Drew Simmie's - The Tug of the Kite
http://www.tugofthekite.com/index.php
A Personal Leadership Style
http://www.tugofthekite.com/index.php?entry=entry120209-081935
Personal leadership is a life style, placing emphasis on people, not just on the bottom line. It comes from a way of thinking and living. It is closely linked with high self-esteem, being connected with your core values and having faith in your unique abilities.
You can always spot them. People who live a personal leadership style are open to change and collaboration. They work with their head and their heart. They are always looking for the win-win and sharing rather than focusing only on the winner-take-all approach. They thrive on synergism and and easily adapt to diversity.
Confidant and with high energy levels that come from positive thoughts and feelings, people with a personal leadership style are all about creating a positive environment for others - constantly striving to reduce fear, increase hope and create spaces of integrity.
Life isn’t about things. Life is about people.
I invite you to follow me on Twitter@thekite or email your thoughts to drew@drewsimmie.com __________________________________________________________________________]]>Finding a New Big Dream
http://www.tugofthekite.com/index.php?entry=entry120206-081031
It is necessary to run certain risks, to follow certain paths and abandon others. No one can make a choice without facing fear. Paulo Coelho.
In my latest book I recounted the tale about Timothy, a twelve year boy who had had saved up enough money to buy himself a kite:
On an overcast, blustery afternoon he took it to the park. As he ran with it,his arm extended, the cord was so taut that he feared it might tear away from the kite. Slowly ,carefully he let out the string. The kite flew higher and higher until it was out of sight.
A middle-aged man, dressed in a conservative grey suit approached him. “What are you doing?” he asked. “I’m flying a kite, sir,” Timothy replied. “Flying a kite? What do you mean? I don’t see a kite. You don’t see a kite.How do you know that there is a kite?”
Gravely Timothy eyed the man.“I know there’s a kite sir, because I can feel it.
In a way life is like that. Like Timothy, when we start out, armed only with a big dream and courage, we jump right it in and just start running. No challenge is too great, no task is too demanding.
That is because working on a dream is a creative process. It’s an attitude, a state of mind. When you’re fully engaged, passionate about whom you are and what you’re doing you don’t see the time. You feel fully alive.
More often than not, though, if you have worked at a dream too long it can become a job. It becomes routine, even boring. Eventually, if you are not careful, you begin to lose your zest for life. The passion is gone. Then one day you find yourself believing that the present is all that there is and you find you are spending the day protecting the safer ground.
The question is how to regain that passion if you’ve lost it. We all have the right to change. Nowhere is it written that you can’t abandon a certain path and begin walking a new one.
It won’t be easy and it’s not for everyone but if you can’t feel the tug anymore and would like to, perhaps it’s time to seriously think about finding a new big dream.
I invite you to follow me on Twitter@thekite or email your thoughts to drew@drewsimmie.com. _________________________________________________________________________]]>The Dachshund with the Face Book Page
http://www.tugofthekite.com/index.php?entry=entry120202-094530
Every day we hear of someone who started a business in their garage or in a spare room and against all the odds went on to incredible success.
If you have a dog, you may know of Roxanne Pettipas. From zero, from scratch she has built a wildly successful, international Canadian business manufacturing leather dog harnesses.
The interesting part of the story is that she didn’t know the first thing about dog harnesses, much less making them. She was a teacher. She had a dog named Buddy.
All she knew was that she wanted to change careers and that Buddy’s collar would choke him when she took him out for a walk.
So she decided to make a harness for him. "I had to learn it all," she said. The rest, as the old saying goes, is history. The first step is always the hardest... you can read all about Roxanne's amazing story and even friend Buddy on his face Book page. That's right. Buddy has his own Face Book page.
I invite you to follow me on Twitter@thekite or email your thoughts to drew@drewsimmie.com. __________________________________________________________________________ ]]>The 10,000 Hour Rule
http://www.tugofthekite.com/index.php?entry=entry120130-190428
Contrary to what many may think, accomplishment in any field is not always easy. Whether it is playing the violin, building a business or raising a family there is rarely such a thing as an “overnight success.”
However it is measured, success is the result of many attributes and personal values including among others, patience, courage, a riveted focus, an unfailing belief in yourself… and tons of hard work. Malcolm Gladwell suggests that it takes up to 10,000 hours.
To learn more about his views, check out this link to his book,The Outliers.
I invite you to follow me on Twitter@thekite or email your thoughts to drew@drewsimmie.com. _________________________________________________________________________]]>Making Choices
http://www.tugofthekite.com/index.php?entry=entry120126-073144
The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is today. Chinese proverb.
Every day we are faced a plethora of choices. So many things are up to each one of us now: Who to be, what to do, what line of work to spend our day at, whom to partner with, what to read, what to learn, how to keep growing…
In today’s world it’s all too easy to get caught up in the spin, to lose sight of who we are, who and what is important and who and what really isn’t.
The choices are ours... it's all up to us.
