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# Right Attitudes

Ideas for Impact

## The High Cost of Too Much Job Rotation: A Case Study in Ford’s Failure in Teamwork and Vision

November 17, 2025 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

When Alan Mulally became Ford’s CEO in September 2006, the company was teetering on the edge of collapse. Ford had just posted a staggering $12.7 billion loss, was hemorrhaging market share to Japanese and Korean automakers, and was weighed down by outdated, inefficient products. Worse, the company was drowning in debt and facing a brutal liquidity crisis. Ford was desperate for a complete overhaul.

By the time Mulally stepped down in June 2014, Ford had staged a stunning turnaround. He unified global operations, streamlined brands, and standardized platforms across regions while refocusing on core markets. He slashed costs, restructured engineering, and poured heavy investment into fuel-efficient vehicles and cutting-edge technologies. Under his steady leadership, Ford weathered the 2008 financial crisis without a government bailout and returned to strong profitability. His tenure remains a powerful case study in corporate transformation.

One of Mulally’s most crucial changes was dismantling Ford’s toxic culture of internal rivalry and reckless short-termism. When he arrived, executives were shuffled through roles every two years, a system meant to create versatile leaders but one that completely backfired. Employees scrambled to make quick impressions rather than collaborate. Engineers routinely ignored predecessors’ work, even at the cost of losing smart, cost-saving innovations. The result was chaos—no continuity, no teamwork, no accountability.

Mulally understood that leadership demanded stability. After joining Boeing as an engineer in 1969, he rose steadily through key technical and executive positions. He served as Senior Vice President of Airplane Development in 1994, President of Boeing Information, Space & Defense Systems in 1997, President of Boeing Commercial Airplanes in 1998, and finally CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes in 2001. Drawing from this deep experience, he extended leadership tenures at Ford, broke down fiefdoms, and fostered a culture of collaboration, discipline, and long-term strategic focus. His approach restored much-needed continuity and accountability, proving that constant job shuffling weakens leadership and that real impact takes time.

**Idea for Impact**: Exposing leaders to different departments builds broad perspective and prepares them for senior roles. However, they need enough time in each position to take ownership, build relationships, and drive real change. Rapid job rotations erode accountability and disrupt a deep sense of purpose.

## Wondering what to read next?

- Never Make a Big Decision Without Doing This First
- The ‘Small’ Challenge for Big Companies
- Heartfelt Leadership at United Airlines and a Journey Through Adversity: Summary of Oscar Munoz’s Memoir, ‘Turnaround Time’
- When Work Becomes a Metric, Metrics Risk Becoming the Work: A Case Study of the Stakhanovite Movement
- Some Influencers Just Aren’t Worth Placating

Filed Under: Business Stories, Leadership, Leading Teams, Managing People, The Great Innovators Tagged With: Biases, Conflict, Creativity, Employee Development, Goals, Leadership Lessons, Performance Management, Social Dynamics, Teams

## Inspirational Quotations #1128

November 16, 2025 By Nagesh Belludi

Never ascribe to malice that which can adequately be explained by incompetence.
—**Napoleon I** (Emperor of France)

To accuse others for one’s own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one’s education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one’s education is complete.
—**Epictetus** (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

The extremes of vice and virtue are alike detestable; absolute virtue is as sure to kill a man as absolute vice is, let alone the dullnesses of it and the pomposities of it.
—**Samuel Butler**

Nothing happens by itself. It all will come your way, once you understand that you have to make it come your way, by your own exertions.
—**Ben Stein** (American Writer)

Pride, which inspires us with so much envy, serves also to moderate it.
—**Francois de La Rochefoucauld** (French Writer)

History is the devil’s scripture.
—**Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron)** (English Romantic Poet)

The essence of pleasure is spontaneity.
—**Germaine Greer** (Australia Academic)

He is incapable of a truly good action who finds not a pleasure in contemplating the good actions of others.
—**James Joyce** (Irish Novelist)

I am a lie who always speaks the truth.
—**Jean Cocteau** (French Poet, Artist)

If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.
—**Cicero** (Roman Philosopher)

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.
—**Buddhist Teaching**

Candor and generosity, unless tempered by due moderation, leads to ruin.
—**Tacitus** (Roman Orator, Historian)

When you set goals, something inside of you starts Saying, “Let’s go, let’s go,” and ceilings start to move up.
—**Zig Ziglar** (American Author)

Filed Under: Inspirational Quotations

## The Rebellion of Restraint: Dogma 25 and the Call to Reinvent Cinema with Less

November 14, 2025 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, a group of Danish filmmakers unveiled a manifesto for a cinema movement called Dogma 25. Building on the radical spirit of Dogme 95—a cinematic rebellion launched in 1995 against Hollywood’s excesses—it rekindles artistic constraint for the digital age. Where Dogme 95 rejected artificial lighting, canned music, and special effects to prioritize raw storytelling, Dogma 25 asks a hauntingly relevant question: Can limitation still liberate? Might less still be more?

