Why Dr Seuss Was Right About Life

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“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

- Dr. Seuss

I read “Cat In The Hat” constantly when I was younger. Although I was never a child who adored to read, I do remember enjoying the tales of Dr Seuss.

Although I may not choose to read these tales as an adult, I still believe that Dr Seuss was a very wise man who knew a lot about life.

As an example, read the quote I inserted at the top of this article. Read it slowly and really think carefully about the words and the meaning behind it.

Below are two things I have interpreted about the quote.

Reflection Is More Powerful Then You Think…

In the past I have been skeptical about the power of reflection. People always told me about the empowering attributes of reflecting on a decision made from a personal perspective.

It wasn’t until I started journalling my thoughts and feelings that I began to realise the importance of reflection.

In Dr Seuss’s quote he says that we should “smile because it happened.”

For some of us it can be so easy to try to forget something that happened because it may hurt us emotionally. These are often the times when you have to be incredibly humble and modest and just be glad you made the mistake. Seriously.

You should smile because if you didn’t make that mistake you would never have known any different. You should smile because now you are making the world a little richer by being more aware of how your actions may affect others in the future.

But always smile because you mean it, not because you want to make yourself feel better. If you just want the guilt to go away, you should take more time to reflect on why you still feel guilty.

You Can Never Relive A Memorable Experience

I firmly believe that we are the sum of our experiences. We all try to live each day to the fullest and share precious moments with loved ones and close friends.

From time to time we have a memorable experience that we will recount in the years ahead. The problem is too many people think they can replicate this emotional state to try and ease their pain.

People paint over the real world picture, which may in fact be very bleak, with a precious memory of a past experience. I hate to say this so bluntly but you must always accept the reality you face.

You may have been working in a high paid job at one point in your life and now suddenly face making the decision between feeding yourself or feeding your family. The fact is, you must always accept the reality you face and deal with it directly.

But I am curious to know what you think the hidden message was from this Dr Seuss quote. Leave a comment below with your thoughts on it.

Whilst you ponder on what that quote means to you, enjoy the below video by BrizzyVoices titled “68 Accents of Dr. Seuss”:

The Strength Of Diversity At Enactus Leeds Met

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As our world become more globalised the need to create an effective and diversified workplace  is growing.

Whether that diversity be based on a ethnic or gender basis, it all adds up to creating a more effective and enriching place for people to work in.

The one concern I have always had about talking about building a diverse workplace is that it may seem like I feel guilty that I am not meeting some type of “diversity quota”.

That is the exact opposite of what I want to achieve as a business leader. I believe in empowering people to do incredible things. I don’t care if an idea came from a woman or a man or someone from a different culture to mine. It is ludicrous to discount the opinion of someone just because you think you are somehow superior.

At Enactus Leeds Met one of our biggest issues right now is that we have little to no international representation from international students at Leeds Met University. I sincerely believe that as a result we are lacking the crucial international awareness that could greatly enhance our projects.

In my opinion it appears to be a classic chicken and egg situation for us right now. Without any international students already involved in running a project, other international students will not be interested in joining.

Therefore how do we encourage that first international student to get involved in being a project leader?

For example one thought I recently had was that we could give an international student the role of international mentor in Enactus to give other international students the confidence that we want to see them succeed and develop their skills.

One thing we want to achieve at Enactus Leeds Met is to create a caring environment which allows everyone (regardless of gender or ethnicity) to flourish. One way I believe that we can achieve this goal is by giving team members plenty of autonomy that will give them the freedom to try new ideas out without fear of being reprimanded for their mistakes.

Some of the other goals I have to encourage diversity at Enactus Leeds Met are:

  • To actively talk with our International Officer at Leeds Met SU on a regular basis and get them to promote interesting opportunities to the international student community at Leeds Met University
  • To utilise the Enactus UK alumni network and invite an equal number of men and women (of any religion, race or nationality) to talk to our project teams every month.
  • To investigate the possibility of setting up a mentorship network with Enactus UK Alumni (again from either gender and from any nationality, religion or race)

If you could change one thing about the way business values diversity, what would it be?

And The Winner For Best April Fools Day Joke Is…

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Usually I don’t care about April Fools Day. But one internet company really caught my attention with their unique and creative joke that took the internet by storm.

The irony is that their parent company did a really terrible job at pranking the internet with one of their April fools jokes.

So without further ado, my favourite April Fools Day 2013 joke is….

Now that you have watched the video I figured it would only be fair that I tell you why I think Youtube did a much better job with their April Fools joke compared to every other video, article or meme designed for April Fools Day.

