The Stuff that MattersGerry Morgan (16)     Ink Media Up Close & Personal...A Collection of Poems By Gerry Morgan Part 2Posted Wednesday, October 03, 2007 (279 days 11 hours ago.) Viewed 24 times. Polar Views Winter, wretched winter! From the mountain peaks you came Sealing life - leaving death In your wake we ae entombed Winter, wretched Winter Have you come this time ofr me Your colde and darkening omnipresence Bleak reminder of impending tragedy Winter, lovely winter Born on Mountain peaks so high Spawned to cover autumns dullness Whitely, crisply as the snow begins to fly Winter lovely winter Fresh aliveness painted by your hand Our monotony transformed into A winter wonderland! In holding to our polar views - we seldom feel We've lost a sense of what is real. Alone I was there for you But not you for me There I planted My Lonely Tree I laughed at you as I scattered The seeds so small I saddened as it grew It grew so tall I stry now over wanton paths Scan the roads with my weary eyes Alway returning to my tree Alone again - I cry The morning dawns - so full of hope So optimistically I tried A new path - it too lead back Gray clouds appeared - and by my tree I died. Time Itme your voice has moved me so completely My sometimes calm has given way to fevered brow I feel the moments in my aging body My thoughts, my body move more slowly now Ripening, oh so slowly, a tree Where fruit's expected but still bare You watched as I lavished in your seasons My thoughts spent on more earthly fare The harvest is not yet ready Is there still time for me? Time your voice fades like and echo 'What is the fate of a barren tree?' You make no alliance with the foolish You'll steal and cheat til I'm not there Quietly, you whisper 'Moments are precious Spend them wisely -real accomplishments are rare.' Adrift Alone Autumn on the river finds me drifting seaward Columbia's lazy currents dra me leeward I drift - soft and slow My paddle draws me to a clam pool In the rivers solitude - I feel so low Sparrows in the willows singing Overhead the geese are winging South - some far off place remote As I ponder natures scheme I drift pensively to another dream On the river, through life's stream I float In my dream I burning, turning Through it all I'm yearning, learning I don't want what autumn brings It's my autumn leaves the wind is shaking I await answers in my spring's awakening Either I, or time, is out of place I search for Spring 
Permalink Comments (0) Up Close & Personal...A Collection of Poems Part 1Posted Wednesday, October 03, 2007 (279 days 12 hours ago.) Viewed 19 times. The Seasons and You
Sitting in the warmth of lazy days Who believed the summer sun would go away It now seems all so long ago The wild flowers in the fields now turn to snow I sit by my icy window pain In the frost I scratch your name My garden where the flowers grow Is now encased in mounds of snow Desolate! Like forests stripped on mountain lands Wild flowers grow to hide the scars of human hands, and Through their healing powers, fed New life to lands that seem so dead You are like the wild sweet summer flowers Coming in the wake of hurt and pain You brought to me your special healing power Then, like the summer sun - you're gone again Love Fulfilled A spark -A fire Growing Bright Breaking through those hosile hours Undiminished love -the light With love's passion Embrace our fears Meet our chalenges undeterred - lovingly Through all the days of all our years To our sons and daughters we will finally look And love them with our eyes, no fear In death's shadows - confident That a new world will appear Lusier Hotsprings Warm my Heart, oh watery pool Take me as I am As strange to myself as I am for you Add to me the strength that comes from you Unto you I came Lost and anxious from my separate world A string tha's strung too tight You fed me with your warmth As you have so many times before Your sulfuous waters from the depths Touch me and leave their mark Quietly now I turn fom you You confer your blessing - cleansed, I joyously recall The people and the warmth of Lussier A Lover's Lament From a spark a fire grows From a seed a flower shows From the hills a river flows But what of you... From the west winds in the Spring Segulls planted on the wing From the Sea, a song to sing But what of you... My heart forgot its roots for love of you Now my songs are hues of blue Love and Dreams now misconstrued But What of you ...What of you?
