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May the Force be with you.

–George Lucas

Creating an organizational equivalent to a pivoting windmill can seem vastly more difficult and expensive than what is actually required. What’s the basis of that misperception? Most people have never worked on the task and are sensitive to how hard it is to change any aspect of what an organization does.

They incorrectly assume that all aspects of the organization need to be incredibly adaptable — a very difficult and expensive challenge. Contrary to that incorrect view, an organization with the equivalent of a weather vane pointing it in the right direction (the proper strategy) will need to adapt very little.

This common misperception taught me there must be stalls (harmful thinking habits) that make it especially difficult to take advantage of irresistible forces. Here is what I found: Progress in optimally using irresistible forces is delayed by ignoring or fighting the irresistible forces. Stalls include

–being directionless to begin with so that pushes from irresistible forces are viewed with disinterest;

–employing wishful thinking about being able to accurately predict the future;

–experiencing mental paralysis when irresistible forces turn unexpectedly adverse;

–deciding to fight irresistible forces rather than adjust to gain benefit from them;

–choosing to be too independent in addressing new issues raised by irresistible forces;

–taking an overly optimistic view of the benefits of following the current direction;

–trying to keep secret the bad news of being harmed by irresistible forces; and

–underestimating the ability to handle volatile irresistible forces.

There is also a management process that can be used to overcome these stalls, serving as helpful stallbusters and stall erasers to handle these stalls. This is a new eight-step process for taking advantage of irresistible forces:

1. Recognize how measurements can help your company identify and understand more about irresistible forces.

2. Use your own leading indicators to anticipate shifts in irresistible forces.

3. Identify future best practices for locating, anticipating, and adapting to changes in irresistible forces.

4. Extend your vision to identify best practices beyond anyone else in the future for locating, anticipating, and adapting to changes in irresistible forces.

5. Identify the ideal best practice for benefiting from changes in irresistible forces.

6. Determine how your organization should approach ideal best practices for benefiting from changes in irresistible forces.

7. Enhance your peoples’ ability to achieve the benefits of irresistible force management.

8. Repeat steps one through seven for improved effectiveness in using irresistible force management.

With these perspectives in place, you can become quite effective in creating optimal strategies for all conditions, anticipating changes before they occur, and making advance preparations to prosper regardless of what comes next.

Are you ready?

Donald Mitchell is an author of seven books including Adventures of an Optimist, The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution Workbook, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise, and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage. Read about creating breakthroughs through and receive tips by e-mail through registering for free at

http://www.fastforward400.com

The wind of change is blowing through the continent.

–Harold Macmillan

Irresistible forces are beyond our control. We need to bend to their force.

Such forces remind me of the wind. Wind has often been invoked as a metaphor for change. Having grown up in an area known for its Santa Ana winds, I was well aware of how the wind affects our moods and our daily tasks.

Face into a howling desert wind and your eyes are soon filled with grit. At night, the same force drives cold drafts of air through the house and makes being indoors unpleasant. The sound of that force makes sleeping difficult. The trash that piles up in your yard from the wind clearly represents undesirable change.

However, when you run a race with the wind at your back, you feel jet propelled. When the wind tapers off, everyone has a sense of new opportunities and optimism.

What are some of the forces that are beyond the control of organizational leaders? You should make your own list, but the most common irresistible forces described to us by CEOs are new technology, changing customer needs, fashion, government regulation, demographics, economic trends, financial markets, the weather, and currency exchange rates.

The wind was also one of mankind’s earliest sources of power for travel. Where winds were common, simple sails filled with the breeze pushed primitive vessels forward when the wind came from the right direction. Otherwise, oars were used for much slower progress. Later, shipbuilders learned to make adjustable sails and gear that would capture the wind’s power from any direction other than straight ahead. By shifting course to go in a zig-zag style, progress could be made even into a head wind.

On land, windmills were eventually employed for other kinds of work, from pumping water out of low-lying areas (as in Holland) to powering electrical generation in windy deserts. The biggest windmills originally had a serious drawback: Like the earliest sails, they only faced in one direction. If the wind came from another direction, little or no benefit was gained.

