Is there an "Easy Way" to everything? Is there a "Hard Way" to everything? The answer is "yes" but maybe not the way you think it is.
Everyday I see people who are working very hard. Lets see if this sounds familiar. You go to work everyday, you do a good job and you never quite get that promotion. You've been there for years, and someone else who just started is now the boss. Everyday you have been getting there early or staying late. Your boss calls on Saturday and you take the call. And you still haven't got the promotion.
Is this you? Do you feel like you are on a hamster wheel, running as hard as you can or walking all day and still getting no where? That's the "Hard Way".
The Hard Way is a rut of sorts where you show a certain value to the company and there you stay. So how do you get out of it? How do you get off the hamster wheel and actually make forward progress down the road of success?
The first step is to learn that society (including most of your friends) don't want you to learn the easy way. They want company on that miserable hamster wheel. The more people that join them the better they feel about themselves. When you leave, they are afraid you might actually do something and achieve success. If you do you make them look bad.
Think about this. How many truly successful people do you know and admire? How many do you know that you want to be like or that have a life that you would like to have. Then think about how many people you know that don't live much differently than you do.
I bet the second group is huge compared to the first group. The reality is, that if you want to hang out with the top 5% of the successful people in the world, you have to first learn to stop hanging out with and listening to the other 95%.
At first you will be lonely and challenged by your old friends to come back and give up your dreams. True friends support your dreams, most "friends" are dream killers. Instead of helping you figure out the easy way, they just laugh and wait for you in the hamster wheel.
It takes time to make the transition, no matter what you decide to do when you turn right down the easy path.
What do you want to do?
The Easy Guide Books
The Bourquin Group
Showing posts with label personal success. Show all posts
Showing posts with label personal success. Show all posts
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Monday, March 3, 2014
Want a Raise - Think Supply and Demand!
The laws of supply and demand can be applied to just about any situation that involves the exchange of money. Right now the pilot shortage is in the news and the GAO says the cause is simple. Pilots aren't paid enough to make it worth taking the job. On that point they are right.
A decade ago it was radiologists and anesthesiologists. Insurance companies agreed to pay more, hospitals started paying more and in a few years the problem was solved.
So how does this apply to you?
In simple terms you have two choices, you can either find a very high demand job that has low supply and go do it. Unfortunately it isn't that easy. Becoming a pilot for instance can cost upwards of $100,000 if you aren't lucky enough to get a military position first, and starting pay is just $20,000 per year.
Any questions why there is a pilot shortage? At some point the pay will increase or the pilots will be replaced by computers. Are you willing to make a $100,000 bet on the outcome? Most aren't, and a few believe the pilotless plane is coming. Winning as a pilot might be a short term bet.
The second choice is to make yourself so valuable at the job you have now that they can't afford for you not to be there. This is the easy way to get ahead without having to pay for it. I know people who never graduated high school and are millionaires from owning McDonalds. The supply of those people is very very scarce, but they exist.
So how do you do that? Think like a subcontractor. Instead of asking for more benefits and pay, start by asking for more responsibility and better work. Think of what your boss wants now and what he might want tomorrow and deliver it before he asks.
If you aren't ready to break out yet and start your own business or become an independent contractor, you can still use the laws of supply and demand to make sure your skills and work ethic are so far above the crown that you are a scarce commodity in your office. Soon enough the pay, work schedule and benefits will come your way.
A decade ago it was radiologists and anesthesiologists. Insurance companies agreed to pay more, hospitals started paying more and in a few years the problem was solved.
So how does this apply to you?
In simple terms you have two choices, you can either find a very high demand job that has low supply and go do it. Unfortunately it isn't that easy. Becoming a pilot for instance can cost upwards of $100,000 if you aren't lucky enough to get a military position first, and starting pay is just $20,000 per year.
Any questions why there is a pilot shortage? At some point the pay will increase or the pilots will be replaced by computers. Are you willing to make a $100,000 bet on the outcome? Most aren't, and a few believe the pilotless plane is coming. Winning as a pilot might be a short term bet.
The second choice is to make yourself so valuable at the job you have now that they can't afford for you not to be there. This is the easy way to get ahead without having to pay for it. I know people who never graduated high school and are millionaires from owning McDonalds. The supply of those people is very very scarce, but they exist.
So how do you do that? Think like a subcontractor. Instead of asking for more benefits and pay, start by asking for more responsibility and better work. Think of what your boss wants now and what he might want tomorrow and deliver it before he asks.
If you aren't ready to break out yet and start your own business or become an independent contractor, you can still use the laws of supply and demand to make sure your skills and work ethic are so far above the crown that you are a scarce commodity in your office. Soon enough the pay, work schedule and benefits will come your way.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Why? Improve Your Position
Improve your position. This mantra for success is something people forget every day. When you get up in the morning and keep doing the same thing, you end up in the same position at the end of every day.
Fear. When you think about it, the real root cause of doing the same thing every day is the fear of the unknown. Fear of leaving your comfort zone. Fear of not making that next car payment. Fear of missing time with your friends, fear of losing time with your co-workers.
There is always that one person though. That one person that takes a little time away from the group. There is always that one person that moves out and up. That person that you watch and wonder why it wasn't you.
The secret? Improve your position.
There is more to it though. In order to improve your position, you need to define "improve". How do you know what improvement is if you don't have a destination? The key is to create a vision or destination that is a very clear vision of where you are going. When you have that vision you can improve your position.
In simple terms, if you want to go to the park at the end of the block, and your neighbor asks you to watch the game, are you getting closer to the park? If you want that new car, and your friend calls with tickets to the concert that cost $100, does the concert get you closer to the new car.
These are obvious examples. The most difficult involve an overload of information. The secret to speed in improving your position is filtering out the chaff or useless information.
Simple decisions can hold you back if you don't pay attention, or pay too much attention to the chaff instead of the important points.
