Thank You Veterans!

Posted on November 13th, 2008 by yuwong.
Categories: Spirit, People.

We are free because of the brave.

The following message goes out to all veterans and their families who serve our country to protect democracy, freedom, and its citizens.  Veterans and their families (are):

Vital to our nation — our freedom, our values, our way of life.

Endure unimaginable hardships.

Tenacious.  Veterans put their lives on the line.  Their actions uphold our nation’s beliefs, values, and principles.

Encourage.  Veterans touch hearts.  Veterans restore war-torn nations.

Revive.  Veterans rescue the wounded.

Aspiration for all.  Their courage and patriotism is our model and motto.

No nonsense.  The job gets done.

Strong yet sensitive.

My 69-year-old mother fondly remembers the soldier who gave her a piece of candy — relief and hope — in the midst of war-torn Tokyo (November, 1945).

Special thanks also extends to Michael Yon, former Special Operations officer turned citizen journalist.  Yon continues to report first-hand detailed accounts of the Iraq War.

THANK YOU VETERANS!

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True Professional vs. Self-Proclaimed Professional (I)

Posted on November 2nd, 2008 by yuwong.
Categories: Spirit.

The more one knows, the more one realizes how little he knows.

Humility, collaboration, and life-long learning, in my opinion are the mark of true professional — attitudes which distinguish a true leader from self-proclaimed ones.

Veteran journalist Dan Gillmor comments, “My readers know more than I do.”  Retired principal Joanne Rooney states, “Perhaps successful principals realize that power, control and information do not flow from the top down, but more through the horizontal and complex connections that exist in any human community.1

Journalists and citizen journalists both play important roles in disseminating news and shaping public opinion.  Journalists are equipped with the skills and experiences to write accurate compelling stories.  Citizen journalists can provide facts, insights, interests, and expertise journalists may lack the time and expertise to cover.

(Let’s face it; journalists are generalists, not specialists.  In order to write well, writers must know what they write about.  No one person can possibly learn and know everything about everything.) 

(Why not collaborate with other professionals [blue and white collar workers] and community members [elderly, children, disabled, etc.] to bring fair, balanced, and meaningful news to the public — to all community members whom journalists serve).

1What New (Young) Principals Need to Know: Educational Leadership (September 2008 Vol. 66 no. 1), 85.

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True Professional vs. Self-Proclaimed Professional (II)

Posted on November 2nd, 2008 by yuwong.
Categories: Spirit.

As a private citizen, I have not been satisfied with the extent of media’s coverage on education issues. 

There have been some write-ups on board meetings, about some successful programs and teachers who make a difference, on standardized tests, and the like.  But the real issues, the issues which the public should know are swept to the wayside.

Richard Rothstein, in Whose Problem is Poverty2 states, “It’s no cop-out to acknowledge the effects of socioeconomic disparities on student learning.  Rather it’s a vital step to closing the achievement gap.”

Generally speaking, poor children are:

  • Not read aloud as often or exposed to complex language and large vocabularies
  • Their parents have low-wage jobs and are more frequently laid off, causing family stress and more inconsistent discipline
  • The children’s neighborhoods have more crime and drugs and fewer adults in professional careers
  • Such children are more often in single-parent families and  get less adult attention
  • They have fewer opportunities to develop their ambition, cultural awareness, and self-confidence (cross-country trips, visits to museums and zoos, music or dance lessons, and organize sports leagues)

2What New (Young) Principals Need to Know: Educational Leadership (September 2008 Vol. 66 no. 1), 85.

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True Professional vs. Self-Proclaimed Professional (III)

Posted on November 2nd, 2008 by yuwong.
Categories: Spirit.

Modest social and economic reforms, well within our political reach, could have a palpable effect on student achievement.  For example, we could:  

  • Ensure good pediatric and dental care for all students, in school-based clinics
  • Expand existing low-income housing subsidy programs to reduce families’ involuntary mobility
  • Provide higher-quality early childhood care so that low-income children are not parked before TV while parents work
  • Increase the earned income tax credit, the minimum wage, and collective bargaining rights so that families of low-wage workers are less stressed.
  • Promote mixed-income housing development in suburbs and in gentrifying cities to give more low-income students the benefits of integrated educations in neighborhood school.
  • Find after-school programs so that inner-city children spend fewer nonschool hours in dangerous environments and instead, develop their cultural, artistic, organizational, and athletic potential.

