The Roots of European Civilization (Roma) by Jose Ferreiro

Roma according to the legend was founded by Romulus.
Romulus and Remus were the twins from "Rhéa Sivia" and Mars. Rhéa Silvia was the unique daughter of King Numitor (Albe-la-Longue).

When Amulius took over his brother Numitor. Amulius obliged Rhéa Silvia to become a priestess. He intended by doing to ensure that he will not have any direct descendant to claim to the throne.

But Mars, the king of war charmed Rhéa Silvia and she gave birth to twins (Remus and Romulus). Amelius ordered his servants to kill the new borns. However the servants just thrown away the new borns in a cradle in the Tibre river.  The cradle went away in the river and it stopped by a side of the river far away. A female wolf nursed the twins.
Later a shepherd named Faustulus discovered them in the wolf’s den. Faustulus took them to his home. Romulus and Remus were raised as shepherds but soon their abilities to lead and fight became famous.

One day Numitor found Remus and understood who he was. At this point of time the family was united again. Nevertheless both brothers could not settle for living in “Albe-la-Longue”. Romulus and Remus left to found their own city. However, a fight would break out between the twins. They agreed to establish their city on the same place they were found and rescued. The exact place was not clear in their minds. They decided to question the omens.  Romulus stand up on Palatin and Remus over the Aventin. The city will be setup where the omens will the most favorable. Remus saw first six vultures. On the other hand Romulus saw twelve. The sky decided in favour of Palatine, thus Romulus.

Romulus proceeded to draw the walls of his city. The wall was a simple ditch dug drawn by two oxen. Remus, disappointed not to have been favoured by heaven, laughed at this place. He could easily pass it with a jump.
He went inside the drawn perimeter by his brother (Romulus).

The latter, angered by seeing this sacrilege, drew his sword and killed instantaneously Remus (Dignitas).

Why did I write all this story? So simple, it is to show the values of the root of the European civilisation.

The roman virtues are shown next and they illustrate the roots of the European Civilization (romano germanic).

• Auctoritas "Spiritual Authority" The sense of one's social standing, built up through experience, Pietas, and Industria.

• Comitas "Humour" Ease of manner, courtesy, openness, and friendliness.

• Clementia "Mercy" Mildness and gentleness.

• 
Dignitas "Dignity" A sense of self-worth, personal pride.

• Firmitas "Tenacity" Strength of mind, the ability to stick to one's purpose.  

• 
Frugalitas "Frugalness" Economy and simplicity of style, without being miserly.


• Gravitas "Gravity" A sense of the importance of the matter at hand, responsibility and earnestness.


• Honestas "Respectibility" The image that one presents as a respectable member of society.

• Humanitas "Humanity" Refinement, civilization, learning, and being cultured.

• Industria "Industriousness" Hard work. Pietas "Dutifulness" More than religious piety; a respect for the natural order socially, politically, and religiously. Includes the ideas of patriotism and devotion to others. Prudentia "Prudence" Foresight, wisdom, and personal discretion.

• Salubritas “Wholesomeness" Health and cleanliness.

• Severitas "Sternness" Gravity, self- control.
Veritas "Truthfulness" Honesty in dealing with others.

About the Author
Jose Ferreiro is an entrepreneur and a performer with a passion for working to make this world a better place!

The ultimate private business jet (Gulfstream G650) by Jose Ferreiro

This most beautiful private jet currently in the market. It is the world’s faster private jet and it offers the ultimate in luxury air travel.
Its price tag is $65 Millions. And that is without taking into account the several million dollars needed each year in running costs, such as maintenance, fuel, insurance and crew.

There are only 40 Gulfstream G650 planes in the whole world and there is a three year waiting list for 160 buyers.

The expectation is such that second hand aG650 are more expensive that if you buy a new one. The problem with the new one is that you have to wait. The Gulfstream G650 is the gold standard in business aviation.

Further reading here (Source: Gulfstream manufacturer).

About the Author
Jose Ferreiro is an entrepreneur and a performer with a passion for working to make this world a better place!

