Will you allow me a little brag?

Carol Ptak really likes my blog. OMG! This is such a compliment to me, after all she co-authored "Necessary but not Sufficient" and she is enjoying reading ME?
Oh, the fulfillment. Oh, the meaningfulness (is this a legit word?). Oh, the utter horror of knowing I have such a standard to live up to. Nah, just kidding. I'm trying to be very natural in my writing and I totally enjoy doing it.
It is funny, though, we had a lecture about living a meaningful life, a subject Dr. Goldratt and his daughter, Efrat, covered in "The Choice". It was delivered by Christoph Lenhartz, who connected the process of clear thinking to the work of Viktor Frankl, the "father" of "Logotherapy". We were told there are three ways to create meaning in our lives - by what we create (giving to the world), by encountering people (getting from the world) and by our attitude towards unavoidable suffering. Well, I feel I just created meaning in both the first and second ways - through my writing and my (unbelievably fun) encounter with Mz. Ptak.

The III European TOCICO Conference

I just returned tonight from the conference. My head is still spinning from all the learning and insights I got. It was a very special experience for me and it will probably take me some time to completely process it.
Here are some quick "take away"s I noted down throughout the days:

• People have the means to live but not a meaning to live for - we are no longer fighting to survive, we are looking for a meaning
• We each create the meaning for ourselves, so it is our duty not to interfere or hinder or create obstacles to the ability of others to create their meaning (a tad more on meaning can be found here)
• Success (or failure) do not come from the uniqueness of the product but for the uniqueness of the product
• "Where there is a tail - there is a dog" (attributed to Eli Goldratt) this means that when all you see is a "tail" - a handful of clients with a special need there is a "dog" you don't see - a real market potential for a new offer
• Projects fail because time estimates become time commitments
• Analyze success (better than expected results), not just failure (below expectation results), it holds opportunities you can capitalize on, but only if you can understand them
• TOC implementation requires a paradigm shift, compromising drastically increases the possibility of failure of the implementation
• Win Win offers do not sell themselves, especially when the environment is saturated with suspicion and mistrust
• The conflicts of my clients are my conflicts
• The reason to really learn a subject matter is for improving it
• The bigger the base - the bigger the jump

Let me know if you'd like me to elaborate on any of these, or if there is any particular detail you'd like to know about the conference.