Poverty is not just the problem of the poor.  Poverty is everyone’s problem.

Poverty robs individuals of self-respect and often leads them to lives of desperation, lives of welfare, and lives of crime.  Poverty also affects those on the outside.  The middle and upper class pay for their indifference with their hard-earned tax dollars — subsidizing public assistance programs and housing jail inmates.

Mr. Gillmor, you’re so right on, “My readers know more than I do.”

Humility, collaboration, and life-long learning are the marks of true professional.  You are a leader, a true professional.

It’s high time we put the discussion of journalists vs. citizen journalists aside and unite — capitalize on individuals’ experiences and expertise — to create a safer, humane, and prosperous society for all.

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Where Credit is Due

Posted on October 26th, 2008 by yuwong.
Categories: Marketing, Book Review.

Meet Seth Godin, the author of Tribes — We Need You to Lead Us, but more importantly, the marketing guru and a leader with a BIG heart! 

I’m frequently asked about getting credit

People want to know how to be sure they get credit for an idea, especially when they have a boss who wants to steal it. 

Real leaders don’t care.

If it’s about your mission [and not about you], about spreading the faith, about seeing something happen, not only do you not care about credit, you actually want other people to take credit. 

There’s no record of Martin Luther King. Jr., or Gandhi whining about credit. 

Credit isn’t the point.  Change is.

Wow! 

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Startup Guide to Guerrilla Marketing (I)

Posted on October 26th, 2008 by yuwong.
Categories: Marketing, Book Review.

The best ideas and products created by ordinary citizens — shower caps used for Saran Wraps, razor holder on shower wall and the like — will never see the light of day without marketing (getting the word out)! 

Jay and Jeannie Levinson’s Startup Guide to GUERILLA MARKETING: A Simple Plan for First Time Marketers provides a step by step guide on how to promote products and ideas (see next seven blog summaries).

Hardwork, life-long learning, and love for people are the keys to success!

 ****************************************************************************************************** 

I.       Twelve Qualities of True Guerrilla Entrepreneurs:

  1. Guerilla Entrepreneurs obsess about implementation
  2. Guerilla Entrepreneurs focus on sales conversion (traffic)
  3. Guerilla Entrepreneurs plan for multiple contingencies.
  4. Guerilla Entrepreneurs build their list.
  5. Guerilla Entrepreneurs execute-and adjust the plan later.
  6. Guerilla Entrepreneurs engineer four, five, six plans and execute them in tandem, wagering that at least one plan will get traction
  7. Guerilla Entrepreneurs are risk takers.  They willingly risk making fools of themselves, knowing that long term success is a good grade for short-term loss of dignity.
  8. Guerilla Entrepreneurs expose their ideas to cold reality as soon as reasonably possible.
  9. Guerilla Entrepreneurs practice basketball barefoot behind the garage.
  10. Guerilla Entrepreneurs do original research and determine what paths have been already trod.
  11. Guerilla Entrepreneurs do what they’re gifted for and delegate the rest.
  12. Guerilla Entrepreneurs think in terms of IS and CAN BE.

In other words, guerilla entrepreneurs are intelligent, confident, risk takers!

Two thumbs WAY UP for guerilla entrepreneurs!

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Startup Guide to Guerrilla Marketing (II)

Posted on October 26th, 2008 by yuwong.
Categories: Marketing, Book Review.

II.      The 12 Personality Traits of a Guerrilla Marketer 

(1) Patience

Researchers learned your message must penetrate people’s mind nine times before they’re ready to buy from you (or buy into your ideas).  Patience, not marketing, works miracles.

(2) Imagination

You’ve got to do something your prospects and customers have never seen before so that you can capture and hold their attention better than any competitor anywhere, anytime.

(3) Sensitivity

A guerilla marketer cannot plod through life thinking only of him or herself.  The guerilla must be sensitive to:

  • The marketplace
  • The economy
  • His prospects
  • The competition
  • What’s on the prospect’s mind at the moment he is marketing
  • The time in history

(4) Strong Ego

Guerrilla marketers must have the ego to stand up to those who love you the most but give you the worst marketing advice.  Guerrilla marketing is not for amateurs, not for insecure babies, and more like a cup of nitroglycerine that can blow up in your face if you make a crucial mistake.  