Scrum and Prince2 integration by Jose FERREIRO, certified PRINCE2 PRACTITIONER

Nowadays there is two concurrent and prestigious project management product certifications outside there. One is Project Management Professional (PMP) and the other one is PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments) .

After several years of project management experience I decided to test both. Basically, I attended the preparatory courses for both certifications (ISEIG & Learning Tree UK). Finally, I decided that due to the adaptability degree and large possibilities of tailoring, I chose to invest my energy on the PRINCE2 methodology. PRINCE2 better fits in my opinion with a large project scope. I also wanted to take advantage of the Agile Approach to be incorporated within the project management method I use. This related to concepts such as "Scrum" and the Agile dashboard "Kanban".

I found out that it is not difficult to integrate PRINCE2 and Scrum together while in the process of "Managing Product Delivery (MPD)" in its activity "Accept a Work Package"

Basically, a PRINCE2 project proceeds as per the PRINCE2 manual and during the process "Controlling a Stage" in the Activity "Authorize Work Package".

In other words, the PRINCE2 Project Manager (PRINCE2 PM) must be seen as the Product Owner. Indeed he is representing the customer requirements.
In the "Managing Product Delivery (MPD)", the PRINCE2 PM agrees with the Team Manager the work package to be delivered. Once that the work package to be delivered is agreed, thus the Team Manager (most likely the Development Team Leader) may simply implement Scrum during  the "Managing Product Delivery (MPD)" stage corresponding to the current "Controlling Stage (CS)". The Development Team Leader simple assumes that the "Work Package (PRINCE2)" is the "Product Backlog (SCRUM)". The "Product Backlog (SCRUM)" is split into as many sprints as needed and as long as the entire process is completed by the timescales assigned in the Work Package. As noted, the PRINCE2 PM does not play a role in the "Managing Product Delivery (MPD)" stage (following PRINCE2 principle defined roles and responsibilities). The PRINCE2 PM just gets Checkpoint Reports according to the agreed frequency under the Work Package composition "Reporting agreements".

The only other interaction that the PRINCE2 PM will carry out is to receive Issues (Issues Reports) from the Scrum Master ("Capture and examine issues and risks" PRINCE2 activity). The PRINCE2 PM will also pass changes down to the Development Team lead ("Review Work Package status" activity). How these issues are analyzed and acted upon and how the changes were approved does not concern the Scrum team. The PRINCE2 PM handles these activities using the PRINCE2 approach process "Controlling a Stage (CS)".

Thus, it has been shown throughout this short article that there is no overlap or modification of either methodology. PRINCE2 and Scrum methodologies are intact and neither the PRINCE2 PM or Scrum team need to be burdened with any more responsibility than they would have had before combining the approaches.

In conclusion, both PRINCE2 and SCRUM integrate perfectly together by complementing each other (methodology and agility).

Further related articles about PRINCE2 on this blog
PRINCE2: Stage, Exception and Boundary

About the Author
Jose Ferreiro is an entrepreneur and a performer with a passion for working to make this world a better place!

What is Ethos, Pathos and Logos?

Those terms have its roots from Aristotle.

Ethos is mainly your personal credibility demonstrated when you face a situation banking on your technical expertise. It is also the ability to convince your audience without deceiving them even if you know that you can.

Pathos is creating an emotional attachment with your audience. You can achieve this, by showing them that you care about their future, and their own developments like you do for the company’s progress. Pathos is a crucial element, which distinguishes an effective leader based on the audience perception.

Logos is your reasoning and your logic that appeals to your audience. A good communicator expresses clearly himself, analyzes thoroughly the situations and shows strength to strategic thinking, and problem resolving. An effective communicator collects data and facts, filters them, and articulates strongly his decisions. Because some data are complicated, an effective leader is responsible to simplify it and makes it easy for his audience to understand it.

In conclusion, if you want to succeed your speech to an audience you will need to combine the ethos, pathos and logos successfully, the basics dimensions of source credibility.

The Entrepreneurial Anecdote from Mr. Bata...

