Inspiring Quotes To Help You Get Through Your Work Day

If you find yourself in a little mid-week or mid-day slump, take a few moments to re-energize yourself with these inspiring quotes from some of the world’s greatest thinkers. Sometimes, all it takes is a little reminder to boost your spirits and refocus your day.

Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same.

Francesca Reigler

When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.

Helen Keller

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself, any direction you choose."

Dr. Seuss

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.

Steve Jobs

Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, you ought to set up a life you don’t need to escape from.

Seth Godin

The problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat.

Lily Tomlin

A man should never neglect his family for business.

Walt Disney

Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresea, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.

H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Someone once told me that 'time' is a predator that stalks us all our lives. But I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment because it will never come again.

Jean-Luc Picard

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

Charles Darwin

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

Thomas Edison

You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take

Wayne Gretzky

Do or do not. There is no try.

Yoda

Those who say it can not be done, should not interrupt those doing it.

Chinese Proverb

Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. Thoughts are things! And powerful things at that, when mixed with definiteness of purpose, and burning desire, can be translated into riches.

Napoleon Hill

You are not your resume, you are your work.

Seth Godin

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

Theodore Roosevelt

Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.

Will Rogers

Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.

Babe Ruth

If you work just for money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.

Ray Kroc

When writing the story of your life, don't let anyone else hold the pen.

Harley Davidson

A professional is someone who can do his best work when he doesn't feel like it.

Alistair Cook

Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.

Jim Rohn

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.

Thomas Jefferson

I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

Michael Jordan

People inspire you or they drain you - pick them wisely.

Hans F. Hansen

The Pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.

John Maxwell

Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re right!

Henry Ford

When you change your thoughts, you change your world.

Norman Vincent Peale

A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.

Mahatma Gandhi

There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.

Denis Waitley

Just Because It's on the Internet Doesn't Mean It's True

In the height of Hurricane Sandy, I became transfixed with following the real-time progress of the storm. From Google News to Yahoo! to The Weather Channel, I was inundated with updates from across the country. One of my favorite sources was Facebook as my friends shared status updates that gave me perspective on what was happening. Or, in some cases, what they believed to be happening but wasn’t. I refer to several photos that circulated faster than the hurricane’s winds. One of particular note was three guards holding their own against a fierce torrent of wind and rain at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The picture is real; however, it was taken in September during a bad rain storm, weeks before Sandy even formed.

As information can travel at the blink of an eye, so can misinformation. Or as Mark Twain once said, “A lie will go ‘round the world while truth is pulling its boots on.” Actually, I should’ve said, most people attribute this quote to Twain. It was actually said by a man named C.H Spurgeon who attributed it as an old proverb. The mangling of truth knows no bounds. But today, truths and lies have the same value and can travel at the same speeds, often without differentiation, and both can equally shape historical events and create multiple realities. All of these views are valid insomuch as they represent an individual’s experience with events.

Incorrect digital artifacts are a big reality in today’s information society. Flying into Detroit one morning, I did what almost all fliers these days do. Upon landing, I turned on my phone and tapped into social media, in this case Facebook, to update my status. The phone had a difficult time locating my position and thought I was in New Boston, Michigan, an unincorporated township adjacent to Romulus, the town in which the airport is actually located. When I went to check in, over 2,000 people had also checked into the airport in New Boston, thereby creating a new digital reality. After all, 2,000 people can’t be wrong, right? I can imagine historians thousands of years hence discussing whether the airport was in Romulus or New Boston. What would they conclude?

We hope professional journalists, trained purveyors of truth, would help to deter misinformation. And for the most part they do. The reason I know about the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier photo is because of another reporter’s story on Mashable. But journalists get things wrong too, and when they do the damage can be significant. In 2006, famed NFL player Jerome Bettis played his last game in his hometown of Detroit at the Super Bowl. In honor of his accomplishments, the city decided to give him a key to the city. A reporter from a small paper in Pennsylvania asked Jerome how he felt to be in an exclusive club, one that included Saddam Hussein. Jerome made a joke, and an AP writer at the news conference picked up the exchange, included it in a story he wrote, and within 24 hours, the story had gone global. Jerome Bettis and Saddam Hussein were one of only a handful of people (some articles even suggested a number as low as four) to ever receive a key to the city of Detroit. It was on the Today Show. CNN. FoxNews. The New York Times. I worked for ESPN at the time and decided to check the facts. I called the mayor’s office and was informed I was the only person to call and confirm the story. Saddam Hussein and Jerome Bettis had indeed received keys to the city. But Detroit had given away hundreds of keys to a variety of people, and Saddam received his in 1982, a time of prolific key offerings. So where did the reporter get the idea the keys were limited? Apparently, at the time Jerome Bettis received his key, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick had decided to limit the awarding of the keys because of their cost and because they were given away so frequently that their perceived value was diminished. Two facts collided and traveled the world.