In an era flooded with tools and visual spectacle, Dogma 25 embraces subtraction as revolution. It challenges filmmakers to distill, not indulge—to confront material with honesty, stripped of digital distraction. Rule #1 declares: “All films must be made using consumer-grade materials, tech, or smartphones.” This isn’t nostalgia. It’s defiance.

Constraint, far from stifling creativity, sculpts it. Boundaries compel precision, guide direction, and fuel innovation. A haiku doesn’t suffer from brevity—it glows because of it. Like water diverting around stone, creative force adapts and deepens. The greatest artists don’t evade limitations. They lean into them—discovering rhythm in friction, meaning in resistance. Constraint doesn’t just make art possible. It makes art vital.

Freedom isn’t the absence of rules—it’s fluency in them. Obstacles do not cloud the path. They etch it.

**Idea for Impact**: Constraints are the launchpad of creativity. If you’re seeking creative breakthrough, don’t chase abundance. Flip the paradigm. Let constraint be your compass. It might just point to something more daring, vibrant, and truthful than anything born in excess.

## Wondering what to read next?

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- Question the Now, Imagine the Next
- Learning from Amazon: Getting Your House in Order
- Restless Dissatisfaction = Purposeful Innovation
- Unlocking Your Creative Potential: The Power of a Quiet Mind and Wandering Thoughts

Filed Under: Business Stories, Mental Models, The Great Innovators Tagged With: Creativity, Critical Thinking, Discipline, Innovation, Materialism, Parables, Problem Solving, Resilience, Simple Living, Thinking Tools

## This ‘Morning Pages’ Practice is a Rebellion Against the Tyranny of Muddled Thinking

November 12, 2025 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Julia Cameron’s ‘Morning Pages’ ritual, introduced in her bestselling handbook on the creative life, *The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity* (1992,) has become a widely embraced method for nurturing mental clarity and creative flow. The idea’s simple yet profound. Each morning, you write three pages longhand in a stream-of-consciousness style. No filters. No expectations. Just an honest outpouring of whatever’s on your mind.

Morning Pages doesn’t require any special skill or background. Just a pen, some paper, and the willingness to meet yourself on the page. The goal isn’t to craft brilliance. It’s to make space for clarity by sweeping out mental clutter. That’s why the practice’s so effective. It reliably helps to center you before the noise of the day creeps in.

Over time, the pages begin to reveal patterns: recurring worries, creative blocks, unresolved questions. These are the kinds of things that might otherwise stay hidden. This daily ritual becomes a quiet mirror, reflecting back what needs attention. The practice can be incredibly grounding, especially on days when thoughts feel tangled or unsettled.

The value of Morning Pages lies less in what you write and more in the act of showing up. You don’t need to be profound. Rambling counts. Lists count. Complaints count. Even writing “I have nothing to say” counts. Strangely, some of the best surprises surface later, often not during writing but afterward: while walking the dog or washing dishes, a knot quietly unravels.

Some days, the resistance is loud, and the pages feel pointless. Those are the days they’re needed most. As Cameron reminds, writing through resistance is part of the process. Even if all you do is scribble frustrations, the practice can be trusted. Over time, it’ll offer far more than it’s asked.

**Idea for Impact**: Morning Pages create a rare space for unfiltered honesty. Clarity doesn’t arrive like a lightning strike. It comes from showing up. One page at a time. Three pages before breakfast can prevent an entire day spent lost in mental fog.

