Old Blood and Guts

You don't hear much about General George S. Patton Jr. these days. In his life (1885-1945) spanning two world wars, he is credited with inspiring many men to achieve success on the battlefield through aggressive, relentless action.

Patton on Initiative:

"Above all else remember that we as attackers have the initiative, we know exactly what we are going to do, while the enemy is ignorant of our intentions and can only parry our blows. We must retain this tremendous advantage by always attacking rapidly, ruthlessly, viciously, and without rest."

On the importance of Now:

"A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week."

On Success:

“Success is how you bounce on the bottom.”

On Meaning:

“Live for something rather than die for nothing.”

The 1970 film Patton, starring George C. Scott as General Patton won seven Academy Awards including Best Actor and Best Picture. To be entertained and inspired add it to your DVD rental queue.

Sorry Nick, You're One Helluva Inspiration I Won't Forget

Mea culpa de jour. We all get busy with day to day tasks, some more important than others.

After seeing this YouTube clip around Thanksgiving last year, I was really moved. I showed it to my daughter and emailed it to many of my friends.

And yet when I started this blog on inspiration and motivation earlier this year, I had ruminated for quite sometime on what topics I would want to highlight first. I am ashamed to say that I forgot about Nick. As inspiring and motivating as he is, my life had become so swamped with email, voicemail, 4 o'clock meetings and deadlines that I neglected one of the most inspirational stories out there. And for that, I owe Nick a huge, world wide web public apology.

There are some stories that are better seen and heard from the source. Nick's story is one of them.



If there is one video you watch on this blog, click the clip above and I challenge you to tell me that this is not one of the most inspirational stories you've seen lately. If you know of any others that rank on this level, I'd love to hear about them.

Click here to see Part Two and Part Three of Nick's presentation or visit his Life Without Limbs website at http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org/.

"What Are You Doing?" - What It's Worth

There's nothing like success to inspire and motivate. So for all of you who think you have to have a full blown business plan including detailed descriptions of how you're going to make money, think about drawing some inspiration from this company.

When you're running a company that has virtually no revenues and no profits AND Facebook reportedly wants to buy you for a half a billion dollars, then I'd say you're heading in the direction of financial success.

Yes, Twitter, the company started in March of 2006 (and launched incidentally 4 short months later in July 2006), and helps you answer the question "What Are You Doing?" in 140 characters or less is the latest darling of the venture capital world.

Now a couple years ago when I first heard of Twitter, I thought, this idea will never fly. If only for the fact that I wondered who on this planet was so interesting that I would want to get multiple updates from them on a minute by minute basis.

Setting aside the self imposed fear of being branded a micro-manager, I have never sought to know what anyone (Kate Hudson included) is doing every minute of the day.

So the inspirational take away for today is, you can start with a simple idea, not have a detailed road map for how you will ever generate revenue nevermind profits and still be chased after by the big boys. Gives you hope doesn't it?