In 1947, General Mills introduced its first instant cake mix. They expected overwhelming success, but the cake mix didn’t sell well. The company was confused, because it had reduced a difficult task to a mix that only required adding water. The problem was that the process was made too easy. General Mills hired a marketing…
Writing for Psychology Today, Dr. Lawrence R. Samuel cites seven keys to success: Reject the model of money, power, and fame. Avoid comparisons to others. Take a holistic view of yourself. Celebrate your victories, no matter how small. Accept failures. Prioritize relationships. Leave something behind. Let’s talk about #5. It is important, in any aspect…
A politician was asked for his opinion of whisky. “If you mean that demon drink that poisons the mind, pollutes the body, desecrates family life, and inflames sinners, I’m against it. But if you mean the elixir of Christmas cheer, the shield against winter chill, the taxable potion that puts needed funds into public coffers…
In the sixteenth century, an English playwright named John Haywood died about a decade after William Shakespeare was born. He was less famous than Shakespeare, but perhaps you’ve heard of some of his work. Haywood coined the following phrases: “Many hands make light work,” “Better late than never,” “A rolling stone gathers no moss,” and…
According to the Cleveland Clinic, 80 percent of our thoughts are negative. Willie Nelson was right: “Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.” Let me help. Here are a few positive thoughts that will shape your future. When you have a few moments alone, perhaps driving in your car…
What you think today, you will do tomorrow, and you will become the day after that. The good news is, you get to choose what thoughts will consume your mind. Here’s the problem – we tend to remember what we should forget and we forget what we should remember. The same Bible that says, “Forget…
“Take life one day at a time.” Pretty good advice, right? Well, yes – and no. Here’s the thing. We must focus on daily goals, but also keep our eye on the prize. Mark Batterson writes, in Do It for a Day, “We overestimate what we can accomplish in a day, but we underestimate what…
On August 10, 1948, a television producer named Allen Funt debuted a reality TV show called Candid Camera. In one episode, called “Face the Rear,” an unsuspecting person boarded an elevator and did what normal people do – he faced the front. That’s when three actors entered the elevator, and each faced the rear. Hidden…
We always take the easiest route possible. Not so, with God. As his children were enroute to the Promised Land, we read this: “God did not lead them along the main road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest route to the Promised Land” (Exodus 13:17). Recovery is the road less…
His name was Kenny Sailors. At 5’7”, he was the shortest player on the basketball team of the University of Wyoming. In 1946, Sailors led his team to the national championship, and he was named the MVP of the tournament. How did he do it? Kenny Sailors became the first jump shooter in college basketball.…