Frank Uncovers Excellence in Leadership

© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

From all the cooking I enjoy the most to come up with new desserts and decorate them:


Sorbet et Poires au four avec Sabayon de Sauternes

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© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

Interestingly enough The Art of War has become one of the must reads for managers. In my honest opinion another must read is the “Go Rin No Sho” - A Book of Five Rings written by Miyamoto Musashi.

From The Ground Book

Timing in strategy

There is timing in everything. Timing in strategy cannot be mastered without a great deal of practice.

Timing is important in dancing and pipe or string music, for they are in rhythm only if timing is good. Timing and rhythm are also involved in the military arts, shooting bows and guns, and riding horses. In all skills and abilities there is timing.

There is also timing in the Void.

There is timing in the whole life of the warrior, in his thriving and declining, in his harmony and discord. Similarly, there is timing in the Way of the merchant, in the rise and fall of capital. All things entail rising and falling timing. You must be able to discern this. In strategy there are various timing considerations. From the outset you must know the applicable timing and the inapplicable timing, and from among the large and small things and the fast and slow timings find the relevant timing, first seeing the distance timing and the background timing. This is the main thing in strategy. It is especially important to know the background timing, otherwise your strategy will become uncertain.

You win in battles with the timing in the Void born of the timing of cunning by knowing the enemies’ timing, and this using a timing which the enemy does not expect.

All the five books are chiefly concerned with timing. You must train sufficiently to appreciate all this.

If you practise day and night in the above Ichi school strategy, your spirit will naturally broaden. Thus is large scale strategy and the strategy of hand to hand combat propagated in the world. This is recorded for the first time in the five books of Ground, Water, Fire, Tradition (Wind), and Void. This is the Way for men who want to learn my strategy:

• Do not think dishonestly.


• The Way is in training.


• Become aquainted with every art.


• Know the Ways of all professions.


• Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters.


• Develop intuitive judgement and understanding for everything.


• Perceive those things which cannot be seen.


• Pay attention even to trifles.


• Do nothing which is of no use.

It is important to start by setting these broad principles in your heart, and train in the Way of strategy. If you do not look at things on a large scale it will be difficult for you to master strategy. If you learn and attain this strategy you will never lose even to twenty or thirty enemies. More than anything to start with you must set your heart on strategy and earnestly stick to the Way. You will come to be able to actually beat men in fights, and to be able to win with your eye. Also by training you will be able to freely control your own body, conquer men with your body, and with sufficient training you will be able to beat ten men with your spirit. When you have reached this point, will it not mean that you are invincible?

Moreover, in large scale strategy the superior man will manage many subordinates dextrously, bear himself correctly, govern the country and foster the people, thus preserving the ruler’s discipline. If there is a Way involving the spirit of not being defeated, to help oneself and gain honour, it is the Way of strategy.

The second year of Shoho (1645), the fifth month, the twelfth day.
Teruo Magonojo for SHINMEN MUSASHI

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© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

