Most of us learned about business (which is a compendium of life relationships) "in the streets." Today's business leaders entered and pursued careers without a a strategic plan or service manual.

Professionals pursue many approaches to garnering information and, ultimately, to unlocking the answers that inevitably lie within. Methods include seminars, books, consultations, professional association involvement, training, organizational development, executive roundtables, civic activities, etc.

Failure to prepare for the future spells certain death for businesses and industries in which they function. The same analogies apply to personal lives, careers and Body of Work. Greater business awareness and heightened self awareness are compatible and part of a holistic journey of growth.

None of us can escape those pervasive influences that have affected our lives...which I describe as The Learning Tree(TM). Like sponges, we absorbed information and perceptions of life that have helped mold our business and personal relationships.

Most business leaders of today and the coming decade grew up in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Many of our views of life were not correctly processed at the time. Baby boomers have a rich recall of pop culture...which has influenced their approaches to business in the 1990s and beyond.

Fledgling executives have been historically subjected to conflicting stereotypes, amidst a culture in transition. They can recite old advertising jingles and pop song lyrics with total recall but do not comprehend quality, teamwork, out-of-the-box thinking and other concepts.

As we amass new rules and expectations, we carry old baggage, often mis-labeled as "nostalgia." Until we reflect upon business back through the eyes of what we were taught (or thought we were taught), we remain susceptible to misperceptions.

By studying pop culture in a mature business context, we revisit old stereotypes. By reflecting upon knowledge and experiences, we can focus better upon and implement change.

Pressures continue and accelerate for companies to stay in operation, become competitive, keep ahead of the marketplace and perform quality work. Businesses of all sizes are besieged with opportunities, competing information sources and large amounts of uncertainty.

Executives are not really prepared to handle challenges of the moment...much less to begin developing Big Picture thinking. Seasoned executives face burnout daily. Employees are not communicated with and remain untrained and non-motivated. Much of the workforce is functionally illiterate.

Business is in transition...with unclear anchoring of where they've been and where they could head. Young and mid-level workers do not really know what it takes to succeed longterm and are, for the most part, impaired from optimum achievement. But then, that's the way it has always been.

What I Learned

The most significant lessons that I learned in my life from mentors, verified with experience, include:

• You cannot go through life as a carbon copy of someone else.
• You must establish your own identity...which is a long, exacting process.
• As you establish a unique identity, others will criticize. Being different, you become a moving target.
• People criticize you because of what you represent, not who you are. It is rarely personal against you. Your success may bring out insecurities within others. You might be what they cannot or are not willing to become.
• If you cannot take the dirtiest job in any company and do it yourself, then you will never become "management."
• Approach your career as a Body of Life's Work. This requires planning, purpose and commitment. It's a career, not a series of jobs.
• The person who is only identified with one career accomplishment or by the identity of one company for whom he-she formerly worked is a one-hit wonder and, thus, has no Body of Work.
• The management that takes steps to "fix themselves" rather than always projecting problems upon other people will have a successful organization.
• It's not when you learn. It's that you learn.
• Most people do without thinking because they don't really develop thinking skills.
• Analytical and reasoning skills are extensions of thinking skills.
• You perform your best work for free.
• People worry so much what others think about them. If they knew how little others thought, they wouldn't worry so much.
• Fame is fleeting and artificial. The public is fickle and quick to jump on the newest flavor, without showing loyalty to the old ones, especially those who are truly original. Working in radio, I was taught, "They only care about you when you're behind the microphone."
• The pioneer and "one of a kind" professional has a tough lot in life. It is tough to be first or so far ahead of the curve that others cannot see it. Few will understand you. Others will attain success with portions of what you did. None will do it as well. Consumers are under-educated and don't know the true substance of a pioneer. Our society takes more to the copycats and latest fads. Only the pioneer knows and appreciates what he-she really accomplished. That reassurance will have to be enough.
• Life and career include peaks and valleys. It's how one copes with the "down times" that is the true measure of success.
• Longterm success must be earned. It is not automatic and is worthless if ill-gotten. The more dues one pays, the more you must continue paying.
• The next best achievement is the one you're working on now...inspired by the Body of Knowledge to date.
• The person who never has aggressively pursued a dream or mounted a series of achievements cannot understand the quest-mission of one with a deeply committed dream.
• A great percentage of the population does not achieve...but admires and learns from those who do persevere and succeed. The achiever thus becomes a lifelong mentor to others.
• Achievement is a continuum, but it must be benchmarked and enjoyed along the way.

