on these ideas and then take them out into the world and crusade for them. She can currently be found as CMO of the design firm Brandimage - Desgrippes & Laga and blogging at www.thinkremarkable.com.—CM]

If year-end is good for reflection, this year-end has got to be one of the most poignant in a long time, as we watch and wonder and slide between the chaos (Wall Street, Detroit, our 401Ks) and the promise (an Obama & crew heading towards 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and clean green technologies poking through the haze of unconsciousness thanks to Thomas Friedman and others.)

Each time my own heart breaks a little for every laid-off worker, every ravaged "everyman and everywoman" whose non-Wall Street career adds up to a whole lotta loss despite loyalty and hard work, the next thing I know my neural networks careen toward the idea that Tom dropped like a big stone in our cultural pond, in August 1997, with the now-famous Tide "kapow-take-that!" Fast Company cover story "The Brand Called You." A year or so later, I was challenged to the hilt myself, collaborating on three books and educational programs with Tom, and his inner circle of creatives, three great little lists of 50 calls to action: The Project50, The Professional Service Firm50, and The BrandYou50.

Tom called these three topics "The Work Matters" movement, and we, like elves before Christmas, had an incredible sense of urgency about getting these ideas out to the world because dot-com mania and outsourcing were making it clear that white collar jobs were going to decline and anxiety was beginning to twist in the air. In retrospect, perhaps we—the collective we—weren't ... anxious enough.

Perhaps the idea that you too could be your own box of Tide, ready to be grabbed off the shelf (which would in fact make you one of the best loved, most valuable franchises on the planet), of branding yourself—like most big ideas—was a bit hard to swallow at first. Perhaps just a little too ahead of its time. Tom claims he always wants to be five minutes ahead—but this idea of "being a brand" and all the self-focus (aka self-care) was extremely ahead and is still not well embraced ... particularly in many leadership suites where individual brands were viewed as big recruiting targets and a pain in the ass.

Just think, if the brand-centric idea of doing work so well, so remarkably, so worth noticing, had become inherited wisdom, if it had become a survival strategy that any self-respecting job holder-careerist, blue, white, or green collar had to hold on to ... this season's sheer human greed and destruction would be a little easier to swallow. Because we'd all just pick up our tools, our resumes, our reputations built on our WORK, and move to the next team, job, town, or wherever, that we were "in demand." Come to think of it, it's not a bad idea now, today, circa 2009, to try on that remarkable thinking for size.

Maybe the most profound learning I had through that whole wonderful project was that we are all, already, walking brands. We just have to polish them so that we can see them shine. So read the book, take it to heart, or just check out Tom's challenge from the article:

The real action is at the other end: the main chance is becoming a free agent in an economy of free agents, looking to have the best season you can imagine in your field, looking to do your best work and chalk up a remarkable track record, and looking to establish your own micro equivalent of the Nike swoosh. Because if you do, you'll not only reach out toward every opportunity within arm's (or laptop's) length, you'll not only make a noteworthy contribution to your team's success—you'll also put yourself in a great bargaining position for next season's free-agency market." (Tom Peters, "The Brand Called You," Fast Company, August 1997)

Julie Anixter posted this on 12/29.
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Christmas 2008

So, a Christmas post is in order. I have been thinking about it for days, no kidding, and have had no success in the arenas of Big Ideas. Or little ideas. And I am ever so fearful-horrified of glibness at this particular moment.

Let's start with the fact that a lot of people who deserved better (or didn't, for that matter) are having truly crappy-rotten Christmases. And it pains me personally—one case at a time ad infinitum. Sure, the auto industry made its own mess by and large, but I honestly teared up yesterday listening to a little ("little"?) NPR story about a 15-year-old family-run restaurant-tavern directly across from the main gate to a GM plant that closed down indefinitely last night. Sure it's a "big world out there," and sure such things are always going on—but this one got to me as I went about my Christmas shopping, modest though it is this year. And then that led me to my frighteningly rare thoughts about the roughly two billions of my "global village" neighbors trying to make it on a buck-a-day ...

And then I stopped for papers—and picked up the New York Post (I have a longstanding penchant for tabloids), and said in an inappropriately loud voice that turned heads, "You f#%^ers." I had just seen the big photo on page one of Bernard Madoff's son Andrew and his wife, laden with conspicuously high-end shopping bags as they went about their holiday shopping in Manhattan. Just got to me. Should they not buy gifts? Or go to Wal*Mart? That's not the point (for me); the point is Total Incredible Inexcusable Nauseating Pathetic Insensitivity, of the sort we saw from the Big Three Beggars flying in their corporate jets to D.C. a few weeks ago. In my head the words "Have they no shame?" run around and around and around.

