Things to be reminded of...

You have to work to win.

"A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals." - Larry Bird

If you stumble and fall, don't cry, just pick up your feet and keep moving! - J.N. Kish

Everything in life that has meaning value and worth involves work time and
effort. - Chris Markowski

ANDY POSE - Andy was a Detroit based Lead Product Development Engineer. Andy had a unique ability to keep everyone motivated and be creative to overcome any problem they were faced with. He would slide his wise comments into any conversation- no matter how serious or frustrating the situation. Here are some examples.

Don't piss me off; I'm in a good mood
The guy's nuts.... grab him!
Perfect is good enough the first time
It's like an alcoholic working as a bartender
It's like a giraffe with a sore throat
Nobody's perfect. We just keep proving it
I feel like I'm eating an elephant
I'm on the downhill side of a mediocre career
It's like rearranging the seats on the Titanic

The squeaky wheel gets the oil.

Fault is only relevant after the game is over.

Don't be irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.

Always remember that you're unique. Just like everyone else.

Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of car payments.

Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.
That way, when you criticize them you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.

On the other hand is a different finger.

Give a man a fish and he will eat all day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day. (And the fish are safe)

If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

Good judgment comes from bad experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

The quickest way to double you money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.

A closed mouth gathers no foot.

Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.

There are two theories to arguing with women. Neither one works.

Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your lips are moving.

Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

Never miss a good chance to shut up.

Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously.

Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.

Coat pockets are very useful for losing things. - J.N. Kish

Colin Powell's Rules, from his autobiography:

1. Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.
2. Don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.
3. You can't make someone else's decisions; don't let someone else make yours.
4. Get mad, then get over it.
5. Check small things.
6. Share credit.
7. Don't take council of your fears or naysayers.
8. Remain calm. Be kind.
9. Have a vision. Be demanding.
10. It can be done.
11. Be careful what you chose. You may get it.
12. It ain't as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.
13. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

Seven Tips for avoiding and ultimately managing and resolving conflicts:

1) Be proactive. Good plans shape good decisions.

Good planning helps to make elusive dreams come true. - Lester R. Bittel

2) Be slow to anger - especially over petty issues.

Anger is always more harmful than the insult that caused it. - Chinese Proverb

3) Instead of telling people they are wrong, point out mistakes indirectly.

A person convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. - Samuel Butler

4) Look for some type of common ground as soon as possible.

A compromise is the art of dividing a cake in such a way that everyone believes he has the biggest piece. - Ludwig Erhard

5) If you find you are in the wrong, admit it.

It is easier to eat crow while it is still warm. - Dan Heist

6) Admit one of your own poor decisions before pointing out a similar error by others.

A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying... That he is wiser today than he was yesterday. - Alexander Pope

7) Mend fences whenever possible.

Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it forgoes revenge, and dares forgive an injury. - E.H. Chapin

Liberalism is taught in school, Conservatism is learned in life. -JNKish

Click here to view: Corporate Ideals

Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead. - Aldous Huxley

Consistency is contrary to nature: That is why building interchangeable parts is called work. - J.N. Kish

To avoid criticism,
Do nothing,
Say nothing,
Be nothing. -Elbert Hubbard

Don't worry - They'll get over it.

"There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else." - Sam Walton

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. - Albert Einstein

Get a purge for your brain. It will do better than for your stomach. -Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

The palest ink is clearer than the fondest memory. -Chinese saying

If you try to make something too simple, it will make it seem even more complex and difficult. -The David Allen Company

You can never get enough of what you don't really need. -The David Allen Company

If you don't know what you're doing, you don't know when to stop. -Unknown

If it moves, salute it. If it doesn't move, pick it up. If you can't pick it up, paint it. -U.S. Military slogan

If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging. -Will Rogers

ADULT:
A person who has stopped growing at both ends and is now growing in the middle.

CHICKENS:
The only animals you eat before they are born and after they are dead.

COMMITTEE:
A body that keeps minutes and wastes hours.

