Get into Action: 77 Thoughts on Motivation

 

You have a fire inside you, a frictional energy, read these thoughts, think about them and let them propel you into action.

1. “I paint very large pictures. I realize that historically the function of painting large pictures is painting something very grandiose and pompous. The reason I paint them, however – I think it applies to other painters I know – is precisely because I want to be very intimate and human. To paint a small picture is to place yourself outside your experience. However you paint the larger picture, you are in it.” - Mark Rothko

2. “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” - Henry Ford

3. “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” -T.S. Eliot

4. “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” - Albert Einstein

5. “Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” - Goethe

6. “The best way out is always through.” - Robert Frost

7. “Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need.” - Voltaire

8. “We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.” - Emerson

9. “When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.” - Nelson Mandela

10. “It's kind of fun to do the impossible.” - Walt Disney

11. "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." - Steve Jobs

12. "The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success." - Bruce Feirstein

13. "In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed - they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did they produce? - the cuckoo clock.
" -Orson Wells

14. "Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal." - Nietzsche

15. “Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else.” - Leonardo da Vinci

16. “It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.” - Mark Twain

17. “Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass.” - Maya Angelou

18. “Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.” - George S. Patton

19. “Action expresses priorities.” - Mahatma Gandhi

20. “Live the life you've dreamed” - Henry David Thoreau

21. “It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.” - William Somerset Maugham

22. "I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.' " - Muhammad Ali

23. “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” - Pablo Picasso

24. “What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.” - Goethe

25. “I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success... Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.” - Tesla

26. “Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage.” - Machiavelli

27. “Eureka! I've got it.” - Archimedes

28. “I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite.” - G. K. Chesterton

29. “The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible — and achieve it, generation after generation.” - Pearl S. Buck

30. “A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.” – Richard Branson

31. "There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose the ventures before us" - William Shakespeare

32. “Hell! There ain't no rules around here! We're trying to accomplish somep'n” - Thomas Edison

33. “There are those who are so scrupulously afraid of doing wrong that they seldom venture to do anything.” - Vauvenargues

34. “Our belief at the beginning of a doubtful undertaking is the one thing that assures the successful outcome of any venture” - William James

35. “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” - André Gide

36. “Age considers; youth ventures.” - Rabindranath Tagore

37. “Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you're going to do now and do it.” - Billy Durant

38. “The two important things I did learn were that you are as powerful and strong as you allow yourself to be, and that the most difficult part of any endeavour is taking the first step, making the first decision.” - Robyn Davidson

 

39. “It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It's because we dare not venture that they are difficult.” - Seneca

40. “Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks. Yet most people don't. They sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever.” - Phillip Adams

41. “Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.” - Demosthenes

42. “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” - Winston Churchill

43. “In Ourselves are Triumphs and Defeats.” -Longfellow

44. “It matters not the number of years in your life. It is the life in your years.” - Abraham Lincoln

45. “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” - Mark Twain

46. “As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it.” - Chanakya

47. “The ones who want to achieve and win championships motivate themselves.” - Mike Ditka

48. “Motivation is simple. You eliminate those who are not motivated.” - Lou Holtz

49. “You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.” - Michael Jordan

50. “One of the things that my parents have taught me is never listen to other people's expectations. You should live your own life and live up to your own expectations, and those are the only things I really care about.” - Tiger Woods

51. “Men give away nothing so liberally as their advice.” - François de La Rochefoucauld

52. “I still feel like I gotta prove something. There are a lot of people hoping I fail. But I like that. I need to be hated.” -Howard Stern

53. “It's funny how all the magazines can dwell on my race, but they could never say that my shit is whack because they know my shit is tight!” - Eminem

54. “Actors search for rejection. If they don't get it they reject themselves.” - Charlie Chaplin

55. “No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess” - Newton

56. “Where ambition can cover its enterprises, even to the person himself, under the appearance of principle, it is the most incurable and inflexible of passions.” - David Hume

57. “Anyone can dabble, but once you've made that commitment, your blood has that particular thing in it, and it's very hard for people to stop you.” - Bill Cosby

58. “Learning is not child's play; we cannot learn without pain” - Aristotle

59. “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” - Einstein

60. “Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what he loves.” - Blaise Pascal

61. “When you set yourself on fire, people love to come and see you burn. ” - John Wesley

62. “One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested.” - E. M. Forster

63. “Take our 20 best people away, and I will tell you that Microsoft will become an unimportant company” - Bill Gates

64. “When you innovate, you’ve got to be prepared for everyone telling you you’re nuts.” -Larry Ellison

65. “A man should not strive to eliminate his complexes but to get into accord with them: they are legitimately what directs his conduct in the world.” - Sigmund Freud

66. “Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that's real power.” - Clint Eastwood

67. “Confront them with annihilation, and they will then survive; plunge them into a deadly situation, and they will then live. When people fall into danger, they are then able to strive for victory.” - Sun Tzu

68. “Do not sleep under a roof. Carry no money or food. Go alone to places frightening to the common brand of men.” - Miyamoto Musashi

69. “He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.” - Michel de Montaigne

70. “All that counts in life is intention.” - Andrea Bocelli

71. “Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.” - Cicero

72. “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool.” - Feynman

73. “We should not teach children the sciences; but give them a taste for them.” - Jean Jacques Rousseau

74. “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.” - Emerson

75. “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” - Thomas Edison

76. "The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark." - Michelangelo

77. “Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.” - Buddha

After readers' requests, we have made "77 Thoughts on Motivation" into a poster! You can now get that extra boost of motivation on your wall.