And then my hair shirt starts to itch. I've asked myself 100 times, or a hundred hundred times, "Tom, what could you have done differently?" While I cannot bear the entire burden of human greed run amok, I can find plenty of fault. I ceaselessly preach the basics and people first. Yet I did not in any way, shape, or form scream often enough or loud enough about the obvious wretchedly wretched excess of the last several years. Like Greenspan, I definitely believe that I took my Silicon Valley lessons a bit too seriously and drank the "self-regulating unfettered capitalism" Koolaid. I remain a capitalist (it works) but I shall go to my grave beating the crap out of myself for not having seen the obvious and for not having used my not inconsequential bully pulpit. (For God's sake, I routinely call health care professionals killers for not washing their hands; surely I could have shouted "Enough!" upon regular occasion regarding the growing absurdity of demonstrated greed and the lack of any semblance of accountability.)

So, we're in for it. And may be in for it for the foreseeable future. And the bottom may—or may not—be in sight. This is beyond any shadow of doubt the biggest financial crisis in 75 years. And despite my advanced age, even I have Zero Experience with anything like this. Hence, how does one give serious advice, or play expert with a straight face?

Then there's the glib stuff galore that is the current staple of the shameless self-help gurus. E.g., get up with a smile and get on with life! Or, remember it's your family and friends who are your anchors! Both things are true, but hackneyed to say the least.

So here is my effort, probably futile and surely inadequate, to be a little less hackneyed than I otherwise might:

***Feel the pain. Feel free to hurt and hurt badly for every single person laid off or fired, maybe even the Lehman gang. (I admit I can't personally go as far as Lehmanites, but I do feel that I should—they are, after all, more or less human beings.) There is a lot of hurt "out there" and it is inappropriate not to feel it; that's my view. It shouldn't paralyze you, but it should haunt you.

***Be of help. Feel the pain—and do something about it. Whether it's a $100 bill dropped in the Salvation Army bowl, or some hours serving in the soup kitchen, help out. Sure, it'll make you feel better, but that's not the point. There are a lot of people who need help. Period. So help. And keep helping. This is not a rich man's-woman's blog, but the average peruser of tp.com has a little room to spare—or more. Give until you are half poor—money and time.

***Kind words or no words. Go gentle in the world. Period. A little kindness goes a long way. Especially when the fans are all covered with crap. I said "action" a minute ago, but now I'm saying attitude. No, not some ginned up "positive mental attitude"—just human grace and thoughtfulness and gentleness and decency roughly 100% of the time.

***Say "Thank you" to anyone who goes even a quarter-step, eighth-step out of their way to be helpful or cheerful. Most everyone is under great pressure—and positive acknowledgement of their being is a true and enormous gift.

***In your professional lives, work on your thoughtfulness as if your life depended on it—it does in the sense of your Final Exam with St Peter. (Or whomever.) You may have to make tough decisions, but you can streeeeetch to ameliorate the pain and, per the above, exude decency 100.00000% of the time.

***Re-assess your needs. From an economic standpoint, we do, in fact, have to spend our way out of this bind—banks must offer credit for new car purchases, etc. On the other hand, many of us could use a hearty dose of newfound simplicity and thriftiness in our lives longterm. This is a matchless, if painful, time to reassess what it's all about.

***People have long memories. To be "P&L" focused, those to whom you extend kindnesses in tough times will likely reward you 10-fold in the long term. (Make that 100-fold.) "Thoughtfulness pays" is a fact of life in business or "the rest."

***Get outdoors. Exercise and good breathing habits are gifts from the Gods when it comes to longevity or equanimity or stress reduction. But do your exercise outside—"close to the soil" is not reserved for those of us who live on farms in the likes of Vermont. Up your daily exercise regimen to at least an hour—outdoors. Being in touch with the soil, including urban asphalt, is good for the soul and sanity and those around you.

***Basics #1. "It's always 'the people.'" It may be glib, but in this instance I don't care. Network, keep your promises, behave decently. Your are as good as your relationships. Period. Short term. Long term. Good times. Tough times. This is the time (though all times are, in fact, the time) to "over"invest in relationship building and maintenance.

***Basics #2. Execution is king. I arrived at a retail shop at, literally, 4:57 p.m. three days ago. It closed at 5 p.m., and the doorcloser was poised by the door, hovering by the door, whatever. Open early, stay open late—even if the traffic is approximately zilch. For God's sake ......
(Why o why o why o why should I have to write this???)

***Basics #3. MBWA.* (*Managing By Wandering Around.) To be present is to care. To be absent is broadcasting contempt or disregard or shameful insensitivity.

