Imperial Valley Christian Center

Here's an interesting interview Guy Kawasaki does with Polly LaBarre the author of a new book, Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win. The book reviews the strategies of some of Americas most successful business and argues that they are successful because they are run by mavericks.  Guy follows a top ten questions format which makes for easy reading but the question which leaped out at me was number 11:

Question: What did you learn by writing the book that surprised you the most?

Answer: I was struck by how unfailingly generous these mavericks were-and by how creative they were in their generosity. One of the big lessons of the book is that generosity begets prosperity. Mavericks are fierce competitors, and they’re always measuring how they’re doing. But they’re also remarkably generous, and they’re always asking how they’re helping. They don’t believe that for them to win, others have to lose. They do believe that spirit of generosity more often than not yields great rewards in terms of connections, opportunities, and of course, personal fulfillment.

In short, the leader who figures out a way for everybody to win is the leader who wins. The leader with a zero-sum mentality gets zero.

Reminds me of a bunch of  scriptures e.g.

Proverbs 11:25 The generous man will be prosperous, And he who waters will himself be watered.

I guess we're all familiar with those guys who are so desirous of success that they see everybody as just a steppingstone on their way to the top. It's nice to have it confirmed that doing good pays off.

Scott Adams, author of the Dilbert Comic strip has a really interesting post at his blog about all the things he's tried which seemed unlikely to be successful but worked out anyway.  Here's an example:

A few years into cartooning, an editor for a major publishing company approached me about writing a humorous business book. I had never taken any writing courses. I hadn’t even read many books. But I said I’d give it a try.

That book was The Dilbert Principle. It became a #1 New York Times Bestseller. So I pumped out a second book right away, and the two of them occupied #1 and #2 on the non-fiction list.

Adams adds this at the end:

I must confess that I fail miserably about ten times for every one success. (That’s an accurate estimate. I’ve literally kept score.) But interestingly, the failures always involved activities that seemed entirely feasible. I was completely qualified for all of the things that failed. Ironically, I couldn’t even “keep my day job.”

I'm not sure what conclusions to draw from all this but I found it strangely encouraging. Check it out here.

Here's a pretty cool map of the middle east. It's an animated map which goes through 5000 years of history showing who has controlled that part of the world over the course of time. Interesting content but very interesting use of technology. Check it out. Hat tip to señor Goldberg at The Corner.

This past Monday, Oct. 2, was my parents, Ed and Paula Marquez, 50th anniversary. Here's a few pictures from 50 years. (Click on the photos to see a larger version.)

Here's a shot from the early 60s.
My mom sporting what I guess must
be her Audrey Hepburn look. My dad
looks like a guy desperately in need of a green card.

We're up to the mid 60s now
and my parents are obviously trying
to go incognito probably related to
the presence of the scary looking child
they're sitting with.

Here's a shot from th early 70s.
We Marquez men have a gift for
marrying women who are much
more attractive than ourselves.
What can I say, it's genetic.
(That little girl is apparently
still following us around.)

Here they are in the late 70s.
You can tell it's the late 70s because
nobody's wearing a leisure suit.

This one's from '82 a shot with their
third most favorite child.
Everybody's still looking pretty good here…

but sometime in the late 80's or early 90s
they must have contracted some horrible
disease because they started aging rapidly
as this photo from '96 makes clear.
Thank God, I'm immune.

Here's what they look like today.
Man! life goes by fast.
Happy Anniversary, mom and dad.