Posted by Dawn-Ann on December 2, 2008
Sometimes you just can’t think of something to write, right? So I dug up an old post from last year. Enjoy!
Originally posted March 2007:
Sir Richard Branson is someone I admire for his daringness, adventurousness and smarts. I devoured his biography last year (it reads like an adventure novel) and just finished his latest book called Screw It, Let’s Do It, a small book of life lessons. Here are a couple of quotes I like that illustrate the kind of guy Sir Richard is.
“I was brought up to think we could all change the world. I believed that it was our duty to help others and to do good when we could. I’m sure my headmaster was stunned when I wrote a long report about how he could run the school better. I ended grandly with the words, ‘I would be very interested in your views on this, and any money saved could be put towards my next plan…’
“He didn’t laugh, or even cane me for my cheek. He handed back my report and said dryly, ‘Very good, Branson. Put it in the school magazine.’
“Instead, I left school and started my own magazine.”
…and…
“You don’t have to fill your time rushing about in order to use your time wisely… Bill Gates – the world’s top charity donor – said his staff could spend two hours gazing into space, as long as their minds were working, and Albert Einstein came up with the theory of relativity in his head without paper or pen.”
Posted by Dawn-Ann on October 24, 2008
That ol’ nine-to-five is a whole lot easier to bear if you love the work you’re doing and at least respect the company you work for, am I right? Currently, I am on contract with EnCana in Calgary and the longer I’m there, the more I love it. Not only do they take really good care of their employees, but the people I work with are, without exception, bright, hard workers that also happen to know how to laugh and have fun. (Plus, I’m doing nerdy stuff in the web department – does it get any better than that? I don’t think so.)
Anyway…
The so-called “corporate culture” of what some might view as just another one of those heartless “big oil” companies was really made clear to me when I read a recent article that Forbes.com featured. Native Canadian concerns being near and dear to my heart, I was really tickled about this:
EnCana had already decided where it was going to build its oil sands processing plant in Foster Creek when it did something that would make your average oil man choke: It asked the tribal council of the Cold Lake First Nation if the plant’s location was acceptable to them, even though the land wasn’t on their reservation.
Turns out EnCana’s site was where the tribe’s roaming ancestors were buried. So EnCana moved its plant site several miles away. It also rerouted a road around a former gathering ground of medicinal plants and a rock that was, according to the council, imbued with spiritual properties.
Read more here.
This was the sidebar for a bigger article about EnCana called Frick and Frack.
Posted by Dawn-Ann on July 26, 2008
John at onemansblog.com has a pretty interesting website. Sometimes his entries are techie, sometimes funny, and occasionally very profound – like this morning’s post.
This article, 10 Things I Wish I Had Known About Business, was written in response to an event he is attending, at which he will be mentoring young people. I think it’s just about some of the best advice I have seen on the subject. [Check out John's blog entry here.]