A Bad Book

You’ve spent years
carefully building a reputation in your field.
Happy customers tell you
“You should write a book.”

So should you?

Unless you’re a professional writer,
I highly advise against
writing a book on your own.

As
Kevin Ross Emery
shares

“A bad book can do more damage
than an okay book can do you good.
Once out in print,
you have to defend what you said
and the way you chose to say it.”

My editor told me
that my hero was an asshole.
I change eleven words, ELEVEN,
in a forty-five thousand word manuscript
and now she loves my hero.
This is how important
using the right words is.

Most experts and celebrities
(including New York Times bestselling author
James Patterson)
hire professional writers
to write their books for them.
It’s surprisingly inexpensive
and frees the experts’ time to do
what they are experts in.

Consider hiring a professional writer.

(I’m not available.
I have more romance novels to write
than I have writing years remaining.)

Published
Categorized as Marketing

18 Hour Days

On Friday,
I worked from 8 am to 3 am
with very few breaks.
I had a deadline.
I was in the zone.
I needed to get things done.

Julia Hartz,
co-founder of Eventbrite,
shares

“Workdays stretched on
for 18 hours
in the beginning.
I ran customer support
and the marketing department
for the first several years,
along with finance,
which was simple
because we weren’t making
a lot of money [laughing].

I would talk to early adopters
and host meetups.
I would get their feedback
and distill it for Kevin,
who would sketch out
a product or feature
and then build it.
We worked like that
for the first three years or so.”

18 hour plus days
is one of the many things
distinguishing a business from a hobby.

During your start up,
expect to work long hours.

Make Your Own Deadlines

I always set my own deadlines.
Yes, I’ll agree upon deadlines
with my publishers
but these are deadlines
with buffers built into them.
These are deadlines
I know I can make.

Privately, I also set
stretch deadlines,
deadlines I have to push myself
to achieve.

Why?

Because as
Jeff Haden
shares

“Deadlines and time frames
establish parameters,
but typically not in a good way.
The average person who is given
two weeks to complete a task
will instinctively adjust his effort
so it actually takes two weeks.

Forget deadlines,
at least as a way to manage your activity.
Tasks should only take as long
as they need to take.
Do everything as quickly
and effectively as you can.
Then use your “free” time
to get other things done
just as quickly and effectively.

Average people allow time
to impose its will on them;
remarkable people impose their will
on their time.”

Push yourself
to complete work
before it is expected.
You’re not average.
Don’t meet the average person’s deadlines.

The Extra Mile

I credit most of my success
in life
to working harder than other people.
I don’t work flat out
all of the time.
I simply do a little extra work
every single day
and this extra work adds up.

Jeff Haden
shares

“Everyone says they go the extra mile.
Almost no one actually does.
Most people who go there think,
“Wait… no one else is here…
why am I doing this?”
and leave, never to return.

That’s why the extra mile
is such a lonely place.

That’s also why the extra mile
is a place filled with opportunities.

Be early. Stay late.
Make the extra phone call.
Send the extra email.
Do the extra research.
Help a customer unload
or unpack a shipment.
Don’t wait to be asked; offer.
Don’t just tell employees what to do
–show them what to do
and work beside them.

Every time you do something,
think of one extra thing you can do
–especially if other people
aren’t doing that one thing.
Sure, it’s hard.

But that’s what will
make you different.

And over time, that’s what
will make you incredibly successful.”

Do a little bit extra
today
and every day.

If You Can’t Take The Risk…

Recently, I was given an opportunity.
The publisher needed a novella
for an anthology
and they needed this novella in a week.
I told a loved one
that I pushed back,
asking for three weeks.
He replied “It wasn’t that good of an opp then.”
When I asked how he knew that,
he explained that
if I really wanted the opp,
I would have written the novella in a week.

He’s right.
I would have met their crazy deadline.

This is how I feel
when would-be entrepreneurs say
their ideas are too risky.

As
Christiane Lemieux,
founder of
DwellStudio,
shares

“If you can’t take the risk,
it is probably not the right thing for you.
Some days it will be great
and some days it will suck.
The highs are high
and the lows are low
and there is nothing in between.
It just is.”

