Well Scripted Life

Are you a believer? Do you live your life as a believer? I’m guessing many of you are thinking about God, and that’s probably the most important question you’ll have to answer, but it’s not what I’m asking now. I’m asking about the power of belief, faith. What do you believe about normal life, day to day work?  My favorite line from Coach Flower’s half-time, football pep-talk is, "Belief will rule my world.” He’s right. When I’m not doing what I think I should be doing, I have to ask myself, “What do I really believe?”

In my favorite sci-fi movie Serenity, the lead character asks why he should be afraid, "Because he's a believer. He's intelligent, methodical and devout in his belief ..." That’s what I’m asking. Are you intelligent, methodical and devout in your belief?

We all believe in many things. It’s what we choose to believe that matters. Do you believe? Are you sold? Did you buy first? If you haven’t bought, if you don’t believe, how can you expect others to want what you have. If you don’t really believe you are worth it, neither will the teacher, HR interviewer, new boss, or client.

Faith is a choice, often based on first impressions. It’s in your favor to work for a good first impression. Could you lose few pounds, dress a little nicer, shine your shoes, show up a bit early, be prepared? Once an initial choice to have faith, to believe is made, it grows in power through evidence over time. Do you do what you say you are going to do? Trust is what we call this powered faith. Trust is hard to build and so easy to lose.

Faith comes from hearing and hearing and hearing -- what we call marketing. If you want to sell more, if you want to grow, first you must make a choice to believe.

Zig Ziglar often said that he'd listen to a motivational tape every day. You can make a quick decision to believe for professional reasons, but it takes time to become familiar and truly convince yourself. If you sense yourself wavering, doubting, questioning, then dig in and learn. Become the guide your client is looking for and save them time, money, and headaches.

Do you save for a rainy day? I always live with the feeling it might rain, and I need to prepare. Might sound like a good idea, but it does take away a little fun from the sunny days. Are you preparing for rain? Are you doing the work needed to reduce or mitigate risk? Are you maintaining processes and machine as you should?

Are you afraid to risk it? How many of us know to change our oil every 3,000 miles? Of course, we don't often say that's the "more severe" schedule as my car's owner's manual describes it. The other schedule is 7,500. As a nation, I can only imagine how much money is wasted due to over maintaining our vehicles. I'm not writing to ask you to delay your next oil change. I'm writing to talk about the idea of deferment and the art of pushing it to the limit to maximize profits.

I was reading the Union Pacific: The Reconfiguration: America's Greatest Railroad from 1969 to the Present by Maury Klein and it describes a battle between operation and staff at headquarters. Operations continually wanted to perform maintenance on the track and headquarters wanted to delay in order to save money.  The problem isn't simple. Can you delay? Yes - naturally. But for how long and how many times? Certainly, there's a point where it's too expensive to recover from deferred maintenance and just as certainly money is wasted from too frequent maintenance.

One of my favorite authors, Nassim Taleb, asks the best question. How many white swans does it take to prove all swans are white? How many black ones does it take to prove you're wrong? How many safe bridge crossings does it take to prove deferring maintenance was a wise choice? How many unsafe bridges does it take to prove you are wrong?

Pursuing profits creates too create of risks in some situations and regulation steps in for the greater good, take aircraft for example or DOT regulations for trucking. Without restraint we arrive we were in 2007 and again today – corporation are too big to fail and can’t be held accountable. I don’t like regulation either, but it’s the guard rails for short-term thinking and used correctly, rules protect the greater good. We are never free from responsibility.

When taking finance classes during my MBA program, we were taught that bankruptcy is just the price of doing business. We were taught to leverage as far as possible, meaning borrow as much money as possible to expand as far as possible. In theory, this means you capture as much money as you can while you can. In practice, it runs the risk sky high and leaves the mess for taxpayers to clean up. It should be the stockholders, but that’s the beauty of too big to fail. The company leadership and stockholders do fine. The cost is spread across the entire economy. I feel I drifted a bit too political; wasn’t my intent.

I was really interested in deferred maintenance vs. a well-maintained environment, and the art of knowing the difference. It seems to settle in on beliefs. Do you believe clever software can track all conditions and predict a maintenance schedule? The trouble is with the word, “all”. I do believe software can help, but we can't forget Taleb’s Black Swans hide in every situation.

And I only change my oil about very 6000 miles - more due to forgetfulness than cleverness.