 

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Mais Evidências de que as Redes Sociais On-line Têm Efeitos Negativos

 

Um estudo com 50 mil pessoas na Itália conclui que as redes sociais têm um impacto negativo significativo sobre o bem-estar individual.

As redes sociais on-line têm permeado nossas vidas, com consequências de longo alcance. Muitas pessoas a usam para estar próximo de amigos e familiares em partes distantes do mundo, para fazer conexões que levam suas carreiras para frente e para explorar e visualizar não só sua própria rede de amigos, mas nas redes de seus amigos, família e colegas.

Mas há cada vez mais evidências de que o impacto das redes sociais não é só bom, nem mesmo só benigno. Uma série de estudos já começou a encontrar evidências de que as redes sociais podem ter efeitos prejudiciais. Esta questão é muito debatida, muitas vezes com resultados conflitantes e, geralmente, utilizando grupos limitados de indivíduos, como estudantes de graduação.

Hoje, Fabio Sabatini na Universidade Sapienza de Roma, na Itália e Francesco Sarracino da STATEC de Luxemburgo tentaram isolar os fatores envolvidos nesta questão polêmica processando os dados obtidos através de uma pesquisa com cerca de 50.000 pessoas na Itália, feita ao longo de 2010 e 2011. A pesquisa mede especificamente o bem-estar subjetivo e também reúne informações detalhadas sobre a forma como cada pessoa usa a Internet.

A pergunta que Sabatini e Sarracino tentam responder é se o uso de redes sociais reduz o bem-estar subjetivo e se sim, como.

O banco de dados de Sabatini e Sarracino é chamado de "Estudo Genérico em Famílias", uma pesquisa feita em cerca de 24.000 famílias italianas, o que corresponde a 50.000 indivíduos, realizado pelo Instituto Nacional de Estatística italiano a cada ano. Eles usaram os dados coletados entre 2010 e 2011, o ponto mais importante sobre a pesquisa é a seu tamanho e representatividade a nível nacional (ao contrário de outros grupos limitados a alunos de graduação).

O estudo pergunta especificamente "Quão satisfeito você está com sua vida, no geral, hoje em dia?", exigindo uma resposta entre extremamente insatisfeito (0) e extremamente satisfeitos (10). Isto fornece uma boa medida do bem-estar subjetivo.

A pesquisa também faz outras perguntas detalhadas, como a forma como as pessoas se encontram com amigos e se eles acham que as pessoas são confiáveis. Também perguntou sobre o uso de redes sociais on-line como o Facebook e Twitter.

Isso permitiu que Sabatini e Sarracino estudassem a correlação entre o bem-estar subjetivo e outros fatores da vida, especialmente o uso de redes sociais. Como estatísticos, eles foram especialmente cuidadosos em excluir correlações falsas que pudessem ser explicadas por fatores como viés e endogeneidade, onde um parâmetro aparentemente independente está, na verdade, relacionado a um fator não observado desprezado como erro.

Eles descobriram, por exemplo, que as interações pessoais e a confiança que uma pessoa tem na outra estão fortemente correlacionadas com o bem-estar de uma forma positiva. Em outras palavras, se você tende a confiar mais nas pessoas e ter mais interações pessoais, você provavelmente dará uma nota melhor para o seu bem-estar.

Mas, é claro, as interações em redes sociais on-line não são feitas pessoalmente e isso pode afetar a confiança que você tem nas pessoas on-line. É essa perda de confiança que pode afetar o bem-estar subjetivo em vez da própria interação on-line.

Sabatini e Sarracino desafiam estatisticamente esse fato. "Nós encontramos que a rede social on-line desempenha um papel positivo no bem-estar subjetivo através do seu impacto sobre as interações físicas, ao passo que [o uso de] sites de redes sociais está associado a menor confiança social", dizem eles. "O efeito global da rede no bem-estar individual é significativamente negativo", concluem.

Este é um resultado importante, pois é a primeira vez que o papel das redes on-line foi abordado em uma amostra tão grande e representativa e a nível nacional.

Sabatini e Sarracino destacam especialmente o papel da discriminação e incitação ao ódio em mídias sociais que dizem ter um papel significativo na confiança e bem-estar. Melhor moderação poderia melhorar significativamente o bem-estar das pessoas que usam redes sociais, eles concluem.

Facebook, Twitter e outros tomem nota.

