Not exactly as Oliver Norvell Hardy would have said it...

Anyone, who have had the pleasure to see any of the many films that Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy (Laurel and Hardy, as they are commonly known, or for that sake Arthur Stanley Jefferson and Norvell Hardy, if we are to stay with the names they were originally given) made together, will have met the almost proverbial sentence, which Hardy happily subject Laurel to at almost any given occasion:

Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into.

And I think it is a very normal reaction, which is so close to us: when something goes wrong, we start looking for outer reasons, through which our own innocence has been led so badly astray.
But I think there is a much better way to do things: rather than looking for the reasons outside of ourselves, we should look for inner reasons instead. Not to say that we at all costs should find an explanation in which we ourselves were the reason why something happened, but usually, there's always something that could have been done better - if nothing else, it is always interesting to delve into the question: what could I have done differently to avoid things going as wrong as they did.
Hereby, we indirectly get to use our observations constructively. They are not to be used to point fingers at oneself. On the contary, they can prove invaluable when striving to avoid repeating unfortunate situations.
(Translated from Ikke lige som Oliver Norvell Hardy ville have sagt det..., originally published May 24, 2009)

The opinion on the other side

I was recently referring to my old elementary school science teacher who would always play the part of the Devil's advocate against the pupils' point of view, just to make them see the other side - and in that context I found it interesting that I stumbled upon a quote from Charlie Munger, who is perhaps best known to be Warren Buffet's partner in the investment firm Berkshire Hathaway. The quote says that:

I never allow myself to have an opinion on anything that I don't know the other side's argument better than they do.

An attitude which, despite the fact that it sounds ambitious, is very good to have - as the knowledge it talks about is good to have. If you get to know the arguments both for and against so well that you would be able to argue for both at one and the same time, you also have in your conscious mind had the internal discussion that allows you to have an opinion.
This does not have to mean that you form an opinion which in carved in stone for eternity. People change, times change, and it's a very bad idea to hold on something just because you once thought it was the best way.
(Translated from Meningen på den anden side, originally published February 2, 2017)

Mistakes or fear?

One of my favorite quotes goes as follows:

A few mistakes made by a person working productively cost far less than a person paralyzed by laziness or fear.

The quote originates from a place that one might not have imagined. Some would probably expect some management guru, but the originator is Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, who as his job titles have ruler of Dubai and vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates.
I think it's an excellent quote - as laziness and fear are so powerful opponents, it's crucial to fight them with all possible means. And one of the essentials is that we are all being made aware that what the quote says.
With this background, it is completely irrelevant whether it's a manager, an emir or ourselves expressing a willingness to accept mistakes, rather than what we are able to come up with when we fear making them.
(Translated from Fejl eller frygt?, originally published May 15, 2017)

Excuses and ways

At some point, I was faced with a quote by the late American author and speaker Jim Rohn - a quote that, in all its scary simplicity, goes as follows:

If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don’t, you’ll find an excuse.

It's scary because it's so obviously right - and because we are all able see it if we look at ourselves in the mirror. It's so easy to find an excuse why something will not succeed, and therefore why I should just as well spare the effort making an attempt. But maybe, we should rather become better to look ourselves in the eyes and ask whether this this thing really is something we want to happen. And if we want to - well, then it is just find the way to go, and make it clear to oneself that excuses are no longer on the agenda. And it goes for everything - from jogging on a daily basis to the really great choices in life. (Translated from Undskyldninger og veje, originally published June 21, 2013)

On the topic of listening genuinely

It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who said that

There is a difference between truly listening and waiting for your turn to talk.

- and I'm afraid that if we think it over, many of us will discover that we actually aren't listening genuinely to what other people say to us. All too often, we have planned what to say when we have the next opportunity in what should rightfully have been a conversation, but most of all, ressembles two monologues synchronized with each other to ensure that only one person speaks at a time.
The interesting part is: if you do not genuinely listen to what your conversation partner has to say, it will be hard to expect the conversation partner to listen sincerely to what you have to say.
So the sensible start would be to abandon your urge to be heard at all costs and start engaging in conversations rather than simply doing monologues. It may be that you will initially have a conversation with a person who still leads a monologue on her part. But ultimately, one should start with the person in the mirror, who in this way will take a first step for better conversations with conversation partners.