Daily Checklist

I have an appointment each morning. It's my daily checklist. Reminds me to do what I intend to do and not just start looking at email. I set outlook to open on my calendar and not my inbox. Here's a sample:

Environmental Enrichment

When I was selling cars back in the 90s, I shared an office with a depressing guy. He showed up late to work, left early and complained about management the whole time he sat at the desk. He would figure out how many hours he worked, divide by the little commission he made, and whine that he was paid less than minimal wage. Try as I might he wore me down. His negative attitude was poisonous, and the day he was fired my stats started to improve. I was like an animal at the zoo. With a gloomy environment, I paced back and forth in my cage with a distant, blank stare. I've learned over time that Environmental Enrichment is required.

What can you do to help you immediate surroundings? Keep your area clean? Bring in some flowers? Kid's art work? Maybe aroma therapy? Favorite saying on a poster. Move your desk, so you aren't engage in conversation with anyone that walks by. You can find ways to make improvements, even if they are very small.

Playlist

No negative music. Depressing, dark music is great if you are Batman, but it doesn't help sell anything. Scrub your playlist and have only your favorite tunes.

Why me commercial

I mentioned this above in my daily checklist. I have a short word doc that shouts from the rooftops why I am the best choice for the job. It's only meant for me, and it would be embarrassing if it got out, but I have to admit that it helps. I can't help but smile and feel like I have an important job to do.

10 min to make my job better

This one has been surprising. So simple and powerful. It helps me focus on what I need to do most and forces me to define my job. If you want to get better at your job, you first need to really understand what your job is. Not what your title might suggest, but what do you actually do?

What tips do you use? 

thanks, g

Did you prepare? Did your preparation have a goal, a purpose? Maybe you had a test in school? A sales-call on a client? An interview for a new job? An interview of a magazine article or online blog? A prospecting phone call? One thing all of these situations have in common is preparation. We celebrate the result, and the results do matter, but have you heard the saying, “What gets measured gets done, so be careful what you measure?”

If you mainly emphasize results, you over emphasize luck and win at all cost. I think we can agree these attitudes led to Enron, Worldcom, and too-big-to-fail financial crisis. What if we emphasize the preparation, celebrate a well-prepared effort? I’m sure the cynic in the room would still sneer and say, “who cares?”. I do believe if you focused on the preparation, then you could build a predictable, repeatable process. People like us, prepare like this.

The culture at work could center around hard work, preparation, and checklists. You could reduce your reliance on luck. You could predict the odds of winning based on the degree of preparation.

For a job interview, I could ask if your resume and cover letter are unique to this position? Did you think up STAR stories that fit this company’s expectations? STAR is a story model that stands for: Situation, Task, Action, Result. The key is the result. Did you prepare 3 to 5 great result stories that highlight your experience? Did you have an answer to, “Tell me about yourself?”, or are you just going to wing it?

What about a test in school? Did you make flashcards a few days in advance and have the definitions, formulas, concepts down cold? Did you practice application? Read the material? Review with a classmate? Granted a lot depends on the subject, but I believe we all agree steps can be taken to be ready. You will have dozens of tests, and you can add preparation steps as you learn from mistakes.

What about interview questions? Can questions be prepared in advance? Can you have written the story in advance and then organized questions that would be needed for the story to unfold? Can you frame the questions better? Much like I’m asking now? What has to be true for you to do better tomorrow than you did last time? How did you plan to prepare? What special steps did you take to give yourself the advantage? Do you rely on hard work or luck? How do you measure the level of work? What have you learned over the years that can help others chase their dreams like you did?

Even producing this podcast has me energized for tomorrow. What can I do tonight before bed to setup tomorrow morning for success? What price am I willing to pay? What’s too much? Am I willing to forego a little sleep? Should I be sleep deprived? Can I control the day? What’s more in my favor the first hour or two or the last couple of hours? When a day goes wrong what has normally been the reason? What can I do this time to avoid the most common reasons?

I’m going to go out on a limb and claim few days have surprises? Some do, but it’s few. Plan for the majority of the days without surprises and in most cases, you can forgive yourself when you do get a surprise – the first time. The second time you should know better. Do you learn? Are you capable of learning? I don’t believe in natural born anything, but I do know some people have to put in more effort over a longer period of time to get the same result as others. Look in the mirror and be honest. The answer is acceptable. You must know where you are to get where you want to go. Does this make sense? Start small, start now and don’t quit.

Come with me. I have big plans for Nov 9th! Day 101.

