Saturday, July 16th, 2011

5 Easy Ways To Increase Serendipity

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I love serendipity — who doesn’t? I met a mayoral candidate for San Francisco last year due to some stuff I did to increase serendipity.

We all love serendipity — is it ever even a negative thing?

You never hear someone say:

“That guy really stabbed me in the back — how serendipitous.”

Right?

The layman’s definition of serendipity is “happy accident” — the word serendipity is said to come from author Horace Walpole who riffed on the word Sernedip (an old name for Sri Lanka) used in a fairy tale called “The Three Princes Of Serendip” about making discoveries by accident.

Here are 5 things I do to increase serendipity:

1) Send Out “Beacons” To Let Others Know You Exist

The most effective way to increase serendipity is to send out “beacons” — I first heard this mentioned by entrepreneur Jack Hidary in the book Power of Pull.

Jack — who works on the neat iAmplify.com business with his brother Murray — uses the analogy of a ship at sea that sends out beacons to let others know where it is and where it’s headed.

Beacons — I like that.

Here are some examples of beacons I’ve used to increase serendipity: …

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Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

The 10 Types Of “Tardies” Who Are Chronically Late

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I was “running late” for a meeting yesterday (sorry, Jonathan!) — that bummed me out — and while I was sitting in traffic I pondered lateness and committed to banging out this article when I got back to my desk.

Chronic tardiness is rampant:

• Up to 20% of the population is consistently late.
• CEOs are late 8 out of 10 meetings according to  a 2006 survey by ProudfootConsulting.

I found a neat book called  ”never be late again” by Diana DeLonzor who writes about who are almost always late.

Diana lists seven types of people who are almost always late.

I also found three more types of tardy people in a novel about counter-terrorism of all places.

So here they are:

The 10 Types Of Tardies

1) The Rationalizer

This tardie has a hard time acknowledging responsibility for lateness and tends to blame outside circumstances. …

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Monday, April 25th, 2011

The 10 [Maniacal] Steps I Take For Setting Goals

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It took me 40 years to figure out that the key to life is feeling like I had a fulfilling day — I accomplish that through setting goals…and I’m maniacal about them.

I believe that without goals your progress comes to a screeching halt. As Ralph Marston of The Daily Motivator once said:

“Your goals, minus your doubts, equal your reality.”

…

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Monday, March 14th, 2011

Tony Schwartz Tips on Managing Energy & Productivity

Tweet 4 Comments Emotional Energy — How you feel influences how you perform. Duh!

A Major Myth — Most of us believe (wrongly) that to get more work done, we should work more time. Instead,…

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Author Tony Schwartz (Be Excellent At Anything) had some good nuggets on increasing energy and productivity at SXSW in Austin today.

Talented artist Sunni Brown did this super-cool live drawing of Tony’s talk (below).

Some Of Tony’s Energy & Productivity Tips

Emotional Energy — How you feel influences how you perform. Duh!

A Major Myth — Most of us believe (wrongly) that to get more work done, we should work more time. Instead, Tony says, we should manage our energy better.

The Power of Sleep — “Sleep is the single most undervalued behavior in our lives” because of the myth that if we give up one hour of sleep that will equate to one hour of additional productivity.

Quote from Herbert Simon — “What information consumes is rather obvious. It consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence, a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”

Multitasking is Bad — It is inefficient to multi-task (technically you can only task-shift). If you shift your attention from something, the cost to you is 25% effectiveness on that first item’s successful completion.

Two Tips On Improving  Your Productivity– He cites a study of Berlin violinists  by some guy who is an “expert on experts” (they were cited in Outliers)

#1 Practice– The top violinists practiced for 90 minutes maximum in 3 sessions primarily in morning (Schwartz says that it’s been proven that you can only practice 4.5 hours total in a day (that’s the limit))

#2 Sleep — Schwartz said that the superstar violinists slept more than average violinists (typically 8+ hours per night) and that they also napped on a regular basis (about 2.8 hours per week).

If any of this sounds familiar, it’s because I wrote about Tony Schwartz’s previous book The Power of Full Engagement in How To Recharge Yourself and The 20 Best Business Books Of All Time.

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Saturday, February 19th, 2011

The 20 Best Business Books Of All Time

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My brother-in-law Rich recently asked me for my favorite business book. I had a tough time answering because a slew of book titles raced through my mind.

