The end of the road: S to Z

S is for Sneezer: What do we call someone who spreads good ideas the way some people spread a virus? Seek out the sneezers, cater to them, organize them.

T is for Tribe: Human beings evolved to be attracted to tribes. Groups of like-minded people who share a culture, a connection and perhaps a goal. And each of these tribes seeks leadership. The opportunity today isn't to sell more average stuff to more average people. The real opportunity for you is to find and connect and lead tribes of people, taking them somewhere they want to go.  That is success.

U is for Ululate: Not because it's relevant, just because it's the single best word in the English language!

V is for Very good: No one cares about very good. I can get very good from just about anyone, and certainly cheaper than I can get it from you. We don't have a competence shortage, not any more. No, I'm only going to be impressed by the personal, the magical, the artistic and the work of the truly extraordinary.   Don't be just very good if you can help it.

W is for Worldview: I first encountered this term via George Lakoff. Your worldview is the set of expectations and biases you bring to a situation before any new data appears. Some people hear a politician say something and hate it, while others are thrilled by it. Is it the thing that was said or the person who said it? Some people hear that Apple is about to launch a new product and they get out their wallets, others flee--before they even know what it is. If you don't understand the worldview of the people you're dealing with, you will fail.

X is for Xebec: I hate it when A-to-Z listmakers cheap out on the X. Hey, a xebec is a three-masted schooner. And they're obsolete. Just like CDs, newspapers and a whole host of interesting but dated business models. Sorry. Imagine someone saying: "He's a nice guy, but that company he works for is a xebec."

Y is for You. You the artist. You the one who makes a difference. You the one who stands for something and now has the education and leverage to actually make a difference. Go go go!

Z is for Zoometry: Originally a term from zoology (pronounced zo-ology, in case you were curious), zoometry is the science of instigating and learning from change. This is the revolution of our time, the biggest one in history, and it's not just about silly videos on Youtube. One by one, industry by industry, the world is being remade again and again, and the agents of change are the winners.  Be a part of the change!

My A to Z guide to today's best "success words": L to R

L is for Lizard Brain: This is a huge impediment to getting what you want, and finding your calling in life. What some call the lizard brain is the part of your brain responsible for anger, revenge, fear, and anxiety (and also possibly reproduction). It's the original brain, the one that wild animals possess. The voice of the lizard: it's the resistance that holds you back, that causes doubt.. The resistance rationalizes, hides and sabotages your best work. Recognize your prehistoric lizard brain when it starts to kick in...then work to beat the lizard!

M is for Meatball Sundae: “Gotta get me some of that Social Networking.  Blogs, e-mails campaigns, facebook updates, twitter posts, Google AdWords…”

STOP.  As traditional business communications go away, the new digital tools seem irresistible. But they don’t work for everyone!  Boring products (what I call “meatballs”) like Cheerios, Ford trucks, or beer only distract us with efforts to be socially relevant. When Budweiser spends $40 million developing “BudTV”—that’s a meatball sundae. Dressing up a boring business with bells and whistles no one wants and that lead to no new customers. The point is: avoid creating a meatball sundae.  Use social media in business when it actually enhances your efforts.

N is for NOBS: Otherwise known as the new order business school. My rant about this points out that for most people, a traditional MBA is a waste of both time and money. The two biggest benefits--the selection process of getting in, and the social process of networking--could be accomplished without any classes at all. You can read more about this in my earlier post of April 2010 .

O is for Orangutan: I could have used the word 'monkey', but I already had an M listing, plus I love the way you spell Orangutan. Anyway, the primate is the best way to think about how people interact with websites. They're like monkeys in a psychology experiment, looking for the banana. Where's the banana, they ask?  Keep this in mind if you are ever in the position of creating your own websites, for work or personal purposes. If your website offers a banana, people are going to click on it and respond. If they don't, they'll leave.

P is for Permission:  Seth Godin's company, Yoyodyne Entertainment, is all about fun and games. But its mission is serious business. Godin and his colleagues are working to persuade some of the most powerful companies in the world to reinvent how they relate to their customers. His argument is as stark as it is radical: Advertising just doesn't work as well as it used to - in part because there's so much of it, in part because people have learned to ignore it, in part because the rise of the Net means that companies can go beyond it. "We are entering an era," Godin declares, "that's going to change the way almost everything is marketed to almost everybody."

