The edge is that small line between excellence and mediocrity, that little extra something that pushes you to a different level in life. Education and intelligent thinking can often provide the edge. Mediocrity breeds mediocrity, so we have no choice but to find the edge if we wish to distinguish ourselves in life. Seeking the Edge seeks to provide the tools and techniques to find that edge in your life. Whether it is an education, a new career, family, or even hobbies, we must shoot for the stars! The life lessons of author Joseph Rose, the "storytelling professor" offer tips and lessons on building character, seeking opportunities, being prepared, and learning from past experiences. The journey can make it tough to find the end of the rainbow, but we must always keep our eyes, ears, and minds open to experience the small successes and joys along the way. Seeking the Edge will help you learn, appreciate, and grasp the opportunities that can lead to the real success stories of your life. Keep climbing despite hardship, pain, and discouragement-there will be an awakening in your life. Dream and set goals! Be determined, persistent, and confident, and enjoy the moments along the path to success, happiness, and self-satisfaction. Don't ever give up; seek the edge!

Seeking the Edge

Thoughts on Wisdom and SuccessBy Joseph L. Rose

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 Dr. Joseph L. Rose
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-3179-5

Contents

Dedication.............................................vPreface................................................xvAbout the Author.......................................xviiOpportunity............................................1Character..............................................11Worth..................................................31Experience.............................................43Negotiations...........................................61Preparedness...........................................71Thinking...............................................85On Happiness and Pleasant Thoughts.....................101Life Lessons...........................................109On Business Thoughts...................................133A Few Famous Quotations................................141A Few One-Liners.......................................147Epilogue...............................................153Bibliography...........................................155Recommended Reading....................................159Index..................................................161

Chapter One

Opportunity

The Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow

We must set our sights high, whether it be on education, athletics, a job, a work project, a research effort, or some life journey in general. We imagine those objectives and goals to be like seeking a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. We start our journey through open fields, but all sorts of difficulties, challenges, and excitement are encountered as we move through the forests, following the rainbow to find that pot of gold. An important thing that we've learned over the years, however, is that we must keep our eyes and ears wide open and keep looking beyond and perhaps alongside the path to the rainbow. As we journey, we might miss the many small pots of gold along the way, but by looking carefully, we will see that a slight detour to pick up that small pot of gold could mean a breakthrough in our lives. After we take advantage of the small pot of gold, we can resume our journey to a bigger pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, still looking for other pots of gold on our way. The small pots of gold might be associated with new ideas, directions, new activities, new job opportunities, solutions, new research directions, or just overall improvement in our lifestyle and ambitions. We must keep our senses and imagination open constantly, even if we never reach the pot of gold that was the original object of our quest. Contents of the pot of gold can change as we grow. There might be many short detours along the journey that are worth taking. Then, regroup, take a look at the rainbow again, and travel toward the next objectives and goals, newly defined, towards the pot of gold. Keep in mind that the rainbow often changes positions and directions and we have to set our objectives and goals a little differently, but the key thing is that we keep our journey on track towards the end of the rainbow, with our eyes, ears, and minds clear along the journey. The edge leading to success is a constant awareness of what we can become, and, most importantly, it is taking advantage of the many opportunities as they arise.

Choose Opportunity Buckets Wisely

Opportunity buckets arise everyday, perhaps introducing a variety of different directions for you to take associated with different opportunities. Be ready to take advantage of the opportunities that appeal to you. Certain ones could even become your pot of gold at the end of the rainbow with perhaps opportunities to speed up or shorten your journey to success. Opportunity buckets could be in the newspapers, a message from a friend, an observation at a party, a sign while driving, a movie, etc. to try a new business, sport, city, adventure, idea or product, an opportunity to meet someone new, and so on. The opportunity buckets float by all the time. Try to see them, to evaluate them, and finally to take action.

Despite the many opportunities that come your way, spend your time wisely. You cannot do everything. Think smart. Anticipate success in the short run and estimate the additional long-term benefits of your possible short-term accomplishment. Select only those projects with the greatest potential for long-term growth and profit. You must recognize real opportunity. So many people are very busy, but still accomplish very little. It is often possible to do less work on a trivial or simple project with high impact and importance than on a very complex, tedious project that has low impact or little consequence. Choose wisely. Be smart! Recognize real opportunity around you, no matter if it means a detour from your current path. Think carefully and completely, but above all, think about what you are doing. What choices, hobbies, leisure activities, or daily decisions should you make and why? What product should be developed if you are an engineer in business? What services should be offered? What is next? Think about a payoff, a benefit, and the consequences of your choice. What trips should you take and why? Recognize the projects with the biggest opportunities. Be prepared to change your plans. Don't lose out on the potential for major success for the sake of completing minor, trivial, low impact, end of the road, or seemingly needed organization and restructuring programs. Be efficient and think big! The edge is associated with the willingness to change, to drop old work efforts, and to dream of tomorrow in order to move into new high impact directions. Choose opportunity buckets wisely.

Windows of Opportunity

We are always setting goals in our life and carrying out certain plans to acquire learning skills and education, with a hope that some day we will be able to obtain a job, for example, in a particular area. There are so many everyday things that occur that we might say, "Well, next year this might be perfect," or "Next week this might be suitable." But it turns out that there are always windows of opportunity available—but they may not always agree with our current planning. We must be ready, though, to be able to take advantage of the opportunities, whether we are completely prepared or not. Opportunities never come up exactly when you want them to.

Here's a perfect fictitious example. Jason, involved in baseball his entire life, was a pitcher in Little League, in high school, and through college; he always did extremely well. He was famous for throwing no-hitters and acquiring large numbers of strikeouts in a game. He, unfortunately, received a small injury in college and he decided perhaps that he could not carry out his baseball dream. He carried out other work, but he still always had that dream of playing for a Major League baseball team. One evening Jason was attending a Phillies-New York Mets game in Philadelphia. At this point, for some reason, the group of Philadelphia pitchers available were all hurt. After the third inning, the Phillies had no one to go in and pitch. The manager, George, looked through the stands and happened to see Jason sitting there. He knew about Jason.

The manager immediately ran over to Jason and said to him, "Jason, are you ready? Come on in. Could you pitch the next few innings and finish out this game? We'll give you a two-week contract to help us out. We need you desperately. We have to complete these games. I don't want to put any of my other players in the game at this point. They're not used to pitching and they won't do well."

Jason thought, Oh, my gosh, I don't have my favorite baseball glove with me that I've used my whole life for pitching. I also have a pain in my foot; it hurts when I spin around. My forefinger to throw my curve ball is aching. What should I do? Here was a superb window of opportunity that perhaps would never come up again. Jason jumped up and said, "I'm ready." He went to the mound to do the best he could possibly do, realizing that this was clearly his chance to prove himself. This was his opportunity to make it into the Major Leagues. All of a sudden the glove didn't matter. The aching foot and finger didn't matter. He did a superb job. If he were to have insisted that he wasn't ready and asked if he could come in next week, the opportunity would have been gone. Jason became an excellent Major League baseball player. The windows of opportunity in life come in all shapes and sizes.

Let's consider a little true story I personally experienced a few years ago. Imagine someone wanting to get his driveway finished with macadam or blacktop, and subsequently making arrangements with someone to do the work. It was to be a layer over an existing driveway. Unfortunately, the grass along the current driveway and curb was a total mess. The edging and soil extended three or four inches over the current macadam. We got a call: "Oh, my gosh, they're coming tomorrow. That's the chance that they have available to do the work. They won't be able to come for another six months."

"Okay, the opportunity is there, come, I want my driveway done," I said, but then I looked around and said, "Oh my, it's already ten o'clock at night and my driveway is a mess with the soil and the grass over running the current macadam." Here was a window of opportunity, however. We immediately got tools and some lights, went out, and cleared the entire driveway for this window of opportunity. The next day the trucks and workers were there early in the morning. They laid out the blacktop on the driveway and it was beautiful work. We walked out and saw this attractive driveway extending beyond the areas cleaned out the night before, and we were proud and happy that we had taken advantage of the window of opportunity. That window of opportunity to act in clearing the driveway was a short moment at an unusual time. We took advantage of that opportunity and enjoyed it for many, many years.

Perhaps you might be called upon to discuss a huge business venture with a company you have deeply respected for years, but your product brochures are not ready. Or you are a superb golfer called upon to substitute for someone in a golf tournament, but you are tired from miscellaneous hard work.

These stories can go on and on. I'm sure you can think of some of your own. We must be ready at any moment, whether fully prepared or not, to take advantage of certain windows of opportunity that may never appear again.

The Idea

The world turns on new ideas. Think of the inventors over the centuries. But way beyond the consideration of famous thinkers, thousands of ideas are born every day. Opportunities to generate new ideas and/or to get them to work are achievable on a regular basis. We must think about new ways of doing things or how to troubleshoot a situation. We must exploit and expand new technology. Make something happen! Do it differently. Dream a little to create a vision of tomorrow. As the saying goes, "Think outside the box." Once you have an original idea, you need even more ideas to make it work out. In the process, we must abandon thousands of ideas. We shouldn't be discouraged, however. Simply create new ones. I remember a story about one of my college advisors and one of his best friends. They were both extremely intelligent and successful. My advisor claimed that the biggest contribution came from, and hence credit should be given to, the idea maker. His friend disagreed and honored the person who could make an idea work. He stated that original ideas were easy. The person who works an idea ends up discarding many because of impracticality and also generates hundreds of smaller ideas to make the original idea work. He must also obtain outside support via people or funding for testing the ideas. Obviously, both idea maker and idea worker are needed and both deserve credit, honor, reputation, and an award. Let's hope that each of us is at least one member of the team, either the idea maker or the idea worker. We encounter numerous situations every day where ideas are needed to move forward. Are you the idea maker, idea worker, or both?

The edge here, of course, is for you to know that new ideas are always possible, and that smart work can lead to successful implementation of many of them.

The Shot Put Olympian

One of my psychological theories states that every person in the world can become an A+ student or individual. The challenge is in finding the area of study or activity in which the person can excel. A constant search, with eyes, ears, and mind wide open, is necessary to allow us to move forward to greatness and satisfaction. We must find areas that we can excel in and be recognized as among the elite. As an example, during a gym class, a coach observes a particular person for a few weeks, then suggests, "Why don't you become a shot-putter? Your body's perfect for it. You could become famous; you could be recognized worldwide, and you could achieve tremendous satisfaction in knowing what you might be able to accomplish." The coach noticed this as a result of the student picking up the shot and heaving it forward without any special training and practice. The student was better than anyone else in the entire class. The student all of a sudden realizes that he likes the sport of shot putting; he can excel. In this case, the coach noticed the special talent of the student. This may not always be possible. We must be aware of our skills, our interests, our likes and dislikes, and we must achieve the flexibility to try new things. Hard work is often required to discover the special talents of an individual.

I remember a student coming up to me at graduation with his parents. He was a student in one of my mechanical engineering classes. The student told me, "I'm so happy to have my parents meet you, Dr. Rose. You had such a tremendous influence in my life." Immediately, I was dazzled by this expression, wondering what in the world I could have done to help this particular student. He said in front of his parents, "I gave up engineering; I'm becoming a concert pianist." This was absolutely astonishing to me, but I did remember the talks I gave to the students in having them try to seek out new areas in which they could excel. We can all excel at something; but hard work or luck might be necessary to find it, along with a search for the many opportunity and success buckets that might be available to us.

The Prairie Chicken

This little story is taken from an American Indian folktale that deals with the potential of mankind. A small Indian boy noticed that an egg had fallen from an eagle's nest high on the mountain among the tallest trees. There was no way that the boy could return it to the nest. He therefore placed it into a nest full of eggs of similar size being mothered by a prairie chicken. A prairie chicken is an animal that flies very close to the ground and eats insects and other refuse found on the ground. Its hunting skills are minimal. When the eggs hatched, the eagle was among the prairie chickens. He was raised as a prairie chicken. After some years of the eagle living his life as a prairie chicken, it saw a beautiful large eagle flying high over the mountains. The little eagle said to the mother of all the prairie chickens, "Wow, look at that beautiful, talented eagle. Wouldn't it be terrific to be like him?"

The mother said, "Forget it, lad, there is no way that we could ever be like him."

The eagle as a prairie chicken said, "Okay, I guess," and he continued to live among the prairie chickens. The story could end here. But luckily for the prairie chicken eagle, a few weeks later, a beautiful eagle flying high in the sky peered below to the prairie chickens, and lo and behold, felt that one of them might be an eagle. This eagle soared towards the group, picked up the prairie chicken eagle by the neck and took him high, high into the sky and then dropped him. The little prairie chicken eagle screamed and was scared to death as he dropped a hundred feet. He then started to flap his wings and, sure enough, he started to fly. He shouted, "I am an eagle, I am an eagle." He then lived happily ever after, realizing his full potential.

Some humans are like prairie chickens, not realizing the potential that lies within them. Spread your wings and fly high with ambition and skills. Who knows what's really within us and what might be possible? Take a chance and try to fly. If you're lucky, a mentor could come assist you, as was the case with the beautiful adult eagle flying high in the sky in this story.

On Goals

Opportunities for success are related to the goals set by an individual. How do you set goals for yourself? How do you see the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? Brian Tracy (2003), in one of his many great books, presents thoughts related to goals. A few of these thoughts are discussed next.

You are in charge of yourself, where you are headed, and what steps you will take along the way. Successful people are passionate about setting goals, and acute in focusing on them. There is no stopping them. They realize that the future is in their own hands. They are not dependent on anyone. Self- discipline, determination, persistence, and vivid focus are characteristics of these self-driven individuals. Set some goals. What do you want to achieve in your family, your job, your life, and so on?

Goals can be changed every day but at any particular point in time, they should be cataloged in your mind. Seeking a goal can be a path to a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. As goals are achieved, new ones should be set. Never give up. Be persistent. Set new targets. Set new goals.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Seeking the Edgeby Joseph L. Rose Copyright © 2011 by Dr. Joseph L. Rose. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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