I invite you to follow me on Twitter@thekite or email your thoughts at drew@drewsimmie.com. __________________________________________________________________________]]>Fresh Thinking
http://www.tugofthekite.com/index.php?entry=entry120123-080750
Many of you are familiar with the old expression, “There is nothing certain but death and taxes.” Right? Wrong. Whoever coined that saying did so before the Internet age. To the certainly of death and taxes we must add change; not that change is new, but the speed of the change certainly is and it is making obsolete many of what were previously tried and true business models.
Today’s knowledge-based economy is global, interconnected and interdependent. It is a market place of infinite choices, environmentally sensitive, driven by technology and media dominated.
It has created a need for fresh thinking that demands we work in a new 'space',not relying, as we used to, principally on our linear, left brain side (empirical and metric driven) but now placing more emphasis on our right brain side… still relying on our intellectual prowess but listening more to our intuition and then taking that information and filtering it through our minds in the 'middle space' between both spheres.
It is in this ‘middle space’ where the practical and meaningful solutions for today’s new challenges reside. It’s always a juggling act, but here are just three suggestions to help you get there:
1.Never stop thinking ‘outside the box.’ That’s where the new ideas are. 2.Build on a bigger future even though you don’t immediately see it. 3.Never lose your courage or faith in your inborn creative abilities.
It’s counter-productive to rail against the change. The battlefields of corporate history are littered with the corpses of companies, big or small,who couldn’t or wouldn’t move on even when they knew they should. Just the other day, for instance, Kodak threw in the towel. They simply could not adapt. How much more iconic could a company be? Or General Motors… what’s good for General Motors is good for the USA. Remember that saying?
A project or a company of any size may last a decade, a generation or even longer but when it has run its course, while it is never easy, the trick is let it go and then figure out how to move on to a better place.
I invite you to follow me on Twitter@thekite or email your thoughts at drew@drewsimmie.com. __________________________________________________________________________]]>Build Anyway
http://www.tugofthekite.com/index.php?entry=entry120119-073955
“If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; build anyway.” Mother Teresa.
Hmmm…
I invite you to follow me on Twitter@thekite or email your thoughts at drew@drewsimmie.com.]]>Continually Growing
http://www.tugofthekite.com/index.php?entry=entry120115-222938
Today is the Pupil of Yesterday. Publius Syrus.
Growing is as necessary and as natural as breathing. When you're growing you are full of energy. Ideas seems to come effortlessly. One success leads to the next. Nothing seems to be beyond your reach.
Conversely, when you stop growing inevitably your life begins to diminish. Things aren't as much fun as they used to be. You become stale and dull. Worst of all, you start to lose your courage. You find yourself questioning your own abilities and personal worth, sometimes without even being aware of it. You become risk averse and blind to the new opportunities.
How do you know if you have stopped growing? Ask yourself these three questions:
1. Are you unable to make allowances for ideas and opinions that don't conform to yours? 2. Are you unduly critical? 3. Are you simply going through the motions everyday?
If you've answered yes, you've stopped.
The need to continually grow, to say yes to change and new ideas is nothing less than your love of life. It's the desire you feel to be alive, to be here and now - not in the past, nor in the future, but now - in the moment, where the living is.
I invite you to follow me on Twitter@thekite or email your thoughts at drew@drewsimmie.com.]]>A Field of Diamonds
http://www.tugofthekite.com/index.php?entry=entry120111-215833
It was the usual litany of bad actors – competition in Asia was hammering his costs, many of his customers were closing their doors and the overall demand for his products was shrinking.
He had been searching far and wide for a solution. He even thought of getting out altogether and trying a new line of work. The challenge was that he didn’t know any other industry and, in spite of his current difficulty, actually still liked the textile industry.
Try as he might he couldn’t find a solution, not realizing one of life’s axioms – you can’t solve a problem with the same mind that created it.
“Look under your feet,” I suggested.
“What do you mean,” he asked?
“Think out of the box,” I replied. “Instead of looking far afield for something new, imagine staying in your business and see if you can come up with a new way to leverage your expertise… and maybe even make your life easier.”
After discussing a few alternatives and some brain storming, he suddenly hit upon the idea of creating a strategic alliance with a friend of his, also in the textile business and whose business was also in trouble because the manufacturing arm of his business was weak. They combined their experience and expertise, went after a new market and never looked back.
You get the idea. It was a win-win for them both. The answer for my client lay right under his feet: Without realizing it, all the while, he had been standing on a field of diamonds. He just hadn’t looked…
I invite you to follow me on Twitter@thekite or email your thoughts at drew@drewsimmie.com.]]>If I Should Have a Daughter
http://www.tugofthekite.com/index.php?entry=entry120109-064344
Other things may change us but we start and win with family. Anthony Brandt.
The other day a friend of mine sent me this link. It’s a reminder, if our hearts and minds are open, of just how special human kind is, how precious is the gift of life and how important is the role of women in society.