Books are the curse of the human race.–Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)
Books had instant replay long before televised sports.–Bert Williams
Ever wonder if illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup? –John Mendoza
I cannot live without books.–Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
I see no point in reading.–Louis XIV (1638–1715)
If you believe everything you read, better not read.–Japanese proverb
My foolish parents taught me to read and write.–Martial (43–104), Epigrams
There are seventy million books in American libraries, but the one you want is always out.–Tom Masson (1866–1934)
Forget living well. The best revenge is revenge.–William Hamilton
The best revenge is massive success.–Les Brown
About 95 percent of what’s told you in confidence, you couldn’t get anybody to listen to anyway.–Mark McGinnis, Reader’s Digest (April 1976)
If you would keep your secret from an enemy, tell it not to a friend.–Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), Poor Richard (August 1741)
It’s a great kindness to trust people with a secret. They feel so important while telling it.–Robert Quillen
Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead.–Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), Poor Richard (July 1795)
Adam ate the apple, and our teeth still ache.–Hungarian proverb
I wasn’t kissing her, I was whispering in her mouth.–Chico Marx
People who throw kisses are hopelessly lazy.–Bob Hope, comedian
There are times not to flirt. When you’re sick. When you’re with children. When you’re on the witness stand.–Joyce Jillson
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.–Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
I believe in the discipline of silence and could talk for hours about it.–George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
I do not like noise, unless I make it myself.–French proverb
Remember, a closed mouth gathers no foot.–Steve Post
Go to bed. Whatever you’re staying up late for isn’t worth it.–Andy Rooney (1919–)
He who is known as an early riser can stay in until noon.–Yiddish proverb
No civilized person ever goes to bed the same day he gets up.–Richard Harding Davis (1864–1916)
The amount of sleep required by the average person is about five minutes more.–Max Kauffman
The day will happen whether or not you get up.–John Ciardi (1916-1986)
There ought to be a better way of starting the day than having to get up.–Earl Wilson
All men are equal before fish.–Herbert Hoover, 1951
Anybody who watches three games of football in a row should be declared brain dead.–Erma Bombeck (1927–1996)
Athletics have become professionalized.–Socrates (470–399 B.C.)
As I understand it, sport is hard work for which you do not get paid.–Irvin S. Cobb (1876–1944)
Football isn’t a matter of life or death; it’s much more important than that.–Bill Shankly (1913-1981).
If you watch a game, it’s fun. If you play it, it’s recreation. If you work at it, it’s golf.–Bob Hope, Reader’s Digest (October 1958)
“Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.”–Joe Theismann, football commentator
Sports begets tumultuous strife and wrath, and wrath begets fierce quarrels and war to the death.–Horace (65–8 B.C.)
The only polite thing to do when engaged in sky diving, hang gliding, ice climbing, or any other dangerous sport is to die.

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© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

Scott McNealy, CEO at Sun Microsystems dreams about himself standing in line to see Santa like hundreds of other kids.

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© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

A help and guideline on how to ask questions the smart way

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© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008


And, lo an angel
of the Lord
brought good tidings
of great joy…
… and, a Christmas Story from
Frank & Family

On that holy night in Bethlehem,
when Christ our Savior was born.
And shepherds, kings and children
beckoned by a star in the East
came to worship the tiny babe
wrapped in swaddling clothes,
lying in a manger.

May the glory of God fill
your hearts with peace and
good will this holiday season
and always.


Frank

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© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

1. Strange…


2. I’ve never heard about that.


3. It did work yesterday.


4. Well, the program needs some fixing.


5. How is this possible?


6. The machine seems to be broken.


7. Has the operating system been updated?


8. The user has made an error again.


9. There is something wrong in your test data.


10. I have not touched that module!


11. Yes yes, it will be ready in time.


12. You must have the wrong executable.


13. Oh, it’s just a feature.


14. I’m almost ready.


15. Of course, I just have to do these small fixes.


16. It will be done in no time at all.


17. It’s just some unlucky coincidense.


18. I can’t test everything!


19. THIS can’t do THAT.


20. Didn’t I fix it already?


21. It’s already there, but it has not been tested.


22. It works, but it’s not been tested.


23. Somebody must have changed my code.


24. There must be a virus in the application software.


25. Even though it does not work, how does it feel?

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© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

My friend Derek Jones and fellow BlackStar writes:

A few years ago I was a member of a local Rotary Club tasked with organising speakers for the weekly meetings. It was so difficult to get members to give even the simplest presentation. Many of them needed a months notice before consenting to offer even the 10 second grace prior to a meal. In fact, now you really think about it, when asked in advance to give a presentation many people will dive into certain predictable actions. They research a topic extensively and finish with far too much content. Then they think up a few jokes to be clumsily executed and reach for Powerpoint; which incidentally does have its uses as a great trance induction tool.

So anyway - what happens when you simply don’t have the time to prepare? You are on the spot in this very moment, the audience is waiting and you feel excited right?—after all—it is your turn to shine.

Here are some tips. I just don’t know what you will think about these because they are not what you usually read about. You know the stuff I mean. Attention to research and rehearsing content, checking your posture, hands out of pockets, develop voice control, movement and gesture, attention to the way you dress and so on. Working on these things will make you a very good speaker but rarely a great one. Practice enough with careful attention to detail and you can learn to be really comfortable—which is great until we realise that comfort can mean you simply formed a habit. Then one day you meet a situation that challenges that habit and you find out that everything you so consciously and painstakingly learned no longer serves you.
Read the rest of this entry »

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