## Wondering what to read next?

- The Power of Negative Thinking
- Get Everything Out of Your Head
- Cope with Anxiety and Stop Obsessive Worrying by Creating a Worry Box
- Expressive Writing Can Help You Heal
- Make Time to Do it

Filed Under: Living the Good Life, Sharpening Your Skills Tagged With: Anxiety, Conversations, Discipline, Introspection, Mindfulness, Motivation, Resilience, Worry

## The “Ashtray in the Sky” Mental Model: Idiot-Proofing by Design

November 10, 2025 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

It’s a curious feature of our age that we still require, by law, ashtrays in the lavatories of commercial aircraft. Not because we’re nostalgic for the days when the skies were thick with the fug of unfiltered Marlboros, but because—despite decades of prohibition—someone, somewhere, will inevitably decide the rules don’t apply to them. The ashtray is not a relic. It’s a rebuke to the illusion that clear signage and the threat of punishment are enough to deter the determined cretin.

At first glance, an ashtray on a no-smoking flight may seem absurd. But anyone who has worked in safety design, risk engineering, security, or customer service knows the truth: whether out of ignorance, arrogance, or sheer defiance, some people will always push boundaries. And when they do, the consequences can be catastrophic unless the system is built to withstand them. On airplanes, the real danger isn’t the smoking, it’s what happens after. A smoldering cigarette flicked into a trash bin full of paper towels is no minor infraction; it’s a spark away from turning the plane into a firetrap.

Smart safety design doesn’t rely on perfect behavior. It plans for failure The ashtray in the airplane lavatory is a fireproof failsafe, a small admission that while we may outlaw idiocy, we can’t eliminate it. So we contain it. The ashtray doesn’t say, “Go ahead.” It says, “If you must, don’t kill us all.”

Redundancy isn’t wasteful—it’s wise. The same logic gives us fire exits, seatbelts, and those little hammers on buses meant only for when things go very wrong. These features reflect a mature understanding of risk. True safety doesn’t rely on perfect compliance, but on resilient design—built to anticipate that someone, somewhere, will act recklessly, and to shield the rest of us from the consequences.

**Idea for Impact**: The ashtray isn’t there for the smoker. It’s there for everyone else. A quiet reminder that rules will be broken, and survival depends on being ready.

## Wondering what to read next?

- Be Smart by Not Being Stupid
- Accidents Can Happen When You Least Expect Them: The Overconfidence Effect
- Five Where Only One is Needed: How Airbus Avoids Single Points of Failure
- How to Solve a Problem By Standing It on Its Head
- How Stress Impairs Your Problem-Solving Capabilities: Case Study of TransAsia Flight 235

Filed Under: Business Stories, MBA in a Nutshell, Mental Models, Sharpening Your Skills Tagged With: Assertiveness, Aviation, Biases, Critical Thinking, Decision-Making, Mental Models, Parables, Problem Solving, Risk, Thinking Tools, Thought Process, Wisdom

## Inspirational Quotations #1127

November 9, 2025 By Nagesh Belludi

Many a man in love with a dimple makes the mistake of marrying the whole girl.
—**Stephen Leacock** (Canadian Humorist)

There is no waste of time in life like that of making explanations.
—**Benjamin Franklin** (American Polymath)

Images also help me find and realise ideas. I look at hundreds of very different, contrasting images and I pinch details from them, rather like people who eat from other people
—**Francis Bacon** (English Philosopher)

Every generous illusion of youth leaves a wrinkle as it departs. Experience is the successive disenchanting of the things of life; it is reason enriched with the heart’s spoils.
—**Jean Antoine Petit-Senn** (Swiss Poet)

Let us not complain against men because of their rudeness, their ingratitude, their injustice, their arrogance, their love of self, their forgetfulness of others. They are so made. Such is their nature.
—**Jean de La Bruyere** (French Author)

For people who live on expectations, to face up to their realization is something of an ordeal.
—**Elizabeth Bowen** (Irish Novelist)

Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.
—**George Orwell** (English Novelist, Essayist, Journalist)

Emphatic always, forcible never.
—**Christian Nestell Bovee** (American Writer, Aphorist)

As long as a person doesn’t admit he is defeated, he is not defeated – he’s just a little behind, and isn’t through fighting.
—**Darrell Royal** (American Sportsperson)

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.
—**Heraclitus** (Ancient Greek Philosopher)

Filed Under: Inspirational Quotations

## “Leave Something in the Well”: Hemingway on The Productive Power of Strategic Incompletion

November 7, 2025 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Ernest Hemingway claimed to have a disciplined writing routine. He wrote early each morning and always stopped while he still knew what came next—leaving something in the “well” for the following day. He shared this advice in various contexts, notably in a 1935 Esquire article, framing it as an antidote to creative block.

