Motivational Speaker: George Torok

Motivational Buusiness Speaker

May you live in interesting times

gtorok — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:44:49 +0000

May you live in interesting times. Is that ancient expression a curse or a blessing? I think it depends on what you define to be “interesting” and more importantly how you adapt to it. If you define interesting to mean unpredictable, challenging and threatening – then clearly we are living in interesting times. Business these days is more like shooting the rapids in a rubber raft than canoeing in a duck pond. It’s too easy to be mesmerized by the danger of capsizing. If you focus on the rocks – that’s where you will go. The secret is to look for and steer to the high water and paddle like a fiend.

George Torok

Luck is the residue of design

gtorok — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 00:09:11 +0000

“I like, and have adopted Mr. Branch Rickey’s way of looking at things. He was an old accomplished baseball executive. History knows him best for breaking the colour barrier for Jackie Robinson, in 1952. He said, “Luck is the residue of design”. Here’s the full quote.

“Things worthwhile generally don’t just happen. Luck is a fact, but should not be a factor. Good luck is what is left over after intelligence and effort have combined at their best. Negligence or indifference are usually reviewed from an unlucky seat. The law of cause and effect and causality both work the same with inexorable exactitudes. Luck is the residue of design.”

I totally agree with you and old man Rickey. We’re all lucky if WE choose!! It’s true, we make our own luck. Attitude plays a major role. I’ve worked hard to be where I am, and with out the work, luck wouldn’t matter much.

Take care,
Tom”
———————

Enjoy this insight from my good friend Tom on the topic of luck.

George Torok

100% Is Not the Goal

gtorok — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:00:15 +0000

Stop trying to do and get 100%.

It’s not practical or necessary. And forget about giving 110%. That is mathematically impossible.

The real challenge for most people is getting past 30%, 40% or 60%.

Stop intimidating yourself with goals of 100 or 110%. Just move yourself to the next number on the dial.

George Torok

Canadian Business Speaker

Failing is not failure

gtorok — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:27:57 +0000

Not all actions are the right actions but taking some action is much healthier than not. This is a good time to “Fail Often, Fail Fast, Fail Cheap”. Try new things. Some will work, others might not.

To fail is not to be a failure, to not try is to be a failure.

——

The above is an excerpt from an article by Jim Estill. The bolding is my emphasis. I think this is valuable advice for folks especially in these uncertain times when it is easy to be paralyzed by fear.

I’ve heard Jim Estill give his advice, “Fail often, fail fast and fail cheap.” If you’re not failing often enough maybe you’re not challenging yourself enough.

You can read the full article by Jim Estill titled, “Are You Galvanized or Paralyzed?” at the Canadian Marketing Blog.

You can read more thoughts from Jim Estill at his CEO Blog – Time Leadership.

George Torok

Smart people ask smarter questions

gtorok — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:41:01 +0000

“If you’re not getting the answers you want – change the questions.”

I heard this valuable advice from Joe Calloway. Let’s look a little deeper into this gem. I agree that asking the right question is much more difficult than answering the question. Asking the question determines the perspective, responsibility and value of the answer.

Smart people ask smart questions. Stupid people ask stupid questions.

Don’t buy into the myth “There are no stupid questions.”

The reality is that there are stupid questions. If you want better results, ask smarter questions.

For example:

If you have been asking, “Why won’t anybody hire me?” change the question to “What can I do to get hired?”

If you have been asking, “Why is business slow?” change the question to “What can I do to improve my business?”

Don’t be bound by hasty promises

gtorok — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:56:23 +0000

Have you ever made a promise that you wish you hadn’t?

My guess is that you probably have. You don’t need to fret over those hasty promises. Think about all the people whose marriages didn’t work out. Yet they all promised at the time of marraige to love each other forever – till death do us part.

That was a well meaning but dumb promise. We make those kind of promises when we are emotional or pressured.

And then we worry about breaking “our promise” even when everything else tells us that it was dumb.

Breaking your promise can be a good thing. Why? Because we often make promises under pressure or with little information. So when conditions or informaiton changes – we should re-evaluate our promises and break them if that is the right thing to do.

Doing the right thing is more important than keeping a dumb promise.

George Torok

Scare Yourself

gtorok — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:02:36 +0000

Do something that scares you – at least once a year.

If you want to grow scare yourself. It doesn’t need to be sky diving – although that would work.

What have you done recently that scared you? If you can’t think of anything you are not growing enough.

George Torok

Who inspired you this week?

gtorok — Thu, 21 May 2009 23:53:19 +0000

It’s easy to find inspiration if you just look around and notice other people doing wonderful things.

I was a partner in a public seminar this week. The attendance was lower than we wanted. It would have been easy to be depressed. Instead I found myself motivated by the interest and dedication of those who attended.

In particular – one person drove six hours to get there and another travelled from out of town by cab, commuter train and cab to get to our event. How could we even dare to let them down?

We delivered a fantastic program – because that’s what we do – and the audience expected it.

You only control one thing

gtorok — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:51:47 +0000

You only control one thing. That thing is how you think. There might be things that you can influence some of the time – but you don’t have control of anything other than how you think.

If you only have this one thing that you control you might as well understand it well and take better care and control of your thinking.

Decide how you want to think. Then do what you need to do to think that way.

This gem came to me from Brain Tracy’s book, “The 100 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws of Business Success”.