Leaders

"Leaders aren't born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that's the price we'll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal."

- Vince Lombardi, American Football Coach.

Paul Graham's Stuff

Stuff has gotten a lot cheaper, but our attitudes toward it haven't changed correspondingly. We overvalue stuff.

A historical change has taken place, and I've now realized it. Stuff used to be valuable, and now it's not.

Paul Graham, July 2007
Read: Paul Graham's Stuff

Gifts

"We start with gifts. Merit comes from what we make of them."

- Jean Toomer, American poet and novelist.

Winners

"Winners don't wait for chances, they take them."

- Unknown

Making connections between IT investments and corporate goals

In its white paper IT Shift: From Technical Support to Business, the PMI offers extremely valuable learnings on how to include IT teams in discussions surrounding business strategy that affect their work. In short, on how to train IT teams and on how to make connections between IT investments and corporate goals.

'Spurred by economic and strategic shifts, today’s IT leaders and their teams are relying on solid project management to ensure their projects drive profits, increase business efficiencies and help organisations achieve their strategic goals.' Source: www.pmi.org.

Read the Project Management Institute's white papers here.

1.2 million strong

According to a study published in October 2008 by the Anderson Economic Group, an average of 1.2 million project management positions will need to be filled each year through 2016.

(Source: http://www.pmi.org/)

The Startup Manager

Management is not about having a boss, it's about creating a system to enable you to pursue whatever results you intend to achieve in a more effective way. That seems universally desirable, but even with this definition, many will chafe. "There's only two of us, we don't need management, we just need to get things done". Again, this comes from a misunderstanding of the way management should be applied.

Startup Skill Set #6: The Startup Manager