3 Books You Must Read

http://atulgawande.com/book/the-checklist-manifesto/

Tim Ferriss often asks which book you gift most often. He's compiled a list in his latest book, Tools for Titans. If had interviewed me, I would have easily said, The Checklist Manifesto, by Atul Gawande. Unless you have a job where it isn't important the complete anything correctly, you need to read this book. I am a huge fan.

https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555

I have lost count how many books I have read the refer back to Kahneman's book. I highly recommend reading his actual book. You'll be surprised how guru's borrow heavily from his work. This is one I own on audio.

https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Ownership-U-S-Navy-SEALs-ebook/dp/B00VE4Y0Z2

Okay, I'll be the first to admit it isn't the same weight as the first 2, but it's is required ready. Some wise guy from a few thousand years ago -- maybe Cicero -- said there are two kinds of speeches. The ones were people applaud and say nice speech, and the ones were people march. I like books that have an impact, and Jocko's is one of those books. You'll change your mindset when you assume extreme ownership. I believe it is a missing ingredient in many of our lives. Caused me to start doing laundry at home -- you'll have to message me to get the rest of that story.

So many more books I'd recommend for fun and profit and some combine both, one example is Jesse Itzler's book Living with a Seal, but the 3 listed above are mandatory.

Have fun and drink more wine.

 A long time ago, I typed for profit. I was a computer geek, a technician. I used to be decent -- maybe better than decent. What did it take? What separated those of us that were decent from those that were faking it? I really believe it was faith in Gremlins.

All of us lost our way and got confused. When the chips were down, the difference was who believed in Gremlins and who didn't. The technicians that stopped because “sometimes things just happened” believed in Gremlins. We found the tenacity to keep going because we knew Gremlins didn't exist. We didn't always find the answer, but we knew it was out there, and our faith keep us going long after others would quit.

Where did the faith come from? It started with a choice to believe and strengthened through experience. Belief will rule your world. What you choose to believe will decide how you respond. Have the courage to change your mind when you find new evidence, but you must always decide what you believe, how you will respond -- even inaction is a choice.

35 years since high school, and I still remember talk about the star freshman that hit the winning home run. I said, "What about the first home run? Was it not as important?" My friends walked away making comments about my lack of understanding sports. I still get those comments today. We had won by one run. The score was 10 to 9. If the first 9 home runs were not hit, then what value would be the last one? I was genuinely confused why we celebrated the last run more than the first run. I do understand the extra pressure that comes from do or die scenario. Maybe it was the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs, and he hit the run to win the game?

I too celebrate the winner, but results have a lot to do with luck and circumstances outside of our control. Effort and intention are hard to measure, so we demand good grades, very easy to measure. What gets measured gets done, so kids play it safe and take classes with easy teachers. My own kids don’t trust me when I tell them grades don’t matter because if they don’t score well, I bench them from sports and take away their electronics; however, it is true. I don’t care about the grade itself. Grades are only a proxy for effort. Have my kids put in the effort to meet the standards set by the school? I know these standards have little bearing on success in the real world. The life skill comes when you figure out how to achieve; how to try something hard and fight for achievement. The ability to learn for yourself. Grades are still the best way I have to tell if my kids are trying. It didn’t work well in the lower grades since it was too easy to get high grades. It’s a better tool for high school and college.

Peter Drucker believed we should record our intentions. Check our results frequently, and we'll quickly figure out our strengths and weaknesses. Can you achieve what you intended to achieve? If not, what needs to change? I plan my day in advance, and I have yet to work out the day as planned. I always believe I can get more done than I do. I try to improve, but the facts are there on paper. Drucker’s method gives me the feedback to improve.

A different way to think about it is to use Nassim Nicholas Taleb's metaphor. Which $100,000 is more valuable? A winning lottery ticket or a dentist's earnings?

If our intentions are to win the game, we need a machine more capable of winning more often. If we look only at the last home run or the final score, we might value the winning lottery ticket as much as the dental practice.

My point is lead people to create an environment that has the ability stay the course, maintain a sustainable pace, and hit winning home runs as often as possible. Celebrate the practice. I'll close with my favorite paraphrase of Bear Bryant, "It's not the will to win that matters, everyone has that. It's the will to prepare to win that makes all the difference."

How do you catch more fish, as a metaphor for winning more deals or completing more projects on time or getting promoted? It’s all about winning more often, so how do we do it, win?

Is it timing? Is it a natural born talent? Or? Is it knowing where to stand?

The grizzly that has figured out where to stand catches the most salmon. The equivalent in selling of knowing where to stand is knowing where to spend your time.