(Translated from Noget om at lytte rigtigt, originally published October 11, 2017) 

Can I show you my hallucination?

At some point I read a quote - by some people attributed to Thomas Edison, while other people doubt it - and I admit, it might be stated in a fashion more contemporary than what Edison might have done it.
But still, it is a good quote, so I want to share it anyway:

Vision without execution is hallucination

Actually Edison - or whoever is responsible - has a point. All our grandiose ideas are worth nothing, if they are not realised. But still, I do not think that we should abandon all hope, just because we cannot execute our visions on our own.
That's where our networks become handy - and where we should be demanding towards ourselves. Because: if I have a vision so exceptional that I realise that I will never ever execute it myself, then I cannot help but think that I have a responsibility to consider, whether I know anyone present it to - even if to me, it is a hallucination, it might be that they know how to execute it. The quote does not demand that all parts of the process must be carried out by the same individual.
And every time we doubt whether our visions can be executed, we can consider another quote (which is generally agreed to be by William Blake):

What is now proved was once only imagined.

(Translated from Må jeg vise dig min hallucination?, originally published December 5th, 2011)

No pain, ...

At some point, I was made aware of a quote by Søren Kierkegaard from his text "The Sickness Unto Death":

So it is too that in the eyes of the world it is dangerous to venture. And why? Because one may lose. But not to venture is shrewd. And yet, by not venturing, it is so dreadfully easy to lose that which it would be difficult to lose in even the most venturesome venture, and in any case never so easily, so completely as if it were nothing...one's self. For if I have ventured amiss--very well, then life helps me by its punishment. But if I have not ventured at all--who then helps me?

Apart from the fact that I seem to be certain of punishment, regardless whether I dare or not - I'm not entirely able to accept that - it's one of the most beautiful formulations of a "pull yourself together". If I dare, I become wiser and may even win more than that; If I dare and fail, I will nevertheless (if you read it in the right way) be able to use the punishment of life as a help. (If you read the Danish original in a more pessimistic way, life's help could simply be to give me the punishment).
The one who does not dare may win earthly benefits of gaining comfort through cowardice, but he will none the less, according to Kierkegaard, lose himself.
(Translated from Hvo intet vinder..., originally published October 16th, 2014)

On the topic of grass

Disney cartoons are generally known as entertainment for children, but for grown-ups who listen carefully, it's also possible to pick up gems. I found one at a time when I was listening in with with the younger generation watching Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers,.
We all know the expression that "the grass is greener on the other side of the fence" - an expression that I am not overly fond of - because I think we live in the best of all worlds, as we live in the only one - but with the Rescue Rangers I heard something that unites "the grass is greener" with my approach to the world. The gem was spoken by the wonderfully named Monterey Jack, and in all its simplicity, it goes like:

The grass is always greener when you remember to water it.

To stay within the metaphor: As I see it, I have only one lawn - but there is a world of difference between taking the lawn for granted as opposed to giving the lawn the care and attention it needs - and Monterey Jack's words should be an inspiration for all those who see their metaphorical grass fade while the neighbor's lawn flourishes.
Perhaps you should rather look at the neighbor's watering can ​​to become wiser?
(Translated from Noget om græs)

When culture eats breakfast

According to Mark Fields, who was heading up Ford Motor Co. in the Americas in 2006, Peter Drucker has once said that:

Culture eats strategy for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

And even if I have not really found any evidence that Drucker has used exactly the words in question, there is still something very true in this quote. Because you can have the best of strategies, devised the sharpest brains in a management team, often even with the help of external consultants - if you do not have a proper culture in the company, it does not matter.

