by Alan Weiss, Ph.D., from Alan Weiss’s Monday Morning Memo©
Reprinted with permission. Featured Image from Bentley Quarterly Magazine used with permission.

I’ve noticed that once we’re made aware of something, our attention is disproportionately drawn to it.

People who never heard of  “cage fighting” but accidentally find it while surfing TV channels become addicts and watch it regularly.

I was told that an evergreen tree is in trouble if you can easily pull out its needles, so now I tend to regularly try that when I’m next to one in our yard.

Once I found out that there are very small woodpeckers, I  look for them in the trees. My wife is interested in buying a pickup truck (I am not making that up) and now I see them all over the place. Were they always so abundant?

I’m trying, imperfectly, to apply this positively to people.

I actively look for a sense of humor, or intellectual curiosity, or mutual interests. I try not to passively merely sit back as the judge and jury hearing testimony about whether they are “worth” my time.

As a result, I’ve engaged in many more interviews than ever before with people I did not previously know, and they have been highly effective in my marketing. Now I agree to them weekly.

We are all attracted to certain things, like moths to a flame.

We are also repulsed by certain experiences, and avoid them, perhaps unfairly, forever after.

We need a second attempt. That’s why I now eat Caesar salad and enjoy the ballet, and snorkel—I “recovered” from an earlier, poor experience.

Perhaps we all should try it, so we’re not “polarized” in our own thinking, our own lives. Some beliefs need desquamation. Even when we think we’re doing really well, we can fly too close to the wrong flame. At one time, Icarus was a high-flyer. 

Growing through Times of Change

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Why has NatureCoaster has Reprinted this Article?

I have been subscribing to and reading Alan Weiss’s Monday Morning Memo© for more years than I can remember on my entrepreneurial journey. His writing style, humor, and no-nonsense approach to life on life’s terms as an entrepreneur have helped me to know that I bring value to most every equation.

I highly recommend that you add Alan’s tools to your kit to help you start thriving in life. You can learn more about him below.

When you are ready, get his books and read them, invest in his paid workshops and watch your dreams come true. — Diane

About Alan Weiss, Ph.D.

His consulting firm, Summit Consulting Group, Inc., has attracted clients such as Merck, Hewlett-Packard, GE, Mercedes-Benz, State Street Corporation, Times Mirror Group, The Federal Reserve, The New York Times Corporation, Toyota, and over 500 other leading organizations. He has served on the boards of directors of the Trinity Repertory Company, a Tony-Award-winning New England regional theater, Festival Ballet, and chaired the Newport International Film Festival.

His speaking typically includes 20 keynotes a year at major conferences, and he has been a visiting faculty member at Case Western Reserve University, Boston College, Tufts, St. John’s, the University of Illinois, the Institute of Management Studies, and the University of Georgia Graduate School of Business. He has held an appointment as adjunct professor in the Graduate School of Business at the University of Rhode Island where he taught courses on advanced management and consulting skills to MBA and PhD candidates. He once held the record for selling out the highest priced workshop (on entrepreneurialism) in the then-21-year history of New York City’s Learning Annex. His Ph.D. is in psychology. He has served on the Board of Governors of Harvard University’s Center for Mental Health and the Media.

He is an inductee into the Professional Speaking Hall of Fame® and the concurrent recipient of the National Speakers Association Council of Peers Award of Excellence, representing the top 1% of professional speakers in the world. He has been named a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants, one of only two people in history holding both those designations.

His prolific publishing includes over 500 articles and 60 books, including his best-seller, Million Dollar Consulting (from McGraw-Hill) now in its 25th year and fifth edition. His newest is Threescore and More: Applying the Assets of Maturity, Wisdom, and Experience for Personal and Professional Success (Routledge, 2018). His books have been on the curricula at Villanova, Temple University, and the Wharton School of Business, and have been translated into 15 languages.

He is interviewed and quoted frequently in the media. His career has taken him to 60 countries and 49 states. (He is afraid to go to North Dakota.) Success Magazine cited him in an editorial devoted to his work as “a worldwide expert in executive education.“ The New York Post called him “one of the most highly regarded independent consultants in America.“ He is the winner of the prestigious Axiem Award for Excellence in Audio Presentation.

He is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Press Institute, the first-ever for a non-journalist, and one of only seven awarded in the 65-year history of the association. He holds an annual Thought Leadership Conference which draws world famous experts as speakers. In 2014 his featured speaker was political pundit, best-selling author, and media favorite James Carville, in 2015 Master of Influence Robert Cialdini, and in 2016 Dan Gilbert of Harvard who has over 15 million views of his TED talk on happiness.

He has coached former candidates for Miss Rhode Island/Miss America in interviewing skills. He once appeared on the popular American TV game show Jeopardy, where he lost badly in the first round to a dancing waiter from Iowa.

Alan is married to the lovely Maria for 47 years, and they have two children and twin granddaughters. They reside in East Greenwich, RI with their dogs, Buddy Beagle and Bentley, a white German Shepherd.