Living life with a purpose means having a "mission" in everything you do. Even on vacation you can have a "mission" or "purpose". It might only be to "relax". Everyone needs to recharge from time to time, and that means different things to different people. For me it means turning off the office and work in the front of the brain and letting the back 90% do it's job. For other people it is just to get the family "off their back".
How can you improve your position while on vacation? The reality is that you can always practice cutting through the chaff, even while traveling. Always listening will bombard you with a lot of useless information, and it might just get you that great idea or solve the problem you have been having at the office.
Every time you get a call, ask yourself, "Does this improve my position or put me into a position where I can improve my position?" If it doesn't, learn to say "no" if you want to move ahead.
Fear. When you think about it, the real root cause of doing the same thing every day is the fear of the unknown. Fear of leaving your comfort zone. Fear of not making that next car payment. Fear of missing time with your friends, fear of losing time with your co-workers.
There is always that one person though. That one person that takes a little time away from the group. There is always that one person that moves out and up. That person that you watch and wonder why it wasn't you.
The secret? Improve your position.
There is more to it though. In order to improve your position, you need to define "improve". How do you know what improvement is if you don't have a destination? The key is to create a vision or destination that is a very clear vision of where you are going. When you have that vision you can improve your position.
In simple terms, if you want to go to the park at the end of the block, and your neighbor asks you to watch the game, are you getting closer to the park? If you want that new car, and your friend calls with tickets to the concert that cost $100, does the concert get you closer to the new car.
These are obvious examples. The most difficult involve an overload of information. The secret to speed in improving your position is filtering out the chaff or useless information.
Simple decisions can hold you back if you don't pay attention, or pay too much attention to the chaff instead of the important points.
Living life with a purpose means having a "mission" in everything you do. Even on vacation you can have a "mission" or "purpose". It might only be to "relax". Everyone needs to recharge from time to time, and that means different things to different people. For me it means turning off the office and work in the front of the brain and letting the back 90% do it's job. For other people it is just to get the family "off their back".
How can you improve your position while on vacation? The reality is that you can always practice cutting through the chaff, even while traveling. Always listening will bombard you with a lot of useless information, and it might just get you that great idea or solve the problem you have been having at the office.
Every time you get a call, ask yourself, "Does this improve my position or put me into a position where I can improve my position?" If it doesn't, learn to say "no" if you want to move ahead.
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Your Job Sucks, So Now What?
So your job sucks, according to some surveys job dissatisfaction is well north of 50% and may be as high as 80%. So you aren't alone. The big question is why doesn't anyone do anything about it? and the bigger question is what can you do about it?
Most people that you meet are in a "comfortable life". They have set themselves up so that their "lifestyle" is within 10% of their income. They don't have any extra money, and when they get it they usually spend it. When you get into the lifestyle trap your employer has put you in "golden handcuffs".
If you haven't heard the phrase or didn't understand what "golden handcuffs" are let me introduce you to the concept. When you get a nice raise at a job you aren't happy with, you have two choices. Maintain your lifestyle and use the extra money to invest in your escape plan. Basically buying the key to release the handcuffs. When you buy the new car or bigger house or move closer to the beach, then the handcuffs get a little tighter.
The bigger your job, and the bigger your bills, the bigger the golden handcuffs. Your employer owns you, that is until you sell your self to another employer who bids the same or more for your services.
Do you see the problem?
If everyone started thinking as an independent contractor, they would never end up with golden handcuffs and could move to what ever job made them happy. One of the ironies of major companies eliminating pensions and healthcare is that they are forcing you to begin paying on the keys to your own golden handcuffs.
In fact our tax system is designed to help you if you do become an independent contractor and stop working for W-2 wages. The only extra taxes you pay are self employment and creative arts. In the first case, your employer was paying the other half of your social security so your overall costs aren't any different if you go independent.
So Your Job Still Sucks, Now What?
When I wrote "So Now What?" several years ago, my goal was to help people like you answer that question. After a few years of helping people, I have found that there is even more that I can do to help you and that is why I am writing this for you.
The first big thing to understand is your strengths and your market. If you don't have a real strength, go find one. A great book that covers the importance of that strength and why you need to build one is Be So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport.
Most people don't feel like they can walk away from their job because they fear losing the income and not being able to get it back before their house of cards collapses. If you live in the US, Australia or even Canada, you are only limited by your imagination as to what you can achieve.
I haven't met anyone outside of the UK who feel this way in Europe, so I'll leave that thought to you.
One of the best tools to use if you want to build a life that others dream of is the "Want - Don't Want" exercise. Simply put you write down all of the things you want and don't want in your life.
The best way to do this is with a huge whiteboard, and look at it every day for about a week. Each day you will look at the board a little differently, and after 7-10 days you will start to see why you don't like your job. You can also start to outline what you need to change in order to make your current job great or what kind of work you need to think about doing.
Most people that come to our office looking for help and guidance in the start up stage are full of "great ideas" that are great only to them. They haven't figured out the market or even if there is one.
If your job sucks, start out listing why it sucks, and what it would need to be great. Then see if you can work it out with your boss. If you are good enough at your job, there might be some room. If not, then you need some deep reflection to decide what's next.
If you don't change where your life is going, no one else will.
Most people that you meet are in a "comfortable life". They have set themselves up so that their "lifestyle" is within 10% of their income. They don't have any extra money, and when they get it they usually spend it. When you get into the lifestyle trap your employer has put you in "golden handcuffs".
If you haven't heard the phrase or didn't understand what "golden handcuffs" are let me introduce you to the concept. When you get a nice raise at a job you aren't happy with, you have two choices. Maintain your lifestyle and use the extra money to invest in your escape plan. Basically buying the key to release the handcuffs. When you buy the new car or bigger house or move closer to the beach, then the handcuffs get a little tighter.
The bigger your job, and the bigger your bills, the bigger the golden handcuffs. Your employer owns you, that is until you sell your self to another employer who bids the same or more for your services.