As I have seen Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla like to be one of the hottest hotshots in corporate management these days, quoted:

Every person in your company is a vector. Your progress is determined by the sum of all vectors.

- and it expresses the same in a way for even nerds like me to be able to understand it.
Business culture is what it takes to make sure that all the vectors that a company consist of point in roughly the same direction. If the culture is sick, and the vectors point all over the place, then even the finest strategy is close to no good.
(Translated from Når kulturen spiser morgenmad)

Islands in the archipelago of mankind

It happens that I get past text I've written years back and want to modify a little bit in the details of the metaphors and thoughts that the text expresses. Thus the following is inspired by a text that is almost eight years old - so maybe it's about time to refresh it a bit.
I have - as it may be known - a fondness for John Donne's words from his Reflection XVII from 1624, with the familiar introduction:

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less...any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind...

I think John Donne was absolutely right at that time - people of the 17th century were completely aware that they were dependent on each other. But, if we are to stay with the metaphor, the waters came flooding in over humanity and transformed us into an archipelago where we can be tempted to believe that we are islands, even though we are connected just below the surface. But the archipelago is in any case so densely covered with islands that we can easily see from coast to coast and make bridges to neighbouring isles. With today's technology, we can even see the distant islands and communicate with them far easier than you could communicate with most places on the continent of humanity in Donne's time.
The problem is however that we can just as easily retreat to the middle of our islands, turn our backs towards the coast and gaze into the ground as we let the hair grow long and our vocabulary degenerate into inarticulate grunts and murmur. But it's our duty to do the opposite: instead, we must go down to the coast; follow it around our islands; make it clear to ourselves how close the surrounding islands are to us and consider how we overcome the distance going there. And it's not a particularly unpleasant duty - it's not even difficult if we just decide to make the small effort it takes.
(Translated from Øer i menneskehedens øhav, originally published October 16th, 2017)

When that man's son becomes dominating

There is a saying that goes something like: to understand one's opponents one must walk a mile in their shoes. Often put a little sarcastically in Jack Handey's words:

Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, you'll be a mile from them, and you'll have their shoes.

There is actually more truth in Handey's words than you think. It could be so good if you were able to put yourself in your opponent's place, but often, you get no result because you are not able to do it sensibly.
In theory, anyone is able to convince themselves that it is not at all that difficult - but when trying, they will often end up standing firm on their own beliefs, when on the other hand the other party was simply so steep and so insidiously beyond reach that it unfortunately was not possible to reach an understanding.
And anyone is able to make a simple exercise to prove the point. Give a group of people a simple riddle - when I experienced it, the riddle was:

A man stands with a photo in his hand. Another man asks: "Who's the man in the picture?" And the answer goes: "I have neither brothers nor sisters, but that man's father is my father's son." Who's in the picture?

- but there are other riddles that could just as well be used.
Among the people who answer the riddle, you choose one who has answered correctly and one who has given a wrong answer or no answer at all - and then you let the one, who was correct, tell the other what the answer is - until he or she is convinced that it is true.
Soon the one who explains will start using tools from his or her own world of concepts: the mathematician sets up equations, the actor begins to play plays - but only very few will start out from the world of concepts familiar to the one to be convinced. It will become even more interesting if you make two people convince a third - although it may require someone who can part the two "convincers" if they get into a fight, despite the fact that they fully agree - they just start competing to bring their own explanation forward because they think it's the most understandable.
I guess that no-one has said better than the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard in "The point of view for my work as an author" - and that's why the quote will be used and abused wherever people work with coaching:

If one is truly to succeed in leading a person to a specific place, one must first and foremost take care to find him where he is and begin there.
This is the secret in the entire art of helping.
Anyone who cannot do this is himself under a delusion if he thinks he is able to help someone else. In order truly to help someone else, I must understand more than he–but certainly first and foremost understand what he understands.
If I do not do that, then my greater understanding does not help him at all. If I nevertheless want to assert my greater understanding, then it is because I am vain or proud, then basically instead of benefiting him I really want to be admired by him.
But all true helping begins with a humbling.
The helper must first humble himself under the person he wants to help and thereby understand that to help is not to dominate but to serve, that to help is a not to be the most dominating but the most patient, that to help is a willingness for the time being to put up with being in the wrong and not understanding what the other understands.