This week in September 2014, I was following one of the modules from the Master Business Administration (MBA) when the lecturer provided the audience a very interesting anecdote about Thomas Bata, founder of Bata shoes. By the way, this summer I had the chance to be in front of the dedicated museum in Toronto.

The mentioned story speaks itself about the entrepreneurial nose for opportunity.
Mr. Bata was considering to expand its market segment possibly to Africa.
In order to get a better feeling of the potential market share, Mr. Bata traveled with one of his senior executive to Africa.
Both agreed to take different routes by observing the use of shoes, trends during their journey and then to meet and share their observations, compare notes and take a decision once they will be back in Canada.

Once they were back in Canada, they met.
The senior executive reported that the market was not worth. As he stated "There is no way we are not going to sell shoes down there. It is hopeless. Over ninety-percent of the people do not even wear shoes. The remaining ten-percent wear sandals".

Mr. Bata, the entrepreneur, listened carefully and then provided his observations as follows:
"This is one of the greatest opportunities in the history of our company. The possibilities are endless…think about it, no one even wears shoes down there".

The moral of this story is that opportunities can be sized. But you have to look at the environment around you with different eyes and with a different "mind set".

About the Author
Jose Ferreiro is an entrepreneur and a performer with a passion for working to make this world a better place!

Nails in the fence

There once was a little boy who had a bad temper.

His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.

The first day the boy had  driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.

The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there.” A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one.

So remember that friends are very rare jewels indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share words of praise and they always want to open their hearts to us. In other words, think before you speak and be king to one another.

Author Unknown

Le garçon et les clous

C’est l’histoire d’un petit garçon qui avait mauvais caractère.

Son père lui donna un sac de clous et lui dit qu’à chaque fois qu’il perdrait patience, il devrait planter un clou derrière la clôture.

Le premier jour, le jeune garçon planta 37 clous derrière la clôture.

Les semaines qui suivirent, à mesure qu’il apprenait à contrôler son humeur, il plantait de moins en moins de clous derrière la clôture... Il découvrit qu’il était plus facile de contrôler son humeur que d’aller planter des clous derrière la clôture...

Le jour vint où il contrôla son humeur toute la journée. Après en avoir informé son père, ce dernier lui suggéra de retirer un clou à chaque jour où il contrôlerait son humeur.

Les jours passèrent et le jeune homme pût finalement annoncer à son père qu’il ne restait plus aucun clou à retirer de la clôture. Son père le prit par la main et l’amena à la clôture.

Il lui dit : "Tu as travaillé fort, mon fils, mais regarde tous ces trous dans la clôture. Elle ne sera plus jamais la même. À chaque fois que tu perds patience, cela laisse des cicatrices exactement comme celles-ci."

Tu peux enfoncer un couteau dans un homme et le retirer, peu importe combien de fois tu lui diras être désolé, la cicatrice demeurera pour toujours.

Une offense verbale est aussi néfaste qu’une offense physique.

Les amis sont des joyaux précieux. Ils nous font rire et nous encouragent à réussir. Ils nous prêtent une oreille attentive, nous louangent et sont toujours prêts à nous ouvrir leur Coeur.

Ecrivain inconnu

Los Clavos en la Valla

Un padre un día le dio a su hijo, un chico con mal carácter, un paquete de clavos y le dijo:
-Toma hijo, cada vez que hieras a alguien o que te enfades con alguien clava un clavo en la valla del jardín.

El primer día el muchacho clavó 37 clavos, pasaron las semanas y cada día que pasaba clavaba menos clavos en la valla hasta que un día consiguió no clavar ninguno, había descubierto por fin que no herir ni enfadarse con alguien era más bonito y más fácil que clavar clavos en una valla.

Y fue a su padre a contárselo. Papá hoy por primera vez he conseguido no clavar ni un solo clavo en la valla.

El padre le dijo: -Pues bien, es entonces el momento de que cada día que pase sin enfadarte y sin herir a alguien quites un clavo de la valla.
Pasaron los días y por fin un día no quedaba ningún clavo en la valla.