Do you see the problem?
If everyone started thinking as an independent contractor, they would never end up with golden handcuffs and could move to what ever job made them happy. One of the ironies of major companies eliminating pensions and healthcare is that they are forcing you to begin paying on the keys to your own golden handcuffs.
In fact our tax system is designed to help you if you do become an independent contractor and stop working for W-2 wages. The only extra taxes you pay are self employment and creative arts. In the first case, your employer was paying the other half of your social security so your overall costs aren't any different if you go independent.
So Your Job Still Sucks, Now What?
When I wrote "So Now What?" several years ago, my goal was to help people like you answer that question. After a few years of helping people, I have found that there is even more that I can do to help you and that is why I am writing this for you.
The first big thing to understand is your strengths and your market. If you don't have a real strength, go find one. A great book that covers the importance of that strength and why you need to build one is Be So Good They Can't Ignore You by Cal Newport.
Most people don't feel like they can walk away from their job because they fear losing the income and not being able to get it back before their house of cards collapses. If you live in the US, Australia or even Canada, you are only limited by your imagination as to what you can achieve.
I haven't met anyone outside of the UK who feel this way in Europe, so I'll leave that thought to you.
One of the best tools to use if you want to build a life that others dream of is the "Want - Don't Want" exercise. Simply put you write down all of the things you want and don't want in your life.
The best way to do this is with a huge whiteboard, and look at it every day for about a week. Each day you will look at the board a little differently, and after 7-10 days you will start to see why you don't like your job. You can also start to outline what you need to change in order to make your current job great or what kind of work you need to think about doing.
Most people that come to our office looking for help and guidance in the start up stage are full of "great ideas" that are great only to them. They haven't figured out the market or even if there is one.
If your job sucks, start out listing why it sucks, and what it would need to be great. Then see if you can work it out with your boss. If you are good enough at your job, there might be some room. If not, then you need some deep reflection to decide what's next.
If you don't change where your life is going, no one else will.
Monday, February 17, 2014
Quick Tips To Help Your Success
I became an entrepreneur because I did not want to be a dentist like my father, but I wanted some of the parts of his lifestyle. I learned very early on that working on Saturday and taking a weekday off was a lot more fun. I did that throughout my high school and college life, which explains my grades.
School is just an extension of society designed to help you work within the confines of the ”standard” workweek. Very few schools teach entrepreneurism the way entrepreneurs teach it. If you take a look at most of the very high achieving entrepreneurs, you'll notice they didn't finish college. At some point they broke away from the norm and have stayed away ever since.
If you want to become a real entrepreneur, Remember some basic rules.
1. Be careful who you listen to. Do they live the life you want to live? Do they do the work you want to do? Only take away the information that is relevant. As a side rule, I generally like to make sure they are making more money than I am if it is an area of business. Yes the coach has a coach (or three).
3. Be accountable somehow. Self starting is a very rare discipline that takes a lot of time to learn. The whole point of vision books, vision boards and goal sheets is to keep you looking towards your destination. The problem is if the destination isn't important enough to have your break away from your comfort zone and your pack, you will never break away. If you make yourself accountable either through a coach, mentor or competitive friend you are much more likely to achieve your goals.
To lose 30 pounds last year, I made a big painful bet with my business partner. I didn't lose a single pound on my own, but the minute we made the wager we both started shedding pounds.
2. There is never "good enough". You can always to better, and should. This doesn't mean have regret, it just means stay relevant by staying on top of your game.
3. Be accountable somehow. Self starting is a very rare discipline that takes a lot of time to learn. The whole point of vision books, vision boards and goal sheets is to keep you looking towards your destination. The problem is if the destination isn't important enough to have your break away from your comfort zone and your pack, you will never break away. If you make yourself accountable either through a coach, mentor or competitive friend you are much more likely to achieve your goals.
To lose 30 pounds last year, I made a big painful bet with my business partner. I didn't lose a single pound on my own, but the minute we made the wager we both started shedding pounds.
Monday, February 10, 2014
What Are The Real Keys To Success?
As you know, I have been trying to fine tune the "formula for success" so that more people can create a lifestyle that they want, not just one they settle for.
I want to help you find a better way to live your life that fits you. You can't be me and I can't be you, but we are both human and so the rules must be similar.
Recently I found the book was worth adding to my reading list for my clients and sharing with you.
The book is Cal Newport's "Be So Good They Can't Ignore You". Cal Newton argues that chasing your dreams is a waste of time. I agree. You can have all the passion in the world for something but if the world doesn't it want it that way from you, you will go broke.
Like many people there are several things that I am passionate about. I accept that those passions will not provide me sufficient income to maintain the lifestyle I expect. Instead those passions are my hobbies.
What he says to do is act like Steve Jobs at Apple. Steve created a bunch of products and saw what worked and what didn't and he kept fine tuning based on the feedback of the market. Remember the Newton? Even the original iPhone (or should we call it the "Classic" now?) wasn't really much to speak up. The bugs weren't worked out until the iPhone 3G.
Do the same thing in life. Pursue a bunch of things and when you find one you like and that the market keeps asking your for, become great at it.
One of the aspects I really enjoy about blogging is the feedback from the market. It doesn't matter how many people comment on my blog, Facebook page or Twitter feed. When they do, I always appreciate it and try to respond in kind.
The metric that I really like however for blogs are the number of reads, and the number of reposts. It's very easy to see what people want to hear about from me when I look at those metrics. When I write about flying airplanes the scores are dismal. When I write about building a business or real estate empire the graph shoots off the page. There is no question what people want me to write about.
If you are at a crossroads, or stuck on a plateu, keep visiting this blog, or check out our new jumpstart program opening in March.
I want to help you find a better way to live your life that fits you. You can't be me and I can't be you, but we are both human and so the rules must be similar.
Recently I found the book was worth adding to my reading list for my clients and sharing with you.