Permalink Comments (0) There Must be 50 Ways to Lose Your BlubberPosted Wednesday, October 03, 2007 (279 days 14 hours ago.) Viewed 42 times. Another kara(joke) for your next karaoke T'he problem is size', she handed me the tape No need to eat, Pete Cut out the fat, you Rat Hop on the Tread, Fred No need to eat, Pete To get yourself slim (pause) I said, It sounds to hard, Marge Pass me the food, Jude Round’s the shape I’m in, I ate with a grin…
Permalink Comments (0) The T'Ching of BusinessPosted Monday, July 09, 2007 (1 year ago.) Viewed 34 times. When I think about people getting into business, I think that you are entering one of the most exciting available arenas of endeavour Success in business is a wonderful thing and, be warned, very addictive. Success comes in many forms and you can plan effectively for success only if you also have a plan for you, yourself, to grow and develop; in other words: if you take your personal development as seriously as you take business development. To do this, there are some definite things to focus on. And what kinds of things should you focus on to be really great in business? Well, lets start with the basics… THOUGHTFULNESS, RESOURCEFULNESS AND INSIGHT Lets start with you. Do you have a plan to become more thoughtful, more resourceful and have more insight? How can you be those things if you don’t have a plan? A self directed plan for developing yourself is one of the best business investments that you can make. Thoughtfulness in this case means literally full of thought. In business we define good business practices but we rarely, if ever examine the quality of our thinking. More often than not, in haste, we focus on a decision and then seek to cleverly support that decision. Checking your thinking, not jumping to conclusions, listening and exploring all of the options is a discipline that is often glossed over. You will have a huge advantage in business if you learn to examine your own thinking. Like golf, good thinking requires practice. Most people see themselves and the others around them as human resources. I would like you to start thinking about becoming resourceful humans. There is a significant difference in how you treat people - including yourself - when you make this shift in perspective. When you buy into the idea that your company is best served by resourceful humans, then how to support the development of resourceful humans also becomes your personal challenge. A great manager knows that the strength any position is in supporting those around you to do their jobs. Great managers know that people need to be treated the way great people should be treated and in doing so, you help them become great. This understanding is one of the keys to supporting the development of insight. Most of us know that our inner selves can have little sense of humor - and we are prone to playing negative commentary over and over again. When you give your critique, make sure that it is constructively aimed at making the person and the situation better. Don’t swear at people or make remarks that can be taken the wrong way. It does not help your staff become greater than they are. Rather, when they do something right, encourage them, massively, and you will help them become greater than they are. When it comes to working for a company choose a company that you really want to work for. One that has values like yours, dreams like yours and drive like yours. When you were a kid, your parents knew that it was important for you not to hang around with the wrong types. It is no less true of you in business. Find a company that you can love because you are going to spend a lot of time in that relationship. Just as companies pick people, people can pick companies. THINKING AND ACTION ‘ To know and not to act is not to know.’ You are known by your actions, not just by your talk. If you know something needs to be done, do it. A few years ago, it became clear that technology was creating the potential for the so-called digital divide. At the time I had my own company, Morgan Media. I knew that technologies were emerging that in many ways were more profound to third world countries than the printing press. We had indicated to our government that we were an education technology company. Before too long, we received a call that a delegation from India was coming over looking for technology education solutions. We had on many occasions talked about technology and the impact it could have on education. We gave our pitch to the Indian delegation and they believed in us. The moment of truth came…shall we step up to the plate and do something or will we join the ranks of just talkers? Despite dire warnings, we decided to go for it and we ended up doing a lot of business in India. This further led to doing business in dozens of other countries in Asia and Europe. When we sold them an educational content management portal, we thought we were doing them a big favor. It turned out that I learned more about developing social infrastructure and being resourceful than anything I could have given them. When it started Schoolnet India had 14 employees. Today, it has over 12,000 and Schoolnet India serves every part of India. Always remember the doing good things and doing business are compatible. Do things that really matter in your life. In business, actions not only speak louder than words … they are the only things that really count. BUSINESS PLANS I have the chance to be mentor to lots of young business people. Almost universally they associate the purpose of a business plan with raising capital, but it is far more than this, practically speaking. As with most endeavours, businesses can coast