The biggest problem with mass-market advertising, Godin says, is that it fights for people's attention by interrupting them. A 30-second spot interrupts a "Desperate Housewives" episode. A telemarketing call interrupts a family dinner. A print ad interrupts a blog. The interruption model is extremely effective when there's not an overflow of interruptions, but there's too much going on in our lives for us to enjoy being interrupted anymore.

The new model is built around permission. The challenge for marketers will be to persuade consumers to volunteer attention - to "raise their hands"  to agree to learn more about a company and its products. Permission marketing turns strangers into friends and friends into loyal customers," he says. "It's not just about entertainment - it's about education."

Q is for Quitting: Sticking things out is overrated, particularly if you stick out the wrong things. In fact, I think you'd be much better off quitting most of what you do. The old saying is wrong--winners do quit, and quitters do win.

Every new project (or job, or hobby, or company) starts out exciting and fun. Then it gets harder and less fun, until it hits a low point-really hard, and not much fun at all. And then you find yourself asking if the goal is even worth the hassle. Maybe you're in a Dip--a temporary setback that will get better if you keep pushing. But maybe it's really a Dead End, which will never get better, no matter how hard you try.

What really sets superstars apart from everyone else is the ability to escape dead ends quickly, while staying focused and motivated when it really counts.

Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt-until they commit to beating the right Dip for the right reasons. They realize that the bigger the barrier, the bigger the reward for getting past it. If you fight the right fights, you'll get more than your fair share of profits, glory, and long-term security.

R is for Remarkable: For years, marketers have talked about the "4 Ps." Sound familiar? This has become the basic marketing checklist, a quick way to make sure that you've done your job. Nothing is guaranteed, of course, but it used to be that if you dotted your I’s and paid attention to your 4 Ps, then you were more likely than not to succeed.

No longer. It's time to add an exceptionally important new P to the list: Purple Cow. Weird? Let me explain.
While driving through France a few years ago, I was enchanted by the hundreds of storybook cows grazing in lovely pastures right next to the road. For dozens of kilometers, I gazed out the window, marveling at the beauty. Then, within a few minutes, I started ignoring the cows. The new cows were just like the old cows, and what was once amazing was now common. Worse than common: It was boring.

Cows, after you've seen them for a while, are boring. A Purple Cow, though: Now, that would really stand out. The essence of the Purple Cow -- the reason it would shine among a crowd of perfectly competent, even undeniably excellent cows -- is that it would be remarkable. Something remarkable is worth talking about, worth paying attention to. Boring stuff quickly becomes invisible.

The world is full of boring stuff -- brown cows -- which is why so few people pay attention. Being remarkable is the art of building things worth noticing.  It is a plea for originality, for passion, guts, and daring. Not just because going through life with passion and guts beats the alternative (which it does), but also because it's the only way to be successful. Today, the one sure way to fail is to be boring. Your one chance for success is to be remarkable.

And that means you have to be a leader. You can't be remarkable by following someone else who's remarkable.

F - - -- K!

Continuing the tour through my new A to Z "success words" for today's world:

F is for the Free Prize: People often don't decide to buy the best product, or support the best solution to their problems. Good ideas aren't always enough by themselves anymore--we need a compelling "backstory"--the "extra" free prize that really sells us. Reality talent show contestants have learned the importance of a backstory. Too often the most talented contestant is voted out in favor of the one with the better backstory, the tale of their struggle we fall in love with. Maybe business people should think more about their free prize--the credible and relevant backstory they can sell?

G is for Go-Go: No, not the dancers, but the philosophy that demands we keep charging ahead, setting aside our fears and anxieties while we try to make good things happen. You can't wait around for someone to deliver to you what you are looking for. Go-go and make it happen for yourself! It's something many of the young people I meet need alot MORE of...a little more go-go might just be what it takes to set you apart from your competition.