When the goal is sustained momentum in any creative or cognitive endeavor, one principle stands out: stop while the work is still alive. Hemingway wasn’t just advising writers when he said, “The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next.” He was articulating a broader truth about motivation: friction.

The method is deceptively simple: pause while momentum remains. Finishing everything may feel productive, but it often kills clarity. Push past peak energy, and you return to dread. Pause midstream, and you resume with direction.

## The Hemingway Principle of Continuity

This defies cultural instinct. We’re conditioned to chase closure—to exhaust ourselves chasing completion. But exhaustion isn’t discipline. The better move is knowing when to stop: at the crest of effort, when the next step is obvious—but untaken.

Hemingway distilled this perfectly: “I had learned already never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.”

He wasn’t preserving mystery—he was preserving momentum.

Applied broadly, the technique dulls resistance. Reentry becomes ritual—driven by anticipation, not obligation. You don’t resume reluctantly. You resume with hunger.

**Idea for Impact**: Leave your work unfinished on purpose. Not because you failed, but because the unfinished work remains fertile. Discipline isn’t about what you finish. It’s about the ability to return—again and again.

## Wondering what to read next?

- Why Doing a Terrible Job First Actually Works
- How to Banish Your Inner Perfectionist
- Five Ways … You Could Stop Procrastinating
- Did School Turn You Into a Procrastinator?
- Separate the Job of Creating and Improving

Filed Under: Mental Models, Sharpening Your Skills Tagged With: Discipline, Lifehacks, Motivation, Perfectionism, Procrastination, Task Management

## The Pickleball Predicament: If The CEO Wants a Match, Don’t Let It Be a Mismatch

November 5, 2025 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

In the modern workplace, the line between professional and personal conduct has blurred. We dine with managers, follow VPs on social media, and occasionally find ourselves invited to a pickleball game with the CEO and his partner. It feels casual. It isn’t.

Imagine you’re a sharp, 33-year-old executive with enviable rapport: affable, competitive CEO—the kind who smiles while dismantling your argument in a meeting. He hears you’re good at pickleball and suggests a match. Sounds friendly. Feels flattering. But immediately, you sense the undertow. Should you play? And if you do—win, lose, coast?

The answer isn’t etiquette. It’s performance psychology.

## Play. Play fully. Play honestly.

Authenticity isn’t just a virtue, it’s strategic. People respect genuine conviction. Against a high-achieving CEO, showing up as your full self signals confidence, not arrogance; integrity, not vanity. The real risk is underplaying for his ego—feigned incompetence makes you look insincere and calculating.

Here’s the payoff: how he responds matters. If he loses and laughs, adapts or tightens his game—if grace or insecurity surfaces—you learn something valuable. Informal play can reveal more than any meeting.

If your boss needs you to lose to feel powerful, he’s not leading. He’s compensating. You’ll have to decide whether that fragility deserves your loyalty. Managing up sometimes demands confrontation, not appeasement.

Other times, restraint is wiser. Watch for signals. Some CEOs test for dominance; others just want to unwind. If he’s probing technique, teach. If he’s chasing laughter and sweat, ease up. Self-regulation isn’t dishonesty—it’s emotional acuity. Knowing when to soften your game shows you read the moment. Pickleball, like influence, is contextual. Treat it as theater when it is, and recess when it’s not.

**Idea for Impact:** When the invite comes, don’t overthink. Say yes. Stretch. Compete. Play hard and you’ll earn respect. Play soft and you’ll raise suspicion.

## Wondering what to read next?

- Avoid Control Talk
- “But, Excuse Me, I’m Type A”: The Ultimate Humblebrag?
- Witty Comebacks and Smart Responses for Nosy People
- You’re Worthy of Respect
- Likeability Is What’ll Get You Ahead

Filed Under: Managing People, Sharpening Your Skills Tagged With: Assertiveness, Conflict, Etiquette, Getting Ahead, Getting Along, Likeability, Managing the Boss, Networking, Personality, Social Dynamics, Social Skills, Winning on the Job

## The Seduction of Low Hanging Fruit

November 3, 2025 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

Few phrases in the sales playbook are as overused and quietly harmful as “going after the low-hanging fruit.” It promises quick wins, fast cash flow, and a morale boost. In the short term, it delivers. These easy deals validate a pitch, energize a team, and keep the lights on. When immediacy becomes a guiding belief, the damage begins.

