The battlefield is a scene of constant chaos. The winner will be the one who controls that chaos, both his own and the enemies.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Trust one who has gone through it.
Virgil, The Aeneid
Roman epic poet (70 BC - 19 BC)
I have been involved in sports for many years. I have never won anything, I have done one podium and many top 10 classifications but never a number one. One thing I have noticed is that the nº1 guy the winner is a special guy. It’s not for everyone to win. The focus, the effort and the give it all are out of charts. In a competition there is chaos it's a roller coaster of emotions the winner can control that. To be nº1 is to be special.
If you have to hire someone hire someone that has won anything in school, in college etc… the winner is a special person. Don't doubt that.
This is a pic of the 2012 EOX 240 km race. i did 3rd overhall!
I took this pictures from the great Business Insider
even if you are not a cyclist i think this Photos are so unique, the countryside, the mountains and the immense crowds along the road!
One of the reasons i love to ride is that in a normal weekend ride we can do 140 k and see different parts of our beautiful country. If i played tennis or swim i would be confined to the tennis court or the pool. Not for me.
From the Telegraph
The USA is facing one of the most difficult issues of its time.
The country is facing a cheese glut. Despite cheeseburgers and oozing deep-dish pizza being two defining culinary exports of the country, they still have so much delicious dairy product they can't eat it all.
US dairy farmers boosted production in recent years because of soaring dairy prices..........................................
It doesn't seem like this problem will go away anytime soon.
The CEO of Dean Foods, the largest US dairy company, said last month: “US butter and cheese prices remaining uncompetitive versus the international market. We continue to see a decline in overall U.S. dairy exports.”
Why is this happening?
Nine Robots whose cost will decline over time if only because of scale economies can do the job of 140 full time workers.
Ben Bland, FT China Robot revolution
with robots that can work 24 hours a day without stikes or rest time we will have excess everything soon
“Last year we cut income tax and tax revenues still went up,”
Mariano Rajoy
Spain’s Mariano Rajoy is promising a fresh round of tax cuts if he is re-elected prime minister next month, risking a showdown with Brussels over Madrid’s chronic budget deficits as he courts voters eager to shrug off a long era of austerity.
Apparently Rajoy figure out that after some threshold if you raise taxes tax revenues go down! yes down! In my countyry Portugal goverment from left to right have been raising taxes every year and the economy is tanking.
I am bullish on SPAIN if Rajoy wins
Anyone who’s become truly wealthy knows the truth – the only way to become wealthy, and stay wealthy, is to find a way to do more for others than anyone else is doing in an area that people really value.
Tony Robbins
This is obvious a good advice. Almost all the companies that are well do something, solve something make life better for their customers. That is key. Companies that really think about making life better to the customer are doing very well.
Besides this advice i would give 3 others that really are a bit technical but make a really difference
1.Control your costs? be the cheaper provider of the service, buy your competitors and after buying them cut the costs
2.Create a brand. Make people believe that your product is more than really is.
3.Kill the competition.
Yes that is the most important, to operate in a market where you are alone.
There are lot's of ways to make money but to make real money there is just one way.
To kill the competition, to be the only one. That is the key. Bill Gates and Carlos Slim aren't the richest guys in the Planet because they are good. They are nº1 in their markets.
If you invent a better product the competition will catch up soon and replicate you. All the advantage goes to the customer.
I guess that is why Google & Amazon are doing so well. They are using the money they make to improve their offering in a way the competition can't match. The market is approving this strategy. They are slowly killing the competition. That is the smartest strategy to do. To do that you can't pay shareholders right now. later big time but not now.
Recently, Exxon Mobil lost it’s perfect triple-A credit rating it held since 1930 as Standard & Poor’s downgraded it to double A +, leaving only Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson at the top
A Gary Shilling INSIGHT
Apple CEO Tim Cook will visit India this week and meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, two sources familiar with the matter said on Monday.
Reuters
Underdogs are overrated, Leicester city success should be celebrated but not sentimentalized
Economist
CARACAS, Venezuela—President Nicolás Maduro’s government said on Thursday that it would cut electrical power by four hours a day for 40 days across much of Venezuela to save energy, even though the country is already reeling from frequent blackouts………………..“Who’s going to replace our food that goes bad after the light is turned off?” said Ana Gomez, a 39-year-old accountant. “Who’s going to guarantee me that it’ll be the four hours the governments says it’ll be?”
The Wall Street Journal
My comments
Usually what is supposed to happen happens. That is why technology /information/ data/science are winning vs superstition, habit & tradition. That is why the machine will win vs man.
The victory of the underdog is not the normal thing the opposite is the usual. In Venezuela what is supposed to happen is happening, bad policies end badly. It could take time but the result is given.
The big get bigger is a theme of this blog. Tim cook to visit Modi is a big symptom he does not meet with the information minister he meets with the PM Modi!
5th Transportugal - Done
I just finished my 5th Transportugal ! I ended in 8th place between 107 riders. The only reason i did so well this year was because the weather was miserable during 7 of the 8 days and a lot of good riders better than me quit due to the bad weather. Things are never so bad as they seem.
One of the days we started with wind, rain & minus 2 Celsius. However as soon as we descend the mountain to a lower altitude it almost stooped raining and temperatures climbed to 8 Celsius! So i did put some old newspapers inside my wind stopper and i started anyway. Many of the other riders missed this day because the conditions at the start were really impossible. (if you missed one day you are out of GC / general classification) Since the stages were some 6 or 7 hours of riding if conditions persisted it would be impossible. But things are always better than they look. It was my lucky day. Other riders put a lot of heavy clothing (leg warmers, winter coats etc... and had to stop to change and lost some 15 to 20 minutes. I just had some old newspapres that i got rid off in the first garbage box i found.
In perfect conditions i would have finished out of the top 10 but as i said i got lucky.
If you're going through hell, keep going.
Winston Churchill
Resolve never to quit, never to give up, no matter what the situation.
Jack Nicklaus
Crossing Portugal in 8 days, north to south; finishing in Sagres - the southern west point of Europe; 1000 km of off-road racing across forest tracks, gravel roads and steep single tracks on clifftops.
Racing from hotel door to hotel door, overnight stays in the best hotels in the region, excellent food and relaxed atmosphere all around.
No signs, ribbons or arrows to indicate the way. Intuitive flawless GPS guiding. You can never get lost and you are always sure you are following the right race track.
An innovative way of racing where each participant follows a virtual marked track on the screen of his GPS receiver.
Always racing across very isolated and peaceful landscape and in self sufficiency, no aid stations and all external support is forbidden.
I agree with almost all. I could resume in one sentence. Be a good person and success will come Gratitude, forgive, want others to succeed, give credit and of course work hard.