H is for Haters: There is so much in our society that is broken, and instead of working to fix things, too many folks just hate on everything. Hating is never the answer for success. Better to spend your energies figuring out how to improve things than pointing fingers at what or who is broken.

I is for Ideas: There are just not enough good ideas out there. Companies are spending billions of dollars looking for them. To be successful, you can't simply wait around for someone else to come up with the ideas. Create them yourself! Ideas are needed in every field, in every department, in every company. Innovators who are willing to think up new ideas will succeed, not followers. They are the people companies are looking for.

J is for "Just Desserts": What effort you put into a task, a job, an assignment, will get repaid to you in time. Believe it. Maybe you can fake your way through a class or a work project, but your "just desserts" will be waiting for you, somewhere, sometime. It never fails.

K is for "Kurpis-like": Maybe you've already seen it listed in the Urban Dictionary...I did not put it there...but it's not bad advice. Try to be more "Kurpis-like"--super-productive with a little go-go thrown in. Whatta ya say?

Check back next month for more success words...

My A to Z guide to today's best "success words"

I love words. And new times sometimes demand new words because old words don't help us to see the world differently.

So I've been collecting some important new words that I think are relevant to our brave new world, and it occurs to me that sometimes I may use these words as if you know what I'm talking about. So with thanks to Seth Godin and a few others, over the course of the next few months, I will share 26 of my favorite new words that in these new times maybe you need to adopt for yourself:

A is for Artist: Our world needs more artists. But to me, an artist is not defined as someone who just paints or writes, but a person who brings humanity to a problem, who changes someone else for the better, who does work that can't be written down in a manual or textbook. Art is about bringing creativity and insight to work, instead of choosing to be someone who just regurgitates what you've been forced to learn. Learn how to be an artist!

B is for Bootstrapper: A bootstrapper is someone who starts a business with no money and funds growth through growth. The internet has made bootstrapping much easier than ever, because the costs of creating and marketing remarkable things are cheaper than ever. It's really important not to act like you're well-funded if you're intent on bootstrapping (and vice versa). You can read the Bootstrapper's Bible for free.

C is for Choice: I didn't coin the term the Long Tail, but I wish I had. It describes a simple law: given a choice, people will choose. For business that means that digital commerce enables niches, and presents an opportunity to offer choice. Offering lots of choices--aggregating and enabling the long tail--accounts for the success of eBay, iTunes, Amazon, Craigslist, Google and even match.com.

D is for Darwin: Things evolve. But evolution is, well, evolving. While it used to take a hundred thousand years for significant changes to happen to our physical culture, the nature of information and a connected society means that 'everything' might change in just a few months. Ideas that spread will win--and people and companies that can "go Darwin" learn from their mistakes and will lead the rest of us.

E is for Edgecraft: Brainstorming doesn't always work so well, because most people are bad at it. They're bad at it because their lizard brains take over moments before a big idea is uttered. "Oh no!" it says, "I better not say that because if I do, it might be a BAD idea and then I'll have to defend it." And so brainstorming quickly becomes clever stalling and timewasting. Far better is to practice "edgecraft." Someone announces a new direction for a business ("we'll be really convenient, we'll offer our menu by fax,") and then the next person goes closer to that edge, topping it, ("we'll offer it by email!") and so on, each topping the other in any particular direction.

More in September...

The coming melt-down in higher education

For 400 years, higher education in the US has been on a roll. From Harvard asking Galileo to be a guest professor in the 1600s to millions tuning in to watch a team of unpaid athletes play another team of unpaid athletes in some college sporting event, the amount of time and money and prestige in the college world has been climbing.

I'm afraid that's about to crash and burn. Here's how I'm looking at it.

1. Most colleges are organized to give an average education to average students.

Pick up any college brochure or catalog. Delete the brand names and the map. Can you tell which school it is? While there are outliers (like St. Johns, Deep Springs or Full Sail) most schools aren't really outliers. They are mass marketers trying to attract the largest number of people they can accommodate.

Stop for a second and consider the impact of that choice. By emphasizing mass and sameness and rankings, colleges have changed their mission.

This works great in an industrial economy where we can't churn out standardized students fast enough and where the demand is huge because the premium earned by a college grad dwarfs the cost. But...

