What Is An Autopilot Business - Can It Be Done?

Lately I have been involved in several discussions about creating a business and setting it on autopilot.  I find autopilots to be a great analogy.  More so since I am a former military instructor pilot and a commercial airline pilot.

What business isn't is a "fire and forget missile".  That is the mistake many owners make.

So What's the difference?

Simply put, a fire and forget missile is exactly that.  You get it all set up, chase down your target and as soon as you fire the missile, you go chase another target.  The missile will go get the target all by itself.  They are quite scary toys when you get on the wrong end of them.  Just like sending a salesman out on his own, and customers getting away, jets have several tricks to protect themselves from a fire and forget missile.  If you don't make sure the missile shot down the target you just might find yourself the target.

Autopilots are much more like an investment grade or "seventh level" business.  If you don't know what a seventh level business is, Gary Kellers Red Book explains it pretty well.  He teaches independent real estate agents how to build a business and put it on autopilot.  The methods work for any business.

What most people don't realize is that an Autopilot is nothing more than a three dimensional cruise control.  Ironically, most autopilots have very limited ability to control the engines of the airplane, so using the autopilot at the wrong time can make things worse.

In a car when you set the cruise you still have to steer right?  Before the autopilot, all we had in the airplane is trim.  Trim keeps the airplane at the same altitude and in the same direction if all other things are equal.  If the wind changes, you need to change trim.  Temperature changes, you need to change trim.

Next came the autopilot.  It could correct for wind and temperature, but it doesn't have eyes or talk to the radar. If you set the autopilot and there is a big storm you still have to make adjustments to the system so you don't fly into the storm.

This is exactly where most business owners get into trouble and why I make good money teaching them how to fix the damage they did to their own systems.  Even the best franchises can have this problem.  The owner gets the business all set up, hires a good manager and as soon as everything is ok,  they feel like the autopilot is on so they step out.  

Pilots NEVER leave the flight deck even with the autopilot on.  Why not?  Things change.  

Weather, traffic, fuel and the systems are all variables the Autopilot can't see or react with.  At least one pilot is always up there monitoring the systems and the autopilot.  I check in on my business all the time.  Truly successful people live between very blurred lines of work and vacation for this reason.  

Notice I said at least one pilot is always up there monitoring the systems.  I didn't say the Captain was always up there.  My first lesson in leaving my business alone for a short period was the first time I went on a cruise.  I didn't have a cell phone or pager for four days.  After nearly having a nervous breakdown, I slept over 18 hours.  When I got back to the port and checked in, my number two did a great job.  There were a few glitches, but nothing catastrophic.

When I got back, I made some minor adjustments, and also decided to do it more often.  The trick is not to totally walk away.  Just like an autopilot, monitoring and adjusting is essential.

Even real estate investors and long term stock investors need to check in once in a while.  I like to see my investment properties at least once every three months.  I also give my cards to the neighbors and let them know that if my tenants are a hassle to please call me anonymously.  

I also have a simple program on my computer that shows green/red for my stock investments on a three month average.  Every three months or when I see red, I look at the stocks.  I don't buy penny stocks or gamble.  That means watching it every day.  That isn't autopilot.  Even the best companies can make mistakes or fall out of favor, and once every three months has turned out to work for me.

As systems and information get better, we can act like drone pilots, and control several drones from one location.  As long as there is a person in charge of each drone, and you just check in once in a while to verify everything is ok, you can actually run several businesses on autopilot at once.  

In the airplane, there is usually a "relief" pilot who joins the co-pilot, so there are still two sets of eyes on everything, and a free person to get the Captain if something goes really awry.  My friend that owns a dozen big name burger joints has a manager at each location and two GM's that float among all the location just like he does.  When he goes on vacation, he still checks the deposits every other day and the two GM's know how to get ahold of him.  Blurred lines between business and vacation.  

So can you put a business on autopilot?  Absolutely, as long as you respect the limits of the autopilot.  The Autopilot doesn't replace the pilot, it just frees him up to do other things from time to time.

Farming One Crop, or Multiple Crops For success which is better?

Have you ever felt that school was a waste of time?  Have you ever been lost in a subject to the point you didn't know the time or even the day?  How can it be that you absorb some things very well, and others topics of education can be so uninteresting that you have to work just to stay awake?

The reality is simple, and the truth isn't easy.  As humans we are hard wired to have an interest in certain things.  Those interests create the desire to learn more.  No interest, no desire.  Great teachers create interest first, lessons second.  Boring lecturers spew out lessons and hope you can force or fake interest.

Technical schools and apprentice programs used to be the way of life, but corporations found these a bit too risky and pushed the responsibility to the government, which by the way gladly accepted.  The problem was instead of allowing people to find an interesting path and become great at it, we were all lined up on boring roads and received somewhat generic educations.  This is why the greatest technical companies like Hewlett-Packard, Bell Telephone (AT&T), Edison Electric and Apple were created by those that stepped out of the system and created their own learning path.  They stayed interested.

So what does this have to do with Farming and Success?  Much like school, life and business offer us a variety of ways to grow and succeed.   The two Steve's of Apple, Mr. Hewlett and Mr. Packard, along with Mr. Bell and even Mr. Edison all showed us a different way to build success outside of the halls of education.

Ironically, farmers figured this out long before industrialization, and the lesson is one worth looking at.

In my coaching life, focus is a major element of my work.  I spend a lot of hours with clients getting them to simplify and focus on a small number of important tasks and goals instead of giant, endless to do lists that are really just busy work to avoid the hard work that needs to be done.

Lately I have been called a hypocrite more than once.  Besides coaching, I still fly, train our internet marketing staff, and am involved in real estate as an investor, trainer and agent.  So the question I get is "How can you claim focus is so important when you have so many irons in the fire?"

To start with, I don't look at these like irons in the fire.  I look at them like a farm.  You can build one giant farm with one crop.  As long as that crop does good, you will do great.  The better you do the more land you can buy and the better you get at knowing how to get the most money from that crop per acre.  You get the best prices on seeds, pesticides and labor because of the economy of scale and your ability to buy in quantity.

You can also build a farm that has several smaller crops of higher margin.  By learning how to grow crops that help each other in pest prevention, soil conservation and nutrient usage, you can also create a great farm.  You can never compete against the single crop neighbor on a price basis, and when the economy turns south, you might be in a riskier position. However, the single crop master farmer has to worry about a single shift ending his business.  What if he grows sugar cane, and the government decides to tax sugar 100% because it causes health problems.  He could be out of business overnight because you can't just change to tobacco in a day or even a month.

Starting a multi crop farm takes a different kind of focus.  You must have a big picture of what you are trying to do overall, for instance create an organic farm, or a farm store.  You must also focus on each crop one at a time until you learn them so each are a small success.  Your sugar might only yield 80% as much per acre, but your higher quality can yield equal or higher profits per acre.  Think Tiffany's.

When I sit down to write, I am a writer.  When I go to the studio to act, I am an actor.  I don't bring Real Estate to the studio, and I don't practice acting during open houses or when I am flying jets.  When I fly jets, I look and act like a pilot.  When I am in the Real Estate office working, training or attending a meeting, I look like a professional full time Realtor.

As I built my life, I did it in stages.  I worked at flying jets until I was highly proficient and only need a few hours each month to maintain my skills.  Then I could start classes for Real Estate.  I worked at that as an investor for years and know have my methods down to simple checklists.  I can evaluate an investment in less than 15 minutes.

Finally I could start acting classes and work at adding acting to my skill and income sets.  Writing is really just an extension of my experience just like coaching is, but I still take classes to be better at both of them as well.

I would probably make a little more money if I just picked on, and did it all of the time.  I am very fortunate to have started on my first path very early, and having stuck with it, was able to move on to the next with plenty of time on my life clock left.

In Flying will I ever be Bob Hoover?  Nope.
In Real Estate Investing will I be Donald Trump? Nope.
In Acting will I be Tom Cruise or John Travolta or even Scott Baio? Nope.
In Writing will I be Steven King? Nope.

