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Just Three Degrees!

Written by: Robin Elliott

Article Overview: Here’s how little things make a big difference, in life as well as business.

Just Three Degrees!

“My basic principle is that you don't make decisions because they are cheap; you make them because they're right.”
~ Graeme Edwards

Korean Air Flight 007 was a Korean Air civilian airliner shot down with all on board by Soviet jet interceptors on September 1, 1983 a few miles over international waters. KAL 007 was shot just west of Sakhalin island which had been claimed as Soviet territory. KAL 007 carried 269 passengers and crew, including a U.S. Congressman, and claims persist that the Soviets captured some survivors. The Soviet Union said it did not know the aircraft was civilian, and suggested it had entered Soviet airspace as a deliberate provocation to test their response capabilities.

As we now know, KAL 007 had erroneously deviated just three degrees off course and ended up a long way off course (see illustration.) At first, 3 degrees is barely noticeable, but the difference becomes exponential as time goes by. As Agnes DeMille correctly observed, “No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made. Destiny is made known silently.” You don’t become obese when you guzzle your first tub of ice cream. You don’t get rich the day you start your own business. But that first decision and the direction you chose will have very definite consequences.

Here’s the good news: We can change direction any time. You can correct your course, IF you recognize that you’re off course! And you can consistently make new choices, 3 degrees at a time, which can fast track your success. Transcripts recovered from the Korean airliner's cockpit voice recorder indicate that the crew were unaware that they were off course and violating Soviet airspace. We have to recognize and understand three things: One, we’re off target; if we keep going in the same direction, a crash is imminent. Two, we CAN take responsibility and change direction. And Three, we have to take decisive, consistent, definite action – NOW. Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “One thing is sure. We have to do something. We have to do the best we know how at the moment... if it doesn't turn out right, we can modify it as we go along.”

And here’s an important note: The crew of KAL 007 did not notice this error or undertake the correct INS checks to discover it later due to a "lack of situational awareness and flight deck coordination". We need to monitor our business and personal progress through life on a very regular basis. I just completed a program with the best business training I have ever been exposed to. It has a lot to do with knowing exactly what is going on in your business and how to take control and predict the future of your business. If you would like to experience a complimentary introduction to this training, visit us online and I’ll be glad to arrange it for you.

“We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.” ~ Kahlil Gibran

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Six Degrees of Separation Is Now Three - I got this interesting peice from Techcrunch. Read and Enjoy Six Degrees of Separation Is Now Three Six degrees of separation Is it time to revise the old saw that everyone in the world is connected by just six degrees of separation? A study from French mobile carrier O2 has found that strangers are more connected to each other than they ever have been. According to the study, the average person is now connected by just three degrees within a shared “interest” or social group instead of six. In fact, it found that people are usually a part of three main networks: family, friendship, and work. O2 asked adults across three different age groups — 18-25, 35-45, 55+ — to make contact with random strangers from areas all across the globe using only personal connections. By linking their shared interests, the participants were able to connect to that person in three person-to-person links. Stanley Milgram originally coined the term “six degrees of separation” in 1967 to show that everyone in the modern world was capable of connecting to another by linking people and interests. But in today’s world of social networking, links between strangers are closer than in Milgram’s day. According to Jeff Rodrigues, a social networking specialist that carried out the study, 97 percent of the participants said they felt more connected to people today than they ever have in the past and for older respondents, email and mobile phones were the key factors in reducing the degrees of separation. But for those in the younger generation, Facebook was the main factor. Text messaging was also mentioned as an important component in reducing degrees of separation. “What the study has brought to light is that the way we now interact means it’s never been easier to make connections and build networks of contacts,” Rodrigues said in an interview. It should be noted that the research is not the epitome of a real scientific study—O2 paid for it, after all. And anyone who has a LinkedIn account knows that it is still easy to find plenty of people who are more than three degrees away from you. But the study does underscore something we all know:more so than ever before, everyone is connected (even if it is only tangentially). Maybe it is time to revisit Milgram’s study in a more robust way. It could help silence the critics who believe Facebook and the rest are nothing more than places for kids to waste their time. Let’s face it – how often will you find one service or industry that can totally transform the way people are connected?


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