2. College has gotten expensive far faster than wages have gone up.

As a result, there are millions of people in very serious debt, student loan debt so big it might take decades to repay. At some point, word gets around. We won't get fooled again into believing that it always pays off for everyone.

3. The definition of 'best' is under siege.

Why do colleges send millions (!) of undifferentiated pieces of junk mail to high school students now? We will waive the admission fee! We have a one page application! Apply! This is some of the most amateur and bland direct mail I've ever seen. Why do it?

Biggest reason: So the schools can reject more applicants. The more applicants they reject, the higher they rank in US News and other rankings. And thus the rush to game the rankings continues, which is a sign that the marketers in question (the colleges) are getting desperate for more than their fair share. Why bother making your education more useful if you can more easily make it appear to be more useful?

4. The correlation between a typical college degree and success is suspect.

College wasn't originally designed to merely be a continuation of high school (but with more binge drinking). In many places, though, that's what it has become. The data I'm seeing shows that a degree (from one of those famous schools, with or without a football team) doesn't translate into significantly better career opportunities, a better job or more happiness than a degree from a cheaper institution.

5. Accreditation isn't the solution, it's the problem.

A lot of these ills are the result of uniform accreditation programs that have pushed high-cost, low-reward policies on institutions and rewarded schools that churn out young wanna-be professors who have merely learned how to ace a multiple-choice test instead of experiences that turn out leaders and problem-solvers.

I think we're about to see significant cracks in old-school schools with mass market degrees.

Back before the digital revolution, access to information was an issue. The size of the library mattered. One reason to go to college was to get access. Today, that access is worth a lot less. The valuable things people take away from college are interactions with great minds (usually professors who actually teach and actually care) and non-class activities that shape them as people. The question I'd ask: is the money that mass-marketing colleges are spending on marketing themselves and scaling themselves well spent? Are they organizing for changing lives or for ranking high? Does NYU have to get so much bigger? Why?

The solutions are obvious... there are tons of ways to get a cheap, liberal education, one that exposes you to the world, permits you to have significant interactions with people who have new ideas and who matter, and to learn to make a difference (start here). Most of these ways, though, aren't heavily marketed nor do they involve going to a tradition-steeped two-hundred-year old institution with a wrestling team. Things like gap years, research internships and entrepreneurial or social ventures after high school are opening doors for students who are eager to discover the new.

The only people who haven't gotten the memo are anxious helicopter parents, mass marketing colleges and traditional employers. And all three will be waking up soon as they face new circumstances.

(with credit to Seth's Blog for the courage to publish this)

10 Reasons Why You're Going to Fail

Not this class, or any of your other classes necessarily. I'm talking about failing in a general sense. Failing at something you think you want.

Failure is something that happens to everyone at some point, but this doesn't mean it is unavoidable. In fact, failure can be fairly well predicted. Consider the following list of the ten most common predictors of failure. Does anything sound familiar?

1. It’s not your passion. If it doesn’t make your heart beat fast or cause your mind to race when you’re trying to sleep, you’re probably doing the wrong thing.

2. You don’t have a plan. You need a vision, and you need to identify specific steps to make that vision become reality. That can includes a time management plan, a financial plan, or a strategic plan.

3, You’re waiting for everything to be perfect. Instead: test-drive it. Beta-test that new idea. You’ll fall into the trap of inaction if you think it has to be absolutely right from day one.

4. You’re not willing to work hard. Sorry, but everything worth pursuing in my life has involved discipline and perseverance.

5. It’ll outgrow you. Keep learning. Keep growing. But more importantly, build a team of people including leaders that can be who you’re not.

6. You’re banking on successes from the past. I’ve watched organizations hang on to a good idea for too long. Time passes. Momentum fades. It’s risky to let go of the past and jump on the next wave.

7. You’re unwilling to stop doing something else. Complexity is easy. Simplicity takes discipline. You can’t build a healthy marriage if you’re unwilling to give up dating other people.. Who/what do you need to stop dating?

8. You tend to do things alone. Anyone can hire from a resume. You need to find people you want to share life with. In the long run, great relationships will get you out of bed in the morning.