DUST:
Mud with the juice squeezed out.

EGOTIST:
Someone who is usually me-deep in conversation.

HANDKERCHIEF:
Cold Storage.

INFLATION:
Cutting money in half without damaging the paper.

MOSQUITO:
An insect that makes you like flies better.

RAISIN:
Grape with a sunburn.

SECRET:
Something you tell to one person at a time.

SKELETON:
A bunch of bones with the person scraped off.

TOOTHACHE:
The pain that drives you to extraction.

TOMORROW:
One of the greatest labor saving devices of today.

YAWN:
An honest opinion openly expressed.

Junk in, Junk out.

I don't look busy now because I already spent the extra time doing it right the first time.

If you can't do, then you can't stay.

What counts is not the number of hours you put in, but how much you put in the hours.

I was looking for a job when I found this one. -Gary Maze

Government doesn't create jobs. Jobs create government. -JNKish

It is the engineer's job to make sure that there is a place for everything and that everything fits in it's place.

Management will do everything possible (intentionally or unintentionally) to limit the amount of places where things may fit. - J.N. Kish

When in doubt, build it stout.

There are two problems in the world today - Communication and Lubrication. - J.H. Thornton Company

Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest. -Mark Twain

Anything I've ever done that ultimately was worthwhile... Initially scared me to death. - Betty Bender

"The second oldest profession in the world is the get-rich-quick-artist." - Chris Markowski

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do
nothing." - Edmund Burke

Big people talk about ideas. Regular people talk about things. Small people talk about other people.

He who expects no gratitude shall never be disappointed.

It is human nature to want and waste. - J.N. Kish

Ignorance breeds arrogance. - J.N. Kish

Ignorance and fear are a dangerous mixture. - J.N. Kish

You can't improve something if you can't measure it.

Lunacy is to continue to do the same thing and expect different results.

If you can do no good; then please, do no harm.

All situations can be improved through fair competition. -J.N. Kish

It's a difficult task to pick fly shit out of pepper.

A man's real limitations are not the things he wants to do and can not; they are the things he ought to do but does not.

Champions: Expect pain, endure pain, and never complain.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. - Samuel Johnson

Manana: Some indefinite time in the future.

Xenophobe: A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples.

Jingoism: Extreme nationalism characterized especially by a belligerent foreign policy; chauvinistic patriotism.

Xenophile: A person attracted to that which is foreign, especially to foreign peoples, manners, or cultures.

Every really new idea looks crazy at first. -Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947)

The important thing is never to stop questioning. -Albert Einstein

I haven't failed; I've found 10,000 ways that don't work. -Thomas Edison (1847-1931)

A whole new way of thinking is necessary to solve the problems we have created with the old way of thinking. -Albert Einstein

Discovery consists of seeing what everyone has seen and thinking what no one has thought.

Excerpts from "Investing Leisure Time" By Frank H. Cheley - Copyright, 1936, By The University Society Incorporated:

Investing Twenty-four Hours a Day. No matter how busy we are (or think we are), the fact still remains that every one of us has exactly the same amount of time to the split second; it is the difference in what we do with it that makes the difference in people.
If you had a bank that credited your account each morning with $86,400, but carried over no balances from day to day and allowed you to keep no cash in your account, and every evening canceled whatever part of the amount you had failed to use during the day, what would you do? Draw out every cent, of course.
Well, you have just such a bank, and its name is Time. Every morning it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off as lost whatever of these you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balances. It allows no overdrafts. Each day it opens a new account with you. Each night it burns the record of the day.
If you fail to use the day's deposit, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the morrow. You must live in the present- on today's deposit. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health and happiness and downright fun. It was for that reason nature gave you the "account" in the first place and as surely will she demand a reckoning of you.
Suppose we deliberately analyze a week of Mr. Average Person's time and see what we can learn. It has 168 hours in it; 8,760 hours in every year. For the people in this country who have jobs, those 168 hours are said to be usually divided more or less like this-- seventy-seven hours for sleep, meals, personal care, which means brushing your teeth, dressing, shaving, all the rest of it. Forty or fifty hours are devoted to work. (Modern authorities consider a work week unusual which has more than forty hours in it.) Ten hours are spent in cars, subways, buses, traveling to and from work. That leaves forty-one hours unassigned, which can be counted as leisure in its broadest sense.
Squander or Invest. The plain, unvarnished facts are that most of us-yes, even the most busy of us-waste enough time in odd minutes (just plain squander them) that if organized and conserved and used to make dreams come true would more than accomplish our ends.
Franklin reminds us that "If time be of all things most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality, since lost time is never found again; and what we call time enough always proves little enough. Let us then be up and doing, and doing to a purpose; so by diligence shall we do more with less perplexity."