***Basics #4. Keep growing. Learn new stuff. Have lunch with new people. Get better and better at what you do. Glib or not, we're either growing or contracting—and it's not your 401(k) I'm talking about. I'm off on a new sustainable architecture jag. I indulged in a mini-library of about 10 books—and I'm about to dig in.

***Basics #5. Be accountable. You must take absolute & unequivocal & total responsibility for the stuff you promise, real or implied—especially the accumulation of so-called "small stuff." (Five minutes late to a meeting is late, not "a little late.") The current mega-crisis is to a significant degree an accountability (lack thereof) crisis—sure, Mr Rubin, you had nothing to do with the Citigroup implosion; sure, Angelo-I-screwed-the-world-and-took-home-$100,000,000-for-my-efforts-as-a-walkaway-reward (Countrywide), you were jus' helpin' people buy homes.

***Basic #6. Become a better listener-hearer. Practice. Practice. Practice.

***"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."—Gandhi. (Talk about glib!!!!!!) "Make each day matter." (Talk about glib!!!!!) This is your life. You have neither yesterday. Nor tomorrow. Only today. (Talk about glib!!!!!!)

In summary, as I try to sort all this out:

Graceful.
Decent.
Kind.
Caring.
Attentive.
Thoughtful.
Accountable.
Helpful.
Close at 5:05 p.m.

Sorry, it's the best I can do.

Tom Peters posted this on 12/23.
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Christmas Greetings and Thank You

To ...

Non-officer members of the U.S. armed forces serving abroad at Christmastime (written as an American) (not that I have anything against officers—I was once lucky enough to be one)

99% of cops—who are routinely in harm's way

Firemen who do insane things to save lives

Community bankers who lent only to those who could pay back their loans—then kept the loans on their books

Small business owners who come to work every day with a PMA-damn the torpedos philosophy

Airline employees who do their damndest despite the odds

My fellow Vietnam Vets who were "in country" with me for Christmas 1967 (and to my C.O. for giving us a half-day off on Christmas Day—I'm not being sarcastic, we were there to get the job done)

Historical figures like Grant and Nelson who inspire me

My friend and former boss Walt Minnick who passed up a lucrative CEO job to run (successfully) for Congress at age 66 and be of service

America's revolutionary privates and corporals in the winter of 1776

Herb Kelleher, who founded and put in 37 years at Southwest Airlines

Workers in Mumbai who reopened the Taj and Oberoi in short order

Larry Janesky, Basement Systems Inc, who created a star out of the most mundane activity imaginable

Employees who smile

Authors (and I don't mean me) who labor for years to have their say about an idea they think is worth broadcasting

Founders of the Weather Channel—who were held up to relentless ridicule, but who beat the odds

Nurses, the superstars of the healthcare world

Those small business people who beat Wal*Mart or Starbucks by producing matchless local Excellence (though I have no gripes with Wal*Mart or Starbucks)

All Olympians for their insane dedication to Excellence

Any manager who practices MBWA with reckless abandon

Anyone who says "Thank you"

Anyone who accepts accountability and says "It's my fault"—when it more or less is

Florists who add color to our lives (especially those of us in cold, gray climates)

My stepson Max, who truly believes he can improve our environment and change a nation's behavior in the process (and for his 4,000-mile solo bike ride across the U.S. to demonstrate his commitment to a more gentle way of inhabiting the planet)

Those under 25 who voted in our presidential election—not for their choice of candidate, but for showing up and exercising their precious franchise

Kids in the ghetto who avoid peer pressure and go on to accomplish great things

My late Mom who Mommed with a passion as representative of so many Moms

Those who hold three jobs to make ends meet

Those who go to college at night at age 35 despite a grueling daytime job

Charming rascals

The players at Cirque du Soleil, who deliver Excellence every time

Comedians—we need 'em right now

Theatrical bit players who bust their buns to make their 45 seconds unadulterated Excellence

Startup CEOs

Women business owners

Steve Jobs who is relentless in pursuit of Excellence again and again and again

Those who live and die to pursue Excellence—and inspire us

George Bush and Dick Cheney, whom I didn't vote for twice and am furious at for the damage they've done to my country's reputation—but who, excesses notwithstanding, have helped us avoid a sequel to 9/11/01

Barack Obama with selfish prayers for your forthcoming service—and for lifting our spirits and aspirations

And so many others who anonymously do vast quantities of good work for their communities without a shred of recognition

Not. Bernard Madoff—not for his fiscal malfeasance, but for screwing his longstanding friends
Not. Robert Mugabe

Tom Peters posted this on 12/23.
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