Ling's Theory of Balls
Rule 8: "Eye On The Ball"
My first job out of University was with an emerging management consultancy firm 'attached' to a group of accountants. We were 'Arthur Andersen Consultants' and in my experience were always considered by the accountants to be second class citizens ("no accountancy qualification Old Boy, you see..."). We were tolerated because of the introduction of 123 electronic spreadsheets and Wordstar desktop word processing programs and even a narrow minded Big Firm accountant could see that these were a big step forward. As a result, I got to work with one of the first IBM PCs brought into the UK from the US - complete with a massive voltage adapter which meant we could plug it into a UK plug socket. It's amazing to think that today's smart phones are several times faster than this Big Blue breakthrough desktop device. It is also amazing to me that with all their Blue Bloodied snobbishness, the Arthur Andersen number crunchers went bust because they took their eye off the Ball at Enron. Meanwhile that emerging consultancy is now Accenture - one of the best global consulting firms in the world. No matter how big or small you are, keep focused on what matters in your life. Success is: Keeping your Eye on the Ball! To see the TOB in full visit: www.GarysBalls.com