Big deal, I can hear you saying. It’s a minor fact. And the gut of the story is true; Saddam and Jerome are part of a club. Correct. But I was one reporter for ESPN. Did other reporters also follow up on the fact? Did anyone print a retraction? No. The story was less sexy without the exclusivity. And if you type in Jerome Bettis and Saddam Hussein in Google, you still see stories with incorrect information. Part of journalism is a historical record of facts. I am not naïve. I know that throughout history, information has been wrong, and institutions with agendas have changed facts. The issue with today’s crowdsourced world is we’re actually getting closer to one viewpoint, and often that viewpoint is tainted.

I present these facts as a warning, and as a suggestion. In this digital age, there are no greater skill sets than a healthy dose of skepticism, common sense and basic research abilities. Truth is comprised of attribution, perspective, context and facts. Any of these can be wrong. And one cannot be too inquisitive. We build our realities one truth at a time. 

Feeling Stressed? 11 Things to Avoid Doing

Workplace stress is, unfortunately, extremely common. According to the third annual Work Stress Study by Harris Interactive on behalf of Everest Collect, 83 percent of Americans are stressed about work. This was a 10 percent raise from the year before, when the stress level was still high at 73 percent.

We’re all more stressed than ever. Another poll, this time by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Harvard School of Public Health, found 49 percent of people dealt with a stressful event in the last year. In the poll, workplace stress ranked third, directly below death of a loved one and illness and disease.

In the workplace, you need to keep your cool. Especially if you’re in a position of leadership or one where others look to you for guidance and advice. When things get stressful, you don’t have the option to fall to pieces if you want to move forward in your career.

If there’s one group of people who know about stress, it’s entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs share their insight into the 11 things to avoid doing, no matter how stressed you feel:

1. Getting Emotional

Emotion can kill clarity. The only way through a stressful situation is to gain clarity by removing emotion. Then, as one of my mentors says, you can do a 360-degree walk around of the situation and determine the best way to handle it. This mindset has been instrumental in handling tough decisions in our companies. – Peter Awad, GoodBlogs

2. Reacting Too Quickly

Your first reaction is not always the best one. You can really do some damage by reacting without thinking. Situations that are stressful are usually complicated and can take some time to sort through and really get to the root of the issue. – Laura Land, Accessory Export, LLC

3. Taking It Out on Employees

As a leader, it's very important not to take out stress on employees. When you're under a lot of pressure it's easy to snap at people, especially if they've created the stress. But employee morale mirrors that of leadership, so it's important to remain calm and in control. Blowing up at an employee will cause negative ripples through your whole organization. – Jared Feldman,Mashwork

4. Not Thinking Before You Speak

Think before you speak. In these situations, you need to take a deep breath, gather your thoughts and choose your words carefully. – Sean Marszalek, SDC Nutrition, Inc.

5. Playing the Blame Game

When a stressful situation arises we often have the knee jerk reaction of lashing out and looking for someone to blame. Instead, take a moment to reflect on how you contributed to the situation. What assumptions were made? What processes were undocumented? Where did communication fail? See how you can step up, take responsibility and guide your team to a better outcome next time. – Laura Roeder, MeetEdgar.com

6. Dwelling on Your Stress Level

Don't dwell on your stress level. Put your head down and work toward your goals. If you’re overwhelmed, do a handstand! Yes, I'm serious; it's hard to think about the stressful event when you’re on your head. Stay there for a minute, then get up and get back at it. – Matthew Moisan,Moisan Legal, P.C.

7. Going to the Candy Aisle

In a stressful situation it may seem like chocolate, ice cream, or a large piece of cake is just what the doctor ordered! However, stress eating only leaves you feeling sluggish and off-balance from your normal routine. Before you pick up that much deserved candy bar, think about going for a long walk instead. Exercising releases endorphins, leaving you energized to conquer your stress. – Kim Kaupe, ZinePak

8. Working Extra

Don't just keep working. If you feel stressed, take a break. Whatever you are doing is probably counterproductive anyway. – Charles Moscoe, Earners Group

9. Letting it Show

As a leader, you need to demonstrate a level of calmness and clarity for your team -- they look to you for that. However, it is important to vent this stress somehow. Confide in one of your personal relationships, such as your significant other or friends. They will be impartial to it and will be more than happy to cheer you up without expecting anything in return. –Andy Karuza, Brandbuddee

10. Panicking During Delicate Situations

During stressful moments, I step away from the situation and do something to expel the negative energy. Playing sports is very therapeutic for the mind, directs your attention toward performance and puts the stressful situation in the past. – Timothy Schmidt, WebsiteRescue

11. Trying to Do it Alone

Don’t shoulder the burden all by yourself. Ask for help! –Robert J. Moore, RJMetrics

Four Reasons Why Recruitment Agencies Should Be Outsourcing

1. It’s cost effective

Underlying most decisions made in business is how much it all costs and whether the price is reflected in the product.