Teachings Available to All of Us

There have been many truisms of life within our own consciousness. Most were taught to us at early ages. Going back to reflect puts them into today's perspective and utilization:

• Do unto others, as they do unto you.
• It's as important how you end a relationship as how you begin it.
• There is nothing more permanent than change.
• Not everything changes at once. There's an orderly transition.
• What's old becomes new again.
• As things change, they meld with those which do not change. This new equation still constitutes change.
• You get out of something what you put into it.
• In order to get, you have to give.
• You cannot always pick your family members.
• Caring and sharing is a lifetime art.
• Nothing worth having comes easy.
• Plan to make mistakes...and how you will handle them.
• Everyone makes mistakes. It's more important how you correct problems that counts.
• Sticking one's head in the sand is not an option.

• Drive to stay alive.
• Drive friendly.
• Let the sunshine in.
• Please be kind. Rewind.
• Life is a song worth living. Why don't you sing it!
• The pause that refreshes.
• My mama told me...you better shop around.
• The show must go on.
• There's a sucker born every minute.
• The beat goes on.
• Try to remember.
• What goes up must come down. Spinning wheel must go round.
• You can't always get what you want.

• People know to shake packets of sugar-sweetener before adding to coffee-tea but forget to offer a drink to others before consuming.
• Insincere respectful language and behavior toward one's elders is inconsistent, forced and comes across as contrived. Good manners should be a courtesy...second nature, not an act.
• The people who complain about customer service in retail establishments often give the worst considerations themselves to others in the workplace.
• Customers who have been legitimately wronged usually do not or cannot speak up for themselves. When some do, it baffles businesses and makes them uneasy. Customers must find the confidence to challenge vendors for poor service.
• People believe in speaking the truth. As it fits the purposes, the truth sometimes gets skewed.
• People believe lies more quickly than they recognize the truth.
• Truth is not always easy to recognize and not always pretty.
• The bigger the lie, the more likely are more people to believe it.
• Fight for and with the truth.
• Citizens do not give as much back to their communities as they claim they do.
• People who do not place a high value on their own time will not value others' time.
• People judge others just as harshly as they appraise themselves.
• Those who complain the most about not getting their "just deserved" (money, respect, power) have not paid enough dues to "get theirs" and likely never will.
• Professionals who bill highly by the hour are the worst at getting other professionals to do "extra work" for free...not according the same professional courtesy.

Pop Culturisms

Business executives are products of society and the pop culture in which they grew up. In consultative meetings, I notice top executives find difficulty in communicating principles of business philosophy, vision or management. Often, they relate song lyrics or memorable trivia to express what they need to say.

By reconnecting with pop culture, they we have a better chance to interpret known lessons toward modern business theories.

To illustrate this premise, test your wealth of knowledge by filling in these blanks:

• A day like all days, filled with the events that alter and illuminate our times, and you __________________. (Walter Cronkite narrative)
• It's my party, and I'll ____________. (Lesley Gore song lyric)
• Faster than a speeding ______________. More powerful than a _______________. Look, up in the ____________. It's a bird, it's a _____________. It's Superman. (TV show opening)
• And, in the end the love you take is equal to __________________. (Beatles song lyric)
• Fury, the story of a horse and ________________________. (TV show opening)
• You must remember this, a kiss is _______________________. (Song lyric, from "Casablanca")

Lessons Which Can Only Come from Wisdom

These are some of the lessons that I learned after age 40 but wish I had learned earlier:

• The more that you know, the more you need to know. The more you learn, the more you want to learn.
• It is a true professional who can tell people what he-she does not know and points in the direction of niche experts. Wanna-be's say they always know more than the next person and can do it all.
• People who say, "Been there, done that" usually have not.
• There will be no peace, empowerment or true professional cooperation unless there is a willingness to try and make collaborations work.
• All of us agree on 95% of the issues. It's that 5% where we disagree that gets reasonable people into conflict.
• When you squeeze the lemon into a glass of tea or water, cup it with one hand, and squeeze at an angle toward you. When you squeeze straight down, juice flies outward and usually hits someone else.
• The best quick cure for clothing stains from food is to squeeze a few drops of lemon.
• The worst violators of "restaurant etiquette" are the people who work there. It's sad when you have to dodge them and be subjected to poor people skills, then be expected to give a large tip.
• In "telephone etiquette," the person who opens the conversation by asking how you are is trying to sell you something.
• In "telephone etiquette," the worst violator is the person who answers after hours...the boss.
• Most people are not paid what they're really worth. If they were paid what the marketplace says they're worth and had to live by benchmarks, they would do a much better job.
• People who hold jobs and people who pursue careers are different breeds. The twain rarely meet.
• People don't really "win" lotteries. The money goes toward their administration and feathering their political nest. The same is true for many other quick-fix or hype public sector projects.
• Full equality, justice and fairness does not exist in society. It can only exist in your heart.
• When you leave something for repair, write and leave a full description of the problems. Do not give long, rambling explanations to repair people because they will reduce your comments to two words which do not adequately diagnose the situation.
• Most people who call themselves "consultants" are ill-prepared, have never really "been there" and charge you to get them some experience or dollars. Look beyond the obvious in evaluating consultants.
• Don't expect clerical people to run your issue, comment or concern up the flagpole. It is not their job because they are busy administering the office. Either speak to the supervisor or put it in writing to his-her supervisor.
• Government and public sector bureaucracies do not want new ideas or more effective ways to operate. It's nothing personal against you or your expertise. Bureaucracies are predicated upon protecting their turf and their jobs.
• Change is 90% positive. So why do people fight what is most beneficial to them?
• The worst line spoken is: "It ain't broke, don't fix it." The next worse is: "We must be doing something right." People use these to rationalize the status quo and avoid confronting their own shortcomings. There is no organization that cannot be improved...just a little bit.
• There is no such thing as perfection. The better philosophy is Continuous Quality Improvement. Set and exceed standards. Move the yardstick farther each time.
• The only kind of conflict resolution that lasts is a win-win.

Lessons Learned...But Not Soon Forgotten

Fine-tuning one's career is an admirable and necessary process. It is not torture but, indeed, is quite illuminating. Imagine going back to reflect upon all you were taught. Along the way, you reapply old knowledge, find some new nuggets and create your own philosophies.

To help in retreading old lessons and augmenting with new ones, these are some pieces of advice to mid-level and upper executives:

• Executive development is a finely tuned art. It is a tireless yet energizing process.
• People who rise in upper corporate ranks do so for reasons other than themselves. The art is to understand and work with those factors, rather than to become a pawn of them. After all, It's Almost Tomorrow.
• The old ways of rising to the top have changed. The savvy executive masters the new ways.
• Don't become a "flavor of the month." Trends and fads in business and in people will subside. Posture yourself for the long run.
• Develop and trust your gut instinct. It's right most of the time.
• Senior level consulting is not something that one retires or down-sizes into. It is not a part-time profession or something that one does in between jobs. Few corporate executives have what it takes to be a consultant.
• One is not a full-fledged consultant until they have done this and only this for 10 years. One does not become "senior" until they have at least a 20-year consulting track record, not counting working at jobs for someone else.
• Preventive actions pay back original investments, 6-10 times. Remediate downward spirals, sooner rather than later, to remediate The High Cost of Doing Nothing(TM).
• Organizations get blamed for all consequences, including abuse, neglect, suffering and mistakes.
• Management always wants to assign blame to someone else and success to themselves. They say, "Fix those people." The organization will not grow and mature until management realizes they are "those people."
• People don't know why they believe in something. They just believe.
• Never forget where you came from.
• A fast-lane relief for stress is to slow down.
• A house divided against itself will fall.
• Society builds up idols only to shoot them down.
• People believe lies more readily than they comprehend and absorb truths.
• We mostly control our own destiny. Each time we abdicate, blame, relinquish or do nothing, opportunities pass by...The High Cost of Doing Nothing(TM). Missed opportunities compound and can never be fully regained.

Wisdom = sum of life experiences.

Mathematical formula: Take what you don't want to believe. Add what you have to believe. You come up with amazing answers.