The book is Cal Newport's "Be So Good They Can't Ignore You". Cal Newton argues that chasing your dreams is a waste of time. I agree. You can have all the passion in the world for something but if the world doesn't it want it that way from you, you will go broke.
Like many people there are several things that I am passionate about. I accept that those passions will not provide me sufficient income to maintain the lifestyle I expect. Instead those passions are my hobbies.
What he says to do is act like Steve Jobs at Apple. Steve created a bunch of products and saw what worked and what didn't and he kept fine tuning based on the feedback of the market. Remember the Newton? Even the original iPhone (or should we call it the "Classic" now?) wasn't really much to speak up. The bugs weren't worked out until the iPhone 3G.
Do the same thing in life. Pursue a bunch of things and when you find one you like and that the market keeps asking your for, become great at it.
One of the aspects I really enjoy about blogging is the feedback from the market. It doesn't matter how many people comment on my blog, Facebook page or Twitter feed. When they do, I always appreciate it and try to respond in kind.
The metric that I really like however for blogs are the number of reads, and the number of reposts. It's very easy to see what people want to hear about from me when I look at those metrics. When I write about flying airplanes the scores are dismal. When I write about building a business or real estate empire the graph shoots off the page. There is no question what people want me to write about.
If you are at a crossroads, or stuck on a plateu, keep visiting this blog, or check out our new jumpstart program opening in March.
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Do You Use "Purpose" In Your Decision Making?
Having "purpose" in decision making is easier said that done. Do you let emotions effect your decisions? If you do, why? Do you even know when you do it? The truth is that we can see it in others more easily than we can see it in ourselves.
Every day I bet you see people that can't make a decision. Ask them where to eat, and nobody will step up with a decision. Ask them what they want after they get there and I'll bet you hear "You go then I'll decide". Are you that person who always "lets" others go first? Don't be.
Eating out is a simple example of how people let fear and emotion get in the way. Nobody wants to offend anyone else by picking the wrong place to eat. If everyone else is eating salads, the indecisive will go along instead of getting the steak and lobster they really want. Why? Fear.
Fear of offending someone.
Fear of not belonging.
Fear of being ridiculed or embarrassed by the choice.
You are probably thinking it sounds funny that we have "fear" about where to eat and what to eat, but people do. When I embarked on a very strict no carb diet to lose 30 pounds last year, I realized how often people put off their decisions to go along with what other people were doing.
I never asked anyone else to eat "low carb" or "no carb" but amazingly I didn't see bread or pasta on the table for over five months. I lost the weight and changed my eating habits for good, and it has made ordering that much easier.
In this case I had a genuine purpose that was important to me. I needed to lose weight because of a knee problem that was developing.
New Years resolutions fail for this exact reason. The resolution isn't that important, it is missing a very solid "what's in it for me". Let take a smoker, who decides to quit and look at it from the "what's in it for me" perspective.
1. If I quit, I won't smell like cigarettes. Is this really important to them? probably not, they haven't been bothered enough by it so far.
2. If I quit, I won't need smoke breaks. Is this important? In fact quite the opposite, the smoke breaks may be an escape that they lose. They might feel like they are offending the other smokers by not joining them.
3. If I quit, I'll save money. This is a good one, but if there isn't something to save for, it won't matter.
4. If I quit, I'll be healthier. This is the one that might work. If they have a genuine purpose to live healthier, they might quit smoking. If they just like the idea of living healthier, it isn't a purpose and it won't help.
The real point here is that we all have "ideas" and things that sound good to other people that we agree with. Those things are not your purpose or my purpose, they are just ideas. Like my electric car, being petroleum free is a very interesting academic discussion. The reality is, most people don't care, so it won't happen. In my case my purpose was advancing my economic flexibility by reducing my monthly costs. That was very important to me so I did get the electric car.
If you can map out your purpose clearly, decisions come easy because all you need to do is ask, does that fit my purpose. When it does, you do it, when it doesn't you don't. Life is that simple, we just complicate it trying to please others and fit in, instead of being who we really are.
If you can answer a few simple questions for you, your life and your work, the rest gets easy. The hard part is deciding exactly what you want from this journey we call life.
And before we get there, here is the great irony, we all respect and admire people that make decisions. We might not agree with them, but they are the people we look to. Why not become that person?
These questions should help, if you can answer them you are on your way to making better decisions.
Where are you going? Not today, but what does your future look like? This is the "vision" of your perfect life, a dream you will actually live and achieve. Most people I talk to can't tell me what their dream is anymore. Life has sucked it out of them.
What are you doing to get there? Are you making progress every day, Are you training to be the best you that you can be so you can get where you are going?
How do you contribute? What do you do that adds value to the rest of the world so they will help you get there. What is it that lets you make the decisions and lead the way?
What's in it for you, I mean really? This can be anything and is the toughest and most important question to ask. When you really sit down with most smokers, they can't find a reason that matters to them. It is normally about "they say I should quit". When you ask dieters why they fail, it is similarly about comfort. When I lost 30 pounds, I was in a new zone. My comfort level changed, my wardrobe changed, and change can be tough. This is the most important question. If there isn't anything in it for you that you really want, you aren't likely to achieve much more than the norm.
When you define your purpose, you gladly take the road less traveled without fear or worry. Where will you road take you?
Monday, October 14, 2013
Is Failure The Road To Success?
Several people throughout my life have said something like "Failure is the road to success". I even noticed a little ad in the Wall Street Journal this week that used that quote. So do we really need to lead a life of failure to succeed? Does that make any sense to you? How could you possibly want success if you knew that your life was going to be littered with failure.
Is this why so many people just accept where they are in life? Doesn't everyone want to know how to be successful? If not, why wouldn't they want to be successful? Don't you want to be more successful than you are now?
