People can be inspired to meet stretch goals and tackle impossible challenges if they care about the outcome.

I’ll never forget the story of how a new general manager of the Daimler Benz operations in South Africa raised productivity and quality at the end of the apartheid era by giving the workers something to do that they valued: make a car for Nelson Mandela, just released from prison.

A plant plagued by lost days, sluggish workers, and high rates of defects produced the car in record time with close to zero defects. The pride in giving Mandela the Mercedes, plus the feeling of achievement, helped the workers maintain a new level of performance. People stuck in boring, rote jobs will spring into action for causes they care about.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter: The Happiest People Pursue the Most Difficult Problems

You can be more successful in two month by becoming really interested in other’s people success than you can in two years trying to get other people interested in your own success.

Keith Ferrazzi: “Never eat alone“.

The problem is, early stage sales isn’t about making money. It’s about finding out what people care about and figuring out what the sales roadmap looks like.

Rob Fitzpatrick: Why tech founders can’t hire in early salespeople

Multichannel ohne zusätzliche Nutzenstiftung anzubieten, halte ich für einen Fehler.

Matthias Weber, Gründer und Geschäftsführer von Weber Schuh und ehemaliger Geschäftsführer von Lidl/Schwarz E-Commerce auf der K5 Konferenz (Quelle).

Eine ausführliche Zusammenfassung der K5 gibt es bei Channelpartner.de: K5 Konferenz für E-Commerce – Die Erfolgsstrategien der Online-Überflieger (via Exciting Commerce)

Don’t prepare. Begin. Remember, our enemy is not lack of preparation; it’s not the difficulty of the project or the state of the marketplace or the emptiness of our bank account. The enemy is Resistance. The enemy is our chattering brain, which, if we give it so much as a nanosecond, will start producing excuses, alibis, transparent self-justifications, and a million reasons why we can’t/shouldn’t/won’t do what we know we need to do. Start before you’re ready.

Steven Pressfield in “Do the work“

I learned that the only way you are going to get anywhere in life is to work hard at it. Whether you’re a musician, a writer, an athlete or a businessman, there is no getting around it. If you do, you’ll win—if you don’t, you won’t.

Bruce Jenner

Why not take 5 of your brightest people – say a marketing geek, a design God, two coding Titans and a server wizard – leave them alone for a half a year and let them create the best shop they can come up with. Don’t bother them with reporting or meetings. Don’t have them waste their time trying to connect their new project to each and every system your company is running. Let them create a standalone system that has only one goal: provide the best user experience you can deliver.

ecomPunk: Media-Saturn, Enterprise and Innovation

(…) Wer sich nicht mehr für, sondern nur noch gegen etwas positionieren kann, der hat eigentlich schon verloren.

Jochen Krisch auf Exciting Commerce: Media Markt und die Panik vor der Preistransparenz

Life will suck if you are always wishing you’re doing something else. Life will rock if you realize you’re already doing the best thing ever.

Zenhabits.net: How to Be Happy Anytime