The New Chinese Factory

 

Leading manufacturers in China combine the country’s historical labor advantages with expertise in automation, design, and manufacturing.

Spray coating the surface of a printed circuit board at Flextronics’ Suhong plant in Suzhou, China.

With its medieval canals and carefully preserved downtown, the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou might have been a quiet burgh compared with neighboring Shanghai. But in 1994, the governments of Singapore and China invested in an industrial development zone there, and Suzhou grew quickly into a manufacturing boomtown.

Singapore-based Flextronics, one of the largest global contract manufacturers, built factories there, initially to make small consumer electronics. Those products were relatively ­simple to assemble in great numbers, making them well suited to China’s then plentiful and inexpensive labor force. But by 2006, labor, land costs, and competition were rising, and Flextronics’ margins were shrinking.

The company refocused its two Suzhou factories on more complex manufacturing, aiming to make higher-priced machines for the aerospace, robotics, automotive, and medical industries. To do so, Flextronics has invested in automation, increasingly precise manufacturing, and improved worker training, all while learning to manage a complicated component supply chain.

Today, these more complex goods make up 72 percent of Flextronics’ Suzhou output. Finished products include printed circuit boards, hospital ultrasound machines, and semiconductor testing equipment so complex each machine requires more than five million parts and retails for $2 to $3 million.

It’s a model the Chinese government has pushed manufacturers to adopt, focusing government investment on advanced industries and boosting R&D spending on science and technology. According to data from the U.S. National Science Foundation, between 2003 and 2012 Chinese exports of high-tech products climbed from just over $150 billion to more than $600 billion, making China the largest exporter of such products in the world. Ernst & Young forecasts that by 2022, the country will produce a third of the world’s electrical goods.

On a recent visit to one of Flextronics’ two Suzhou plants, the increasing use of automation is quickly apparent as an automated trolley delivers parts to workers up and down an assembly line, stopping if someone crosses its path. Nearby an LCD wall panel shows the progress of various items moving through quality testing. In the past, workers ticked off boxes on paper forms and entered the results into computer spreadsheets—a time-consuming process fraught with the potential for errors. Now automated data about progress down the assembly line is collected in real time.

Clients can track the data on apps designed by Flextronics. When there’s a disruption due to anything from delivery problems to labor strikes, another app, Elementum, taps into the extensive Yangtze Delta region supply chain, showing customers alternate scenarios for sourcing parts or rerouting production to any of the company’s 30 other mainland plants.

Such services are part of Flextronics’ push to show customers that after years making goods to the specifications of demanding customers like General Electric and Philips, it has more to contribute. Today Flextronics offers its own design and engineering services, consulting on both finished products and ways to improve the manufacturing process.

Flextronics has sometimes expanded its high-end work by going into business with customers. About four years ago, Steven Yang, general manager of one Suzhou factory, led a company investment in a French firm designing a small robot to be used for university research and, potentially, therapy for children with autism. Working from their prototypes, Flextronics designed a manufacturing process that has in six months delivered 1,400 of the robots, which use sonar and facial recognition technology and can be programmed to listen and to speak.

James She, an operation manager in charge of the robot line, says volume has more than doubled since the initial run in the final quarter of 2013, and he expects orders to rise, especially in Asia, where health care and elder care are fast-­growing industries. “The robot can be a member of a family in the future,” She says.

Flextronics has pursued automation wherever it has the potential to reduce labor costs and errors. For example, automated optical testing equipment, which checks that the circuitry on printed circuit boards is correct before they are installed in other machines, has cut the number of workers on the inspection line from six to two.

But as product cycles speed up, it doesn’t always make sense to make large investments in robots. Humans are still more flexible. “The time you have to spend changing the machine means it’s not always worthwhile to automate,” says Es Khor, an engineering director at the factory. “When we look for where to automate, we also look for process-specific, rather than just product-specific, tasks.”

So while the French robot line may be creating the health-care assistants of the future, at the moment the robots are being assembled by 28 workers wearing navy blue uniform smocks, mostly young men from rural China. All of them have had at least three months of technical training, and the French company provides performance-based bonuses and organized leisure activities in hopes of reducing turnover and retraining costs. Flextronics has also upgraded its dormitories, built worker break rooms, organized hiking trips and choral groups for employees, and staffed counseling hotlines, all with a view to retaining increasingly expensive, and highly trained, labor.

Twenty-year-old Lan Wenzhi has been working on the robot production line for six months. His job is fastening in tiny screws that hold the battery inside a small box. He has a high school diploma, a smartphone, and a fondness for American movies. His monthly average take-home pay after taxes, including overtime, is about 3,500 yuan (about $570). Factory general manager Yang says that with rising wages in this part of China, labor has increased from about 2 percent of the factories’ costs in 2005 to about 4 percent today. But it’s still relatively small when compared with the 80 to 85 percent of the operating budget spent on materials.

For Yang and Flextronics, the goal is to take advantage of nearly two decades of manufacturing experience to make their factories centerpieces of innovation, not just cheap places to make things.