This month you’ll encounter a handful of my “faves”!  Sayings, nuggets or observations which either gave me pause, I wondered about or simply brought a smile to my face.  'Tis my hope one or two strike a chord for you …

• Nearly half of all Millennials have tattoos compared with the 13% of Baby Boomers according to the Harris Poll.
• There’s too much focus on lagging indicators – one cannot manage history!
• Mike Sinyard, CEO of the bike maker Specialized has a couple I really like:  1) “There are no analytics to tell you about something that has not been invented.”  2) “We want to make things people haven’t dreamed of.”  [channeling Steve Jobs?]

I think these are Seth Godin comments –

“If you share a pizza with a large crowd, no one will be very satisfied.  But if you share an idea with a group, it creates cultural impact and becomes more valuable as it spreads, not less.

…the useful parts of our lives are better characterized as, ‘If I share it with you, we’ll both have it!’

An idea shared is more powerful than one that’s hidden.  A technology standard outperforms a proprietary one.  A community is stronger than divided individuals ever could be.”

• “From innovation to execution and customer connections, our INTERNAL barriers – not our competitors’ cleverness – are the principal impediment to superior performance.”                                                                    ------  Tom Peters
• Adam Grant dispensed this advice – “Learn something new from each person you meet.  Everyone knows more about something.  Ask people what they’ve been rethinking lately or start a conversation about the times you’ve changed your mind in the last year.”
• The Star Trek hand gesture for “live long and prosper” is derived from part of Hebrew blessing Leonard Nimoy first glimpsed at an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Boston.
• “Do Democracy a favor and Do Something Different!”  (Bonus points for identifying the author!  No fair googling!)
• Personal proof that what is measured, gets done!  I agreed to and downloaded the insurance company app which tracks my driving to earn a discount.  I’m now regularly thinking about the speed limit or picking up my mobile with an eye towards increasing my score.  And, I have!
• “Incrementalism is innovation's worst enemy”, according to Nicholas Negroponte.
• “For Target Corp, it’s all about community when opening a new store.”
• “There is almost always an inverse relationship between procrastination on a task imagined to be difficult and how easy it ends up being to accomplish.”  (There’s a long back-story to this one, but that’s one I actually came up with when prodded by a friend!  What do you think?)
• “The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get the old ones out.”  This from Dee Hock, who if you don’t recall, basically invented what we now know as credit cards.
• Rockers will love this – “Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible!” – from the underappreciated Mother of Invention, Frank Zappa.

And perhaps my favorite of all time?

“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high, and we miss it, but that it too low and we reach it!”  

--Michelangelo Buonarroti

Hope everyone has a Happy Valentine’s Day!