(5) Aggressiveness

Guerillas are aggressive in their thinking and in their investing.  Guerrillas save money by not wasting it.  Aggressiveness is your hallmark.  You probably have a blog.  You’ve already begun podcasting.  You’ve been hard at work compiling your opt-in list.  This kind of aggressiveness is the sign of a leader.

(6) Embrace Change

Change for the sake of improvement is a very good thing.  Embrace change.

(7) Generous

Guerrillas view their marketing as a chance to help their prospects and customers succeed at their goals.  Knowing that we’re living smack dab in the middle of the Information Age, they are very generous in providing information.

(8) High Energy

Guerrilla marketing is a full-time job that takes energy – all the time energy.  By doing the work they love, they never work a day in their lives.  If you can make high energy a part of you, you have the personality of a guerrilla destined for success.

(9) Life-Long Learner

Guerillas know knowledge equates with success.  Guerrillas continue to learn about about the changes in marketing as well as about the peripherals of marketing: psychology, the Internet, technology, and the globalization business.

(10) Love People

Guerillas know that every person is unique.  Their honest interest in people makes them masterful communicators.  And that masterful communication makes the guerrillas themselves enjoyable to hear, to listen to, to learn from.

(11) Maintains Focus

Guerilla marketers are skilled at their core competencies as well as at maintaining their focus.  Instead of going off into unchartered territories, they concentrate on adding excellence to their current endeavors.  

(12) Takes Action

While others may learn by hearing, guerrillas learn by doing.  They are very hands-on group of people.  They act on the advice they are given.  They breathe life into the concepts they have learned.  They experiment.  Guerrillas do something about what they’ve learned.

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Startup Guide to Guerrilla Marketing (III)

Posted on October 26th, 2008 by yuwong.
Categories: Marketing, Book Review.

III.    Top Ten Attitudes of a Guerrilla Marketer

  • Passion
  • Generosity
  • Speed
  • Sincere caring
  • Honest friendliness
  • Neatness
  • Telephone demeanor
  • Value
  • Easy to do business with
  • Flexibility

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Startup Guide to Guerrilla Marketing (IV)

Posted on October 26th, 2008 by yuwong.
Categories: Marketing, Book Review.

IV.    What Are People Really Buying?

  1. Solutions to their problems
  2. Freedom from pain
  3. Promises you make (so make them carefully)
  4. Wealth, safety, success, security, love, and acceptance
  5. Your guarantee, reputation, and good name
  6. Other people’s opinion of your business
  7. Believable claims, not simply hones claims
  8. Brand names over strange names.
  9. Easy access to information offered by your web site
  10. The consistency they’ve seen you exhibit.
  11. The stature of the media in which you market
  12. The professionalism of your marketing materials
  13. Value, which is not the same as price
  14. Freedom from risk, granted by your warranty
  15. Convenience in purchasing
  16. Neatness (and assume that’s how you do business
  17. Honesty (one dishonest word means no sale)
  18. Speedy delivery

People don’t buy:

  • Fancy adjectives
  • Exaggerated claim
  • Clever headline
  • Special effect
  • Marketing that screams

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Startup Guide to Guerrilla Marketing (V)

Posted on October 26th, 2008 by yuwong.
Categories: Marketing, Book Review.

V.  Becoming a Resource

Becoming a resource increases your credibility and visibility to potential fusion marketing partners.  Fusion marketing partners seek out those who earn their respect and already enjoy their market’s respect.  Here are 25 ways to become a resource:

  1. Write articles for publication
  2. Teach a class
  3. Offer to help a friend in your area of expertise
  4. Do free consultations
  5. Publish an e-newsletter
  6. Print a newsletter
  7. Recommend your friends’, clients’, and colleagues’ products and services
  8. Market their products and services in combination with yours
  9. Involve them in a project you’re doing
  10. Provide free community help
  11. Put information, surveys, tips, and articles on your website
  12. Sponsor a charitable event
  13. Compile a list of recommended books in your area of expertise
  14. Link others’ web sites on your web site.
  15. Provide referrals.
  16. Do a radio or TV spot
  17. Offer to be a free resource for prospects
  18. Send relevant articles to prospects and customers
  19. Donate time to a relevant association
  20. Work a trade show booth
  21. Connect people in all areas of your life
  22. Do a free seminar on a popular topic
  23. Send a yearly industry review to customers and colleagues
  24. Mentor someone
  25. Share information beyond your career expertise, such as travel knowledge or hobbies.

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