But oh, how hard it is to show patience in these situations ... And if "that man's father" can be controversial - what will happen then, when the topic is something that really ignites you?
(Translated from Når den mands søn bliver herskesyg, originally published November 21st, 2007)

What to do?

The headline sounds like abandoning hope - but in fact it is meant as the exact opposite; a very affirmative message. It's about how we put our resources to the best use - I also got a response to the same event where I got the anecdote from yesterday. According to Mr. Farber who told the anecdote as well as the following, it is so very simple:

Do what you love in the service of people who love what you do.

Now, this is a beautiful insight to start one's day on. Now, there are only two things left to do: find out whether you love what you do, and whether the people you do it for actually love what you are doing. Well, maybe three things to do - if you cannot give a positive answer to both of the previous questions, it might be a good idea to start figuring out how to turn either of the answers into a resounding Yes!
(Translated from Hvad skal man gøre?, originally published September 30th, 2013)

From the chess board - and beyond

I heard a good point the other day, picking up its concepts from the world of chess - a point that was so good that I have to repeat it here. In all its simplicity, it went approximately as follows:

It makes no sense to hire chess players and treat them as chess pieces.

- so to understand that when you hire excellent people (and of course you do not want to hire people if you do not think they are excellent - then you prefer yet another job interview with yet another candidate), you should give them space to be excellent, rather than start exposing them to micromanagement. As the developer of the programming language C ++, Bjarne Stroustrup, has written in a footnote in his book on the language:

 An organization that treats its programmers as morons will soon have programmers that are willing and able to act like morons only.

And there is no reason to believe this is true for programmers only.
 Micromanagement destroys the progress of a company, one can rightly say. But on the other hand, if you absolutely insist on telling your employees that you have no confidence in them, micromanagement is a really excellent way to do it.
(Translated from Fra skakbrættet - og andre steder)

The only right choice

One of my favourite quotes is attributed to Churchill, eventhough no one seems to be able to find the source for it:

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; An optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

It however sound very good together with another quote, which can be traced back to Churchill:

For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use to be anything else.

With the definition of the pessimist and optimist from the first quote, it is obviously true. We must see the possibilities in the difficulties, not the opposite. There will undoubtedly be trouble - Churchill had his fair amount of trouble in his time; but only by taking the difficulties as challenges and doing our best to overcome them we have the chance to get something better. Pessimism and negativity merely lead to apathy, resignation and fulfillment of the apocalyptic prophecies one creates for oneself. And that will bring no joy - at least not, if one ignores the extremely poor and stupid one of the kind it is to be able to say "I told you so!"
(Translated from Det eneste rigtige valg, originally published February 24th, 2017)

A state funeral for that cat, please!

I once encountered a beautiful quote by the Canadian author Arnold Edinborough:

Curiosity is the very basis of education and if you tell me that curiosity killed the cat, I say only the cat died nobly.

But wait a second! - does it mean that it's a noble pastime to immerse oneself in gossip to discover in detail whether one's favorite actor's relationship is in crisis? I don't want to think so: rather, I think there are two kinds of curiosity. François de la Rochefoucauld tells us in this way:

There are different kinds of curiosity: one springs from interest, which makes us desire to know everything that may be profitable to us; another from pride, which springs from a desire of knowing what others are ignorant of.

