On the 8 Spot

Authenticity: Happiness Quotation from William James.

Willliam james”Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, ‘This is the real me,’ and when you have found that attitude, follow it.”

– William James

The Happiness Project: Authenticity: Happiness Quotation from William James..

there was even a great qoute at the comments of the post from leo tolstoy “If you want to be happy, be”.

Excellent post bout how failing to learn! Read the whole thing!

Embracing Failure

A while back, I clipped this quote from a university publication, figuring it would decorate a blog entry some day:

The thing about a liberal arts education … is it prepares you to fail successfully and learn from that failure. … You will all fail. That’s OK.

– Jim Linahon

Linahon is an alumnus of our school who works in the music industry. He gave a talk on campus for students aspiring to careers in the industry, the theme of which was, “Learn to fail. It happens”

More recently, I ran across this as the solution to a word puzzle in our local paper:

You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.

– Ray Bradbury

Bradbury was one of my favorite authors when I was growing up (The Martian Chronicles mesmerized me!) This quote goes farther than Linahon’s: what other people call failure is learning to fly. Do not fear.

Knowing and Doing: February 2009 Archives.

thanks to paul kedrosky for the pointer to the pic!

Specially like the ceo’s outlook, if you get the culture right everything else follows!

So what is different about Zappos?

* The company provides free shipping both ways

* Zappos has a 365 day return policy

* Only products available in the warehouse are placed on the site

* The warehouse is open 24 hours a day

* The company is contactable 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

* The 1800 contact number is prominently placed on every page of the site

* The company trusts in its reps; sales staff don’t have scripts

* If products are unavailable, sales staff direct customers to competitors

Zappos CEO Talks Culture Fit and the Importance of Creating a ‘Wow’ Experience – ReadWriteWeb.

ty to pk for the pointer

Synchrony and Cooperation

Scott S. Wiltermuth and Chip Heath

ABSTRACT

Armies, churches, organizations, and communities often engage in activities—for example, marching, singing, and dancing—that lead group members to act in synchrony with each other. Anthropologists and sociologists have speculated that rituals involving synchronous activity may produce positive emotions that weaken the psychological boundaries between the self and the group. This article explores whether synchronous activity may serve as a partial solution to the free-rider problem facing groups that need to motivate their members to contribute toward the collective good. Across three experiments, people acting in synchrony with others cooperated more in subsequent group economic exercises, even in situations requiring personal sacrifice. Our results also showed that positive emotions need not be generated for synchrony to foster cooperation. In total, the results suggest that acting in synchrony with others can increase cooperation by strengthening social attachment among group members.

Paul Kedrosky: Never Sing on the Trading Floor.