Category: Diversity

One Percent Improvement
By Lisa Gschwandtner
After completing 17 Iron Man Triathlons (swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 miles and running 26.2 miles) and becoming a world-record holder for the Iron Man USA course, Don Fink knows the importance of training and self-motivation. At his most recent job as managing director of the Mid-Atlantic Region for the Private Banking Division of Citi-Group (where he headed up a team of about 30 professional salespeople who helped $30-million-plus executives with their investments and other financial needs), Fink says the worst thing salespeople can do is work only for the short-term.

“Some days people will be all pumped up and they come in and make a lot of cold calls,” Fink observes. “Other days they’re burned out. They aren’t in the mood to do it.”

Fink sees a strong parallel between achievement and consistency, and believes salespeople who are in it for the long run will get better results.

“Don’t have the idea that you’ve got to have this mega-big day and do 150 cold calls and then tomorrow be so burned out from it you can’t do anything,” advises Fink. “The same applies to training. Going too hard, going too long and then having setbacks is really what you want to avoid. Consistency is the key.”

“If I had to pick one thing that’s been my key to success, both in business and athletics, it’s to just focus on getting a little bit better at a time – just 1% better than where you are now,” says Fink. “And it’s also very helpful if you can figure out ways to benchmark that so you can actually gauge your progress over time. But if you focus on just getting 1% better all the time and block everything else out, the gap keeps closing, and sooner or later you look back and you realize that those 1%s have added up to substantial improvement.”

Wear Sunscreen
Mary Schmich

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be
it.

The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by
scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable
than my own meandering experience.
I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth.

Oh nevermind. you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded.

But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and
recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before
you and how fabulous you really looke.

You’re not as fat as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future. or worry, but know that worrying is as
effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing
bubblegum.

The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing everyday that scares you

Sing

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts.

Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss

Don’t waste your time on jealousy.

Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind.

The race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive.

forget the insults. if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your
life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they
wanted to do with their lives.

some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children,maybe
you won’t.

maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky
chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary.

what ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can.

don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own.

Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for
good.

Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the
people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you
should hold on.

Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard.

live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will
philander, you too will get old.

and when you do you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you.

Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you’re 40, it will
look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who
supply it.

Advice is a form of nostalgia.

dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen…