Jim L. Smith

When the challenges we face seem to be getting more daunting, it likely means that we're making real progress. As we set challenging goals, the difficulty to succeed usually takes more effort.

Not long ago, I wrote about how important it is to take care of your customer-even when an event occurs that is beyond your control. I was recently talking to someone who commented that she “didn’t understand the relation to quality.” Because my comments really centered on ethics, to me the question was, “What do ethics have to do with quality?”

When we make a mistake, it is acceptable to perform an autopsy and think about what happened--but, then, you must quickly get over it. Understand what happened, learn from it, gain wisdom from it and become even more effective than before.

The ability to achieve and succeed is part of our very nature. If we are vague about what we intend to do, the results we are likely to get will be of minimal value.

What happened on our previous attempts to get something done doesn’t matter much. It is more about what we do now that counts.

Over the years I have been amazed at the discussion, sometimes not so friendly, by quality professionals and others on the subject of quality. It’s a simple word that we seem to have difficulty defining.

Motivation involves making it personal and stimulating a passion for excellence.

Let's talk about persistence and the role it can play in success.

These are turbulent times. We are inundated daily by the media with bad news about the economy. We’ve heard about declining markets, job loss, home foreclosures, declining net worth and evaporating 401(k) plans. Certainly, the news is unsettling, but this country has been there before and survived, and we will overcome again!

There is a fine line between success and failure. Sometimes the difference is hard to measure.