Since a big part of my work now is helping other people become more successful, I started thinking about failure and its role in life after reading an article in the recent issue of INC magazine. A few of you will know my success principle of "Be careful who you listen too". For those of you that don't know it, one of the principles I live by, one that I consider one of the keys to my success, is that I don't take advice from anyone who isn't doing better than I am at the thing they are advising me on.
Real Estate Agents are a great example. A big chunk of them don't own a home, and a larger percentage don't own investment property. So how can they give me advice on something I am pretty good at, and they aren't really doing? My opinion is simply they can't. I got my own license about two years ago to do better for myself and help anyone who is serious about buying or selling. Don't call me if you are a "looky lou".
The recent INC magazine article was focused on Jim Collins of Good to Great fame and his work at The United States Military Academy.
Most of you know the United States Military Academy as "Westpoint". Many who know about it consider Westpoint the college for the elite army officers. The list of high achieving alumni supports this view.
According to INC magazine, Jim Collins learned a little about leadership while working with the cadets. As the article points out, Jim Collins has spent his life researching organization success, not personal success. Westpoint should have realized, that Mr. Collins isn't an expert at Military Leadership either, and as he learned these are very different things.
Another question I had to ask about the articles perspective; Is there a difference between organizational success and individual success? Can you have highly effective organizations that we call successful without having highly effective or "successful" people running it? I believe that one is required to have the other. An organization can hold back great people, and a great organization can be destroyed by lesser people being at the top. What I have read in Mr. Collins books lead me to believe that he agrees with my premise even though he doesn't directly say it.
My thoughts are that at the core of all great companies is great people. Do you think you can build a great company with idiots? This should be common sense right?
Some companies are better at collecting a higher percentage of successful people to create a more successful company. Others do a great job creating successful people who in turn create successful businesses. This was really the legacy of Jack Welch during his reign at GE isn't it? He created a great management and leadership funnel, the people that made it through the funnel made great companies.
Tommy Caldwell, considered one of the worlds best rock climbers, is attempting to be the first person ever to climb the face of El Cap in Yosemite park un assisted. This means he is going to do it with no ropes, no nails in the rocks, no hexectric nuts or link cams, just a man climbing a rock. I am sure he gets to wear the shoes though.
So far he has "failed" four times, and according to INC, when Jim Collins asked him why he goes back after failing, Tommy Caldwell replied that he was getting better each time. Tommy Caldwell didn't fail, he tried and improved. Just as the Japanese use Kaizen in business, Tommy Caldwell uses it in rock climbing.
Right there was the secret to crossing a long section of the road to success. Failure is not the road to success. Failure is failure. Moving forward on the road is how you get you to success. There is no other way.
Some of this may appear to be semantics, some of this is in "The Mind", and the reality is still that failure is failure and progress is progress no matter how you define it. Success does not come from failure. Success comes from moving forward no matter how difficult.
This point of view was a frustration I have had with many business improvement and self help books. They would use the word failure when referencing attempts to move forward. I really didn't address this issue correctly in the book So Now What?
As a competitive marksman, there were two competitions at every event, a team competition and an individual competition. The best victories where when the team won, even though I wanted to win also. In 1989, both happened, and it is the best victory in my career. I won the overall event, and the team won the team event. When that happened our margin was so big, I could have been third on my team and we would have still won. Nobody carried the team and nobody held the team back, the entire team kept pushing that year. There was never a failure, only opportunities to improve.
Thomas Edison had it correct when he was asked how it felt to fail at creating the electric light bulb 10,000 times. He replied, "I didn't fail 10,000 times, the lightbulb was an invention with 10,000 steps." It was an invention worth the journey. The bigger the prize at the end, or the bigger the contribution, the more difficult the journey will be. There are no short cuts.
Those who don't really want success will see the steps as too difficult and therefore a failure. Failure becomes an excuse to quit rather than a step forward. When you say to yourself that you have failed, you give yourself permission to quit and seek a new road. You change your definition of success to fit your failures. Failure is failure only if you don't learn from it and let it choose your direction.
This may seem like a very subtle difference in language and it really is. How you view the steps will determine if you make it to your destination or not. When you look at high achievers, they are still real people just like you and me. The difference starts with how they view failure, and how big their goals are. When things don't work and people laugh and ridicule, high achievers keep moving. They don't quit.
So why do people accept failure as failure? Simply put it is comfortable. Since none of their peers have done it, they don't feel the need to do it, and not doing it keep them at a level they are comfortable with. This can happen to anyone at any level in life.
The times in my life I wanted to quit are few but they happened. I have lived through and proven both sides of this process of the mind as it relates to failure and success. The most memorable for me was in 1990. I was ready to quit Air Force Pilot training because of a letter stating that I did "not have the attitude conducive to fly a fighter". It didn't say I wasn't qualified or I had failed, but I read it that way and I accepted the letter as failure.
Ready to walk away and return to my "comfortable" life, a friend, classmate and Air Force Academy Graduate, Mike Leonas, convinced me it was simply an opportunity to improve. Thanks to Mike I ended up having a great time flying in the military for the next 14 years.
If you really want to get where you are going, get better with each attempt. Get stronger at the core skill so you can push a little harder each time until you get "there" and can come up with a new place to go. More importantly, as Mike Leonas showed me, surround yourself with friends who don't understand failure, and truly understand opportunities to improve.
The journey really is the thing. Why do you think Richard Branson keeps building companies? When he gets to one destination, he keeps moving to another one. When Steve Jobs was fired from Apple, he continued to move towards his destination. When he came back, he brought Apple with him. Life is about the opportunities to improve.
Think about Elon Musk starting a new technically advanced car company that only offers 100% electric cars. He already had a successful business and was a billionaire, why risk it all to get into the car business and build a car that no one else builds? Didn't anyone tell him about the Tucker Car Company? Clearly at that level, Constant Improvement works.
Failure is not the road to success, failure isn't even on the road to success. The road to success is paved with little cobblestones of success and then taking one step to place the next stone. Always pushing a little more each time than you did the time before and getting closer to the goal each time is the key. Failure is when you quit, nothing more. This is why a coach can be such a big help.
Making each step better than the last is the key to success. Failure is how some people will define a step that doesn't end at success. The problem, like Edison found, is that you don't know how many steps that will be.
As the proverb goes, You are closest to success, just before you quit.
Get better at what ever you do every day and you will be called a success before you know it.
Is this why so many people just accept where they are in life? Doesn't everyone want to know how to be successful? If not, why wouldn't they want to be successful? Don't you want to be more successful than you are now?
Since a big part of my work now is helping other people become more successful, I started thinking about failure and its role in life after reading an article in the recent issue of INC magazine. A few of you will know my success principle of "Be careful who you listen too". For those of you that don't know it, one of the principles I live by, one that I consider one of the keys to my success, is that I don't take advice from anyone who isn't doing better than I am at the thing they are advising me on.
Real Estate Agents are a great example. A big chunk of them don't own a home, and a larger percentage don't own investment property. So how can they give me advice on something I am pretty good at, and they aren't really doing? My opinion is simply they can't. I got my own license about two years ago to do better for myself and help anyone who is serious about buying or selling. Don't call me if you are a "looky lou".
The recent INC magazine article was focused on Jim Collins of Good to Great fame and his work at The United States Military Academy.
Most of you know the United States Military Academy as "Westpoint". Many who know about it consider Westpoint the college for the elite army officers. The list of high achieving alumni supports this view.
According to INC magazine, Jim Collins learned a little about leadership while working with the cadets. As the article points out, Jim Collins has spent his life researching organization success, not personal success. Westpoint should have realized, that Mr. Collins isn't an expert at Military Leadership either, and as he learned these are very different things.
Another question I had to ask about the articles perspective; Is there a difference between organizational success and individual success? Can you have highly effective organizations that we call successful without having highly effective or "successful" people running it? I believe that one is required to have the other. An organization can hold back great people, and a great organization can be destroyed by lesser people being at the top. What I have read in Mr. Collins books lead me to believe that he agrees with my premise even though he doesn't directly say it.
My thoughts are that at the core of all great companies is great people. Do you think you can build a great company with idiots? This should be common sense right?
Some companies are better at collecting a higher percentage of successful people to create a more successful company. Others do a great job creating successful people who in turn create successful businesses. This was really the legacy of Jack Welch during his reign at GE isn't it? He created a great management and leadership funnel, the people that made it through the funnel made great companies.
Tommy Caldwell, considered one of the worlds best rock climbers, is attempting to be the first person ever to climb the face of El Cap in Yosemite park un assisted. This means he is going to do it with no ropes, no nails in the rocks, no hexectric nuts or link cams, just a man climbing a rock. I am sure he gets to wear the shoes though.
So far he has "failed" four times, and according to INC, when Jim Collins asked him why he goes back after failing, Tommy Caldwell replied that he was getting better each time. Tommy Caldwell didn't fail, he tried and improved. Just as the Japanese use Kaizen in business, Tommy Caldwell uses it in rock climbing.
Right there was the secret to crossing a long section of the road to success. Failure is not the road to success. Failure is failure. Moving forward on the road is how you get you to success. There is no other way.
Some of this may appear to be semantics, some of this is in "The Mind", and the reality is still that failure is failure and progress is progress no matter how you define it. Success does not come from failure. Success comes from moving forward no matter how difficult.
This point of view was a frustration I have had with many business improvement and self help books. They would use the word failure when referencing attempts to move forward. I really didn't address this issue correctly in the book So Now What?
As a competitive marksman, there were two competitions at every event, a team competition and an individual competition. The best victories where when the team won, even though I wanted to win also. In 1989, both happened, and it is the best victory in my career. I won the overall event, and the team won the team event. When that happened our margin was so big, I could have been third on my team and we would have still won. Nobody carried the team and nobody held the team back, the entire team kept pushing that year. There was never a failure, only opportunities to improve.
Thomas Edison had it correct when he was asked how it felt to fail at creating the electric light bulb 10,000 times. He replied, "I didn't fail 10,000 times, the lightbulb was an invention with 10,000 steps." It was an invention worth the journey. The bigger the prize at the end, or the bigger the contribution, the more difficult the journey will be. There are no short cuts.
Those who don't really want success will see the steps as too difficult and therefore a failure. Failure becomes an excuse to quit rather than a step forward. When you say to yourself that you have failed, you give yourself permission to quit and seek a new road. You change your definition of success to fit your failures. Failure is failure only if you don't learn from it and let it choose your direction.
This may seem like a very subtle difference in language and it really is. How you view the steps will determine if you make it to your destination or not. When you look at high achievers, they are still real people just like you and me. The difference starts with how they view failure, and how big their goals are. When things don't work and people laugh and ridicule, high achievers keep moving. They don't quit.
So why do people accept failure as failure? Simply put it is comfortable. Since none of their peers have done it, they don't feel the need to do it, and not doing it keep them at a level they are comfortable with. This can happen to anyone at any level in life.
The times in my life I wanted to quit are few but they happened. I have lived through and proven both sides of this process of the mind as it relates to failure and success. The most memorable for me was in 1990. I was ready to quit Air Force Pilot training because of a letter stating that I did "not have the attitude conducive to fly a fighter". It didn't say I wasn't qualified or I had failed, but I read it that way and I accepted the letter as failure.
Ready to walk away and return to my "comfortable" life, a friend, classmate and Air Force Academy Graduate, Mike Leonas, convinced me it was simply an opportunity to improve. Thanks to Mike I ended up having a great time flying in the military for the next 14 years.
If you really want to get where you are going, get better with each attempt. Get stronger at the core skill so you can push a little harder each time until you get "there" and can come up with a new place to go. More importantly, as Mike Leonas showed me, surround yourself with friends who don't understand failure, and truly understand opportunities to improve.
