Enron recruited big talent, mostly people with fancy degrees, which is not in itself bad. It paid them big money, which is not terrible. But by putting complete faith in talent, Enron did a fatal thing; it created a culture that worshipped talent, thereby forcing its employees to look and act extraordinarily talented. Basically, it forced them into the fixed mindset. And we know a lot about that. We know that people with the fixed mindset do not admit and correct their deficiencies.Matthew Syed Bounce - Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham and the Science of Success , (p. 142), HarperCollins, 2010

You, the hiring manager, meet the candidates, perhaps for lunch, explain what the job needs are, ask a few questions about their experience and interests, sell the job a bit, and respond to questions. If it looks like a mutual "go" for one or more finalists, your assistant organizes a day of interviews with some key members of your team. Current practice for "organizing" the interview sequence is like a fourth-grade fire drill. On the day of the interviews, two scheduled interviewers have crises to address, and so substitutes are thrown in at the last minute. The candidate is asked to be flexible, interviewing with a partial group. Most interviewers are ill-prepared, fumbling through candidate résumés for the first time --"uh ... tell me about yourself." Interviewees consider this day a hodgepodge of redundant, superficial, shallow interviews. But it's typical.Bradford D. Smart, Ph.D. Topgrading - How Leading Companies Win by Hiring, Coaching and Keeping the Best People , (p. 79), Prentice Hall, Inc., 2005

You have to find the inner truth about the message of your product. To gain the loyalty and trust of consumers, your message -- conveyed through advertising or marketing -- has to be authentic. It has to be simple and boiled down to its essence. This is especially important in a marketplace where dozens of different brands for the same product are competing for attention.Peter Arnell Shift - How to reinvent your business, your career, and your personal brand , (p. 32), Broadway Books, 2010

...the leader creates the combination of optimism and action that allows people to turn their confusion into meaning and find their way home.Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand, Joseph Lampel Strategy Bites Back - It Is Far More and Less, Than You Ever Imagined , (p. 71), Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005

Financial crises disappeared only after the Great Depression, a period that coincided with the rise of the United States as a global superpower. At the same time the U.S. government reined in financial institutions with legislation like the Glass-Steagall Act and shored them up by creating agencies like the SEC and FDIC. The dollar became the ballast of an extraordinarily stable international monetary system, and crises came to seem like things of the past. Though serious cracks started to appear in the facade after the 1970s, economists in developed nations kept the faith, worshipping at the altar of the Great Moderation. The recent cataclysm marks the beginning of the end of this dangerous illusion. It also marks the end of the financial stability ushered in by the Pax Americana. As American power erodes in the coming years, crises may become more frequent and virulent, absent a strong superpower that can cooperate with other emerging powers to bring the same stability to the global economy. Far from being a once-in-a-century event, the recent financial disaster may be a taste of things to come. A new era demands new ways of thinking. We should jettison bankrupt ideas about the inherent stability, efficiency, and resilience of unregulated markets, and we should let crises take their own rightful place in economics and finance. Sadly, many otherwise intelligent people cling to the belief that the recent crisis was an unpredictable, unheralded event. No one could have seen it coming, they say, and we'll never see the likes of it again -- at least not in our lifetimes. We can wait for a new financial calamity to deal a coup de grace to this continuing complacency. Or we can embrace understanding a new economics: crisis economics.Nouriel Roubini and Stephen Mihm Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance , (p. 266-267), The Penguin Press, 2010

...one who is dried out has reached that state by not taking anything into the inner chambers of life for quite some time... The unfilled spiritual tank is an invitation to disaster, and many of us have known that awful moment when, like a car out of gas, we seem to cough and sputter and pull over to the shoulder, out of service, not able to go any further. We have all seen the car out of gas in a long tunnel or on a narrow bridge at rush hour. Thousands of people are potentially affected in the clogged-up mess that follows. And it can happen in spiritual life also. One empty spiritual tank can affect a score of other people. It's happened more than once. Like many others, I am no stranger to the dried-out condition. This condition is often a danger for the multi-gifted person, one who has many differing gifts and capacities and who can appear to go for long periods, as they say, winging it. Those with natural talents, like musicians, are quite vulnerable here. They can mistake the applause of the admiring crowds for God's blessing. Thinking that their ability to raise the emotions of people in an artistic setting is the same as being a tool in the hand of God, they begin to abandon any sense of need for spiritual passion or energy and move ahead on their own instincts. More often, what power they appear to have is sheer theatrics, not spiritual passion. Often the system seems to work for a long time, and then -- disaster.Gordon MacDonald Restoring Your Spiritual Passion , (p. 48), Oliver-Nelson Books, 1986

One aspect of this freedom is integrity, that simplicity and purity of heart which, as Kierkegaard analyzed it, consists in willing one thing, namely the will and glory of God, so that one's motives are freed from the taint of self-regard. A second aspect is spontaneity. Unlike the rule-ridden Pharisees, whom Jesus pictured living (as it were) by numbers, the free person in Christ invests creative enterprise and resourcefulness in the task of pleasing and praising God and doing good to one's fellows. Where the Pharisee's concern is to avoid doing wrong, the free person seeks to make the most and best of every situation, so that he is lively and sometimes breath-taking company. A final aspect is contentment, the fruit of God's gift of a joy within that increases all life's pleasures, stays with him whatever is present or lacking in his outward circumstances, and enables him to accept without bitterness the most acute forms of suffering and pain. In short, this person is free for holiness, humanness and happiness -- a freedom which surely merits its name. J.I. Packer Freedom and Authority , (p. 13), International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, 1981

The Bible gives dignity to any work. All occupations are sacred. "Called to ministry" or "full time service" are simply cultural misrepresentations of God's view of meaningful work. We need to eliminate the artificial ranking of the godliness of work. There are no second-class citizens in the workplace. I thank God for the talents of our lawn maintenance man and greatly appreciate and admire the beauty he creates in the grass, flowers, and trees around our house. Dan Miller 48 Days to the Work You Love , (p. 44), B&H Publishing Group, 2010

...Dweck did (a series of experiments) with four hundred new York fifth graders...It's goal was to see how much a tiny signal - a single sentence of praise - can affect performance and effort, and what kind of signal is most effective. Daniel Coyle The Talent Code - Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown. Here's How. , (p. 135-136), Bantam Books, 2009

Geoff Colvin Talent is Overrated - What Really Separates World-Class Performance from Everybody Else , (p. 116-117), Portfolio, 2008 Self-regulation begins with setting goals. These are not big, li [...]

Historians tend to focus on the reasons for success. Their fascination is with victory, and although a lot has been written about why losses occur, most historical tracts address the reasons that one side won. Winners, after all, write the histories. Yet it's interesting and important to think about military failures - particularly when we are flush with victory ... There seems to be a common historical thread running through many of the greatest military losses. Those losses in great part stem from an arrogance that begets ignorance - an ignorance of facts and developments that others are quicker to see. Admiral Bill Owens with Ed Offley Lifting the Fog of War , (p. 20), The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000

Purposeful practice is about striving for what is just out of reach and not quite making it; it is about grappling with tasks beyond current limitations and falling short again and again. Excellence is about stepping outside the comfort zone, training with a spirit of endeavor, and accepting the inevitability of trials and tribulations. Progress is built, in effect, upon the foundation of necessary failure. That is the essential paradox of expert performance.Matthew Syed Bounce - Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the Science of Success , (p. 85), HarperCollins Publishers, 2010