No. 10 October 2014

When animals relay solely on instincts to stay alive, they are restrained by their instinctual fear and their fear of the unknown.  They never reach their full potential.  Harvey MacKay says people do exactly the same thing.

“In cultures that depend on elephants for labor and transportation, it’s common to tie untrained elephants by their ankles to a bamboo tree, using heavy duty rope.  After three or four days of trying to free themselves, elephants give up.

From that time on they can be restrained by tying one leg to a small peg in the ground – something they surely could escape from with minimal effort.  But with little resistance, the elephants don’t try to get loose.  Despite their superior size, they have learned helplessness.  Do you let your past experiences limit your choices?”

Fear of failure also limits us from reaching our potential.  “The African impala can jump to a height of over 10 feet and cover a distance greater than 30 feet.  Yet these magnificent creatures can be kept in an enclosure in any zoo with a 3 foot wall.  The animals will not jump if they cannot see where their feet will land.  As with so many humans, extreme caution gets in the way of success.”

If you didn’t know you couldn’t do something, wouldn’t you attempt to do it?  “In the 1930’s a leading zoologist concluded after careful study that, according to the laws of aerodynamics, it should be impossible for a bumble bee to fly.  That is because its size, weight, and the shape of its body are all wrong in relation to its total wingspread.

Fortunately, no bumblebees have ever studied aerodynamics – so they just naively keep on doing what they’re incapable of doing.”

Habit often keeps us from reaching our full potential.  “Flea trainers have observed a predictable and strange habit of fleas while training them.  Fleas are trained by putting them in a cardboard box with a top on it.  As you watch them jump and hit the lid, something very interesting becomes obvious.  The fleas continue to jump, but they are no longer jumping high enough to hit the top.

When you take off the lid, the fleas continue to jump, but they will not jump out of the box.  Once they have conditioned themselves to jump just so high, that’s all they can do.  Many people do the same thing.  They restrict themselves and never reach their potential.”

Don’t let your instincts keep you from reaching your full potential.  Life is too short not to live it fully.

U.S. President Harry S. Truman once said, “A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties." Which do you think will reach their goals, live a happy life, and achieve their dreams?

Imagine interviewing two people for a job opening you have.  Both are equally skilled, but one is always grumbling about how unfair life can be, while the other one talks about what wonderful possibilities exist.  Who would you want to hire?  Whom do you think would do a better job?

Naturally, you would gravitate toward the optimist.  If you choose the pessimist, you would be setting yourself up for plenty of aggravation and disappointment, not to mention the negative impact on your staff and customers.  Pessimism can bring everyone down, not just the person with the negative attitude.  And I believe that's when a pessimist is happiest!

Pessimists see life as one problem after another.  Optimists see life as one opportunity after another.  

Here's a story Harvey Mackay tells about how optimism can be life-changing:   

"Within a seven year time span, a woman's mother died, her husband divorced her, and she found herself living in poverty just one step away from being homeless.  In her spare time, she wrote a book that 12 publishers rejected. 

Finally one publisher accepted her book about a boy named Harry Potter.  And then she wrote a few more books, which became blockbuster movies, and even spawned a theme park.  

J.K. Rowling was an optimist who's now a billionaire.  How far in life would she have gotten by being a pessimist?"

09 September 2014

We've all seen the Quicken Loan ads on television.  They are the #1 online mortgage lender, growing from a startup to a 4,000-employee market leader over the past 25 years.  "They are consistently ranked in Fortune magazine's Best 100 Places to Work and they even won the JD Power award for the highest ranked customer service in an industry that is notoriously unfriendly."  If you ask Dan Gilbert, the Chairman and founder of the company about the key to their success, he'll quickly tell you it's all about the Quicken Loan "ISMs." 

An "ISM" is a suffix that refers to a strong principle or belief.  It is a set of values so powerful it drives the behavior of Quicken Loan's employees resulting in the company's "endless innovation, soaring profits, and market dominance." 