Now, rather, I mean that the two kinds of curiosity can be described as constructive and destructive curiosity - or perhaps rather as craving for knowledge and prying, respectively. For there is no doubt that it is not fair to let the things that people have an interest in being secret about, which any idea of ​​privacy give them the right to keep for themselves, be the topic of one's curiosity. But the constructive curiosity; the craving for knowledge, which makes us all smarter, and which does not hurt anyone, we cannot get too much of.
On a different note, I'm not entirely aware of where that cat lived when curiosity killed it. But it was not the blacksmith's cat - an old Danish saying has that it was killed by thanks. Although it's noble enough to be thankful, you cannot live off thanks alone...
(Translated from Giv den kat en statsbegravelse, originally published November 28th, 2010.

On the topic of What and How

This quote comes from a source that might be unexpected; general George S. Patton, Jr., Commander of the United States' Third Army during the battles in Europe in 1944-45 - but nevertheless, it's an interesting quote:

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

It's interesting because it does not only have military relevance; in fact, this is the case in most situations: if you tell people how to do things; well, they might do just that - but what if they had better ideas, which they simply keep in due to reverence towards your authority or similar reasons?
Of course, you can give people your opinion if they ask how to do things done - but it would in any case be a good idea to encourage them to come up with their own ideas on how things should be done. They might actually surprise with their ingenuity, and come forward with suggestions you never imagined.
(Translated from Noget om hvad og hvordan, originally published July 25th, 2013)

On the topic of (not) going too far

From time to time, I find quotes that were meant to be motivating, eventhough I find that they should be handled with care.
One such occasion was when I saw the following quote by the author T. S. Eliot:

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

It's probably true. But in times, where moderate voices seem to under an increasing pressure from people with more extreme points of view, I am afraid that what we need might not be those who are willing to go too far. I think there are enough of those. We rather need an appeal to normal, moderate people.
(Translated from Noget om (ikke) at gå til grænsen, originally published March 12th, 2016)

The territory under the hat

I am what you might call a sucker for quotes, to such an extent that I happily stop to write it down if I come come across some particularly interesting.
I met two such quotations on a wall at a large company, which I had a business purpose to visit some years ago. One of them, I later discovered, can be attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., an American physician and author, and it sounds in its simplicity:

Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.

And it immediately made me think that there is no need to think twice - it's just to get started stretching. And here the other quote - which I unfortunately have not found any source for - comes in very appropriately, as it states that

The greatest undeveloped territory in the world lies under your hat.

It is a thought I think it's worth staying with, as the country, in which I stayed when I read these two quotations, was India. Curiously, a place which is considered underdeveloped by many people; people, who perhaps have plenty of potential to stretch something under their own hats. If not, our part of the world might be lagging behind even faster than one might otherwise fear.
(Translated from Territoriet under hatten, originally published September 25th, 2010).

On the topic of knowledge and wisdom

I recently stumbled upon a quote attributed to Jimi Hendrix - but when searching, I could not really find any evidence that I had found the right source of the quote.
However, this in turn led me to a quote from the american author and doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., who with some certainty should be the author of the following:

It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.

I think it is a beautiful quote - and so obviously true. If you carry knowledge, you have a good point from which to speak - but wisdom is achieved by listening (and reading, and in other ways absorbing knowledge).
(Translated from Noget om viden og visdom)

On the topic of originals, copies and collages

While discussing authenticity, I came to think of a quote, which we Danes like to attribute to Søren Kierkegaard - symptomatically enough, I think it actually originates from the English poet Edward Young, who died about half a century before Kierkegaard's birth:

We are all born originals - why is it so many of us die copies?

For that question, I think I know a good answer: we die copies, because we have gathered inspiration from people, we have met over time, from whom we have let inspiration rub off. And the fascinating part is that hardly anyone - maybe not even in totalitarian regimes, eventhough, fortunately, my knowledge of said regimes is limited - die as exact copies of a certain other person. Rather, we die as collages of numerous other people, who then again themselves were collages of those people who inspired them.
Which is quite fortunate, I think. Otherwise, none of us could reach higher by standing on the shoulders of giants of the past.
(Translated from Noget om originaler, kopier og collager, originally published October 17, 2015)