What is Lean Manufacturing?

A total systems approach involving all aspects of the business, all employees and all departments. Eliminating Waste and Continuous Improvement are the key strategies for doing things cheaper, better and faster.

14 LEAN PRINCIPLES

Principle 1
Base management decisions on a long term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term financial goals.

Principle 2
Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface.

Principle 3
Use "pull" systems to avoid overproduction.

Principle 4
Level out the workload.

Principle 5
Build a culture of stopping to fix problems to get quality right the first time.

Principle 6
Standardized tasks are the foundation for continuous improvement and employee empowerment.

Principle 7
Use visual control so no problems are hidden.

Principle 8
Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves people and processes.

Principle 9
Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy, and teach it to others.

Principle 10
Develop exceptional people and teams who follow the organizational philosophy.

Principle 11
Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve.

Principle 12
Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situations.

Principle 13
Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options; implement decisions rapidly.

Principle 14
Become a learning organization through relentless reflection and continuous improvement.

Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught. -Winston Churchill

Minds are like parachutes.
They only function when they are open. -Sir James Dewar (1877-1925)

Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example. -Mark Twain

The biggest obstacle to learning anything is believing you already know it.

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. -Clint Decuir

A pint of example is worth a barrel of advice.

Liberalism is taught in school, Conservatism is learned in life. -JNKish

"Liberty consists in doing what one desires." - John Stuart Mill

If you let it go then it thinks it is OK. -H.P. Blaise

Life is difficult.
It is even more difficult if you are stupid. -J.N. Kish

Carpe Deim - Live for the day.

Sometimes doing is all you can do. -P.R. Gray

It's not worth being mad about if it isn't worth 9 rounds of bare knuckle boxing.

If everything is under control, you're going too slow. -Mario Andretti.

Someday we will all look back on this and plow into a parked car.

Life-
Work like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt.
Dance like nobody is watching. -Satchel Page

I'm at where I'm at and I'll be where I be.

The only constant in life is actually a variable - change. - J.N. Kish

Each work day we move one day closer to Friday and one day closer to death.

"Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory." -Albert Schweitzer

When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. -Franklin D. Roosevelt

Do you ever wonder... Why am I here? The answer is simple... you are here to do a good job and make a difference for the better of all. If you aren't doing this, then you are either in the wrong place or you need desperately to change your attitude. -J.N. Kish

Personal life and family
At 30, I took my stand;
At 40, I no longer had doubts;
At 50, I knew the will of the heavens;
At 60, my ear was attuned;
At 70, I follow all the desires of my heart without breaking any rule.
- Confucius

To me, old age is always fifteen years older than I am. -Bernard Baruch

Life is all fun and games - as long as you are irresponsible. -J.N. Kish

Safety
Quality
Cost
Delivery

Don't be afraid to ask.

How to get what you need:
Understand the details of what you need.
Ask.
If the answer is no,
Justify the need.
Ask Again.
If the answer remains no,
Find someone else to ask.
Ask Again.
If all else fails, do it yourself.

Keep your eyes open.

The Chambered Nautilus - Poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes

Do not be bullied out of your common sense by the specialist; two to one, he is a pedant. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

ped·ant
1. One who pays undue attention to book learning and formal rules.
2. One who exhibits one's learning or scholarship ostentatiously.

