You know I wonder sometimes, who reads these books? The amateurs like me who want to throw themselves into knowledge absorption? Who walks into a bookstore and makes a beeline for the business section? I wonder if the real top guns ever do, maybe not to evaluate the content, but to see if their own names are sitting in the pages...Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.
“Our kids are taught at school that we are the world’s No. 1 and we can do anything better than others. But when one day you realize that someone is doing just as well as you are and perhaps even slightly better than you, you tend to think the other person must be doing something unfair,” he said.
Context: Undervalued Chinese yuan. Such a brilliant observation. It's not really xenophobia, is it? Are we afraid China will take over the world? Maybe. But maybe it's just basic psychology. Why we can't stand to see other people succeed sometimes. No need to feel bad about it, but if we're not also jumping through hoops to a bright future--we can be resentful of people who seem to live perpetually under sunlight spotlight. It can't be fair. They must have some advantage you don't. And the truth is, they might. But what can you do about it? Get smarter. Get better. Keep on. Don't point fingers and panic and close down and develop resentment or hostility. Be open, because who knows? They might be showing you how to do it better. Just look.
Business, politics, people.
1 a day, here and now, courtesy of wsj.