The problem isn’t the fruit itself. It’s the fixation. A sales team addicted to speed risks becoming a parody of its own purpose. It chases volume over value and responds to demand instead of shaping it. The deals come fast, but they lack depth. Customers become transactional, loyal only to the lowest bidder. Revenue rises and then stalls. What looks like momentum is often churn in disguise.

The same holds true for ideas and opportunities.

What the low-hanging fruit mindset compromises most is your people. Skill depth begins to thin. Curiosity fades. The stamina needed to handle layered challenges and the vision required to shape change gradually diminishes. Progress shifts into performance—routine, not resilient.

There’s also a built-in expiration date. Once the orchard of obvious opportunities is picked clean, what remains are the nuanced paths and long-term plays. These require patience, insight, and a different kind of strength. Without the muscle to pursue them, the journey falters.

Plans start centering around what’s easy, rather than what’s essential. Strategy narrows into short-term cycles. Big-picture thinking gives way to checking boxes. When we overlook deeper opportunities, we lose sight of what’s possible.

**Idea for Impact**: Prospect ideas with purpose. Start with what’s within reach, but don’t let it define your ceiling. Use low-hanging fruit to gain momentum. Then channel that energy toward richer, less obvious opportunities. This is where growth lives. Here, legacy takes shape. And in the stretch beyond ease, intention transforms into impact.

## Wondering what to read next?

- Why You Get Great Ideas in the Shower
- How to … Declutter Your Organizational Ship
- Kickstart Big Initiatives: Hackathons Aren’t Just for Tech Companies
- Question the Now, Imagine the Next
- You Can’t Develop Solutions Unless You Realize You Got Problems: Problem Finding is an Undervalued Skill

Filed Under: MBA in a Nutshell, Mental Models, Sharpening Your Skills Tagged With: Creativity, Critical Thinking, Discipline, Innovation, Leadership, Mental Models, Motivation, Problem Solving, Winning on the Job

## Inspirational Quotations #1126

November 2, 2025 By Nagesh Belludi

Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.
—**John Kenneth Galbraith** (American Economist)

The happiness of the wicked passes away like a torrent.
—**Jean Racine** (French Dramatist)

It is better to be happy for a moment and be burned up with beauty than to live a long time and be bored all the while.
—**Don Marquis** (American Humorist, Journalist)

The good need fear no law; it is his safety, and the bad man’s awe.
—**Philip Massinger** (English Playwright)

Some theories are good for nothing except to be argued about.
—**Georg Christoph Lichtenberg** (German Philosopher, Physicist)

The degree of one’s emotion varies inversely with one’s knowledge of the facts—the less you know the hotter you get.
—**Bertrand A. Russell** (British Philosopher, Mathematician)

Historians give us the extraordinary events, and omit just what we want, the everyday life of each particular time and country.
—**Richard Whately** (English Philosopher, Theologian)

What impresses men is not mind, but the result of mind.
—**Walter Bagehot** (English Economist, Journalist)

The more sympathy you give, the less you need.
—**Malcolm S. Forbes** (American Publisher)

No man ever made an ill figure who understood his own talents, nor a good one, who mistook them.
—**Jonathan Swift** (Irish Satirist)

There is no mind, but various states of mind. The highest state embraces them all.
—**Hans Taeger**

It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. This is as true of men as of dogs.
—**Eric Hoffer** (American Philosopher)

The laws of probability, so true in general, so fallacious in particular.
—**Edward Gibbon** (English Historian)

Filed Under: Inspirational Quotations

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**About: Nagesh Belludi** \[hire\] is a St. Petersburg, Florida-based freethinker, investor, and leadership coach. He specializes in helping executives and companies ensure that the overall quality of their decision-making benefits isn’t compromised by a lack of a big-picture understanding.

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### Recently,

- The High Cost of Too Much Job Rotation: A Case Study in Ford’s Failure in Teamwork and Vision
- Inspirational Quotations #1128
- The Rebellion of Restraint: Dogma 25 and the Call to Reinvent Cinema with Less
- This ‘Morning Pages’ Practice is a Rebellion Against the Tyranny of Muddled Thinking
- The “Ashtray in the Sky” Mental Model: Idiot-Proofing by Design
- Inspirational Quotations #1127
- “Leave Something in the Well”: Hemingway on The Productive Power of Strategic Incompletion

Unless otherwise stated in the individual document, the works above are © Nagesh Belludi under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license. You may quote, copy and share them freely, as long as you link back to RightAttitudes.com, don't make money with them, and don't modify the content. Enjoy!