Have the courage to act instead of react. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

A man may fulfill the object of his existence by asking a question he cannot answer, and attempting a task he cannot achieve. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Every calling is great when greatly pursued. -Oliver Wendell Holmes

If I were dying my last words would be: Have faith and pursue the unknown end. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought, not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtasked. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

It's faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprung up. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

One's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Our brains are seventy-year clocks. The Angel of Life winds them up once for all, then closes the case, and gives the key into the hand of the Angel of the Resurrection. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Pretty much all the honest truth-telling there is in the world is done by children. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Rough work, iconoclasm, but the only way to get at truth. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man's upper chamber, if he has common sense on the ground floor. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Simple people... are very quick to see the live facts which are going on about them. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

The world's great men have not commonly been great scholars, nor its great scholars great men. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

The young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

When in doubt, do it. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Why can't somebody give us a list of things that everybody thinks and nobody says, and another list of things that everybody says and nobody thinks. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Wisdom is the abstract of the past, but beauty is the promise of the future. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Without wearing any mask we are conscious of, we have a special face for each friend. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Every real thought on every real subject knocks the wind out of somebody or other. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Alva Edison

There is no security in life, only opportunity.

In the perfect world:

Everyone would be born with one or more special talents. Everyone would have a job. This job would suit their most pronounced god-given talent. There would never be a shortage of these jobs. There would be no waste. These jobs would always provide the proper amounts of gratification and money in order to survive. Etc. Etc. Etc.

This "perfect world" is nothing more than a fantasy. There will always be surplus and shortage. There will always be missed opportunities. Many who do not succeed will have jealousy and resentment for the few who are successful. Many who do succeed will suffer guilt for their success. This guilt will drive many of the successful to think that they "owe something" to those who are less fortunate. Nothing in the World will ever be "Perfect". Take the cards you are dealt and make the best hand you can. Help where you can. Reflect where necessary but don't dwell on the past. - J.N. Kish

"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time." - Thomas Edison

Those who fail to plan are really planning to fail.

Plan for the worst and hope for the best.

A good plan executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week. George S. Patton

A bad plan executed now may soon be re-executed, by someone else.
-J.N. Kish

Lack of planning on your part does not constitute and emergency situation on my part.

Planning and preparation can eliminate 95% of all crisis situations.

Haste makes waste.

Experience teaches me to only be surprised when things go as planned. -J.N. Kish

Pride cometh before a fall.

Define your objectives and stick to them.

If you don't know how it broke, then you don't know how to fix it.

A single test is worth a thousand expert opinions.

Software doesn't solve problems. People solve problems. J.N. Kish

I don't get paid to point out what can't be done. Provide positive options.

First seek nature as a model for the most elegant solution to a problem. J.N. Kish

Problem Solving Priorities:

1 - Consider desired Outcomes.
2 - Consider possible Methods.
3 - Consider available Resources.

Problem Solving Steps:

1. Recognize Need
2. Define Problem
3. Measure
4. Analyze
5. Improve
6. Control
7. Follow Up

"If everybody's thinking alike, somebody isn't thinking." - George S. Patton

Sometimes the only difference between a dream and a goal is a target date.

The greatest plan is only as good as the people who execute it.

One Butt To Kick: Identify the owner of the process and hold that person accountable.

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one." - Mark Twain

1. Recognize Need
2. Define Project and Project Measurables
3. Determine Tasks and Timing
4. Determine Requirements / Resources
5. Analyze Requirements / Resources
6. Develop Project Plan
7. Implement Project Plan
8. Complete Project Documentation
9. Follow Up

People wish to produce quality; they wish to have pride in workmanship. W. Edwards Deming

Georgia chrome: Duct Tape.

Give Satan an inch and he'll be your ruler.

God doesn't hand out brains when you are saved. If you are an idiot on this Earth when you are saved; afterwards you are nothing more than a saved idiot. Now, consider this... After this life has passed, the saved idiot is an eternity more intelligent than the unsaved genius.