9. You won’t have the tough conversations. When breakdown happens (and it always does), someone needs to put on their big-boy pants and initiate the difficult conversation that leads to relational healing.

10. You’re afraid of failure. When fear consumes you, it will cause you to do stupid things. You’ll let negativity distract you. You’ll embrace the known, and grow comfortable with mediocrity. The more often you fail, though, the more often you’ll find success.

I think this is a really great list to work through when embarking on a new and challenging initiative. Agree/Disagree? Any thoughts on what may be missing from this list?

Become Friends with your Enemy: TIME

There was a time when technology promised us more freedom – freedom to enjoy ourselves more, freedom from the drudgery of mundane and repetitive chores. In other words, we were promised more time. But we seem to be busier than ever before, frantically racing against the clock to do more and more, and technology hasn't really solved our problems. It only seems to make life more complicated.

With the right approach, however, we can stop seeing time as our enemy and start to enjoy getting things done easily and effectively.

Time is flexible
This is rule number one – there is always time to do what you want to do. It’s all a matter of priorities. If something is really important to you, then you will find time to do it. When we say things like, ‘I don’t have time,’ what we’re really saying is ‘I don’t want to do it’ or ‘it’s too boring’ or ‘it’s too difficult.’ You can’t do everything, but you can do what matters.

So decide what’s really important
So what matters to you? Some stuff – a lot of stuff – just isn’t worth doing because it isn’t very important, so why waste your time on this? If you run through your week, you’ll probably find a lot of things that you thought you needed to do but which really weren’t important at all. Things that fall into this category can effectively be forgotten, so before spending time on something, ask if it really matters.

Do what you love
We always find time to do what we love. When you do what you love, you do it well – you make a good job of it and you are rewarded along the way. Some things you just love for no discernible reason, and doing these things is no chore. When you’re doing something that makes you feel good and gives you a sense of purpose and achievement, you are at your most effective.

It is a great tragedy that so many people do jobs they hate, seeing their work only as a way of earning money to enable them to really enjoy themselves at weekends or during vacations. Such people are truly wasting their time. Of course, we can’t just choose to change our job, bur it is possible to find ways of enjoying our work – there are good things about every job, and by focusing on these things, they will grow and the job will become more enjoyable.

Delegate whatever else you can
If something needs to be done, ask if you have to do it yourself. If you hate ironing or cleaning, and you have the means, you can just pay someone else to do it. There is a certain puritanical streak in many of us that says ‘we must do it all ourselves,’ but there is no reason why we should spend our time doing things we dislike when we can leverage our resources. If I pay to get my ironing done, I avoid a job I hate and I get the job done properly by someone who takes a fraction of the time.

Don’t try to race against the clock – it always wins
Some people are forever clock watching, always racing to finish before a certain time. Deadlines are fine and, indeed, necessary in many instances, but to be continually driven by the need to finish something by a certain time and get on to the next thing is exhausting, unsustainable and, in the end, not an effective way of operating. By focusing on how well you do something instead of how long it takes, you are likely to be more effective.

Focus on how much, not how often
If, like me, you have a busy and continually changing schedule, it can be hard to stick to a routine. Suppose I decide that I am going to go the gym every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. For a week or two, I manage it, but then I need to go on a business trip or I have a lot of late meetings one week, so my schedule falls by the wayside.

To get around this, instead of the routine, I can focus on how many times I intend to go to the gym in, say, a month – twelve times, for example. Then, when I have a relatively light week, I can go more than three times, and when I have a busy week, maybe I can only go once. But in a whole month, I can almost certainly find time to go twelve times.

The benefit of this is that you are not continually feeling you must do a certain thing at a certain time, and racing against the clock. Of course, you need to record your progress – every time I go to the gym, I mark my calendar, and at the end of the month I see that I’ve done my twelve visits – easy!

Just do it
If you have to do something, and you intend to do it (neither is necessarily the case for any given task that comes your way), then my advice is – just get on with it. Procrastinating will only put off the inevitable. Of course, you sometimes need to choose the right time to do something, but don’t use this as an excuse to avoid doing something that really must be done.

And finally, some advice from H. Jackson Brown, Jr.:

Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.