Insights from ‘Winners and Whiners’ book align with company values

I just finished reading Keith Cameron Smith’s book, The Top 10 Distinctions Between Winners and Whiners (Wiley, 2010). It’s an amusing list with some profound underlying truths. Some of my favorites:

Winners can have what they want. Whiners want what they cannot have. Winners work hard in pursuit of their passions. Exceptional performance takes hard work. Don’t expect success just by showing up—you have to work for it. Invest in lifelong learning.

Winners brighten a room by entering. Whiners brighten a room by leaving. Positive attitudes energize people. Doom and gloom sucks the life out of everyone around. Winners brighten a room by encouraging others, congratulating others and refusing to speak poorly of others.

Winners find a way. Whiners find an excuse. Vision empowers you to find a way, no matter what. Lack of vision causes you to find an excuse. Create solutions to overcome obstacles and be innovative.

Winners build friendships. Whiners destroy friendships. Understanding the perspectives and opinions of others builds trust. Maintain an open attitude and welcome diversity—it leads to stronger teams with multiple viewpoints and experiences.

I found myself really resonating with these observations and thinking about the challenging events of the past few years—watching businesses close, friends get laid off, the stock market plummet. I’ve noticed two distinct reactions. One is positive, looking at these times as an opportunity to invest in yourself, reinvent and re-energize. Another is a negative response of playing the victim, thinking it’s not my fault and life isn’t fair, and not taking any productive action. I’ve also noticed that many of the people who maintain a positive outlook create the means for continuous learning and see challenges where others see obstacles. They are the ones who come out on top.

So many of the lessons and distinctions between winners and whiners are nicely aligned with RoseRyan’s values. I have the great fortune to be championing our corporate values program, and I’ve been surprised by the number of people who are supportive and actively working for change. I’ve been amazed at what can happen when a group of people decide to make positive changes.

Smith’s book is a quick read, but worth the time to slow down a little and reflect, Can I be more like that? Or conversely, Do I get stuck on whining? I think we can all see a little of ourselves in the examples, and as we start out the new year, perhaps it’s a good time to take some of this to heart.

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Cleantech Top 25: the sausage-making behind the list

Creating the list of 2010 cleantech leaders was difficult due to the incredible diversity of industries within cleantech and the compelling stories that are developing. Although businesses in the sector— and certainly venture capitalists—are looking for the “Google of cleantech,” it’s more likely that we’ll see a broad range of companies achieve success at a more moderate rate.

In every instance when I asked industry participants who their top three people in cleantech were, they thought deeply, nodded, scratched their throat, deliberated some more, and eventually settled on three. Five minutes later they started to unveil a much longer list due to the incredible reach that cleantech has gained in the marketplace.

One big addition to the 2010 list is the inclusion of researchers at some key universities and laboratories. These institutions are unsung heroes who have a major impact on the policies, products and future of cleantech. They are quite accessible and willing to lend their expertise. Representatives of government, on the other hand, are fewer this year, since many of their policies are already in place and breeding success—good job, guys!

While I had a lot to sort through in identifying people who were most influential in 2010, one of the most difficult tasks was picking the people to watch in 2011. This list is gleaned from hundreds of potential candidates. Like last year’s list, it includes an eclectic mix of individuals who could certainly appear on the Top 25 list in future years.

I will be attending many cleantech events this year and hope to meet many of the movers and shakers. If I see you, make sure you’re ready for me to ask, “Who do you think the top three people in cleantech are?”

If you have any comments, submissions for future consideration or anything else that you would like to share, please let me know.

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2011 economic forecasts: be alert, stay flexible

I recently attended two economic forecast presentations that gave different sets of views on how—and how much—the economy will grow this year. Both were very interesting and provided lots of information, trends and predictions, but they were also different in some areas of emphasis and their level of optimism.

At the first event, hosted by Moss-Adams and Union Bank in San Francisco, Kei Matsuda, the chief economist at Union Bank, said he thinks that the growth rate for U.S. GDP will be 2.4 percent in 2011. At the second presentation, hosted by Comerica in Santa Clara, Mario Belotti from Santa Clara University and Rich Karlgaard from Forbes both think it will be 3.5–4.0 percent.

Karlgaard said that even though this sounds aggressive, the International Monetary Fund was predicting that it would be 1.5 percent as little as three months ago. He thinks that the recovery will be uneven, with certain industries, for example the tech market, growing much faster than others. He believes the IPO market will be up and VC spending will certainly exceed last year’s levels. He also predicted that the Dow would hit 14,000 and the S&P would be at 1,500. Then he said that oil may go to $100 per barrel, so I’m wondering how this rate of growth would be possible, with a brake on growth like $100 per barrel of oil?

The Union Bank economist reasoned was that the recovery seems to be moving in the right direction, but very slowly. Matsuda had three take-away points that summarized his remarks:

  • The “new normal” is not necessarily so. What happened in 2009 and 2010 is part of an economic cycle; corporate profits are up, and job growth is starting to return, although some jobs will not return.
  • Economic growth will accelerate in 2011, although there are factors that will slow this down, such as the European debt crisis, a weakened commercial real estate market and struggling state finances.
  • The housing market will stabilize with weak building starts but historically low interest rates.

In general, it seems that there is room to be cautiously optimistic, but we all need to get used to the fact that the world as we know it will continue to change and evolve, whether we like it or not. All you can do is stay flexible, be informed and look for opportunities.

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RoseRyan may have “cracked the code” of finance pro types, says CFO Magazine

Our Finance Pro Personality Quiz has tickled the funny bones of editors at CFO Magazine. “Normally we’d ignore it altogether,” says the article in the latest issue, “but, inadvertently, the firm may have cracked the code regarding the three basic types of finance pros.”

The article, titled “Putting the ‘Light’ in ‘Enlightenment’,” is featured in the Topline section of the magazine. It posits that finance pros can “satisfy their longing for self-knowledge” by taking the online quiz and provides a sampling of three questions.

We don’t know how much self-knowledge our quiz has dispensed, but we do know it’s been popular—it quadrupled traffic to roseryan.com during the first three days it was posted as our gift to clients, partners and others. And it has been one of the most popular website destinations for the entire month of January.

Best of all, it’s been really fun—to create and to take. If you haven’t found your type yet, take the quiz here.

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