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.

The Pause that Refreshes

Feeling overwhelmed by all your obligations?

SO stop! It’s time to plug into something that YOU choose-something that can renew your batteries and refresh your interest in work AND life. Unlike the bobble-headed figures that nod “yes” at every touch, you DO get to declare “time out” and place yourself first.

How? Here are some ideas:

#1: Retreat in order to advance.

Take yourself away for at least two nights and three days to a place for a silent retreat. Yes-silence! Forbid yourself from using the phone, the television, or the internet. It’s time to listen instead to the voices in your head that have been trying to get your attention for ages. Write what you sense. Think on paper. And make resolutions that speak to what matters most.

#2: Experience something far a field from your profession.

Play chess or read a book that is NOT in your chosen line of work. Select something that piques your curiosity. The notion is to look for connections or ideas that might stimulate a new way of looking at your work or your life. Former elementary teacher Gail Wenos studied ventriloquism and discovered a new way to teach adults!

#3: Stretch yourself.

If you take an exercise class once a month, try going two more times. If you cook the same food the same way, alternate with a new cookbook. One guy I know saw himself as totally ill-equipped to ride anything that had less than four wheels. But he took motorcycle lessons and his sense of personal accomplishment grew.

#4: Practice your art every week.

Everyone has an art. It might be hammering nails or singing in the shower. It might be designing a garden or counseling a friend. But it uses a talent you’ve got and when this talent is engaged, you burn brightly. You leave the time refreshed. Put this down as a personal “no matter what” on your day timer.

#5: Throw out what weighs you down.

Read only those things that are meaningful to you. Can the clutter as well as the people who are the constant complainers and gripers. Ditch the weight of unnecessary purchases and their financial burden. Give clothes you haven’t worn in over a year to Goodwill . Remember, every ounce counts.

The end of the upcoming year often gives us a chance at some personal time to retreat. Which one of these ideas might help you to regenerate for the challenges ahead? What can you do to make that happen?

How to Become Smarter

Intelligence is your ability to learn, reason, understand and master many subjects. It’s your aptitude in grasping truths, relationships, facts and meanings.

Knowing a great deal is not the same as being intelligent; intelligence is not information “alone,” but also judgment, the manner in which information is collected and used. -Dr. Carl Sagan

Here are five ways to increase your intelligence by showing you how to enhance your capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding and mastery.

5 Ways to Become More Intelligent

1. Read Often
   It sounds so obvious, but...do you REALLY do it? Do you realize that through reading you can learn in a few hours what took someone else decades to learn? Reading not only informs, but it also increases your capacity for learning, thereby increasing your intelligence.
   
   Although knowledge is not the summation of intelligence, it is the foundation of intelligence, so it’s crucial that we cultivate the joy of reading.
   
   It’s an amazing thing, people who become successful write down how they did it, and then sell that information for a few dollars. For a few dollars and a few hours you can literally pick someone’s brain; you can buy a piece of their intelligence.
   
   Reading gives you insight into great minds and sharpens your intellect. This allows you the ability to make greater logical connections because reading gives you more pieces of life’s puzzle. By reading from a multiplicity of sources, you gain the wisdom of many.
   
   Reading (blogs like this one) is a great way to increase your intelligence. Remember, readers are leaders, and leaders are usually intelligent.


2. Teach Others
   

   “Those that understand, teach.”- Aristotle

   
   Teaching increases your capacity for reasoning, a critical aspect of intelligence.
   Anyone who’s ever successfully taught anything realizes that teaching increases your capacity to reason. When you teach, you’re often required to view what you’re teaching from a variety of perspectives.
   
   

   “I've always felt that a person's intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic.”-Abigail Adams

   
   When you teach, it’s often essential that you question what you believe in order to deal with objections and oppositions that are sure to arise. Teaching is often more beneficial to the teacher than the student.


3. Get Into Action
   Action increases your capacity to understand a subject. As the old proverb goes, “In all thy getting, get understanding.”
   
   You can have information, and you can teach what you know, but you will never fully understand a subject until you put it into practice. If you want to significantly increase your intelligence related to cooking, don’t just watch the Food Network, and don’t just tell someone how to cook; you must master cooking yourself by trying, failing, and perfecting the act of cooking.
   
   You will always understand things better when you do them yourself. Knowledge gives you the pieces of the puzzle; understanding helps you put the puzzle together.
   
   

   “A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.”-Henry David Thoreau



4. Master One Subject
   Mastery is a sign of intelligence. Mastery comes from focusing on one subject until you fully understand it. If you can fully understand one subject, it will help you to better understand other subjects. In other words, mastery will increase your aptitude for grasping truths. If you can master playing the piano, you will better understand music in general.
   
   Additionally, if you can master any subject, you will understand what it takes to succeed.


5. Bonus: Watch More Television
   You probably didn’t see this one coming.
   
   By watching more television, you can become more “well-rounded.” Of course I’m not referring to watching more of the The Simpsons, I’m talking about watching television shows that offer an educational message such as political shows or shows on The Discovery Channel or The History Channel. These shows can increase your capacity for learning, reasoning, and understanding as long as you don't choose educational shows that also stress you out.

By putting these principles into practice on a consistent basis, you will begin to take on the characteristics of an intellectual. You'll be surprised how far that can take you. Your capacity to learn will be stretched, your reasoning skills will be utilized, and you'll overall be a much more interesting and admirable person.

Do you agree?