If you truly wanted the opportunity,
you’d move mountains
to make it happen.

Break Free From Confirmation Bias

The average person
wants to be right.
If we have an opinion,
a product to sell,
a blog post to write,
we look for support.
We don’t usually look for opposition.

The thing is…
the opposition is there
and the person you’re pitching
or writing to
might have opposing views.
Not preparing for this push back,
these questions is foolish.

Stephanie Scotti
shares

“The bottom line is,
if you haven’t encountered
the opposition in your topic,
you haven’t looked hard enough.
The Heath brothers suggest
that you start by sharing your thoughts.
Actively seek out those
who may disagree with you.
Talk, read and listen
for opposing views
rather than creating them artificially.
Be open to them,
recognizing that the momentary discomfort
of being challenged
creates the opportunity for greater confidence
because you will know
what common ground you share
with your listeners and
where the land mines are buried.

Above all,
you will come to the conversation
with a more complete and deeper understanding
of the topic that will resonate
with your listeners
and conclude with a resounding call to action.”

Actively look for opposition
to your idea.

Published
Categorized as Sales

Smartphone Dead Zone

I don’t have a smartphone.
I work out of my home
and I don’t have a burning need
to keep in constant contact
with anyone.

Plus smartphones are creative sucks.
I feel the need to check email constantly
and this pulls me
out of the worlds I’m building,
out of the stories I’m writing.

I’m the only non-smartphone user
in my household
but we’ve set
a no electronics at the dinner table
rule.
This helps us connect
with each other.

Brian Moran
shares

“Our phones,
more so than our tablet devices
and notebook computers,
are the culprits behind our insatiable need
to keep abreast of everything
that’s happening around the world.

According to a study
done by Tomi Ahonen,
a mobile technology expert,
the average person will check
his or her smartphone
approximately 150 times
in a working day of 16 hours,
or once every 6.5 minutes.
In addition,
the average person will make,
receive or avoid 22 phone calls
and send 23 text messages
in a given day.”

Consider creating a smartphone dead zone.
Detox from electronics
for at least a few minutes a day.

Ditch What Do You Do

One of the questions
I hate being asked
at parties and other networking events
is
“What do you do?”

When I was between jobs,
it was especially tough,
and now that I write,
and I like to keep my pen name private,
I either lie
or I downplay the truth.

Rohit Bhargava
advises

“Do say:
“What are you really excited about right now?”
Don’t say:
“What do you do?”

One of the reasons that
so many people dread networking events
is because of the “What do you do?” question.
We generally hate to describe what we do
and rarely have a way to share it
that we’re happy with.
Asking the alternative question
about what someone is excited about now
is rarely hard to talk about.
Most people will have an answer
to that question that is far more interesting
than the recitation of their job title and company.
More importantly,
when anyone shares something
they are excited about,
their tone changes
and the conversation improves right away.”

Do the world a favor
and ditch the
“What do you do?” question.

Published
Categorized as Sales

Help Others First

The easiest way
to make a connection with another person
is to help her.
The average person
will immediately seek to return the favor.

Rajesh Setty
shares

“I have said it many times
on my blog
that the most powerful force on earth
is the power of reciprocation.
Capitalizing on it the right way
would open a ton of possibilities
for you and your business.
I said the “right” way
because the wrong way
would be for you to wait
for someone to help you
and then you activate
the power of reciprocation
to help them back.
That would not hurt
but it rarely is as helpful
as the other way around.”

Help Others First.

Published
Categorized as Sales

Expect To Back Up Your Statements

A loved one works for a company
where supposedly employees are graded
on a bell curve.
Within the group,
evaluations are split from 1 (best) to 5 (worst)
based upon this distribution.
These evaluations drive bonuses.

My loved one was told
that because he was new to the group
and he was with a strong team,
he’d be ranked a 4.
Based upon results, he thought this was bullshit
so he asked
how many people fell into each rank.

The manager said he didn’t have this information.

In other words, it WAS bullshit.
And now my loved one doesn’t trust his manager.

Similar things have happened to me
in the past.
A manager will make a statement
and when I push for more information,
he doesn’t have any facts to back it up.

Expect to back up your statements.
An intelligent employee will ask.