It's what Jack Daly calls High Payoff Activities (HPA). The best salespeople know where to stand. They work on HPAs. What's an HPA? An HPA is simply any activity that generates more business. If you aren't careful, you'll be spending 50% or more of your time on busy work. Make a list of the HPAs, and question everything else:

· can you ignore it,

· can you delegate it, or

· can you delay it till a non-prime time?

Skip the to-do list. Jack suggests working off a calendar instead of a to-do list. I couldn't agree more. I scan my emails [applying lessons learned from Getting-Things-Done author, David Allen]:

· to delete what's possible

· complete anything I can do in less than 2 minutes, or

· move it to a "processing" folder.

I empty my inbox about every hour or two. When I work through the "processing" folder, I think through each email: what's the work that needs to be done: study? respond? create? organize? I use outlook on both my MacBook and my ThinkPad. On my mac, I tap with two fingers to trigger the right click options. I select create - new appointment to create a calendar entry. On ThinkPad, I have a quick action built to "book time" (creates an appointment with text of message). This is where you do the preprocessing. Think through what you want to do before you hit save. The trick is you don't want to consider it again. When it comes time to act on the email, you can act, not think through it again. You have room on both platforms to write a note to yourself above the email and keep track of progress. If I'm not able to finish in the time allotted, I make a note of my progress and reschedule.

Every action requires time. If a message is worth acting on, then it's worth scheduling the time to act. When you use a to-do list, you are in effect saying, "I hope to make time to work on this someday."

What if it isn't from email? I use the note app on my phone. It's quick, easy to use, and saves in the cloud. I have a few standard lists:

· Books recommended

· store -- things to buy next time

· writing prompts

· good ideas

· tasks noticed to complete around the house, etc...

I process these notes about once a week. Same idea as the emails. I schedule a time to get it done. The exception are small tasks at home. I just work through the smaller tasks at my leisure on weekends.

At home, I use google docs for organizing information, and at work, I use OneNote and SharePoint. I love OneNote for its ease of use and mobile access. I have a notebook with several tabs: daily journal, external clients, internal clients, key vendors, process notes, tools. I share the notebook with my team.

Routines help me save space for HPAs. The routine of capturing work and ideas builds the trust that projects will not be dropped. The trust is in myself. I can rest at ease that I'm not forgetting anything important. I can focus on the HPAs without worrying about the little things falling through the cracks.

One more routine is Friday afternoon planning. I put in the Big Rocks (Steven Covey) for next week. The Big Rocks are the important but not urgent activities that will be missed if not scheduled first: prospecting, training, exercise. By living off my calendar, I am more honest about my time and spend my time more wisely. I use my time on purpose, more productively. It's always a work in progress. These are just a few of my ideas. Greg

Driving into work one morning, I noticed all the ornamental grass had been cut back to about 6 inches from the ground. It made a nice geometric scene for me to enjoy but more than that, I wondered how they knew that's best for the grass.

More to the point, I wondered what I would do if I was told to maintain the grounds. If it was my job suddenly to take care of the landscaping, what would I do? I wouldn't have thought to cut back grass. I doubt there is a training manual at our property management company for the grounds crew. Of course, something as insignificant as cutting back grass is comical, but it highlights a larger lesson for me.

I see tribal knowledge. I see a great example of implicit knowledge. I see a group that shows newcomers how it's done. I realize my salespeople are exactly the same as these grounds’ keepers, and I wonder what I am leaving up to the group to teach each other through gossip, trial and error, email threads, and you-should-have-known.

A training manual will help, but it doesn't solve much. A weeklong training camp is useful but the impact fades quickly. The only way I've seen impact stick is consistent, steady, nudging. The best way to nudge is sitting side by side while they work. Much like the groundskeepers working side by side. Much like we all adapt to new situations by watching those around us.

I watched a great Ted talk that of course I can’t find anymore. I remember the research being discussed was about teaching and how to get someone to remember something for a while. We typically teach a lot in a short period of time and test to confirm it was taught. Students are great at this, and the test scores show it; however, if you test again in a couple of years, you’ll discover nearly 100% of the material has been lost. The best method is to pile a lot on early and then continue to question for a long time. The questions must vary in difficulty, and if a question is missed, the subject can be repeated. I hope it doesn’t come as a surprise that random reinforcement over a long period of time is best. Just because we know how to do something doesn’t mean we do it. We tend to copy what we’ve seen, and we see the cram course is popular. Guess what? It actually takes work.

Good luck and watch how the grass is cut.