The journey really is the thing. Why do you think Richard Branson keeps building companies? When he gets to one destination, he keeps moving to another one. When Steve Jobs was fired from Apple, he continued to move towards his destination. When he came back, he brought Apple with him. Life is about the opportunities to improve.
Think about Elon Musk starting a new technically advanced car company that only offers 100% electric cars. He already had a successful business and was a billionaire, why risk it all to get into the car business and build a car that no one else builds? Didn't anyone tell him about the Tucker Car Company? Clearly at that level, Constant Improvement works.
Failure is not the road to success, failure isn't even on the road to success. The road to success is paved with little cobblestones of success and then taking one step to place the next stone. Always pushing a little more each time than you did the time before and getting closer to the goal each time is the key. Failure is when you quit, nothing more. This is why a coach can be such a big help.
Making each step better than the last is the key to success. Failure is how some people will define a step that doesn't end at success. The problem, like Edison found, is that you don't know how many steps that will be.
As the proverb goes, You are closest to success, just before you quit.
Get better at what ever you do every day and you will be called a success before you know it.
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Would You Like To Know Something I Wish I Knew Then?
This has been an interesting year for some people, me included. The company that was my primary income declared bankruptcy, and became my secondary job in the same 12 month period. How you do you stay on the road to success when this happens?
Some of my friends have pinned their lives on various other events this year over which they have no control. Overall, my closest group of friends are all doing quite well when compared to last year and the year before. Sadly a few have become emotionally invested in events that they have no way to control or benefit from.
Why is that? The economic data says that people aren't doing better. They might be back at work but relative to inflation, average incomes are down, the cost of housing is on the rise and most people are struggling to make ends meet. So what is the difference between my friends who are doing better and everyone else? Do you want to know? I mean, do you REALLY want to know what success keys they have?
My question is for those of us that are a little farther along in life, what would you have liked to have really known 20 years ago? What knowledge would have changed your life? What would you do differently? I will tell you there are two main things that I would have done differently had I been given the right information. I have enough that I wish I knew to write a book. If I do, will you want to read it?
My next question for the younger people. Do you want to know? I am not sure that I would have at the time. My niece is more worried about her friends. My nephew though, his is paying attention.
In my 20's, I was on a mission to do something, the problem was that I didn't know what that something was. Even if I was given the right information, would I have done anything different? I almost think I was given the information, and ignored it because it didn't fit my world. What I needed was a real mentor, and I didn't have one. I had some great coaches though.
This week I took a class with Marki Costello. The Costello name comes directly from the "Abbot and Costello" comedy franchise. In the world of Hollywood, she is part of the royal circle. During the class I talked to a woman for two and a half minutes.
Marki said to "interview" this woman and only listen to what she was saying. All of my questions were supposed to be related to what she said. Sadly, I couldn't. The coach in me was fighting to get out, and yet while I did what I was supposed to do, she just said the same thing over and over. I listened and she never asked me for advice. She just told me how she was doing it. It was like looking in a time warped mirror. I could hear myself 20 years ago and wanted to reach over and tell her to shut up and listen. I wanted to set her straight, and show her why her life wasn't going where she wanted it too. I didn't.
This leads to the first lesson and the first thing I wish I had known. I don't mean known like I could tell my friends, but known like truly understood. There are some people who really know what they want early on in life. Jon Bon Jovi nailed it early on in life. Me? I was just goofing off with no direction. This woman had four jobs, and hasn't made real success at any of them. I have had four jobs and by most accounts I am now "successful" at all of them. She hasn't truly hit success in any of them and can't focus on any one of them. Sadly she is the only one in the way of her success.
It is funny that it worked out for me the way it did. As a kid I used to watch Family Ties with Michael J. Fox because I was the entrepreneur in the household of "safe" people. I used to read about interest rates, and how to make money in real estate all the way back to the 5th grade. Before that I was on TV as a kid on "Romper Room" and early reality TV on ABC's Junior All Star program.
Safe people can be like my in-laws and work for the government and get a check on the 1st and 15th, or like my parents and become doctors. My mom got a Ph.D. from Stanford and my Father was a Dentist who graduated from USC. It is just a different version of "safe" income. Their degrees were as reliable at getting jobs as the government was for my in-laws. So what did I do? I left home without finishing High School.
So would I listen? I don't know. Do you want to listen? I hope so.
The one thing I would change is the four job thing. While I am having a good time now, the individual struggles with each job delayed growth in others. Being in the top 10% of four jobs isn't nearly as rewarding as being in the top 1% of just one job.
My hindsight tells me that I focused on the wrong job first. John Travolta became an actor first, pilot second. I did it the other way around. I spent many more years to become a professional pilot before I could start in real estate as an investor and Realtor while working to build my knowledge of business and marketing. Finally I returned to acting part time a year ago. So who makes more money? John Travolta without a doubt. Who works less? I am guessing John Travolta.
I am not complaining about my life, rather I am pointing out that if I had known then what I know now, I would hope that I would approach things differently. I could do all of the same things and by simply changing the order, I could have been more successful at any one of them or all of them. If I knew then what I know now.
So my question to you is this. If I sat down with my high roller friends who are pilots, actors, real estate investors and business owners, living in million dollar homes, would you be interested in knowing what they wished they had known then? Would you change what you are doing now if they shared that knowledge?
That is what I want to know.
Some of my friends have pinned their lives on various other events this year over which they have no control. Overall, my closest group of friends are all doing quite well when compared to last year and the year before. Sadly a few have become emotionally invested in events that they have no way to control or benefit from.
Why is that? The economic data says that people aren't doing better. They might be back at work but relative to inflation, average incomes are down, the cost of housing is on the rise and most people are struggling to make ends meet. So what is the difference between my friends who are doing better and everyone else? Do you want to know? I mean, do you REALLY want to know what success keys they have?
My question is for those of us that are a little farther along in life, what would you have liked to have really known 20 years ago? What knowledge would have changed your life? What would you do differently? I will tell you there are two main things that I would have done differently had I been given the right information. I have enough that I wish I knew to write a book. If I do, will you want to read it?
My next question for the younger people. Do you want to know? I am not sure that I would have at the time. My niece is more worried about her friends. My nephew though, his is paying attention.
In my 20's, I was on a mission to do something, the problem was that I didn't know what that something was. Even if I was given the right information, would I have done anything different? I almost think I was given the information, and ignored it because it didn't fit my world. What I needed was a real mentor, and I didn't have one. I had some great coaches though.
This week I took a class with Marki Costello. The Costello name comes directly from the "Abbot and Costello" comedy franchise. In the world of Hollywood, she is part of the royal circle. During the class I talked to a woman for two and a half minutes.
Marki said to "interview" this woman and only listen to what she was saying. All of my questions were supposed to be related to what she said. Sadly, I couldn't. The coach in me was fighting to get out, and yet while I did what I was supposed to do, she just said the same thing over and over. I listened and she never asked me for advice. She just told me how she was doing it. It was like looking in a time warped mirror. I could hear myself 20 years ago and wanted to reach over and tell her to shut up and listen. I wanted to set her straight, and show her why her life wasn't going where she wanted it too. I didn't.
This leads to the first lesson and the first thing I wish I had known. I don't mean known like I could tell my friends, but known like truly understood. There are some people who really know what they want early on in life. Jon Bon Jovi nailed it early on in life. Me? I was just goofing off with no direction. This woman had four jobs, and hasn't made real success at any of them. I have had four jobs and by most accounts I am now "successful" at all of them. She hasn't truly hit success in any of them and can't focus on any one of them. Sadly she is the only one in the way of her success.
It is funny that it worked out for me the way it did. As a kid I used to watch Family Ties with Michael J. Fox because I was the entrepreneur in the household of "safe" people. I used to read about interest rates, and how to make money in real estate all the way back to the 5th grade. Before that I was on TV as a kid on "Romper Room" and early reality TV on ABC's Junior All Star program.
Safe people can be like my in-laws and work for the government and get a check on the 1st and 15th, or like my parents and become doctors. My mom got a Ph.D. from Stanford and my Father was a Dentist who graduated from USC. It is just a different version of "safe" income. Their degrees were as reliable at getting jobs as the government was for my in-laws. So what did I do? I left home without finishing High School.
So would I listen? I don't know. Do you want to listen? I hope so.
The one thing I would change is the four job thing. While I am having a good time now, the individual struggles with each job delayed growth in others. Being in the top 10% of four jobs isn't nearly as rewarding as being in the top 1% of just one job.
My hindsight tells me that I focused on the wrong job first. John Travolta became an actor first, pilot second. I did it the other way around. I spent many more years to become a professional pilot before I could start in real estate as an investor and Realtor while working to build my knowledge of business and marketing. Finally I returned to acting part time a year ago. So who makes more money? John Travolta without a doubt. Who works less? I am guessing John Travolta.
I am not complaining about my life, rather I am pointing out that if I had known then what I know now, I would hope that I would approach things differently. I could do all of the same things and by simply changing the order, I could have been more successful at any one of them or all of them. If I knew then what I know now.
So my question to you is this. If I sat down with my high roller friends who are pilots, actors, real estate investors and business owners, living in million dollar homes, would you be interested in knowing what they wished they had known then? Would you change what you are doing now if they shared that knowledge?
That is what I want to know.
Friday, September 27, 2013
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 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.
Monday, September 23, 2013
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.
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.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
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.....
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.....
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
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.
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.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
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
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
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
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.
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.
Monday, September 9, 2013
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.
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.
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".
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".
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
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.
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.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Finish One Thing At A Time To Succeed
This week has proven quite interesting in all areas of my work. Like most entrepreneurs, I am a little ADD or ADHD or something like that. My mind is always spinning at all hours of the day and night. I got up at 3am this morning with ideas just pouring out.
I met two different business owners who had the exact same problem. They had major projects somewhere between 70 and 80% complete and we already looking to the next project. The problem was they weren't finishing the ones they already started. Do you know anyone who has trouble finishing a project?
If this is you or someone you know, you might like to know why this happens. To begin with we start projects for a couple of reasons. One of them is to prove we can do it. The problem here is that you don't actually need to finish the project to see that you can. When this happens, you get bored, realizing that there is no question that you can finish, and you start looking elsewhere.
The problem I have with this is that you can't win until you finish. This is true in life, racing and projects. Imagine if you got on my flight to Dallas and we went 80% of the way and got on the PA and said "OK folks, you have seen that we made it this far, and we are sure you all believe we can make it the rest of the way so we are stopping in Austin so we can go do something else." Crazy right? And yet we do it every day.
Following through on a project or task until it is completed isn't easy. Anyone can enter the race, and many can run a lot of laps. Only a few will finish, and only one will win.
When these business owners come to me short on patience, money, time and focus while looking at the next project, it is easy to see why they are right where they are.
Imagine if I were a real estate investor and I kept buying property. First I bought a condo, cleaned it up, got it ready to rent, and said "See, I can be a condo landlord" without ever actually renting it. Then I went and bought a house, cleaned it up, got it ready to flip and said "See I can flip a house" without ever selling it. I would go broke doing this, and this is exactly what I see business owner after business owner do over and over.
I must admit, I have done it too.
So what is the solution? The simple solution is not to start a new project until the old project is truly complete. Simple yes, obvious yes, easy, no. If it were easy, everyone would do it.
One of the keys to success is knowing what you want to do before you start, and then finishing it before you start something else. I can't fly a jet while I am still racing a car. Why do we try to start one business when the first one still isn't complete?
If you start, commit to finishing before moving on, and you will see your success sooner than you think possible.
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