September 2009 – Page 3

Close To Results

Have you noticed that
SO many companies are supporting
cancer research right now?

A buddy involved in collecting those donations
told me that the size of donations
and the number of people donating
increases
whenever there is a break-through.

The average person believes
that a cure for cancer is close.
They want to be part of that winning team.
So they donate.

A friend of mine
was involved in an American Idol type writing contest.
The closer she came to winning,
the more votes she got from friends and family.

Communicate your achievements.
Set yourself, your project, your company
up as a win.

Seth Godin has a great post
on the flip side of this.

The Best

I spent most of last month
judging contest entries.
One contest
was the best of the best
for romance eBooks.

Anyone could, for a fee,
enter their book.

Anyone did.

There were books
that clearly had never seen an editor
(or at least not my kiss ass editor)
yet these authors felt
their books were the best of the best.

It was an eye opener.
Humbling.
Because there could be judges
out there
thinking the same thing of my book.

Everyone thinks their product
is the best.
That’s why outside opinion is so important.
Listen to your customers.
Listen to your critics.
Listen to your competition.
Let them be the judge, not you.

How Long It Takes To Hire

Recently I was being ‘considered’
for a contract position.
It took the company a month
to move from
the resume stage
to the interview stage.

After two weeks,
I had already written the company off
as a prospective employer.
Many other candidates did the same.
They either got jobs elsewhere
or (as I did)
worked on projects.

Great employees are in demand,
regardless of the economy.
A slow hiring process
means you’ll be lose candidates.
These WON’T be the undesirable candidates.

If you want first choice
of the best employees,
speed up the process.

Take A Course

For the first twenty some years of my life,
I trained myself
to go back to school in September.

Decades later,
I still want to go back to school
in September.

So why fight it?

Continuous education is a must.
We need to stay current.
Keep our skills fresh.
Update our knowledge.

Work with
the September back to school urge.
Take a course.
Learn a new skill.
Read a book outside your area of expertise.

Lessons From Cultural Anthropology

Stephen Shapiro has a fascinating article
on innovation lessons
from cultural anthropology.

He talks about the power of observation
vs listening to what customers say.
“Where possible, you can observe your customers.
By doing this you can find unarticulated needs and wants.”

It is really easy
to simply ask a customer a question
and use that answer.
Unfortunately, people lie,
often unintentionally.
As most people want to be liked,
they’ll tell you what you want to hear.

A clear example of that
was the low carb fad.
Customers said they wanted low carb
yet they continued eating their burgers
and their fries.

People will say they eat healthy
yet obesity (and chocolate sales)
is on the increase.

Go out and observe your customers.
Commute the way they do.
Eat at their restaurants.
Read what they’re reading.

Nothing beats observation!

The NFL Tries To Freeze Time

The NFL has announced
that it wants football fans
not to record, blog
or post on twitter about games.

Yeah, good luck with that.

You can’t stop progress.
There’s a reason why
that phrase is a cliché.
It is because it is true.

If your plan for success
means changing customer behavior,
you’re going to fail.

Work with customer behavior.
Figure out how to profit from it.
Change your product
rather than your customer.

Perfection Is Not A Goal

A writer told me recently
that she wanted
to write the ‘perfect’ novel.

She isn’t published.
Why?
Because there’s no such thing.

Goals are obtainable.
Perfection is not obtainable.
Perfection is not a goal.

If you have the word perfect
anywhere
in your goal setting,
take it out.

100% Responsible

Darren Hardy has posted a great story
about how people
are not 50% responsible for a relationship.
They are 100% responsible for a relationship.

This is SO true
because your end of the relationship
is the only one
you have control over.

I was talking to a loved one
about holiday cards.
I’ve sent one of my uncles a holiday card
every year for the past 16 years.
A couple years ago, he sent me back one.
My loved one was irritated
because she didn’t get one.
Has she ever sent the uncle a card?
No.

I’ve been trying to arrange a cross promotion
with a company.
I’ve contacted this company several times.
No answer back.
Then I found out (by accident)
that I was contacting the wrong person.
I contacted the right person
and heard back immediately.

In both cases,
the responsibility could be shared
but what purpose does that serve?
None.
Better that we take full responsibility.
My loved one didn’t get a card
because she never sent a card.
I didn’t get a call back
because I was contacting the wrong person.

If you want to improve a relationship,
YOU improve the relationship.

Selling Entrepreneurship

I believe in entrepreneurship.
I will always volunteer my ideas
on how to get around start up hurdles.
I love to support new businesses
and innovative ideas.

But
You won’t ever find me
writing a rah-rah-rah
everyone should be an entrepreneur post.

Everyone should NOT be an entrepreneur.
That’s one long, tough road.
Many who start down it
won’t reach their goals.

And if you need to be sold on the idea
BEFORE you start,
you’ll quit at the first speed bump
(or disaster).
You need the passion,
the 100% conviction to push past that.

Support entrepreneurship.
Don’t sell it.

Early Or Late

In my experience,
there are two types of people
on your project team.

There are the
‘do it now’ folks.
People like me
who prefer to do a task right away
and get it off their to do list.
They don’t want to do half a task.
They want to get it done and move on.

And there are the
‘do it at the last minute’ folks.
These are the people
who ask when a deadline is.
They ask
because that is the day
they plan to do the task.
Again, they plan to do it all at one time.

I recently received information about a contest.
It was sent now
and
we could sign up now
but we weren’t allowed to send the entries
until February.

The organizers are wondering why there were no entries.
Why?

Because the last minute people
will wait until February.
The do it now people if they did it now
will still have the item on their to-do list
so they also didn’t bother entering.

When delegating tasks,
design them so they can be completed at one time.
You’ll increase the likelihood
of it getting done.