Any fool can make a rule, and every fool will mind it. -Thoreau

It is hard to standardize two or more things that are totally different.

Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) Thought Process. The following basic reading applies to the majority of GD&T callouts. Simply substitute the actual callout geometry where applicable: Perpendicularity requires the entire axis of the considered feature to lie within a cylindrical tolerance zone of diameter (.001) with respect to a datum reference frame created by contact with datum features A, B, and C.

Random results are the consequence of random procedures. -Jeff Portas.

Never forget those who have died so that you may live free.

Respect your intelligent and experienced elders - unless, of course, they are idiots. J.N. Kish

While one man hesitates because he feels inferior, another is busy making mistakes and becoming superior. -Henry C. Link

It is not enough to do your best; you must first know what to do, and THEN do your best. -W Edwards Deming

The best workers: See, Know, and Do.

It is better to be lucky than good and it's real nice to be both. -J.P. Merto

You are not really good unless you can make money at it. -M. Tucker

If you are going to spite someone, make sure it is not yourself. - Mel Colclasure

"If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things." - René Descartes

93% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

The four main rules for success:
1 - Don't forget the "little people".
2 - Never tell all you know.
3 - Obey all rules listed above.
-H.P. Blaise

A variation of "the glass is half full":
Tests are not to tell you how bad you are. Instead they show you how good you are.

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches!

The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us.

My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean he was really friendly. So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!'

This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, 'The Law of the Garbage Truck.'

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so...Love the people who treat you right.

Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!

Have a blessed, garbage-free day!

You never know what you will find when you dig a hole. - J.N. Kish

Excerpts from: "To the Fallen" by U.S. Army Sergeant John McCary from Operation Homecoming. Additional text by J.N. Kish:

Breath is sweet. Sleep is sweeter. Friends are priceless.
But we will not give up. We cannot.
Our lives are forever tied to those lost, and we cannot leave them now, as we might have were they still living.
We have... so little time... to mourn, to breathe, to laugh, to remember. To forget. Every day awaits us, impatient, impending. So now we rise, shunning tears, biting back trembling lips and stifling sobs of grief... and we walk, shoulder to shoulder... to the Call of Duty, in tribute to the Fallen.

What is Your Duty today?
Whatever it is, do it well and do not quit.
Our worth on this earth is measured by what we do today, this minute, this instant.
It is an unavoidable fact. A truth in life.
There will come a day, for each of us, individually, where there is no tomorrow.

Are you tired of those sissy "friendship" poems that always sound good, but never actually come close to reality? Well, here is a series of promises that actually speak of true friendship. You will see no cutesy little smiley faces on this card- Just the stone cold truth of our great friendship.

1. When you are sad -- I will help you get drunk and plot revenge against the sorry bastard who made you sad.

2. When you are blue -- I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.

3. When you smile -- I will know you are plotting something that I must be involved in.

4. When you are scared -- I will rag on you about it every chance I get.

5. When you are worried -- I will tell you horrible stories about how much Worse it could be until you quit whining.

6. When you are confused -- I will use little words.

7. When you are sick -- Stay the hell away from me until you are well again. I don't want whatever you have.

8. When you fall -- I will point and laugh at your clumsy ass.

9. This is my oath.... I pledge it to the end "Why?" You may ask; "because you are my friend".

Friendship is like peeing your pants, everyone can see it, but only you can feel it's true warmth.

Remember: A friend will help you move. A really good friend will help you move a body. Let me know if I ever need to bring a shovel...

Send this to 10 of your closest friends, then get depressed because you can only think of 4.

Tell the truth and you only have to tell it once. Tell a lie and you have to repeat it for the rest of your life.

The only thing worse than training your people and losing them is not training them and keeping them. - Vince Rojas

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and a leaky tire.

There are some topics for which those who understand, no explanation is needed. And which those who do not understand, no explanation is possible. - J.N. Kish

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. ~ yoda