The 10 Commandments

... for Business Failure. It is a book by Donald R Keough, former president of the Coca-Cola Company. A great read regardless if you drink soft drinks or not (better not, as they are unhealthy).

Some quotes:

His mother said "Donald, there is no such thing as a boring subject. What's boring is your refusal to find what makes it interesting."

In the current I-centric society this mentality needs certainly a comeback soon. Because this would help to build better bridges between people. Aslo you have to be passionate about doing the job at hand to get the best results possible.

There are, except as statistical abstractions, no such things as market segments. There are only people. They have faces. Visualise your audience. Visualise specific people and think hard about just what you're going to do for them that day. For years I had photograph in my office depicting a woman in her thirties pushing a loaded shopping cart while holding on to a crying three-year-old and with an anguished look on her face. The caption read "This is your consumer."

Do you really understand your consumer? What are they thinking about?

People don't think about products, but the jobs they have to get done. If your product (or service) helps them to do that, you're on a right track.

You will fail if you quit taking risks, are inflexible, isolated, assume infallibility, play the game close to the line, don't take time to think, put all your faith in outside experts, love your bureaucracy, send mixed messages and fear the future.

It might be hard to avoid all those traps at all times, but if you fall, step right back up.

1600 years ago St Augustine wrote: "Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are Anger and Courage. Anger that things are the way they are. Courage to make them the way they might to be."

Take a bit of anger, pump up your courage and keep on moving forward towards the success. October, the Halloween month, is the best time to beat your fears and plunge into the action.

Photo: I took 10 years ago at Halloween time in Canada.