1) It Was Unique

There is something about Youtube shutting down which petrifies me. I have no idea where I would go for random time wasting video clips of animals doing funny things or amazing acoustic performances of my favourite songs if Youtube didn’t exist.

When you compare it to all the other, in my opinion, predictable April fools jokes out there today Youtube was highly unique and engaging in its rouse.

2) It Was The Most Legitimate Prank EVER!

OK, I know you think I am being over dramatic with that title but I truly believe that Youtube made the joke look so authentic (thanks to the variety of Youtube stars such as iJustine, Antoine Dodson, who helped make the video) that I am willing to call it the most legitimate prank ever.

3) It Got People Talking!

When an internet campaign (whether it is on April Fools Day or not) gets people tweeting, blogging and updating their Facebook status to tell their friends and networks about it, you know you are onto a winner.

So far according to data from Topsy.com there have been 11,000 online posts about Youtube shutting down. Now that’s fantastic PR that money cannot buy.

When we compare that to the Google Nose April Fools joke which has just had 1,248 online posts made about it so far, we can see there is a clear difference in the level of thought that went into the Youtube prank.

What Was Your Favourite April Fools Day Joke?

Was there an April Fools joke that you believed? If so, share it in the comments.

Enactus Leeds Met Is Through To Nationals!

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I think it would be an understatement to say I was proud to be part of Enactus Leeds Met right now.

What Enactus Leeds Met has achieved as a team since September is as Heleni Lindsell, our current VP at Enactus says “[has given us] some great foundations to build on!”

A strong foundation is often the critical part of the business building puzzle. You cannot take bold risks without a strong foundation supporting you if you fail.

I always believed we would qualify from Regionals to Nationals and I would still have been content with the progress we have made over the last few months if we hadn’t progressed any further.

I want to take a moment to recognise the following people who made this presentation possible and made this process so much fun:

  • Hannah Tyers (who wrote some great presentation slides for us!)
  • Heleni Lindsell (who did a great job presenting)
  • John Penman (who kindly stepped in as presenter for me because I had a university commitment, thank you John!)
  • Haydn Wright (who put together a few presentation slides for his new Enactus project!)
  • Alyssa Pierce (who wrote part of the script for our presentation and did an excellent job!)

I want to keep this article short and sweet because I believe the video says much more then I can ever say in words. I am thrilled that Enactus Leeds Met will now progress to compete on the National level and is now one step closer to representing the UK at the Enactus world cup!

Why You Should Always Judge People On Results

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Sometimes we are too quick to assume we know the full story about the individuals in our organisation.

We pigeonhole them based on factors such as their past experience without even the slightest consideration to their potential in the future and the results they may deliver.

The one core principle I have learnt recently is that any team you manage will do much better in the long run if you judge people by results rather then judging them based on a biased and often flawed personal perspective.

I know that some will say that it is just human nature to be biased toward new employees with little experience. However I am discovering every day that I work on business proposals with my university peers or working alongside the marketing team for Enactus Leeds Met that results matter much more then bias does.

People Will Deliver Effective Results If You Allow Them To

I like to think of this idea of allowing people to get on with their job as being like a parent who allows their child to take a few falls when they are learning to ride a bike or a teacher who doesn’t control the student’s learning experience.

The best way for people to learn is to let them make mistakes. Seriously. How on earth do you think a new employee will develop if their front line manager or head of department is making them ride their metaphorical bike on the stabilisers for the first twelve to eighteen months.

Therefore you have to allow your employees to fail. Let them fail with style and assure them that you aren’t worried about that project they tried to launch not working this time around.

The only thing you have to do is ensure you constantly take time to review with them where they went wrong and how they can improve next time. You should be supportive and reassuring and not criticise them for making yet another mistake.

Failure is healthy. You should allow your organisation to embrace failure.

In my personal opinion the less pressure you put on an employee and the more support you give them to help them learn from their mistakes, the most effective that employee will be in the long term.

It Can Help Retain Talented Staff

I am a firm believer in giving people autonomy in what they do. Organisations in the future should be designed around the core principles of autonomy, whether it be adopting the 20% time rule (as Google does) or allowing employees a full 24 hours to work on something that isn’t related to their work (as Atlassian does)

Again, the important principle here is to maintain a level of light control over a team’s activities. You are not there to correct every mistake and direct everyone according to your grand vision. You are simply there to lead the team and facilitate the conversations.

Let the smart people you have hired get on with their jobs and I believe you will start to find a more content and focused workforce who will deliver more effective results. Naturally, this may not work in every organisation, but you should certainly experiment and see if it works for you.

This is just my philosophy on business.

You may disagree (and if you do, I would really like to hear from you via email or in the comments)

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