-¡Papá! He quitado todos los clavos de la valla ¡no queda ninguno!

El padre condujo a su hijo a la verja y le dijo:
- Muy bien hijo, te has comportado muy bien pero mira esto, mira como está la valla de agujeros que has dejado al sacar los clavos.

Cada vez que hieres a alguien le dejas una herida como esta que hay en la madera. Una herida que ya nunca curará. Ya nada será como antes.

Es como si le clavas un cuchillo a alguien y se lo sacas le dejarás esa herida de por vida. Por muchas veces que le pidas perdón la herida permanecerá. Una herida provocada con la palabra es como una herida física, siempre permanecerá y nunca se podrá borrar.

Autor desconocido

"No claves un clavo en la valla, aunque lo saques, dejará una llaga en quien te quiere que nunca podrá curar."

The Art of the War - Sun Tzu - Business Strategy

The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military treatise attributed to Sun Tzu, a high-ranking military general, strategist and tactician. The text is composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare. It is commonly known to be the definitive work on military strategy and tactics of its time. It has had an influence on Eastern and Western military thinking, business tactics, legal strategy and beyond.

It is in my opinion a book that every Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or manager of any company should know about in order to help and take business strategic decisions.
After all this time, the ’Sun Tsu’ principles are still applicable for business with some interpretation.
Definitely, also an excellent useful tool in the toolbox for leaders to manage people and processes.


An example from the 'Art of the War':

"When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be damped. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength."

Interpretation to the business:
This is a concept that is repeated several times. When a project or initiative takes too long, people get tired or bored, the competition knows too much about it, it gets outdated, and other companies or people take advantage.

About the picture: The beginning of The Art of War in a classical bamboo book from the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (source wikipedia)

Read more about other principles here (BusinessInsider).

The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear

Kali Linux is a Debian-derived Linux distribution designed for digital forensics and penetration testing. It is maintained and funded by Offensive Security Ltd. It was developed by Mati Aharoni and Devon Kearns of Offensive Security through the rewriting BackTrack, their previous forensics Linux distribution.
Kali Linux is preinstalled with numerous penetration-testing programs, including nmap (a port scanner), Wireshark (a packet analyzer), John the Ripper (a password cracker), and Aircrack-ng (a software suite for penetration-testing wireless LANs). Users may run Kali Linux from a hard disk, live CD, or live USB. It is a supported platform of the Metasploit Project's Metasploit Framework, a tool for developing and executing security exploits.
Kali Linux is distributed in 32- and 64-bit images for use on hosts based on the x86 instruction set, as well as an image for the ARM architecture for use on the Raspberry Pi computer and on Samsung's ARM Chromebook.

After all this nice reading today, I just prepared a Kali Linux machine by using Virtual Box. It works like a charm!

Kali Linux (Wikipedia)

Challenges needing emotional intelligence (EQ)

Only the most emotionally intelligent leaders can manage the many challenges in business today.
Restructuring organizations and reducing staff to make them more productive means that there is a strong need to identify,
retain and motivate truly exceptional employees who can work effectively in teams.
EQ enhances teamwork.

Rapid technological and business changes require people to be able and willing to accept and implement change.
EQ enhances flexibility.

Globalization creates political and cultural challenges for leaders and employees.
EQ enhances problem solving!

In the mid-1990's Daniel Goleman, a psychologist and author did a lot of influential and pioneering work on EQ. Goleman believes that outstanding leadership requires a combination of self-mastery and social intelligence, which have two competency areas: perception and skills.

Leaders with high emotional intelligence can enhance the motivation and optimism in a workplace. It is also important because often because how often results are obtained can be as important as the results themselves.

Shared and unwritten culture rules in Organizations

Charles Handy analyzed the shared and unwritten rules of workspace behavior in his book "Understanding organizations". He identified four main groups of behaviors or types of culture.

Handy used analogies to illustrate the main features of each culture. You may already have a good idea of the culture of your organization. The images below will provide you more information about the types of culture they depict.

Power


A spider's web depicts power cultures. These organizations are usually controlled
by one main character. Such cultures are common in family-run business and small entrepreneurial companies.








