Recommended Audio CD's

A special deal for readers

"THE ACHIEVERS EDGE" 

 Think & Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill
 Good to Great - Jim Collins

 Psychology of Achievement - Brian Tracy
 Discover Your Strengths - M Buckingham

 7 Habits of Highly Effective- Stephen Covey
 Rich Dads Secrets - Robert Kiyosaki
 Maverick Mindset - John Elliot
 Vocal Power - Roger Love

 Quantum Memory - Dominic O'Brien
 Getting Things Done - David Allen

Reading Time 1 minutes & 55 seconds    For a Podcast of this thought please click here Or iPod & iTunes - Users Click Here

For years, Monterey, California, was filled with fish canneries. For the pelicans this had been paradise for generations, as they had been able to feast on the fish that were discarded rather than having to catch for their own. However as time went by the fish stocks reduced, and the canneries one by one began to close. As the canneries closed, the availability of easy fish vanished forever.

Now this shouldn't have been a problem for the pelicans, because although there wasn't enough fish for the canneries there was more than enough fish in the sea for the pelicans and pelicans are great fishers. They dive into the water with their huge beaks, plucking the fish out from the waves.

But these pelicans had never fished, this skill had been lost generations ago. Their easy meals were all gone and now on by one the pelicans began to die of starvation.

Fortunately the environmentalists figured out a Warren Buffet solution. Warren suggestion (in the famous Gates Buffet interview) that the best advice for being successful is to look at the people you admire and model their behaviours (not skills).

So the environmentalist imported pelicans from another area. Pelicans that were used to fishing and mixed them with the local birds. The newcomers immediately started fishing for their own food and before long the starving pelicans followed their example. Avoiding extinction by learning to fish for themselves.

Interestingly I think its unlikely that the pelicans understood that that they need help to learn to fish. Like us we don't always know the skills were missing until we start modelling some of the great behaviours of the people we admire.

Till next week enjoy spending time with people who you admire

David Gardner

 Recommended Books

 Good to Great - Jim Collins 
  7 Habits - Stephen Covey

  The Automatic Millionaire -David Bach
  Discover you Strengths - M Buckingham 
  Richard Branson's Auto biography
  Brilliant Memory - Dominic O'Brien
  Think & Grow Rich -  Napoleon Hill 
  Freakonomics - Stephen Levitt
 Getting Things Done - David Allen
 The Machine That Changed the World
 Watching the English - Kate Fox

A Short History of Nearly Everything- B Bryson

The Last 10 Weeks

Three blind men and an elephant

Common Sense

Everyone Someone Anyone and No-One

Zealots, opponents and golden supporters

Twelve questions to high performance

Are you a premium brand

A holiday with a billionaire

The bee can't fly but no one told the bee

The 4R's of NLP

The Maverick Mindset of Baseball

Two Cannibals and a Beautiful Girl

I use Amazon for books

There are loads of great audio programs at Nightingale Conant's ,web site here,

About Me / Contact Me

 david@thoughtoftheweek.co.uk