Like the clever shipbuilders before them, windmill makers learned to adjust: They made propeller blades with vanes behind them that automatically pivot to optimally face the wind and generate power whenever there is wind. Those adjustable windmills are a metaphor for the kind of strategy and actions that individuals and organizations should take: Use an optimal strategy or action, and the irresistible forces are always creating power for you that allow more to be accomplished.

Using adjustable windmills as a metaphor reminded me of a favorite client who collected little statues of Don Quixote. This man was always trying to set the world standard in his industry and realized that such high goals could amount to being overly optimistic. At times during the early days of the 400 Year Project, we had wondered if we, too, were acting like Don Quixote in some of his more comic moments such as when he tilted at windmills.

How adaptable is your organization to such irresistible forces? What can you do to add helpful flexibility?

Donald Mitchell is an author of seven books including Adventures of an Optimist, The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution Workbook, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise, and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage. Read about creating breakthroughs through and receive tips by e-mail through registering for free at

http://www.fastforward400.com

The power of a movement lies in the fact that it can indeed change the habits of people.

–Steve Biko

Natural circumstances that seem to defy expectations can teach critical lessons for organizational and personal success. Did you know that lizards in the Bahamas were able to physically adapt to their hostile environments more than 2,000 times faster than evolutionary biologists predicted?

That discovery was an unexpected finding from an experiment to study extinction. The lizards were placed on islands where they were supposed to rapidly die out because the environments were too hostile for them to survive. But instead, the lizards had thrived in their new homes in various ways on 14 different islands with unique environments by changing physically and learning new behaviors that perfectly fit each island.

Why could they adapt so much? Evolutionary biologists didn’t realize until recently than there are many untapped genes that aren’t triggered until environmental circumstances change. It’s like a hidden insurance policy in our DNA.

That example is important because people should be even more adaptable than lizards by drawing on resources such as ideas from others, helping each other, and using various kinds of work and thinking tools.

For organizations, there’s no more important quality than being flexible and able to thrive in any environment. Who can do that? Well, do you know about the amazing survival abilities of cellular slime molds?

Cellular slime molds (a type of amoeba) live individually on the forest floor. The available food supply limits their growth and prosperity, as it does for all amoebas. When the food is gone, stationary amoebas die out.

But unlike stationary amoebas, cellular slime molds act in a most unusual way when food is scarce: The cellular slime mold amoebas clump themselves into a community that oozes along as slime until it reaches a spot where more food is present.

They have another trick for finding new homes as well. Clumps of the amoebas will undergo additional physical changes, creating a multicelled stalk holding a sac filled with dormant spores. When animals or people brush against the sacs, the spores attach themselves and are carried to new locations beyond the range that the clump could move on its own.

As a result of these physical adaptations, it doesn’t matter where the amoebas start out because they are designed to move themselves and their descendants to a better place. In essence, cellular slime molds are designed for adjusting to rapidly varying conditions . . . much as early humans did by roving in hunting bands to where the game was.

How can your organization learn to adapt in the same ways?

Donald Mitchell is an author of seven books including Adventures of an Optimist, The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution Workbook, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise, and The Ultimate Competitive Advantage. Read about creating breakthroughs through and receive tips by e-mail through registering for free at

http://www.fastforward400.com

Discovering the ABC’s of photography is a worthwhile activity that naturally enhances knowledge and creativity. Anyone has the privilege to work with it as a hobby, profession or career. Especially in times when the global economic cycle of each nation becomes precarious, people try hard enough to look for another source of income.

Entrepreneurship states an ability to generate a cost with your own capital, but what if there is no sufficient capitalization to put up a small business? Look closer at the things around your home and workplace, and definitely you would notice tons of photos stuck everywhere.

Recently, photography has grown as a thriving market for leisure and personal needs. It is the extension of our daily lives. Admit it or not, photography gives an aura of happiness and satisfaction, most especially when it captures the special milestones of our life’s journey. Whether you are a professional or an amateur in this field, you have a unique capability to direct people to your vision. Then it’s just a matter of knowing how to boost creativity and stimulate the desire to purchase your product.

You must first evaluate your rationale of establishing a photo business. Do not be scared to ask questions of other business men who operate in a similar marketplace. Make a note of their tips and inquire about the possible problems that you may encounter in the operation. Make a business plan to determine the strength and weaknesses of your upcoming venture.

As you start in your endeavor, as with any other business, you must make a small investment. You’ll need a camera, photo printer, and Photoshop software to enable you to conquer the industry. A creative mind and resourcefulness are the factors that will build a successful proprietorship. Develop packages and services which hit the affordability mark. Pricing is relevant in any business, so investigate a recommendable cost.

Invent fresh concepts at all times which target a wide array of consumers. Do not be conventional, experiment on various elements of photography that breeds exclusivity for what you do. Manufacture distinct products for a particular consumer, in this way people will remember your merchandise as a valuable commodity.

Most people begin their photo business as a pastime. They get enjoyment out of the photographs they produce. This love of the art grants the perfect foundation to maximize resources in jumpstarting commerce. Every picture has a definitive value so learn to take care of them. Subsequently, finding the best avenues to market your products will be a definite plus to your income. The availability of technology such as the internet guarantees that your goods and services can reach whichever buyers you choose to focus on.

Risk is inevitable in structuring any type of business. Be inquisitive and surmount the fear of failure. Always be positive and do not be stagnant on your abilities. Communication is another vital tool to in the story of your success, so be friendly and share your warmest smile with every person who is interested on your endeavor. Who knows what the results might be.

In the long run, you can not foretell who can help to launch you into a bigger and stronger industry. The success of it will begin in your hands and that is one of the marvels photography can offer, a livelihood of pleasure.

Sebastian Marders loves writing about a variety of things and sharing the website that inspires each piece with his readers. If you are interested in browsing a selection of cheap digital cameras, including the cheap digital Sony camera, and the Canon digital camera cheap then please visit.

Buying business cards can be expensive and a hassle, especially if the printer gets it wrong! Instead of buying them, try making your own, it is easy and much cheaper.

Most office supply stores carry everything you need, except your imagination!

* Always make your name or your business name prominent. When you hand someone your card, you want them to see your name and remember it. Try using raised letters. You want your name to be the focal point on the card.

* Design a logo to place on your card. It can relate to your business, life or just be something you really like. If your business is dog grooming, try adding a picture of one of your dogs.

* Make sure your card looks professional. When selecting card stock material, make sure it is sturdy and durable. You do not want a card that looks and feels cheap or one that the ink will smear on when you design it. Office supply stores will carry a large selection of business cards for your computer. Just take your time and find one that is nice.

* Be different, but practical. You don’t want an odd shaped business card that a potential client will toss aside because it won’t fit in their wallet. Also try choosing a card that’s slightly colored, this way it won’t just blend in with other business cards, remember, you want yours to stand out.

* When you design your card, always remember to put the important things on it; like your phone number, email address, physical address and if you have a website, include it also. Make sure it’s neat and does not look cluttered.

* You can get real creative and print on both sides of your business card. Maybe a picture of your business or driving directions or a map. The sky is the limit. Be inventive, think outside of the box!

* If you don’t have access to a program that lets you create or print business cards, some office supply stores have kiosks where you use their equipment and design your own cards. It usually takes about 15 minutes or so, and the cost is around $30.00 for 100 cards. You are in control of your cards design.

* Use your computers page layout or business card software. Let the wizards or templates help you design a card that is perfect for your business.
Just a few ideas to get your business off and rolling, you don’t need to spend lots of money when you can do it yourself! Have fun, be creative! Take your time and look at other business cards. Think of ways you can make yours stand out. Take a few cards out of your wallet and examine them. What do you like and dislike about the card. Is your card serious or light natured. It all depends on your business and what clientele you are trying to reach.

Jill works for Inside Realty. They operate sites in the Corpus Christi real estate and Dallas real estate markets. They also have a site about San Antonio real estate.