Task

A net illustrates the linkages between individuals that are typical of task cultures.
Task cultures tend to be responsive and flexible. They are often advertising agencies, high-tech companies
and other research-based organisation.





Role 


A Greek temple represents role cultures. These gain their strength from the various functions, rules, roles and procedures in an organisation. Large organisations tend to have this type of culture.










Person 


The individual is of paramount importance in person cultures, the organisation is secondary.
The legal and medical professions are good examples of this type of culture.

(ISC)² Security Congress 2013 in Chicago

The (ISC)2 Security Congress 2013 (30 September 2013) in Chicago focused on the challenges facing information security practitioners – but what are they and what are the solutions?




Lessons to be learned

• It is important for the business to understand the nature of the threat against the business and the impact of a breach on production, finances, intellectual property and reputation;

• Organisations need to be able to continually monitor their networks and have the ability to detect and mitigate intrusions as quickly as possible;

• Security policies and procedures need to be updated regularly and enforced to help information security keep pace with the constantly evolving threat landscape;

• Malware is increasingly customised and targeted. This means organisations need to be prepared for unknown attacks. But that does not mean all other attacks go away. Basic IT security remains vital;

• Human beings are often the weakest link. Consequently, an extremely high proportion of attacks involve a social engineering element. Security awareness training is therefore indispensable;

• Attackers may be using customised attacks, but operating methods typically remain the same. Though intelligence sharing, businesses can continually update their defence strategies.

What makes a good manager?

Being a manager of people is a somewhat unnatural act and many managers fail to deliver,
says Julian Birkinshaw, professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at London Business School.
He tells Della Bradshaw that good management is about giving power away, not micromanagement.

See the video here (Financial Times Website).

Marriage and jobs need hard work and love

A job, it seems to me, is a lot like a marriage.
People tend not to congratulate you when you trade your new spouse for a newer model.
Yet almost everyone thinks quitting the old job for a new one marks progress of some sort. It shows ambition, imagination, courage and so on.





A lasting job should be seen as a sign of success, just as a lasting marriage is.

I have come up with my own system for knowing if a job is worth hanging on to.
I share my system below:

- The people are nice (most of them)
- The work is often interesting.
- There is the right amount of it - plenty, not too much
- There is the chance to do different things.
- People sometimes say THANK YOU.

That's it!

The reflection on this article leads me to another unfashionable similarity between a job and a marriage.
The secret of success lies in reasonable expectations.

The four precepts by Rene Descartes

Descartes seeks to ascertain the true method by which to arrive at the knowledge of whatever lay within the compass of his powers; he presents four precepts:

His four precepts are summarized next:

1. Accept only that which you are sure of
2. divide into as small parts as necessary
3. solve the simplest problem first
4. make a complete list as possible






Precepts further explained below:

The first was never to accept anything for true which I did not clearly know to be such; that is to say, carefully to avoid precipitancy and prejudice, and to comprise nothing more in my judgement than what was presented to my mind so clearly and distinctly as to exclude all ground of doubt.

The second, to divide each of the difficulties under examination into as many parts as possible, and as might be necessary for its adequate solution.

The third, to conduct my thoughts in such order that, by commencing with objects the simplest and easiest to know, I might ascend by little and little, and, as it were, step by step, to the knowledge of the more complex; assigning in thought a certain order even to those objects which in their own nature do not stand in a relation of antecedence and sequence.

And the last, in every case to make enumerations so complete, and reviews so general, that I might be assured that nothing was omitted.


Read more at wikipedia

Les 4 préceptes de Rene Descartes

Le premier étoit de ne recevoir jamais aucune chose pour vraie que je ne la connusse évidemment être telle; c’est-à-dire, d’éviter soigneusement la précipitation et la prévention, et de ne comprendre rien de plus en mes jugements que ce qui se présenteroit si clairement et si distinctement à mon esprit, que je n’eusse aucune occasion de le mettre en doute.