For fledgling agencies the odd couple of hours a day dedicated to admin can suffice, and can usually be carried out by the director or recruiter, without it interfering in their ability to secure additional business. However, as an agency grows, so does the pressure piled on from admin and the need for dedicated staff to manage it.

When the time it takes to do admin may not warrant a full-time position, it can be a superfluous cost to take on an additional staff member. By outsourcing, agencies can avoid the costs of holiday pay, sick pay, paternity/maternity leave, national insurance and pension contributions, in addition to the cost of having a full-time worker onboard – they can also save on the added office space that might be needed to accommodate an in-house member.

2. More time for more profit

Outsourcing the administrative duties of running an agency, frees-up more hours in the working day to focus on worthwhile recruitment ventures that are going to directly profit the agency.

Manning the phones, meeting clients and team-building all get sidetracked or shelved due to the pressing need of admin duties.

3. More efficient

By outsourcing all agency admin to a professional that is dedicated solely to the running of its back-office, the fluid mechanics of the business are guaranteed.

Modern outsourcing often involves the latest technological tools to facilitate running agencies and makes it simpler than ever before to oversee production and streamline it.

4. Peace of mind

The cumalitive affect of credit checking each client, drawing up candidate timesheets, invoicing the respective parties, chasing up the payments and then ensuring everyone is paid on time, can be a taxing endeavour, even for the most sanguine of recruiters.

Which is why outsourcing the whole journey to someone that can guarantee the fluid process behind the scenes, will relieve an enormous weight from an agencies shoulders.

Good Lessons From a Bad Boss

1) Don’t be insecure

It’s great to have talented people on your team. As a boss of emerging rockstars, you may have the tendency to be a bit insecure at times. It may feel like your reports are outshining you. But, as a leader, it’s critical that you don’t feel threatened. Instead, embrace it. Having a great team is actually a sign that you’re doing something right as the boss. Give your talented employees the opportunity to shine and let that reflect on you.

2) Don’t forget to give credit where credit is due

People generally like to be recognized if they do good work. Whenever you have the chance, give the people on your team a shout out. Talk about their accomplishments. Brag about them in front of their peers and executives. It will make your team feel great and it will also make you look good as the boss. It shows that you don’t take the credit for other people’s work. You’d rather give up the spotlight. It will make you look like a strong, confident leader to your superiors and help you build stronger relationships with the people on your team.

3) Don’t let issues fester

I had one boss who had some issues with me. But, he would never address them with me directly. Instead, he would let those issues fester over long periods of time. Then usually out of nowhere, he would just unload on me. He would bring things up that happened many months ago. There were times when I didn’t even remember what he was talking about. He would say things like, "remember when we were in that meeting and you cut me off mid -sentence?"

But, obviously I did something that really bothered him at the time. And when he would finally confront me, it was just awful. This taught me that you have to address issues with your employees when they happen. The longer you wait, the more frustrated you’ll get. As frustration grows, the likely outcome of the eventual conversation with the employee will be bad.

And, it’s really not fair to your employee. You’re much better off having more frequent conversations than letting things build up into one epic thrashing.

4) Don’t get upset if your employees want to explore other opportunities in the company

There will come a time when someone who works for you will be ready for a change. People want to grow their careers and get new experiences. They can’t always do that in their current role. The bad boss will be upset by this and may even see it as a betrayal. The bad boss won’t lift a finger to help you find a new role. On the other hand, the good boss will be supportive and may even help you find that new role within the company. Because the good boss knows that your value to the company goes beyond your current role.

5) Don't treat employees badly if they leave for another job

I worked for a company for several years. I was generally happy in my job but I got a great opportunity presented to me so I decided to make a move. When I resigned, my boss was furious. He basically didn't even acknowledge me for my last two weeks on the job. He really left me with a horrible feeling about him and the company I was leaving. That was a shame because I had a rewarding experience working there. It was a great lesson. Now when employees leave my team (which fortunately doesn't happen very often), I really try to treat them well out the door. I want them to feel like they were appreciated. Maybe they'll come back someday. Or at least, they'll speak highly of their experience at the company which could help you attract a good replacement candidate.

6) Don’t be a jerk

I'm sure there are people who have worked for me in the past who may not have great things to say. But, in general, I think just about everyone who has worked for me will say that I'm a pretty nice guy and I wasn't an jerk to them. People probably spend too much time at work. It's a huge part of a person's life. That's why you have to treat your co-workers with respect. You don't want to be the person they "have to work for", you want to be the one they "want to work for".

10 Genius Lessons From The World’s Greatest Business Thinker

BusinessWeek calls him “the man who invented management.”

He advised the heads of GM, Sears, General Electric, IBM, Intel, and the American Red Cross. And in 2002, President Bush—who was a follower of his teachings—gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The man is Peter Drucker.

And to see why Bush and so many executives look to Drucker’s work for guidance, here are 10 of the best lessons from the man himself… lessons that may very well change the way you think about business, forever.

1. “Results are obtained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems. ”

Problem-based thinking: How can we divide this cake fairly?

Opportunity-based thinking: How can we bake more cakes?

If you focus on problems, at best you maintain the status quo. If you focus on opportunities, you achieve results above and beyond what already exists.

Ask yourself: Are you spending most of your time putting out fires and focusing on problems—or are you focusing on exploring new opportunities?

2. “There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency that which should not be done at all.”

Managing your time is less about doing things right, and more about doing the right things. Before you try to optimize your schedule, look at it first to see what you can cut-out all-together.

What are you doing on a daily basis that you can eliminate? Delegate? If you stopped doing it right now, would your life change much?

3. “Most of what we call management consists of making it difficult for people to get their work done.”

Every management system you put in place should make the jobs of your employees easier to do, not harder. If you have to keep pushing people to do thingsyour way—maybe it’s the wrong way.

Ask yourself: What procedures do you have in place that rarely get done? Should you reconsider if they are even necessary?

4. “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself”

Conventional wisdom tells us marketing is about letting people know about our products and services (“brand awareness”). Drucker reminds us that marketing is actually the process of getting to know your customers—their fears, frustrations, aspirations—so your product or service fits their needs so well they want to buy it without you having to beg for the sale.

Be honest: Are you getting to know your potential customers before creating the product – or are you creating a product and then hoping people will buy?

5. “Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes."

Unless you are constantly building on and improving your knowledge in a certain field, you are losing it. If you thought you could learn about marketing in business school and then never revisit that knowledge, you might as well have not learned it in the first place.

In what areas have you stopped constantly building on your knowledge? What can you do to re-start it today?

6. “Business has only two functions — marketing and innovation.”

Innovation makes products; marketing sells products. Other than those two departments, everything else in your business is a cost – which means you should cut back spending time on them as much as possible. If not, you’re investing in areas that aren’t producing much return.

What business departments are you focusing your energy on that are not driving the top line? Can you pull back at all?

7. “Entrepreneurship is ‘risky’ mainly because so few of the so-called entrepreneurs know what they are doing.”

So many people just want to “start a business”—they take out a loan, open up a bakery, and then it’s out of business a year later. Then they chalk it up to bad luck or a bad economy.

But how about this? What if you spent more time sharpening your axe before trying to cut down the tree? What if you spent a month devouring The Lean Startup by Eric Reis and Pour Your Heart Into It by Howard Schultz? You can take some of the risk out of the equation (not all) with one word: reading.

Are you spending as much time reading as you should? Mark Cuban says he reads three hours a day—how do you compare?

8. “If the executive lets the flow of events determine what he does, what he works on, and what he takes seriously, he will fritter himself away 'operating.'”

The most successful people don’t just show up to work and answer phones calls and put out fires. They are focused on their battle plan every day. They don’t let people just barge into their office and dump their problems on them. A successful day starts off with deciding you’re going to play on the offensive, not defensive.

Are you in control of your schedule? Or are other people’s problems running how you spend your time?

9. “The three most charismatic leaders in this century inflicted more suffering on the human race than almost any trio in history: Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. What matters is not the leader's charisma. What matters is the leader's mission."

There is no “best kind" of leader. There are social ones like Richard Branson and quiet ones like Tony Hsieh. Both have taken their organizations to unimaginable success.

What makes someone a leader is not how enthusiastic they are at the podium. What makes someone a leader is what their vision is—and how well they lead others toward it.

How clear is your mission? Are you giving it as much attention as it deserves?

10. “It takes far more energy to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it takes to improve from first-rate performance to excellence.”

It’s easier to go from good to great than from bad to good. So focus on growing your talents into strengths instead of trying to be a ‘well-rounded’ person.

A person who is good at a lot of things is replaceable. A person who excels in something is indispensable.

-- Paramount Business Solution