along doing a few things without a strong plan, but if you really want to get somewhere you have to have one. It seems self evident that it is hard to get to success if you don't plan to get there. A business plan is really a roadmap of where you are going and how you are going to get there. So many people pay to have one developed and then leave it on the shelf. Build your own, consult it often and don’t be afraid to change it as conditions change. It is your company’s blueprint for building success. Follow it. Make sure that everyone in your organization knows what the plan is; otherwise you will have people trying to attain all sorts of things that are not in the company's plan. One of the most significant tools that I have for business planning is my little ideas book. I store my ideas by writing down in books. They are, in fact, my most valued books. Lots of ideas will not amount to anything, but every one of the 44 products that I have taken to market have come from a page of one of my books. KNOW YOUR SELF Each person you encounter has strengths and weaknesses. If you are in charge of a company, don’t hire people like yourself. Hire people who have skills other than what you have. The company already has you. When you work with people who have strong skills that you know you don’t have, you learn to admire their contribution. When people work in the areas of competence, they feel better and the company wins. I have had many people tell me they think that being creative and running a sound business are at opposite ends of the spectrum. I tell everybody that will listen to me that it is your job to be creatively resourceful. Not every idea will work but if you only have one idea, you have no options if that idea is not the perfect one with which to make a success. PASSION, PERSISTENCE, PATIENCE, PEOPLE and PROFIT Passion for what you are doing has its genesis in a vision of what could be - a vision of the idea that what you do actually matters to others. Passion is the stuff that gets your through the tough times. My friend Chris Coldwell who founded Mercurial Communications has an intense passion for what his company stands for. During the tech down turn and then 9/11, Mercurial went through some painful times. Chris’ light did not dim because he believed. He gradually started to rebuild and today he has one of the most vibrant tech companies in Canada. His company just completed the work leading up to the AOL Netscape browser being release earlier this month - on behalf of AOL-Time Warner. Chris had the insight to hire a seasoned business development person, Dr. Zig Hancyk, to help him steer the course in growing the company into something that is even bigger and better than before -and they are well on their way. Passion, alone, is not enough however. The world belongs to people who persist. If you are in business, you have made mistakes … probably, like me, you have made lots of them. Recognizing mistakes and making the changes in a plan to correct them requires dogged determination. Sam Walton built Wal-Mart to what it is today through persistence in getting the formula right; and the Wal-Mart empire today stands as a testament to that persistence. One of my advisors once told me that if he had the choice between smart and persistent, he would choose persistent every time. He quickly added however that he would rather not have to make that choice - so find smart people who are persistent. Patience at first blush seems the opposite of persistence, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Make a plan, follow the plan and everyday ask yourself if what you are doing today is getting you closer to your goal. If it is, persist. If it is not, stop doing what you are doing and re-evaluate. Break down your plan into bite size pieces and acknowledge your progress when you get a part done. You would not attempt to finish a marathon race in an hour and great businesses take time as well as talent to build. PEOPLE I have had the great pleasure recently to work with an extraordinary business development man in the United States named David Clancy. David was helping me with a task that I had been assigned, to get a new company moving towards an IPO. David and I did not have a huge amount of interaction, but the interaction we had was crystal clear. He told me what to do so clearly that there was no mistaking just what I had to do. I was able to knock off the tasks in good time and he also responded accordingly. Together we put together a private placement from nothing to fully developed and funded in under 4 weeks. David told me it was a record. The simple message here is that if you have great people surrounding you, you become greater than either of you separately. Surround yourself with people who are capable and willing to work with you and the resulting synergy is pure magic. The best and fondest moments in my business career have to do with the privilege of being in the presence of such people. I have been blessed and continue to be blessed by the impressive people with whom I have the chance to serve. Of all the important Ps in business, people are the most important. Hire good people who understand the Ps of business. Invest in people. 1. Praise. Praise People, when they do well 2. Pay. Pay people well 3. Participation. Encourage fully participation in decision making 4. Practice. Practice what you preach 5 . Preparedness. Practice believing in the goodness in people but be prepared to act if your faith is unfounded. 6. Provide. Provide good things to people When you take care of all of these Ps the final P, Profit, will follow.
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