Le second, de diviser chacune des difficultés que j’examinerois, en autant de parcelles qu’il se pourroit, et qu’il seroit requis pour les mieux résoudre.

Le troisième, de conduire par ordre mes pensées, en commençant par les objets les plus simples et les plus aisés à connoître, pour monter peu à peu comme par degrés jusques à la connoissance des plus composés, et supposant même de l’ordre entre ceux qui ne se précèdent point naturellement les uns les autres.

Et le dernier, de faire partout des dénombrements si entiers et des revues si générales, que je fusse assuré de ne rien omettre.

Basics Project Management Life Cycle: Wrap-up Step

After a project has been completed, the last step is the final wrap-up. A complete summary should be written of every step of the project along with changes made to the original outline of the work as well as any alterations to budgets and the overall lessons learned from the project. This will be very helpful to you and your company in completing future projects.

What is a Divide and Conquer Strategy?

Today I wanted to learn more about what is exactly a Divide and Conquer Strategy.
The maxims "divide et impera" and "divide ut regnes" were utilised by the Roman ruler Caesar and the French emperor Napoleon.

Article 

A divide and conquer strategy, also known as “divide and rule strategy” is often applied in the arenas of politics and sociology. In this strategy, one power breaks another power into smaller, more manageable pieces, and then takes control of those pieces one by one. It generally takes a very strong power to implement such a strategy. In order to successfully break up another power or government, the conqueror must have access to strong political, military, and economic machines.

Furthermore, in order to maintain power and influence, large governments will often work to keep smaller powers and governments from uniting. In fact, this use of the principles within the divide and conquer strategy is most common. It is much easier to prevent small powers from linking forces than to break them apart once they have aligned.

Leaders who use a divide and conquer strategy may encourage or foster feuds between smaller powers. This kind of political maneuvering requires a great understanding of the people who are being manipulated. In order to foster feuds, for example, one must understand the political and social histories of the parties intended to take part in the feuds.

The strategy also includes methods with which to control the funds and resources of the small conquered parties. For example, a powerful leader may encourage a less powerful leader to make unwise financial decisions in order to drain the smaller power’s resources. This is often successful if the leaders of the smaller powers have inflated egos and delusions of grandeur. It is important to note that this form is only effective if the smaller power allows itself to be influenced by the larger power.

The divide and conquer strategy has been widely used throughout history. Both the Roman empire and the British empire played small tribes and groups against one another in order to control their lands and territories. It was used by the Romans when they took Britain, when the British Empire took India, and when the Anglo-Normans took Ireland. A staple political strategy, divide and conquer is still used by many countries today.

Pareto Principle (The 80/20 Rule) - Rethink Your "To Do" List

Originally, the Pareto Principle referred to the observation that 80% of Italy’s wealth belonged to only 20% of the population.

More generally, the Pareto Principle is the observation (not law) that most things in life are not distributed evenly. It can mean all of the following things:

   

• 20% of the input creates 80% of the result
• 20% of the workers produce 80% of the result
• 20% of the customers create 80% of the revenue
• 20% of the bugs cause 80% of the crashes
• 20% of the features cause 80% of the usage
• And on and on…

From here this article is an excerpt of a blog article from the Harvard Business Review - The Unimportance of Practically Everything.

It perfectly explains how to prioritize your "TO DO" list according to the Pareto principle in order to maximize your results.

When you make a "to do" list, prioritize each item by the amount of effort required (1 to 10, with 1 being the least amount of effort) and the potential positive results (1 to 10, with 10 being the highest impact.)

 Now divide the potential results by the amount of effort to get a "priority" ranking. Do the items with the lowest resulting priority number first. Here's a simple example:

        Task 1: Write report on trip meeting.
        Effort=10, Result=2, Priority=5
        Task 2: Prepare presentation for marketing.
        Effort=4, Result=4, Priority=1
        Task 3: Call current customer about referral.
        Effort=1, Result=10, Priority=0.1
 
See your new priority-based order? You do Task 3 first, Task 2 second, and Task 1 last–if at all.

This way, you ensure you do those important low-effort tasks that make up 80% of your success.