One ISM I particularly like goes like this:  "Every Customer.  Every Time.  No Exception. No Excuses.  Customers don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.  Could it be any clearer?  A great company is built one client at a time.  If you 'wow' every customer every chance you get, then they win and so do you.  It's as simple as that." 

Another ISM is "Ignore the Noise.  Will you allow noise to keep you from winning?  Noise could be from naysayers, something going wrong, sun in your eyes, ball took a bad bounce, dog ate your homework, someone cut you off on the way to work, etc.  A lot of things that seem serious at first glance turn out to be noise.  The noise may fluctuate in volume, but your determination to press on in spite of it (ignore it!) will make all the difference to you and our (company's success)."

Another ISM I like is " There is no 'they' here.  "They' does not exist here.  We are the 'they.'  One team.  United."

If you would like to read all 18 of Quicken Loans ISM's, use this link: 

www.quickenloans.com/press-room/fast-facts/our-isms/     You'll be glad you did.

In a service business like yours or mine, we all get to offer three kinds of service: good, cheap or fast.  Here's how we should present those options to our customers.  (1) Good service cheap won't be fast.  (2) Good service fast won't be cheap.  And (3) Fast service cheap won't be good.  You really can't say it much better than that!

Harvey MacKay believes persistence is a key to success and shares a few examples of persistence paying off.

"Few people had as difficult a time getting their invention accepted as Alexander Graham Bell.  Even U.S. President Rutherford Hayes said of the telephone in 1876, “… who would ever want to use them?” 

Chester Carlson, another young inventor, took his idea to 20 big corporations in the 1940s.  After seven years of rejections, he was able to persuade Haloid, a small Rochester, New York company, to purchase the rights to his electrostatic paper- copying process.  Haloid has since become Xerox Corporation.

Bette Nesmith Graham, in the 1950s, began using white, water-based tempera paint and a thin paintbrush to cover her typing errors. She sold her first bottle, originally called Mistake Out, in 1956.  Graham later patented the office product.  After starting out with just 100 bottles a month in sales, Liquid Paper was selling 25 million bottles a year when Graham sold it for a reported $47.5 million in 1979.

In 1927 the head instructor of the John Murray Anderson Drama School, instructed student Lucille Ball, to “Try any other profession.  Any other.”  I wonder what would have made him say “I Love Lucy”?

Buddy Holly was fired from the Decca record label in 1956 by Paul Cohen, who was known as Nashville’s “artists and repertoire man.”  Cohen called Holly “the biggest no-talent I ever worked with.” 

Chuck Yeager, the famous test pilot, threw up all over the back seat on his first flight as a passenger.  He vowed never to go back up again, but eventually he reconsidered.  Then he became the first man to break the sound barrier.

These are all examples of ordinary people with extraordinary persistence.  None of these folks was famous or rich or even particularly successful before their big breaks.

We’ve all heard it before, but there really is no substitute for persistence.  In fact, persistence is sometimes as important as talent.  It must come from within.  You either want it or you don’t.  Giving up is not an option.  Don't be discouraged.  It's often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock."

My favorite Mackay example of persistence is this one:  "When I was first starting out, I asked a colleague I respected how many sales calls he would make on a prospect before giving up.  He told me, “It depends on which one of us dies first.”

08 August 2014

Several years ago, I wrote a column about "The Second Ten Commandments." Commandment two stated: “Thou shall not be fearful, for most of the things we fear never come to pass.” Every crisis we face is multiplied when we act out of fear. Fear is a self-fulfilling emotion. When you fear something, you empower it. If you refuse to concede to fear, there is nothing to fear.

Success usually depends on overcoming your fears: fear of taking a risk, fear of asserting yourself, fear of exposing your deepest self to other people, and ultimately, fear of failure. But for some people, the real fear is -- believe it or not -- success itself.

Fear of success can paralyze your efforts just as severely as fear of failure. Avoiding success may seem irrational, but success brings change, and change is often threatening.

Another concern is that co-workers may look to you for advice or assistance once you’ve proven you can succeed. You may lose control over your time or your privacy. Or, you might offer advice that doesn’t work as well as hoped. Then, your achievements might become suspect. And you certainly don’t want to make non-believers of the people you work with.

Another reason we fear success is because it can bring expectations of continued success. Achieving a major goal is hard work. What happens if people expect you to keep doing it indefinitely? Can you continue to produce?

Some people feel actually reaching a goal can be terrifying: What comes next? How will people react? What if your goal turns out to be meaningless? These worries can lead to procrastination and self-sabotage.

Benjamin Franklin had some timeless advice for those who are afraid of success, as well as failure: “The man who does things makes mistakes, but he never makes the biggest mistake of all -- doing nothing.”

Don’t let fear control you.

Seth Godin recently talked about “speedometer confusion” in his blog. That’s a term I wasn’t familiar with. He said, “The number on the speedometer isn’t always an indication of how fast you’re getting to where you’re going. You might, after all, be driving in circles, really quickly.”

“Campbell's Law tells us that as soon as a number is used as the measurement for something, someone will get confused and start gaming the number, believing that they're also improving the underlying metric, when, in actuality, they're merely making the number go up.”

Here are a few measurements Godin shares that are often the result of speedometer confusion. Remember -- the first measurement everyone tends to focus on, often has very little impact on the second, no matter how big the first is. For example, “Money versus Happiness; Income versus Skill; Facebook Likes versus Liked; Tenure versus Competence; Book Sales versus Impact; Twitter Followers versus Anything; Money Raised versus Votes Earned; Weight versus Health; Faster versus Better.”

Make sure the measurement you’re focused on really has value and meaning, and is not “just a number.”

Here’s a story by Aesop that I suspect you may not have heard before. It has a lesson that I think you will find relevant today, even though the story is very old.

“A man had two dogs: a hound, to assist him in hunting, and a housedog, who simply laid around the house. After a good day’s hunt, the man always gave the housedog a large share of his spoil.

One day, the hound, feeling much aggrieved at this, reproached his companion, saying, “It’s tough working so hard, while you, who never assists in the chase, luxuriates on the fruits of my exertions.”

The housedog replied, “Don’t blame me; it’s our master’s fault. For rather than teach me to work, he taught me to depend for subsistence on the labor of others.”

How do you feel about the hound and the housedog?

Harvey Mackay tells a terrific story about Alexander the Great.

“On his deathbed, Alexander the Great summoned his generals and told them his three ultimate wishes: 1) The best doctors should carry his coffin; 2) The wealth he had accumulated (money, gold, precious stones) should be scattered along the way to his burial; and 3) His hands should be left hanging outside the coffin for all to see.

“Surprised by these unusual requests, one of his generals asked Alexander to explain. His response: ‘I want the best doctors to carry my coffin to demonstrate that in the face of death, even the best doctors in the world have no power to heal. I want the road to be covered with my treasure, so that everybody sees that the wealth acquired on earth, stays on earth. I want my hands to swing in the wind, so that people understand that we come to this world empty-handed and we leave empty-handed after the most precious treasure of all is exhausted -- time.’

“Time is our most precious treasure because it is limited. We can produce more wealth, but we cannot produce more time. The ultimate mystery: None of us knows how much time we really have.”

Use the time you have left wisely.

No. 7 July 2014

In 2014, online sales in the United States are forecast to grow about 15 percent in comparison to the 5-percent growth predicted in traditional retail stores sales. This persistent growth of e-commerce reflects an alteration in the purchasing patterns of consumers. And it is making many big-box retailers reconsider business models that focus on real-estate portfolios for the generation of sales.

The result is that many retailers are allocating more of their capital expenditure budgets to the construction of their e-commerce platforms and supply chains rather than expanding their brick-and-mortar stores. For example, Home Depot recently announced that it would invest $1.5 billion this fiscal year in further developing its online store.

What happens when focus is on increasing sales by opening additional units? Big box retailers, including Home Depot, observed that adding more and more stores, each serving a more limited group of households, makes each store less profitable. No wonder Home Depot is increasing its focus on its online platform.

Keeping the big picture in focus, one can’t forget that Home Depot had 2,263 retail stores in the United States, Canada and Mexico at the end of FY 2013, generating 96.5 percent of its total revenue! Online operations generated 3.5 percent of total revenue at the end of FY 2013.

But online sales for FY 2013 grew at a 52.6-percent rate compared to a total net retail sales growth of 5.4 percent. So now you know why Home Depot is investing in online operations to grow future sales and not investing in increasing the number of store locations.

In a similar vein, Kiplinger’s Washington Letter says, “Troubles continue to mount for mid-tier retail chains like Sears, JC Penney, Office Depot, etc., retailers usually found near or in malls.”

Kiplinger’s suggests that mid-tier retailers’ “core customer base is rapidly deserting them. As retirement looms and households shrink for middle-income baby boomers, that group is cutting back on spending, and younger shoppers are not being lured by new products and displays. Other customers are increasingly opting to buy from discounter or upscale stores, squeezing mid-tier sellers from both ends. Intense online price competition hurts, too. Many stores will disappear, and some chains aren’t likely to survive.”

As more stores are shuttered, the big losers will be malls who will “have a harder time finding new tenants. Mall store rents will drop and so will foot traffic. Normally, 10 percent of mall storefronts are empty at any given time, but today it’s 15 percent to 20 percent.” The only “sure bet” to make is that change will continue, in the retail channel and in our industry. You can bet on it.

I bet most of you have never heard of Dave's Soda & Pet City, a seven-store chain based in Agawam, Mass. Ninety-eight percent of the business is pet-related and 2 percent is soda. Since its beginning in 1975, its owner Dave Ratner has built a customer-first business.

Here are a few customer service tips -- some familiar, some not -- Ratner uses every day: “1) When there is a problem, make it no problem. Make returns easy, solve customer problems in a nanosecond, and enable your employees to say, ‘What can we do to make it right?’ 2) Connect with your customers -- it's all about storytelling. 3) Develop emotional ties with your customers. Ratner gives gift cards to pet shelters, which then refer customers to his stores and publicize it. 4) It's not about metrics -- it's about being nice. At Dave's, if you aren't nice, you can't work there. Ratner writes personal thank-you notes on many occasions. 5) Do best what your competition does worst. Dave's focuses on having minimal out-of-stocks because its biggest competitor, Petco, has plenty of those. 6) Personalize everything you do. Dave's has its own brand of dog food, and on the back of the can is a message from Ratner: ‘Thanks for trusting me with the health of the creature you love more than anything in the world.’ 7) Be an expert resource for your customers. 8) Make sure all employees are working as a team. It's like a car with eight cylinders. If they are all good, everything is fine, but just one being down causes a big problem, and too much attention gets paid to that cylinder.”

Why don’t you try one of Ratner’s tips and see if it makes a positive difference in your business?

“When Janet looked at her pay stub, she was pleasantly surprised to learn that her company had deposited more than her normal wages into her bank account.

However, on the next payday, her paycheck was significantly less than what it should have been, and she went to her boss to complain.

‘I’m curious,’ her boss said. ‘Why didn’t you say anything when we overpaid you the other week?’

Janet responded: ‘I was willing to overlook one mistake, but two is pushing it.’”

I wonder what Janet’s boss thinks about her now?

No. 6 June 2014

John Calipari is one of the most fascinating basketball coaches you will ever meet.  He is calm and animated at the same time.  He is intense yet introspective.  He loves to – and lives to – win.  And he always, always, always lives by the credo, “Players First.”  His new book bears that title.

But perhaps his most valuable lesson is that he tells his players to “Fail fast.  Don’t be afraid to try new things.  Don’t be afraid to experiment.  Fail fast and we’ll correct.” 

Michael Jordan, one of the best players to ever play the game of basketball, says it best when talking about the power of failure: "I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career.  I’ve lost almost 300 games.  26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed.  I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is the main reason I have succeeded."   Failing often means you’re attempting to be more successful no matter what the odds.  That in itself is a sign of success.

Seth Godin recently talked about the difference between a doctor and a plumber.  It’s not what you think!

“The plumber, the roofer and the electrician sell us a cure. They come to our house, fix the problem, and leave.

The consultant, the doctor (often) and the politician sell us the narrative. They don't always change things, but they give us a story, a way to think about what's happening.

Often, that story helps us fix our problems on our own.  That’s why the best parents, teachers and bosses are in the story business helping their kids, students and employees solve problems on their own.”  Helping others solve problems by using a narrative is a solution we should all be interested in developing.

Harvey Mackay tells a terrific story about Bernie Marcus, the former CEO of Home Depot.  Mackay interviewed Marcus for his 2004 book We Got Fired! … And It’s the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Us (Random House).  What Marcus learned in 1978 from a close business friend on how to respond to being fired at age 49 changed his life forever.

“In 1978, Bernie Marcus was fired as the CEO of Handy Dan Home Improvement Center chain by Sanford C. ‘Sandy’ Sigoloff, who ran the parent corporation, Daylin.  Bernie was 49 years old and had never been fired before.  He called it ‘the low point in his life.’  Bernie was wounded and aching.  His first and only thoughts were about getting even.

‘It’s interesting when you have a low like this, you reach one point where you have a chance of coming out or not coming out,’ he said.  ‘If you come out, you’re better than you ever were.  If you don’t come out, you become what they commonly refer to as a loser.  If you come out, it’s usually because of the influence someone has on you.’

Fortunately for Bernie, that influence was Sol Price, founder of Price Club, which has since become part of Costco.  Price phoned Bernie and invited him to dinner at his home in San Diego.

Bernie arrived for dinner and got right to the point:  ‘My contract with Daylin was worth a million dollars.  Sandy broke the contract.  I want to get back at him.  Right now I’m suing Sandy for that million.’

To wage the suit, Bernie said he was eating up cash like it was going out of style.  Price understood, and the strategy he offered was truly priceless.

After dinner, Price took Bernie to a room in his house filled with papers stacked five to six feet high and no furniture.  They were all depositions from a lawsuit Sol had been involved with.  He told Bernie that the lawsuit consumed much of his energy and strength for three years of his life.

Price told Bernie:  ‘Why are you spending your young life suing somebody?  Why don’t you just forget about it and go on and live your life?  Otherwise, you’re going to end up with a room like this.’

The next morning when Bernie woke up, he said he really woke up.  I called the attorneys and said, ‘You’re off the case.  End the litigation.  I’m going on with my life.’

Just where did Bernie go?  One year later in 1979, he and Arthur Blank launched The Home Depot, which became the fastest growing retailer in U.S. history.

You will never get ahead of anyone as long as you are trying to get even with them because in order to get even with them, you have to stoop to their level.  If you didn’t like their tactics, why would you want to emulate them?

I am not in any way advocating being a patsy for another’s bad behavior.  But you must weigh whether bringing another person down will lift you up.  Take the high road whenever you can – it’s usually not too crowded.  

You must also consider what exacting revenge does to your physical and mental health.  Will it really make you feel better?   Consider the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., an advocate for forgiveness and peace:  ‘The old law about ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind.’”

No. 5 May 2014

In a typical December, parcel carriers see their volumes peak mid-month. Last Christmas, however, more shoppers waited to the last-minute. Amazon Prime customers, for example, believed they had no reason to order early. In short, the December peak happened as forecast, but within this multi-week peak was a much bigger spike in activity concentrated in the last few days before Christmas that was just too big for UPS, in particular, to handle.

While all this was occurring, Amazon issued a congratulatory press release that lauded the fact that they had signed up 1 million Amazon Prime members in the third week of December and that demand was so great that it had to suspend enrollment.

But while delivery failures contributed to the profit hit, which the Amazon Prime program played a role in, the bigger hit comes from the Amazon Prime program itself.  Amazon Prime is a loss leader that enables Amazon to steal market share from traditional retailers.

Amazon’s 10-K demonstrated just how big a drag on profits this program really is. Supplemental information about outbound shipping results showed that for every $1 in shipping fees Amazon collected, they spent more than $2, for a total shipping loss of more than $3.5 billion.  That’s not pocket change.

Did you recently notice that the annual fee for Amazon Prime was increased?  Well, now you know why.

Have you ever heard about the “Zeignark effect”?  It’s named after a Russian psychiatrist who discovered that a waiter could remember incomplete orders more easily than those that were served and complete.  Further study showed that people are 90 percent more likely to remember tasks that are undone than those they completed. 

That makes some sense, but it also causes tremendous stress rather than pride of accomplishment.  There will always be work to be done, but stop and smell the roses – or the crocuses and daffodils – occasionally!   You’ll be glad you did!

In a recent Seth’s Blog, Seth Godin had this to say about money: “Money’s pretty new.  Before money, we traded.  My corn for your milk.  The trade enriches both of us and it’s simple.

‘Money, of course, makes a whole bunch of other transactions possible.  Maybe I don’t need your milk, but I can take your money and use it to buy something I do need, from someone else.  Very efficient, but also very abstract.”

As we ceased to trade, we moved all of our transactions to the abstract world of money.  And in this abstract world, “we’re constantly re-evaluating what money is worth.  Five dollars to buy a snack box on an airplane is worth something very different than $5 to buy a cup of coffee after a fancy meal, which is worth something different than $5 in the grocery store.  That’s because we get to pretend that the five dollars in each situation is worth a different amount.”

The value of that five dollars changes in our mind based on what and where we’re using it.

Godin’s conclusion is that “pricing based on cost makes no sense whatever, because cost is not abstract.  Pricing based on value does make sense because value is abstract.”  And that value changes in each situation, just like the value of $5 does for different products and where they are purchased.

My conclusion is: What we are willing to pay for something we want has no relationship to the actual cost of the item, but rather the value it has to us.  If that’s true or even partially true, how should that affect how we price what we sell in our own businesses?

A sales rep, an assistant and their manager are walking to lunch when they find an antique oil lamp.  They rub it, and a Genie comes out.  The Genie says, “I'll give each of you just one wish.”

“Me first!” says the assistant.  “I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat, without a care in the world.”  Poof!  She's gone.

“Me next!” says the sales rep.  “I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with my personal masseuse, an endless supply of piña coladas and the love of my life.”  Poof!  He's gone.

“OK, you're up,” the Genie says to the manager.  The manager says, “I want those two back in the office after lunch.”

Moral:  Always let your boss have the first say.

No. 12 December 2013

In a recent interview in the November 3rd edition of the Sunday New York Times, David Cote, the Chairman and CEO of Honeywell, talked about how making good decisions is critical to the success of a business.  A decisive business leader “wants to make decisions often and quickly (i.e. ‘give me what you’ve got and I’ll make a decision’.)  And the lower you are in an organization, you can get away with a lot of that and you’ll be applauded for it.”

“But with bigger decisions, you can make bigger mistakes, so you really have to think about the kind of decision you’re making.  Is this a decision where if I’m wrong, there can be significant ramifications?” 

“What I’ve taught myself to do is to tell everybody that this is a preliminary decision and we will go through it again in a day or two, because it’s so important to get it right.”

“If I’m very decisive and I surround myself with people who just want me to make decisions, then we’ll go off the cliff at 130 miles an hour, because at some point I’ll be wrong.  What I need are people who want to come to their own conclusions and are willing to think independently, and can argue with me in the right way so I can (keep the process) objective as opposed to emotional.”

“There’s this phrase I use a lot when I teach leadership classes at Honeywell:  ‘Your job as a leader is to be right at the end of the meeting, not at the beginning of the meeting.’  It’s your job to flush out all the facts, all the opinions, and at the end make a good decision, because you’ll get measured on whether you make a good decision, and not whether it was your idea from the beginning.”

In running our businesses, we spend a lot of time making decisions.  And each decision we make has a huge impact on our success, so it pays to make every decision as good as we can.  David Cote is suggesting that we can make better decisions when we’re armed with all the facts (i.e. you’re never as well informed at the beginning of a meeting as you are at the end.)  That’s something you should consider the next time someone pressures you to make a quick decision.

I hope you’re celebrating the Holiday Season with family and friends and not setting new world-records for eating the most food at a family get-together.  Sometimes you want to say out-loud:  “Wait a minute, this isn’t an eating contest, is it?”

Here’s my favorite Charles Schultz story that really puts “what’s important in our lives” into perspective:

“Every time I see these questions make the rounds via email around the Internet, I’m reminded of what truly is important in life.  Don’t answer the questions. Just read it to the end, and you'll get the point.

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.

2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.

3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America Pageant.

4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.

5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.

6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.

How did you do?

The point is, none of us remembers the headliners of yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.

Here's another quiz. See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.

2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.

3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.

4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.

5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.

Easier?

Give yourself credit for remembering the people who really made a difference in your life.  They didn’t have the most credentials, the most money or the most awards.  They just cared about you.  Whose life have you made a difference in recently?”

Remember that you have a choice every day about how you approach life and the people around you.  Make it positive.  Make it thankful.  Count your blessings.  Then share a few.  Happy Holidays!

No. 8 August 2013

I recently read a blog article by Bernadette Jiwa titled, “The Secret of Disruptive Innovations.” Her examples and conclusions will make you “think twice” about what you thought you knew about the effect of disruptive innovations on yourself and your business.

“When the online eyewear retailer Warby Parker began selling boutique-quality glasses at a $95 price point, they weren’t just trying to undercut the bigger players in the industry. Of course, they did that and more, growing the company by 500 percent in just a year and mostly by word of mouth.

“The average customer who needs glasses buys a pair every 2.1 years. Warby Parker set out to make glasses something that customers would buy in multiples as fashion statements; much like women buy shoes and bags. They wanted customers to view them as accessories they could change to match occasions or moods. And while price combined with

quality enables the company to tell a different story than other retailers, what changes everything is the story the customer now tells himself about how many pairs of glasses he can own and how often he should buy new ones. Many of Warby Parker’s customers buy six or seven pairs of glasses at a time and not just when their prescription expires.

“AirBnB made people long to experience a destination like a local hotel without the $8 price tag for nuts from the mini-bar. Apple changed how we feel about buying a whole album, including the songs we didn’t care about. Amazon’s Kindle made us think of airport bookstores as reference libraries where we browse but don’t buy.

“The secret of disruptive innovations and business models isn’t that they disrupt an industry. It’s that they disrupt people. They change how people feel about something enough to change how they behave.

It’s entirely possible to look into the future and think about how your customer might be changed tomorrow as a result of what you do today. While ‘the industry’ works on the assumption that the larvae of today will just be bigger caterpillars tomorrow, the disruptor imagines butterflies.”

One day an entrepreneur took his young sales manager Bill up to a magnificent estate overlooking a beautiful river. He then took him up on the highest peak on the property, put his arm around him, pointed down, and said: “Look at that stunning home and gorgeous swimming pool! How do you like those fabulous tennis courts? Take a look at those beautiful horses in the stable. Now, all I want you to do is continue to meet the high standards and goals I’ve set for you and someday, Bill…someday, all this will be mine.”

The following blog title recently caught my attention: “Why You Shouldn’t Strive for Perfection.”  Reading that statement made my blood pressure rise.  

A little further reading made it go up even more, as I read about a writing professor who presented his class with this assignment: 1. Write something that is just ‘so-so.’ 2. Do some research or get some feedback from a mentor or teacher. 3. Try again to make it better.” I wondered to myself, “Why would anyone strive to do something just “so-so” instead of always doing the best that they could do?”

The author’s three-part explanation for not striving for perfection all the time read as follows: “1. When you work toward making something just ‘so-so,’ it takes all the anxiety and fear out of the experience. 2. Once you’re not worried about failing, you can concentrate on your task. 3. As you work toward step #3, ‘make it better,’ you are acknowledging that

there’s plenty to learn.”

And finally, there was the following three-part summary: “1. In learning a new skill, don’t focus on perfection. 2. Make your goal to produce something ‘OK,’ then get some help, and then make improvements. 3. Rinse and repeat until you are satisfied.”

