Years ago I met Roy Ekrom, the vice president of Garrett Industries-a very large successful corporation based in Phoenix, Arizona.
This was the man sent by Garrett to their subsidiaries around the world to fix internal problems.
When we met, he had just returned from Japan after successfully restructuring a 600 employee branch of the company.
Needless to say, Roy was the go to guy whenever the company needed a problem solved.
While having lunch at the Phoenix Country Club, I was telling him how impressed I was with his success.
Most successful people I've met tend to be humble and Roy was no exception.
He explained that he was surrounded by people much smarter than himself and simply took their information, combined it and applied it to the existing problem.
Asking questions, getting quality answers and fixing problems sounded pretty simple and was obviously very effective.
I often think about the questions, decisions and choices I making in my own life.
In the mid 40′s Viktor Frankl wrote a fascinating book called "Man's Search for Meaning.
" While interred at the Auschwitz concentration camp, Viktor made a rather startling discovery.
After watching some prisoners live and some prisoners die he questioned both acts and wondered why.
Through careful analysis over time he came to a startling conclusion.
The people who lived made a conscious decision to continue to press on another day.
He saw that people who had hopes of being reunited with loved ones, or who had projects they felt a need to complete, or who had great faith, tended to have better chances than those who had lost all hope.
Life or Death, Success or Failure, Positive or Negative, Complaining or Reinventing, what are the questions we are asking in our lives? Make no mistake, every day we are making decisions that create our tomorrows.
As Victor Frankl pointed out, if we have a higher purpose we will find the strength to overcome any obstacle, yes even death! Not just asking the right questions but making sure when we ask them of ourselves we are prepared to give the right answers.
July 14, 2010 by Larry Braccio
This was the man sent by Garrett to their subsidiaries around the world to fix internal problems.
When we met, he had just returned from Japan after successfully restructuring a 600 employee branch of the company.
Needless to say, Roy was the go to guy whenever the company needed a problem solved.
While having lunch at the Phoenix Country Club, I was telling him how impressed I was with his success.
Most successful people I've met tend to be humble and Roy was no exception.
He explained that he was surrounded by people much smarter than himself and simply took their information, combined it and applied it to the existing problem.
Asking questions, getting quality answers and fixing problems sounded pretty simple and was obviously very effective.
I often think about the questions, decisions and choices I making in my own life.
In the mid 40′s Viktor Frankl wrote a fascinating book called "Man's Search for Meaning.
" While interred at the Auschwitz concentration camp, Viktor made a rather startling discovery.
After watching some prisoners live and some prisoners die he questioned both acts and wondered why.
Through careful analysis over time he came to a startling conclusion.
The people who lived made a conscious decision to continue to press on another day.
He saw that people who had hopes of being reunited with loved ones, or who had projects they felt a need to complete, or who had great faith, tended to have better chances than those who had lost all hope.
Life or Death, Success or Failure, Positive or Negative, Complaining or Reinventing, what are the questions we are asking in our lives? Make no mistake, every day we are making decisions that create our tomorrows.
As Victor Frankl pointed out, if we have a higher purpose we will find the strength to overcome any obstacle, yes even death! Not just asking the right questions but making sure when we ask them of ourselves we are prepared to give the right answers.
July 14, 2010 by Larry Braccio