Can I do quite well at all of them individually so that the income and lifestyle add up to something like they live?  Yes, and that is the life I designed for myself.

Because I built my life this way on purpose, I don't work at any one job.  In fact I don't work at any of my jobs.  They are all fun.  I am doing now almost exactly what I want to do when I am "retired".  It doesn't get any better than that.

So it doesn't matter which type of business or life you want to build, a single faceted super sized business/life or a multifaceted business/life.  As long as you pick one, do it with purpose and take the time to develop each facet or perfect the single face of your business, success can be achieved either way.  As long as there is a destination or goal to focus on you can do it.  No destination, no focus, no achieving the goal.

As you head into the weekend, really take a look at what you want.  A single mission business or do you want to do something more?  I like getting small and medium checks daily from all kinds of sources.  Some people need steady checks on the first and fifteenth, and others can do with one or two really big checks a year.  What do you want?

You can start with a single business like real estate investing and turn it into a 100 Million Dollar empire like Dean Graziosi did and then the checks don't matter as much.  Success really is that simple, it just isn't easy.

The Carrot and Stick For Better Business Success

In earlier posts I discussed going outside of the envelope.  As a pilot we would train by leaving the envelope in a spin, and recovering to the normal realm of flight.  There is a step I didn't mention. In military flying, because the training puts you closer to the edge of the envelope so often, and you spend so much time outside of it to gain understanding of aircraft performance, the jets have ejections seats.

If you go into a spin and you get below an altitude that will allow you to recover, you simply eject and save your life.  You can always get a new airplane.

While not a proud moment in my life, having to walk away from a business I spent 8 years building, it was the right thing to do.  The business went into a spin and did not have the finances to recover.  I ejected, regrouped and went back into business.  Most who eject in business will never go back.

Knowing when to bow out of the game is just as critical to success as pushing forward.  Just like being in an airplane there are some indicators that the spin is getting too low and you need to do something differently and quickly or you are going to need to eject out of the business.  A late ejection is called a bankruptcy.

Running a business is a challenge that very few will ever try.  Fewer yet will be successful at it, and a big part of my life has been spent understanding why.  A few will have failed in one business only to succeed in another as I did.  Without doing this I don't think I could have the understanding I have now.

Within the business all of the people have an effect on the outcome.  If you don't believe it, you are looking at your business all wrong.  Paying someone to do nothing at all still takes money away from the bottom line and therefore effects the outcome of your business.

When everyone is clear on what the mission is of the business and is properly trained in their jobs, the owner is only there to make minor course corrections and keep everyone moving forward.  The owner acts more like an interested investor or a coach when the business is set up right.

During the early days of Apple, Microsoft and Cisco, there were a lot of ups and downs. The people that stuck it out made millions on their stock options.  The success of the company created their individual financial success.

As a leader, your job is to make sure that there is a stick, and it is used only when needed.  Too much discipline, unfair attacks or any kind of discrimination just hurt the business.  Failing to enforce the rules  of the business can be worse.   In my successful businesses my employee turnover was near zero.  In my failed venture, I had 80% quarterly turnover of key employees.  The business had a major problem and I couldn't see it until I ejected and could look at it without having the worry of making payroll.

These days I spend way more time hiring and turn away new business when I don't have the people or capital to service the customer properly.  I know how hard it is to turn away good money, but if you can't earn it, you have to turn down the work until you are ready.

Employees, staff and contractors all need to know what the "sticks" are for not making the goals.  A friend of mine just got a promotion at his company because someone falsified some records.  The stick was a swift termination.  This is exactly the right thing for the company to do.  They don't do it often, but when they do find a salesperson falsifying records, the zero tolerance policy is enforced.

Being "nice" has no place in decision making at this level of the game.  If the person is lying on paper, they will lie to you and your customers.  They need to go.

Of even greater importance are the carrots.  The rewards for doing great work must be there.  Just like you need to give yourself rewards, you need to learn what your employees really want.  When you learn that and give it to them as a reward for exceptional performance.  When you do, they will deliver and keep delivering.

Most owners don't take the time to learn about their employees and find out what they really want.  You can't learn what sticks they'll fear and respect so you won't need to use them if you don't know your staff.  Likewise, you can't learn the rewards if you don't know who they are either.

Know where you want your business to go, know what your people really want and don't want to go and you are off to a great start.  There is more but if you don't get this part right the rest won't matter.

Are You “Slow and Steady” or a “Safety Net and The Big Score” type?

So which are you?  Do you even know?  This month, I had more than one discussion in this area and it got me thinking, that most people don’t even know!  they can’t see the signs that they are suffering in a safety net with the hope of the “big score”.

Since humans are logical, you would think that these two different approaches to life and success would be easy to see, and yet it apparently isn’t to most people, and I’ll use actors as an example.

In acting I have found that there are two basic approaches.  First is the formal school approach where you start young, apply to a conservatory or a well known school, hope to graduate, hope to get an agent and hope to get work.  Mel Gibson, Even then only a small percentage of graduates are the names you would recognize.  My current acting instructor, Harli Ames is probably a name you have never heard of, and yet he made it through of of the toughest schools in Australia.

The next approach is what I call the dive right in approach.  You just start applying to everything and anything you can get, and take some classes along the way.  Brad Pitt left college and moved to LA to start acting, taking classes from an independent coach.  Most will start out as “background” or “extras” and work to move up to featured and then hope to get some better paying commercials and speaking parts.  Others will start in unpaid community theater or non-union work.

So of these two groups, which is the slow and steady, and which is the Safety Net and The Big Score?  The answer is most of neither and many of both.

The slow and steady group who go to the formal acting programs usually make it big or branch out in to the multiple income stream program.  They will write, direct, produce and act, rarely becoming well known for any of them and still generating a nice income when you put them all together.  Some will teach to generate a steady base income and most will realize that the big score may not happen so they start to leverage a host of “little scores”.  

Think of it like a shower head with a bunch of little holes v a hose with one giant hole.  Either one will get you wet, and most people find the shower head more comfortable.

Life is very transitional so people don’t always stay on one side or the other their entire carrear.  Having kids for instance can cause an instant shift in outlook the first time you can’t buy formula.  When the safety net isn’t enough, some people step off and go do something else entirely.  

The second group, of which I am much more familiar is the dive right in group.  They will do anything to keep working.  Some will get the Safety Net disease, others will realize how much work it is an quit, and two small groups will appear.  Those that become “hobby actors” like me who are just having a great time doing it and don’t worry about not having work because we have a very large safety net, and those who keep going trying to do it full time.

So am I a “Safety Net and Big Score” type or “Slow and Steady”?  

The Safety Net group generally feels more “entitled” like they deserve to get the big score and that someone should take care of them until it happens.  I met a girl who was 24, living at home, driving a very nice Mercedes SLK and working background two days a week until her “Big Break”.  It makes her crazy that I get principle work without trying and told me that the classes I am taking are a “waste of time” - Safety Net and Big Score may as well be tattooed on her forehead.

It amazes me how quickly the safety net group finds each other on set and starts trading notes on how to collect unemployment and work for cash until the next job in background.  Sitting and listening in has been an eye opening experience.  Once they find out anything about me I am kicked out of the group.  It has become my challenge of silence to see how long I can sit with them.

Of that group I haven’t seen a single “upgrade” yet.  They are usually too busy talking about how to use the safety net and can’t see the opportunity right in front of them.

Now back to the Slow and Steady types.  Many have good paying day jobs, take night acting classes and are generally looking forward in some way.  The day job isn’t a “minimum” fall back position, and they are always negotiating to get flexible schedules to work as an actor.  Several I know are real estate agents, and have continued to work as real estate agents through the downturn because the schedules are flexible.

Now you would think from this that the trained actors would be in the slow and steady, and the dive right in would mostly fit in the safety net and big score group.  You would be wrong.

I have met professionally trained actors with multiple credits who are broke and living day to day.  They refuse to take “background” or “extra” work because it is beneath them even though it is union work and adds to their pension and health benefits.  Instead they work for cash and collect unemployment.

At the same time I have met several full time “background” actors with no formal training who are in the top 10% of earnings, maintain their pension growth and health benefits every year.  They are at work ready willing and able. If they get an “upgrade” and speak, great, if not, great.  You don’t know any of their names, and they don’t care.

I don’t know about you, but sitting around in a safety net waiting for the “Big Score” sounds boring to me, I would rather go to work, keep my life and investments growing and have fun.

So which one are you?

The Carrot and Stick For Higher Personal Performance and Success

I've been bouncing around the ideas of Activity - Reward and Carrot - Stick for business and personal success.  This will be about personal success, because your business can't succeed if you aren't a success yourself.

To start I want to talk about "being" for a moment.  In the Zen sense of it all "being" is just that.  Basically meditating or doing something without effort or thought.  When you do that you are just "being".

The problem is that most people don't have any ingrained survival skills any more when they are just "being".  When a cat is "being" and it runs across a mouse, it will catch the mouse, and if it is hungry it will eat everything but the head.  It saves the head as a gift for it's master.  The cat is simply "being" a cat.

A buddhist monk can just be walking the monastery, growing food, preparing meals and meditating because they have trained to exist in this mode of being.  Most of the rest of us haven't trained to survive and therefore succeed in any mode of being.

Socialization and industrialization has conditioned our ability to survive out of our "being".  When we are hungry, we don't kill the next bird that fly's by and eat it do we?  Leave a former Navy Seal alone on the street hungry, and he will.  Why?  Because he was conditioned back to a different level of survival and to him, being hungry simply means time to gather food.  The bird is just food.

In order to succeed while you are just "being", you must first have a vision of who you want to be, where that person is going, what it took to get there, and then "become" the person who makes the journey from where you are today to the person you are "being" and therefore become.

Imagine a woman, broke, lonely and working at a dead end job barely able to make her rent.  After going to a big self help conference she decides to set some huge goals and shoot for the stars.  She decides that she is going to make $5 Million dollars this year.  She goes home reads the books, thinks about making $5 Million a year, maybe even prays to make $5 Million a year.  At the end of the day she keeps her same job, and at the end of the year, she gives up feeling that she failed because she wasn't making $5 Million for the year.

What went wrong?  Aren't we supposed to "Think and Grow Rich"?  The answer is a little more than just thinking about making $5 Million a year.  Before you can be someone who makes $5 Million per year, you have to be that person who made $24,000 per year who then made $5 Million per year.  "Being" a lottery winner or trust fund baby only works if you get lucky, and this isn't about luck or are born into a wealthy family, and this isn't about that either.

You can't pick your parents and you can't fix the lotto.

What I mean is this.  If you want to make $5 Million per year, you have to find out about people who make $5 Million per year.  They all did something to get where our woman wants to go.  One of those people made the money in a way that she would find tolerable.  Now she must "be" that person until it becomes part of her "being".

Before you can make the decision of who you will be, you need to know the sacrifices they made to get there.  You have to be ready to make similar sacrifices.  There are stories of many famous actors who finished great colleges or theater programs only to end up sleeping in their cars before their big break.  If you want to be the next Brad Pitt, are you willing to sleep in your car?  I know that "being" Brad Pitt isn't for me, and likewise this is where most people just walk away from big goals.  They aren't willing to take the sticks and thorns of the path less traveled.

You will need to know what sacrifices they endured, what sticks they were hit with, which ones they respected and avoided.   You should also know the little rewards they gave themselves on their own journey to the goal to keep moving when the journey appeared hopeless.

When you accept the sticks and carrots of the journey as your own life, then you can become someone on the journey.  Only then are you "being" the person who WILL make $5 Million per year instead of the failure who didn't make $5 Million per year.

Setting goals that you don't reach is a downward spin you need to stay out of.  You can only do that by understanding and accepting the real costs of your goals and "being" the person that pays the price to make the journey and achieve the goals.

"Being" is easier when you know what the carrots and sticks are and are willing to take them both anytime they happen.

Do You Need An Acting Class To Advance Your Career?

Some time ago I was given the opportunity to work on The Newsroom, and in rare form, I showed up without doing my homework.  I was so glad to get the opportunity, I focused on the wrong thing.  I spent more time looking at how to get there, what time I needed to leave and didn't look at what the show was about or how I would fit in or who my character was, his backstory, nothing.

I also didn't read anything about the show other than Jeff Daniels was the lead character Will McAvoy.  Imagine that, the Dumb and Dumber guy as the lead in a drama.  I figured it would be a great deal, and I would get to work with some cool people.  I was right about that and nothing else.  I just showed up, with no idea what I was doing or going to do.

Everything went very smooth after I arrived.  Wardrobe, hair, makeup were all quick and easy.  I had a few minutes to meet the other person who would be on set with me, Andray Johnson.   Andray is a working actor, and has since helped me to become involved with the Veterans in Film and Television group.

As we got on set, they placed me next to Sloan played by Olivia Munn, the co-anchor on the show, and we start.  After three quick camera checks, we are rolling and about three beats in, Jeff Daniels looks right at me and says "What do you think?".  My brain just went to freeze-fright-flight mode and froze.  All I could think was "That isn't on the script!" but what came out was "Uh Well You know uh".  I didn't do my homework, and as John Boyd would say, I got hosed for it.

The director yelled cut, I was out, and the next guy was in.  Ouch.  Everyone was very nice and professional but I knew what had just happened.

Have you ever seen this happen in a sales presentation, company briefing or speech?

I bring this up because I have seen this happen in more business and sales presentations than I care to mention.  Just like being on set, it is normally preparation and homework. I didn't do my homework and let the crew down and the casting director who trusted me to do a great job.  Lesson learned, I won't let it happen again.

Being the true professional she is, Olivia tried to save me and slid some notes over in case I got another take.  It didn't happen, and I was politely escorted off the set.  Showing the level he was at, Jeff Daniels later took a moment and offered some advice.  He let me know not to sweat it, and that I should get some improv training, he mentioned "The Groundlings" in Hollywood might help.

The timing hasn't worked out for The Groundlings yet, although I do intend to go if they will let me in sometime soon.

For now I am taking an acting class with Harli Ames.  At last nights class we spent most of the time on improv.  It is scary how much you can learn in three hours when you push yourself.  It is no wonder people that do to schools like The Groundlings are so good at it.

The class has about 15 people, and only five have any acting aspirations.  The rest are there to get better at public speaking, business presentations or sales presentations.  Having a business degree and being an experienced public speaker, I would have never considered an acting class.  If I knew then what I know now....

It was amazing to see the transition as we did an exercise called "Space Jump".  If felt like being on stage with Wayne Brady.  Things came out of people you would never expect.  One of the most shy people in class jumped up and jumped right in, becoming a completely different person.  If the class were just this one night, I would already call it money well spent.

So, DO YOU need an acting class?

The Carrot and The Stick Management Theory

After earning my business degree, my desire to learn didn't stop.  I studied Jack Welch of GE and the idea of Six Sigma.  Get rid of the bottom 10%, there is a stick for sure.

A few people out there clearly won't accept my idea that some form of punishment or "stick" is required in business, and with children.  They will quickly point out that I am not a psychologist, nor do I have kids.

As a Co-Pilot on a big jet, there is a lot going on.  You can't see what the guy is doing behind you and are lucky to keep up with the guy to your left when you first start out.   As you move into the left seat and become the "Captain" or "Aircraft Commander", you get a better view.  You can see more of what is going on and make better decisions.  You don't become myopic as easily.

When you become and instructor and sit in the jump seat behind the two or three pilots, you become amazingly visionary.  Since you aren't actually doing anything, you see everything.  This is what coaches do for a business.  They stand back and look at the bigger picture, one owners and managers rarely see because they are "in" the business and get focused on some specific aspect causing them to be myopic.

In flying the "stick" when you do something really wrong is that somebody gets hurt.  Look at all of the aviation accidents, and then consider how safe flying still is.  The respect (not fear) of the "stick" is what keeps 99.9999% of all flights safe.  The next time an airliner stops for fuel, don't get mad at the pilots, thank them for not making you part of the punishment for being too aggressive on fuel.

To the people who say the stick isn't required, my rebut is simple.  Why are so many people incarcerated at such a high expense if the stick isn't required.  Deep down we all know the stick is required, but in our society of political correctness, we have made the stick soft.  Gym's, TV, three squares, baseball fields and movie nights?  While incarceration might sound bad to most of us.  Not enough of us respect or fear that stick, so too many end up getting hit by it.

My guess is the incarceration has more carrots than life on the outside for many of the people who are inside the high concrete walls.  Instead of spending $100,000 per year per inmate, why don't we spend $25,000 per year to help them become productive people?  Why don't we start with our children and get realistic on teaching them how life really works instead of trying to be "fair" to all of them.

As far as my experience with kids goes, my wife is a 20 year veteran of the 2nd grade classroom with an MBA.  I don't ever recall seeing her classes out of control or rambunctious, but I have seen many others.  Her techniques in the classroom are a big part of how we treat our niece and nephew when they stay with us.

My niece and nephew visit for extended periods because they live in other states.  Weekend visits aren't practical.  When they visit,  we don't have any trouble with them at all.  Neither of them have ever done anything to deserve capital punishment while they are with us.  They didn't get "Time Out" either, I think that is a joke.  Getting sent to their room?  In my house that is a multimedia entertainment room any kid would like to get sent to.   Our stick?  Easy, supervised chores with no reward.  When they did chores without being told too or without supervision and did them correctly, the same chores came with rewards.

When my nephew first came to stay for the summer he was an easy bribe.  A trip to the local Sonic on Friday, in the convertible, for an ice cream with just me, was the reward.  He wanted "Guy Time" and I work crazy hours.  So if he did his end of the deal, I would take time away from work to do my end.

The chore?  His room had to be picked up and his bed made every day for two weeks.  Did it work? Yes.  Did it take a little nudge the first couple of nights, yes.  He was just five years old.  He made his bed every day on the last visit with only one reminder.  He is 11.

By the time my nephew returned to my sister, his bed was made every day, and he picked his own reward for bigger and better chores.  The neat room and bed were just what he did after four weeks and two trips to the local Sonic.  He started asking to help me with more work around the property so he could spend more time with me or the other boys on the street.

When was the last time your kids asked for more work?

Am I an expert at raising kids? Nope.  Was I successful with my nephew when I had the chance?  I think so.

So the next two questions of course are:

1. How do I apply this to managing people?

2. How do I apply this to perform better myself?

Come back next week.....

Do Nothing Get Nothing, Do Something You Might Get Something

The cynical among us read that title and said "Yeah, but you might do something and get nothing too." They would be right.  There are dozens of sayings like this.  The basic premise is if you want something to happen get off your butt and do something, unless you are a writer, I find writing easier when I sit.

There are a lot of angst ridden people in the world.  They feel like they are doing so much and getting so little.  I have felt this way many times, and I am sure you have too.

We attend seminars, read books and watch shows that are supposed to make us feel good and help us get more out of life.  So with all of this help out there, why do we feel like we aren't getting enough?  How come we sometimes feel helpless.

The Secret

No not the movie or the book, but the real secret.  Do you want to know it?  There is a comedic irony to life, and once you discover it and more importantly once you start living it, you will feel like you are getting enough because you will be getting more than you believe you will get today.

Now some people will start off by telling you to be happy with what you have and live with it.  They will try and tell you it is all in your head.  Some of it is.

The part that is in your head I like to call the Schleprock syndrome.  My wife has a little bit of it still, and when I see it I shut it down quickly.  You might have it too.

The Schleprock syndrome is a low state of constant worry.  The other day my wife answered a text to be available on Saturday, and then took another gig Friday night.  When she started to worry about an early work time on Saturday, I looked at her and said "This is easy, either cancel one now, or if Saturday is too early, get a hotel or better yet, tell them you are no longer available."  Having valid options stopped the worry and sure enough, Saturday was cancelled anyway.

When I had my largest business, the first time I had to skip my own salary to make payroll, I spiraled into Schleprock syndrome.  From then on I was more worried about making payroll than building a business.  Some will tell you that you have to worry about making payroll as the owner, and I will tell you that is bunk.  If you can't make payroll the business can survive.  If you don't get new business it won't.  It really is that simple.

This is the part of the book "The Secret" that I think is valid.  If you spend all of your time focused on the bad things that can happen in your life, you will do things that increase the likelihood of them happening.  While the reverse is true, being focused on the positive things does lead to more positive, it doesn't magically make a rock star parking space appear at the mall on black Friday.

Now that I understand the Schleprock phenomenon and can see it in others, the question is how to break the spell?

Yes this part is a mental game, in fact all of it is.  Unlike the teaching of an author once made famous by Oprah Winfrey, whose career stalled about that time by the way, this isn't about being happy with what you have and staying put.  The only people that plan works for are buddhist monks.  The rest of us thrive on change to live life.

We might have a little fear of change, but we need it to grow.  Being happy is just one ingredient of the recipe for success.  Some comics who are successful and miserable prove happiness isn't even required for financial success.

The Chicken and the Egg Question

Starting where you are today, where do you go next?  Do you fix your mind and stop worrying, or do you focus on the positive and the worry goes away?  I bet you have heard about or read about both ways.  Has either of them worked?  I bet not.

What happens in both cases is the mind is already trained to think a certain way.   You have triggers all around you that start certain thought patterns.  Leaving that unpaid bill on top of your desk that you know you can't pay this week doesn't help.  You might see your highest paid employee and think "I need to cut payroll" and your day begins its downhill slide.  You might see an invoice that you can't pay on your desk, and your day begins a downhill slide.

So if you can't just stop worrying or thinking positive, what do you do?

To begin with, simplify.  My experience both personally and as a coach is that simplification is the key to getting started.  You may have already put some events into motion that make that very difficult.  Tough decisions have to be made here.  They are clear and easy but tough because we don't like letting other people down.

Some of the easy methods center around de-clutering your life.  Make time and mental space for yourself.  A file folder for bills that you can't pay now gets them off your desk.  When you get a big check, open it up and feel good about paying as many as you can.  When you are done, put it back and move on.  Looking at the bills every day when you don't have money to pay them isn't going to help you get more money.  It just wastes time you could be using to find or generate income and starts your worry spiral for the day if it hasn't already started.

If you have a family, you may need to sacrifice some or a lot of family time to really achieve what you want.  If you have a business, you might need to let some people go and take over those responsibilities yourself for a while.

It isn't about which to do first, you must make a phase shift that covers both.  Getting positive without eliminating worry doesn't work nor does eliminating worry and being negative about everything.

The place to start is by looking for the best all of the time.  Look for the best in yourself and others, look for the best in events in your life.  At the same time look to simplify.  Say "No" to anything that isn't helping you get where you want to go.

Making a list of goals isn't the answer either.  Everytime I meet a new client who does this, they are doing it very wrong.  Most of the time if we really talk about the goals, we find that the goals are counterproductive and limit each other.  For instance, "Being the best dad" and "Being a great singer" can't happen at the same time.  One must come first.  Once you master the first one, then move on to the second.

The Simple Path To Being a Millionaire

Even when I get people to a single goal, or "mini-mission", a deep review will find several activities or sacrifices the person isn't willing to do.  Gary Keller wrote a fantastic book that will make anyone a Millionaire who is willing to follow it.  In fact he wrote two of them.  The Millionaire Real Estate Investor and the The Millionaire Real Estate Agent.   At Keller Williams offices these are affectionately known as MREI or the "Blue Book" and MREA or the "Red Book".

For those of you that don't know, I have a real estate license for my  own investing.  It is one little step that Gary missed.  If you are going to be a pro investor or a pro agent making seven figures, I think you need to take the classes, get the license and know what is going on in the industry.  I also don't find helping friends who are getting bad information from agents that don't even own a home or are on salary so they don't care.

For business owners, actors and consultants there are hundreds of similar classes that will give you a roadmap to success.  These should be taken in addition too, not in lieu of the formal training classes for your craft.   The best always are studying and learning to get better.  If you don't enjoy learning more about your craft, your first step is to go find a new craft.

95% of the agents I meet have never even heard of either of these books.  The dozen or so that I know that read them have changed their goals.  Instead of following the checklist to become a millionaire, they decide to do less and make a lot less.

My friend and mentor, Dean Graziosi, also has several great books with step by step methods to making money in real estate.

Both Gary and Dean describe quite clearly the actions you mist take to achieve the goals they set for you.  It is very simple, but not easy.  They are both telling you exactly how to "be" if you are going to be a real estate millionaire in five years or less.

Here are two authors, which with a five year investment of your time and effort are the closest thing to guaranteed financial result that I have ever seen.  So why do I tell people about these books and risk increasing the competition in my investment business?  Simple, most people won't do it at all because they might have to sacrifice a little luxury in their life, and another group will lose focus in the initial days weeks or months, and finally competition forces you to get better.

The irony and secret of life is this.  You will only be paid to be the best when you are the best.  Of all the things that you can do in life, there is one that you will be the most successful at.  Likely it is something you already do or free and don't think anything of it.  The better you get the more you will make.  The competition is ready for the job, you need to be better than ready.

Success is simple, but the road that leads to it isn't easy or lazy.

Picking The Right Rewards

The activity - reward system isn't perfected by any means, but I have a few ideas to share with you.

Picking the rewards has to fit the principle of the activity.  In an earlier post I talked about burning 400 calories and then getting an 1100 calorie shake.  Just a little counter productive.

Finding self punishment is another difficult task as adults.  We are taught to think "we deserve it."

One of the reasons I have a very difficult time working in a 9-5 lifestyle is the reward system.  Work one year, take a two week vacation doesn't work for me.

A contractor I met some years ago taught me the "Do the deal, get a check, take a vacation" philosophy.  The problem is that most people like to plan their vacations and know where they are going.  You can't do that if you don't get the reward until you get the check.

More than once I have cancelled trips with my wife and lost money because a project wasn't finished.  It was my form of punishment for missing a deadline.  The good news is I am much better at time planning these days.

I like the whole attitude that surrounds the "Do the deal, get a check, take a vacation" process as the core of the reward process.

Yesterday, I wanted to go play for a few hours.  I made that activity my "reward".  I then looked at my "to do" list and picked a half dozen items.  When they were done I could go play.  I ended up doing three more "while I was at it", and still made it out where I wanted to go and had a great afternoon.

I could have sat at my desk for hours doing busy work, but instead I assigned a reward, picked the work that mattered, got it done and then headed out for reward.  You can't do this in an hourly job in an office.  Interestingly, the  "Reward Challenge" is the only thing I like about the show "Survivor".

My entire staff is set up on a similar program.  All projects pay a set bonus, so if they can get it done quicker, bonus.  If they rush it, and have to do it twice, punishment, they did it twice.  

No rewards until there is accomplishment.  Want a soda, clean the kitchen, want to sit on your patio with a beverage, weed the beds.  Make it a little game if you have too.  It will help you self start, get more done and be the person everybody wants around because you get things done.

Can You Be Too Hungry? The Problem With "Now" Thinking - It is Simple, Not Easy.

This has been a very interesting week and the recurring issue has arrived from three different sources.  Some time ago I read a management and leadership book that said to hire PHD's meaning Poor-Hungry-Desperate.  I have since tossed the book so my apologies for the lack of reference.

Rick Pitino in his book Success is a Choice talks about having a similar problem and I like his solution better.  He says to hire Poor-Hungry-Driven.  The subtle difference in the last word is everything, and I think I have a good way to explain it if you haven't read the book.

The Desperate Person is worried about "right now"

The Driven Person is worried about "getting there"

For example, this week DJ Berg, the GM of my Keller-Williams office talked about the problem with Real Estate Agents who need the listing or need the sale.  The customer can sense the fear and desperation, they know the salesperson is acting in self interest, not the customers best interest.

The Driven Person wants to make the right sale and get a customer for life.  The Desperate Person wants to make "this" sale and get a paycheck.

The Desperate Person wants a paycheck today.

The Driven Person wants a new house.

I see it all the time, people take a job they shouldn't take just to get a paycheck.  They hate it, and in a week, a month or even after a really painful year they are back job hunting.  Most of us have done this once or twice in our lives.  When I graduated college, I was headed to Pilot Training for the Air Force but due to some bad decisions I was short on money.  I took a horrible job to fill the gap.

The Driven Person knows what they want and where they are going.  They won't take a job that won't get them there.  This doesn't mean they won't leave in six months or a year, it just means they took the job to build their foundation and move on, not get a paycheck for the week.

The Desperate Person will go to work, see the first small reward and quit.

The Driven Person will go to work, see the first small reward and multiply it.

A client of mine claims it is ADD or ADHD or something like that.  We sit down, look at an area of his business and make a change.  As the change begins to reap benefits, he'll stop and move on to something else and they go back to what they were doing.  When I ask he'll say, "Yes we made a little more money, but not enough."

Just 2% improvement compounded year over year can be the difference between a sustainable business and a closed business.  My job as his coach is to keep going back until that 2% growth is self replicating and then move on. He says it isn't a challenge.  I keep saying "This is simple, not easy".

When my online e-zine started 5 years ago, it had one reader, me.  When this blog started it had one reader, me.  Today they are both making a small input to my cash flow, and the readership is growing very steadily.  Most people would give up after 5 years, instead I read every comment and adjust to what the readers want to know without "selling out".  I still control the content.

The Desperate Person is worried about himself

The Driven Person is worried about his customer, friend or family.

This is where a coach comes in.  A Driven person can lose focus on the task at hand because there is an outside person they feel they need to take care of.  Driven people can become so focused on their customers they let their health decline.  I have seen this in small companies and big companies.

The Desperate Person is scared to fail.

The Driven Person overcomes failure.

Herein lies the reason for all psychology as far as I am concerned.  When desperate people fail, things get worse for them.  They need help, but won't seek it, in fact many times they avoid it, trying to do it all on their own.  I was there, my wife being diagnosed with cancer woke me up.  Not everyone is that lucky.  I get to say lucky because she is cancer free now.

At our office meeting this week, DJ also talked about the "Red Book" and "Blue Book".  He talked about the myth of a business on Auto-Pilot.  Here I had to speak up, a well run business is exactly like flying an airplane on autopilot.  Storms happen enroute, so you change course for a while, and then when it is clear, turn back to your destination.

Sometimes parts fail and you have to stop short of your destination and repair the parts.  Business is no different.  The desperate person will see the storm and turn back, or when the part fails, they will land and stop.  The Driven person, drives on.

Be Hungry, Be Driven

The Activity - Reward Cycle

Last week I wrote about my thoughts on success and the benefits of rewards and punishment.  Of course there had to be more.

As adults, it is tough to "punish" ourselves, and yet we do it mentally, financially and physically.  Just not the way we would punish a child.  This is exactly why a child should learn that life includes both the carrot and the stick.

Overspend on the credit card and the credit card company will punish you with high fees.  Wreck your car and you will probably punish yourself with a deductible that you didn't budget for.  Could you imagine coming home and saying "Honey, I yelled at my boss today, here is the breadboard, I think that is worth five pops."?  (Pops are swats depending on where you live).  Punishment as an adult exists, it is just different.

With kids, punishment and rewards are both critical for them to understand the true principles of life and success.  Take away either one and you get problem kids that become problem adults.

Today we are making the rules so vague, I am not surprised at what I see.  Letting boys in the girls bathroom because they are "more comfortable" is just plain ridiculous.  Our physiological needs are different, your "orientation" doesn't change your physiological needs.  Never mind the potential for sexual misconduct.  If it is that important make individual water closets.  This happened because some lazy adults decided not to punish the children who cause the issues and took the easy way out and let the kids have a free for all.

When you ignore the principles and change rules so they don't support the principles, bigger problems show up later.  You don't need a crystal ball, just the ability to think.

Life is filled with rules.  If you have really good principles, you don't have a need for rules.  Since we aren't born with principles, we start by teaching rules.

So how does this all tie in with success and the activity - reward cycle?

Rules are created to help people build an understanding of principles.  Until then, there is a boys room and a girls room.

Lets say you want to lose weight.  The principle is simple, burn more calories than you intake.  Because most people don't understand how to apply that principle, we have companies that create rules based approaches like Weight Watchers and the points system.  The rules work.

You can't violate these rules in the name of rewarding yourself either, because violating the rules breaks the principles most of the time.

For example, if you are trying to lose weight and go for a 5 mile walk which burns 400 calories and reward yourself with an 1100 calorie shake, chances are good your reward will help you gain weight, not lose it.

Can you have an 1100 calorie shake, break the rules and still lose weight?  Yes, because the principle of weight loss is eating less than you need.  If the only thing you have that entire day is the milkshake, then you can still lose weight.  You will likely violate several other principles of good health but you will lose weight.  What are the chances of skipping breakfast, lunch and dinner though?

Let me give you another example of breaking a rule and not violating a principle.  Speeding.  If you are on the freeway in a well maintained car going 75 in a 65, are you violating the principle of the speed limit which is safety?  The answer is "It depends".  If everyone is going 45, and you are darting around at 75, then you have violated both the rule and are likely to get in an accident thereby violating the principle.

The opposite of course is true, if you go 45 and everyone else is going 75, you might end up getting hit, so technically following the rules and still violating the principles.

If everyone is going 75, the most likely safe course of action is to follow the principle of safety by following the average speed and breaking the rule.  This doesn't mean speed limits aren't needed or useful, it just means the principle is more important.

If everyone starts going 90 or 100, then both the principle and the rules are being violated and a major accident is likely to happen.  Why?  Because the majority of drivers aren't trained to react safely at those speed nor are their cars designed to go that fast regularly in traffic.

Kids and adults alike need to understand the way life works and creating artificial shelters in bathroom usage or sports without winners or losers isn't teaching anyone to succeed.  It is simply teaching them that they don't matter.

Make sure you matter, and make sure your kids know they matter.

What Is The "Paradise" You Are Seeking?

A few months back, my wife and I took a class from another coaching couple, a very nice husband and wife team.  I take these classes two or three times a year and they can cost several thousand per class.

Sometimes I end up finding it a waste of money and other times picking up a tidbit that I didn't understand and can now use to help my own clients.

Over the years I have had several clients who clearly needed help that I didn't feel I could help, so I am always looking to improve my understanding so I can help more people do better.

The burning questions for me are: How come everyone doesn't want to be successful?  How come everyone who wants to be successful isn't?  How come some people make success look so easy?  

Walking in to this class I wondered if it would help me understand more than any other?  I always think this walking in the door.  Attending two or three seminars every year,  I get some good techniques about 50% of the time.  Rarely do I gain any more understanding.

This class was different, the teachers gave me a huge question to answer.  The class didn't give me any new understandings.  What it gave me was a new way to ask my questions.  

I agreed with 90% of everything the presenters said.  It was the last 10% that got to me.  Their premise was very much oriented in "Eastern Philosophy".  Many traits of Buddhism were taught, but then he said something to the effect of, "Meditation is a waste of time".  I just thought to myself "You are doing it wrong".

Many people meditate without knowing it.  A very successful CEO I met once told me that no matter how bad things got at the office, he would jump on his Jet Ski, and go as fast as he could around the lake.  When he got back he had all of the answers he needed and his world was right.  He was meditating at 70 mph on water with no helmet.  The front of your mind needs 100% of its focus to keep you alive, so it can't mess with the real thinking in the back.  This was a great insight at the time.

My motorcycles did the same for me many years ago, today it is surfing.

The last day of the three days that was supposed to bring the class together is where it fell apart for me and several others who approached me afterwards.

The teachers tried to tell us that we were all seeking a "paradise" that doesn't exist any longer.  That paradise was the perfect world we had from birth until we became aware we existed.  The point where we stopped "being".  They claimed paradise was lost forever and wan unobtainable and therefore why we were so unhappy.  

In our infantile paradise, everything we wanted was taken care of my other people while we were "being".  In the lead teachers words, being 100% cared for by others is "Paradise", and one that you can never achieve.  You want food, it is right there, you want sleep, you just do it.  A perfect world we can never get back.

Given the First Lady's staff, I think she is pretty darn close.

Actually I was still with him and so was the entire class, but then he leapt right over an area that I had been talking about for years and went straight into success techniques.  The problem I had, and several people discussed afterwards was that chasm between being and success.  If there is no "Paradise" what are we working so hard for?  If we are just "being", then why are we suddenly talking about all this "getting and doing"?  What is the connection?  What is the reason? Why?

I have touched on this new set of questions a couple of times already, but I haven't had a clear answer I could communicate until now.   It has been bothering me because there have been people that I couldn't help and I didn't know why.  Now I think I do.  I also understand very clearly my angst and frustration with my business and life in Texas.  My wife calls it our "experiment" and she is right.

While I agree with the seminars coaches that the "paradise" of our infancy can never be revisited,  I do think there is a paradise we can achieve in little bits.  I also think that we can find a purpose for our journey through life other than simply "being" here.

It is the definition of "paradise" and how we were raised as children that makes the difference.  His description of his childhood fits this pattern of having a limited view of paradise.  I will use living in paradise interchangeably with living happily.  Yes you are allowed to be happy most of the time.

Follow me on this one, because it begins to explain a lot.

A child who is raised with a lot of "responsibility" and "reward", has lots of little "paradises" to seek.  Being the oldest boy in my household, I had the most of both.  All of those little rewards are my "paradise", achieving things makes me happy.  Seeing things not happening makes me stressed and unhappy.  Think of it as a giant jig saw puzzle, and each reward is a piece that makes a picture of my paradise.

95% of my rewards revolved around life in Southern California.  My mother was born here, my father was born here and his father too.  Texas didn't work like I hoped because my "rewards" and therefore "paradise" weren't there, they were here in Southern California.  Texas people were great, the lifestyle was fun, but it wasn't my "paradise".  I couldn't do what I wanted to do, and things didn't get done in a way that made me happy.  The old dog wasn't ready to learn new tricks.*

Each time I got a reward for doing good work, I added a new piece to my jig saw puzzle of paradise.  For kids who didn't get that many rewards, they don't have a good picture to look at.  I think this makes it harder for them to create purpose.  For them "being" is an easier answer.  This is where a real mentor or coach can make all of the difference in the world.  A mentor can build rewards for adults that can become their paradise.

Of course we had punishment in my house too.  It would make a great study to figure out the perfect number of rewards and the reward/punishment ratio that successful people grew up with.  

The more business owners that I work with who see great change, the more I find they had this responsibility-reward cycle in their house as a child with a very stern, fair and seldom used punishment.    My wife really didn't have much of either reward or punishment, so she is much more centered than I am.  She is closer to "being" than I can ever be in the way the class was being taught.

One of the problems many business owners face in business is that the customers don't always reward like parents did.  Do a great job, get a great check doesn't always happen.  The trick that I have started teaching and using myself is finding little rewards along the way that build up to bigger ones as the person achieves greater success.  Very smart companies have figured this out and reward employees well.  Look at the millionaire list at Apple, Cisco and Microsoft.  The success of the company created success for the employee.

I touched on this topic a little bit in the book "So, Now What?" and will do so in much greater depth in the next one.  There is also a better version of "being" when you have a good understanding of your wants, don't wants and challenges.

The best rewards in my "Paradise Puzzle Picture" were the time and love of my parents.  Get good grades, go flying with Dad.  Mow the yard, get a Tastee-Freez with Mom.  Keep your room up for a month go to Disneyland.  Punch your brother, one good swat and no ski trip.

I realize now this is why I am a self starter.  I have projects running all the time and at the end of each one is a little (or big) reward.  

I may not live in "Paradise" every day all the time, but I have a life I want to live and look forward too every day.  That sounds like happiness and paradise to me. 

If you have kids, what can you do to help them build their "Paradise Puzzle Picture"?  

If you want to improve your life, use the "Want, Don't Want and Challenges" white board exercise to help you find those puzzle pieces and eliminate the puzzle pieces that someone else gave you or you just don't want.

Finally, build your picture of paradise, and your list of little rewards, big rewards and goals.  You will find that you get more done than you ever thought possible and you'll have fun and feel good about doing it.

*Another author recently said "Once you live at the beach, you can never not live at the beach".

Living With The Chevy Volt - Is There Still Life After 4000 Miles

Four months into life with my Chevy Volt, and I am still learning about the Volt in every way.  Learning about the XM radio, the best ways to charge, and wondering why they didn’t put nitrogen in the tires.  

The biggest change this month is the addition of my home 240V charger.  This addition has highlighted a flaw in the Onstar - Volt notification system.

 Instead of the Volt Charger that offered a $200 discount from GM, I chose to upgrade and get a Bosch 30 Amp charger in case we wanted to get a battery only car like the Honda Fit.  I also am hoping when my lease is up in three years that the new Volt might need more charging power available than the 15 AMP charger GM was offering through Bosch and have even more electric range.  I bought it directly through Bosch for $500 less than the electrician wanted.  

The faster charging time really comes in handy, and I am using even less gas because of it.  Now my average is over 224 miles for each gallon of gas used.  174 of those are pure electric and the remaining 50 miles are on gas.  Yes, I am really getting 50 MPG on gas even though GM and the EPA say it only gets 38.  

The trick is to manually manage the drive modes, which I understand are new to the 2013 Volt.   When I know I can’t make an entire trip on electricity, or I know the destination charging fees are higher than the cost of using gas, I’ll run the gas on the highway as soon as I hit 40MPH until I’ve run gas for the number of miles that I was going to be short on battery range.  I am sure the “hypermilers” are getting even better milage with their Volts than I am.

As a side note, my calculations figure that $1.00 per hour of commercial electric charging is about the same as $4.25 per gallon of gas.  I am a tree hugger, but a thrifty one, so I will use whichever energy source costs less.  Blink has this figured out, since they charge members $1.00 per charging hour everywhere.  The trouble with Blink is if you can’t get back to unplug, the meter keeps running even though you don’t use any electricity.  

When I pull into Chargers like Seal Beach that are $1.00 per KWH which equals $3.37 per charging hour, I don’t charge.  Obviously when I find free charging like South Coast Plaza Offers, I jump in.  Some free places though are so popular like the two chargers at Bella Terra, I quit trying.  

The little glitch where the car stopped charging lasted two days is fixed. No one knows why, but we did “reboot” the car and it is back to it’s old self.

I also changed my home electric plan so I get really really cheap rates from midnight to 6 am.  With the 120V portable charger, it takes over eight hours to charge so that plan was pretty useless.  Now that the car knows to start charging at midnight, and is done between 3 AM and 4 AM every day, it is even easier on my wallet.  This is also where the car is a bit annoying.  It sends me a text and an email that it has "stopped charging due to an interruption".  Well duh!  I told it not to charge until midnight.  It still does it every time I plug in.

So the glitch here is you have to temporarily override the charging schedule when you plug in at a commercial charger.  I found out the hard way that Blink will still charge you $3.00 if you are plugged in for three hours even if you aren’t charging because you left it in “delay charge” mode.  

I dropped the XM traffic subscription.  More than once a freeway would be closed late at night and the XM would show it as the fastest route home.  Even funnier, my wife beat me home a couple of times just sitting in traffic while I was detouring all over town taking the “faster” route.  Now I leave the GPS route planning in Eco mode and it works perfectly.

The only other place I would change the programming logic is in the charger port alarm.  If the car is fully charged and it is plugged in to 240V, the alarm shouldn't go off.  The next person should be able to unplug your car and charge.   As far as I can tell the only options are alarm on and alarm off.  When the 110V is plugged in, I can see the charger alarm almost making sense, but does anyone really think that will stop somebody from taking your charger?  I etched my license plate into the charger and still don't think that will do anything to deter a determined thief.

So far, the Chevy Volt is still fun to drive and my wife is still taking it every chance she gets.  The magic hasn’t worn off yet, I’ll let you know where we are at five months and 5000 miles.

240V 30A Power Max

240V 15A Voltec Charger

A Little More About Going "Outside The Envelope"

If you read my last post, I spent a little time on "the envelope" that we use to determine an airplanes performance.  At each of the four corners there is an absolute maximum performance intersection.  It is the place where two variables must be exact in order to reach that corner.

If either of these variables exceeds the limit you leave the envelope.  Let's say you want the minimum speed for the maximum weight.  This situation is full throttle.  Think of it like loading your car with the absolute most it will hold and go up a hill at the same time.  If you have more weight than the engine will handle, you end up going backwards even though you have the pedal to the floor.

The same is true in flying, business and life.

In business it can work the same way with leverage (loans) and income.  Too little income and you slide backwards on the loan.  Too much loan and you don't have the income which leads to the same problem.

If you don't get enough of a loan, you might be "undercapitalized" and therefore not have enough products or people to earn enough income.  Balance and respecting both minimum and maximum limits is critical.

More importantly, the edge of the envelope is maximum performance.  The really great pilots and business owners can get right to the edge and sit there comfortably.  They know it, respect it, and occasionally stick a hand across to see what it feels like on the other side.

In the airplane we have a list that tells us how to change the envelope when the airplane changes. If a part is missing, and yes we fly like that, we need to adjust because the edge has adjusted.  Business is no different.  Sitting on the edge doing nothing is dangerous in business because it always is changing.    The greatest at sitting on the moving edge are the business founders we call visionary.  Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos come to mind.

Love em or hate em, they businesses they founded have all been to the edge and remained there more often than not.

Spins are the anomaly in flying. What appears to be a totally out of control venture that is way outside of the envelope of "normal flight" requires very specific inputs to perform and recover the airplane back to "normal flight".  Spins teach us where the edge of the envelope might have changed.  Sometimes spins are fatal, other times you re-enter the envelope, but always in a different place than you left it.

New Coke was a quick spin for the Coca-Cola company.  They tried it and survived and it was a guidepost for the company as it re-entered its own envelope of business.

The trick to spins is to make sure you have the energy and altitude to recover safely.  The trick in business is not to go all in.  Coke had several other products and when they realized that "New" Coke wasn't going where they wanted it to, and was taking too much energy, they started a recovery with "Classic Coke" and then just brought it back as "Coke", eventually eliminating "New Coke".

Spins are simple, but they aren't easy until you practice them a lot.  The same thing is true in business.  Going outside the box is simple, making it profitable is the challenge.

How Are The Best Pilots Made? Are They Really Fearless?

With the recent accidents in the aviation industry, a lot of my business clients and actor friends have been asking the same question, "How?".  Occasionally I'll get "Why?".  No one has ever asked what the key to success is when things go wrong as a pilot.  The real keys of success are universal and simple.

Without being part of the accident investigation team, it is really tough to answer about any of these incidents directly with any authority.  That said, there are some common threads in pilots, business owners, realtors and actors that can help identify the best among any of those groups.

One of the biggest debates in pilot circles is of course the military v. civilian trained pilots.  At the end of the day it really depends on the kind of flying you want to do.  There are military trained pilots who have never flown a single engine airplane who would be dangerous doing it and there are civilian pilots who have never been in a spin or supersonic or even upside down who would be equally dangerous doing any of those things.

Either of them could be trained to accomplish the tasks over time.  Recently I went out for a flight review in a small airplane and the 20 year old flight instructor asked a great question.  She said "Why do all of you airline guys fly like this?" referring to my quick adjustments to the flight profile.

The explanation I gave fits the Asiana Airlines accident at SFO.  Think about it like comparing a bus to a skate board.  When a bus gets moving it is very hard to stop.  A skateboard is easy.  When you are flying an airplane that is well north of 100,000 pounds at landing, and up to 1 Million pounds like the new Airbus 380, the same rules apply.  If it begins to decend faster than you intend and you don't correct quickly, it builds momentum in a direction you don't want it to go.  Imagine that bus now going down hill and you have to stop it.  It needs a lot more brakes, and the faster it gets going the harder it is to stop.  You can always jump in front of a skateboard and stop it with one foot.

And, oh by the way, brakes on the bus can fail, that is why there are "runaway truck ramps" along steep mountain roads.

You can always treat the skateboard like the bus by correcting quickly and aggressively.  It might not be the most comfortable ride for people who aren't used to it, but is is safe.  That is basically what I was doing.  You can't ever treat the bus like a skateboard or it will simply run you over.

The other reason is that big jets don't just get power like a car or a bus.  If you are fast and let off the gas, it takes several seconds for those big engines to slow down.  On the flip side if you are slow, which is usually more dangerous that being fast and you need to add power, it may not happen for several seconds.

This also might explain a little bit about the Southwest Accident at La Guardia.  We know they got off the path, and instead of acting quickly and decisively to stop the approach and try again they tried to "save it".  That extra half second might have allowed enough momentum to build that the situation became unrecoverable.

So what is the common thread and who are better pilots?

What I have found in 30 years of flying both military and civilian is the exact same thing that I have found in business.  The successful pilots (and business owners) have learned to push the envelope and even go outside of it a little and then live to tell about it. (If you don't know what it means to push the envelope, read the last paragraph and come back.)

More importantly when they live to tell about it, they gained some respect for that corner of the envelope, and they didn't become afraid of it.  That is what separates the great from the good from the average from the marginally safe.  The great took a risk, went over the limit and learned to respect the limit without becoming fearful.  More importantly they keep doing it along different edges of the envelope and continue to build respect for the envelope.  If you have respect you have understanding.  Knowledge of the actual numbers isn't required when you have a true understanding.

If you leave the envelope and don't get understanding, you have to go do it again until you do or you learn to fear the edge instead of respecting the edge.  Fear is a paralyzing emotion which is dangerous in flying and in business.  Doing nothing when you go over the edge will almost always be catastrophic.

How does this apply to business?

The housing market is one of the greatest examples in business.  How many people do you know that used to be "real estate investors"?  If you talk about buying homes to create rentals, the fear mongers will crawl out of every corner in the room and call you on the phone at the same time.

They will tell you horror stories of bad tenants, crashing markets and the like. Instead of respecting the need to prescreen tenants, or do market research and buy right, they tell you to stay away from real estate investing and be afraid.

If you want to start a business, people will tell you about the countless hours you will have to work for free, they'll say things like "four out of five businesses fail in the first year".  Again, fear has taken over their perspective.

When you learn to respect the rules of the game and not fear them, you will find success.  I only said success was simple, I didn't say it was easy.


The Envelope -

The phrase "outside the envelope" comes from charts and graphs that engineers use to plot an aircrafts performance.  Many times these charts look like an envelope back turned at an angle.  

Flying the numbers "inside" the envelope will keep the airplane flying safely in 99.99% of all situations.  Many people never even get close to the minimum or maximum capability any more.  In Flying for example, when I learned to fly as a civilian and again in military pilot training, spins were required.  Spins are outside of the envelope.

How To Watch TV Anywhere With Place Shifting WiFi Boxes or Wireless Extenders - Updated

Can you really watch TV anywhere?  Well, Dish Network offers "The Hopper" so you can watch TV in any room with just one room actually connected to your dish.  AT&T has wireless receivers that allow you to go anywhere there is a plug.  So why can't everyone do this no matter what service they choose?

Fo my current house I selected Verizon FiOS for the internet speed, TV was just a secondary consideration.  My main TV is in my "Great Room" and I didn't want to run a wire all the way around my house.   Where I placed the TV and where the wires went were very different places.

My house was built in the late 60's and remodeled in the late 80's.  Sadly it is a victim of predatory practices in the satellite and cable business.  The original cable TV wiring that is built into the house was cut so short in the box by a satellite installer, it is now useless without ripping up stucco.  A subsequent re-installation of cable tv left wires stapled all along the garage.

The DirecTV installation which occurred most recently was the laziest of them all with wires stapled to the stucco.   The staples are only about every 8 feet so the wires have a very happy droop to them.  Best of all they are stapled in plain site.  The installer must have forgot his ladder.

Don't let installers mislead you.  90% of the time your existing wiring is more than adequate for solid signal strength.  There are two basic types of cable, the thinner RG59 and thicker RG-6.  While the satellite companies prefer RG6, I have seen many installations work just fine with older RG59.  Seeing the graveyard of wire at my house is just depressing.   I just didn't want any more unnecessary wire and that is why I set off on this quest.

So is there a way to watch TV in a room without a wire?  Better yet, without a big set top box?

Yes  you can.

There are two ways to do it.  One is a "Wireless Extender", the other is a "Place shifter".  The funny thing is only Place Shifters are on the shelves in stores.  Three different Big Box AV store technicians told me it couldn't be done and wanted to schedule wiring installation appointments.  A local high end AV dealer said the same thing.  Being a former high end AV dealer myself,  I agree that when you can wiring is always better, but I also knew the technology was there, I just had to find it.

Place Shifting Boxes

The most common method is Place Shifting.  This adds a box to your system like the Slingbox, Vulcano Monsoon or the Belkin @TV.  I chose to try the Belkin @TV and use Mac Mini's since I didn't know anything about wireless extenders yet.

Using a Mac Mini and the @TV app which was free, I was able to watch and control the Verizon FiOS box in my bedroom quite nicely.  It looked great on my iPad, and I opted to not pay for the iPhone version of the app.  Watching TV on my Mac Mini though was another story.  I have dual 32" screens and the video quality was maybe 480i at best.  While it was smooth it was quite pixelated.  Still this was better than wiring the house, and for $199 I could get older Mac Mini's for every TV in the house.

Wireless Extender

Not 100% satisfied with the video quality, I started researching the other two place shift boxes and only then did I stumble on a forum at Verizon that mentioned Wireless Extenders.  I couldn't believe that I had over thought my search terms and never found this.  More importantly I couldn't believe how many people claimed ignorance when asked about it.  This is exactly what I was looking for.  A small box at my set top box, and another behind my TV and Viola!  I have HD in my living room on my giant flat panel.

Once I knew the difference in keywords for the search I found over a dozen wireless extenders with HDMI capability including the Belkin Screencast that allowed up to 4 HDMI inputs.  This is great if you want to hide all of your gear in a closet and don't want to run all the wires to the TV.

There are several less expensive brands that the Belkin, many with only one or two HDMI inputs, some with less range according to reviews.  I ended up returning the Belkin Screencast even though it is a nearly perfect solution.  Why?  Well I don't have a home theater any longer and I didn't need 4 HDMI inputs.

What I did end up with is the iOGear which allowed me to connect a TV in my bedroom where the box is and send the HDMI signal wirelessly to my Living Room TV.  This makes a lot more sense for two people using two rooms with one box.  The Belkin didn't have the pass through port.