I suppose that the words about working to a “so-so” or “OK” result struck me the wrong way. My comment I left on that blog follows, first, with a quote by legendary football coach Vince Lombardi and then my personal comment.

The Lombardi quote: “Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in being just good.”

Then, I commented, “In my long business career, I have never strived to be ‘so-so’ or ‘OK’ at doing anything. I have always strived to be the best I could be, never expecting perfection, but always striving for it. I can’t imagine my managers and employees doing their jobs expecting the results to be ‘so-so.’ Learning and improving are part of any process. But the expectation should always be to do or be the best you can.”

What do you think? Should you strive to do an “OK” job, or should you strive to always do your very best?

No. 1 January 2012

I came across the following prayer that should bring a smile to you face. I think I’m going to try it and see if it works!  “Dear God, My prayer for 2012 is for a fat bank account and a thin body.  Please don’t mix these up like you did last year. AMEN!”

In one of the many personal finance blogs I read regularly, I came across an insightful but very depressing summary of what has become of our dream of retirement, and I saved it to share with you. It sums up my feelings very well.

“Remember the way retirement was supposed to work? That model depended in many cases on an employer who paid you a pension and took care of your medical bills in exchange for 30 or more years of loyalty.  That model depended on a system of affordable housing that would increase in value, little by little, year after year. That model depended on a banking and investment system that believed in a fair profit but managed to keep the most greedy and immoral members of its community under check or quickly disposed of. That model depended on a government that worked, compromised as needed, and understood that we are all in this together. To  create a nation of a few haves and a whole bunch of have-nots was in no one’s long-term interest.”

“That model has been either severely damaged, if not shattered. Certainly, there will be an increasingly large percentage of our citizens who have no real expectation of a standard retirement lifestyle. The financial meltdown has destroyed too many nest eggs and shredded too many financial plans. Working as long as possible will be essential, or even desired, by many.”

Welcome to the new “normal.”

I usually don’t comment about product introductions, but this announcement in a recent Reuters article by John D. Stoll caught my eye. A new line of premium Craftsman lawn mowers, retailing between $3,000 and $6,500, will be introduced in January 2012 at the Detroit Auto Show.

Yep, that’s right...the Detroit Auto Show. The hope is that launching the new Craftsman CTX lineup at the Detroit Auto Show will greatly increase visibility for the brand as it aims to move up-market to better take on rivals like Deere & Co., Cub Cadet and Toro Co.

Craftsman spokesperson Kris Malkoski “sees the event as a significant debut of high-end products by a brand that has largely been associated with lower-priced mowers.” The new tractors’ 8-mile-per-hour top speed is at the top of the mower industry, she added. Other features of the CTX lineup include press-button adjustments for blade height and attachments that quickly convert the mower into a hauler, aerator, sweeper or snowplow. The CTX line will be built in New York and Georgia by Briggs & Stratton and sold in Sears’ stores nationwide, starting in February.

OK, let’s review the facts again. The Craftsman CTX lineup will be introduced at the Detroit Auto Show. It will retail at more than double the price of a standard mid-range riding mower. It will have lots of bells and whistles, which apparently includes push-button electronic controls for adjustments. I suspect it will have lots of “wow factor” and attract lots of attention.  It better, at those prices.  But at the end of the day, no matter how many bells and whistles it has, it still just cuts grass. At those price points, it will be interesting to see how well they do in the marketplace.

The next time you get ready to give up and stop working to make your business successful, think about the following story:

A man walking down a narrow, twisting road spotted a guru sitting on the grass in meditation. He approached the guru and asked, “Excuse me, master, is this the road to success?”

The old man nodded silently and pointed in the direction the traveler was headed. The traveler thanked the guru and went on his way.

An hour later, the traveler returned, bleeding, exhausted, and angry. “Why did you tell me that was the road to success?” he asked the guru. “I walked that way, and right away I fell into a ditch so deep it took me almost

an hour to climb out. Why did you tell me to go that way? Was that some kind of joke?”

The guru stared at him. After a long pause, he started to speak.  “That is the road to success.  It lies just beyond the ditch.”