Well, make room on your bookshelf because I dove in and came up with 20 top business books below:

The Best Business Books Of All Time

1) Poor Charlie’s Almanack

 

 

 

 

If I had to pick just one business book for folks to read, it would be this illustrated tome by Charlie Munger — Warren Buffett’s long-time right-hand man — with its folksy and entertaining tales of business and life (see Charlie Munger Quotes for a taste).

There’s plenty of Buffett tips in here too so you get two-for-one!

2) How To Win Friends & Influence People

There is a reason that Dale Carnegie’s teachings have been successful for decades — his advice is truly timeless.

This book’s focus is on how to best connect with people…which as you know from my articles on Networking may be the most important skill in business.

3) Mastering The Rockefeller Habits

 

This under-the-radar book outlines John D. Rockefeller’s approach to business. It may be the best small business book I’ve read as it assists in basics such as how to craft a strategic plan, set priorities and give employee feedback.

It was the inspiration for my article on using the Daily Huddle as part of the meeting process.

4) How  To Write, Speak And Think More Effectively

This classic by Rudolf Flesch focuses on the art of communication. It was a key resource for me in my article on tips for writing in “Plain English.”

5) The Magic Of Thinking Big

This book provided me many precious nuggets such as “Action cures fear” — for example, next time you face fear in a situation, ask yourself:

“What action can I take right now to address that fear?”

It also contains some neat confidence building exercises (such as sitting in the front row and walking 25% faster) which I’m big on (see A Simple Way To Increase Your Confidence).

6) The E-Myth Revisited

This book is super-helpful for creating a business from scratch (see How To Build A Successful Business From The Ground Up article I did based on it).

7) Good To Great

I love books based on data…and this is one of them.

Jim Collins wrote a masterpiece here on 11 “Great” (i.e. dominant) companies that he and his team (including my friend Alyson Sinclair!) tracked against their “Good” (think above average) rivals over 15 year periods to see why the “Great” companies dominated.

One of my favorite learnings: 10 of the 11 CEOs from the great companies were hired from within their organization (as opposed to recruited from the outside).

Moneyball

This true story of visionary general manager Billy Beane of the Oakland A’s baseball team and how they out-performed most everyone while paying the least amount of money for their players is chalk full of applications for the business world or any organization.

It inspired the Nail The Moneyball article I wrote about two types of undervalued people to look out for in your hirings.

9) The Highest Goal

This book, by Stanford Creativity Course Professor Michael Ray, is perhaps the simplest book I’ve found to help you find the essence/purpose of your life.

There’s an especially neat exercise in it that takes less than an hour and will teach you tons about how to become happier.

10) The Tipping Point

This book explains how an idea, product or business has a magic moment (the “tipping point”) in which it becomes a success. My favorite learning from it was The Connector Exercise.

11) Wooden: A Lifetime Of Observations And Reflections On And Off The Court

It could be argued that John Wooden was the greatest coach AND teacher of the 21st century. This is book of his is my favorite (he has many more) and includes The Eight Steps To Success.

12) Personal Development For Smart People

Steve Pavlina is a deep thinker with an enormous following online: he inspired my How To Be An Early Riser article (he had written one first!).

If I had to recommend just one personal development book, this would be it.

13) Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind

Authors Al Ries and Jack Trout break down the concept of positioning your product. business or yourself in the marketplace; this includes some good tips on how to name things.

As far as marketing books go, this one is tough to beat.

14) The 4-Hour Work Week

A very helpful book on how to design your life through outsourcing work to others. Author Tim Ferriss includes some good exercises on dream goals & budgets as well as some concrete tips on using Web tools to get all this done.

15) Oglivy On Advertising

Advertising superstar David Oglivy outlines how to write good copy — it helped me understand important advertising concepts such as the value of “long copy.”All the pictures of ads make it a fun read.

16) The Power Of Full Engagement

This Tony Schwartz & Jim Loerh book is the most useful resource for how to design your day to be most productive. I wrote about my favorite takeaway here: How To Recharge Yourself.

17) The Talent Code

Author Daniel Coyle visits the talent hotbeds of the world (Brazil for soccer, Moscow for tennis, South Korea for women’s golf, etc.) and breaks down the code for how talent is developed.

Check out 3 Tips To Developing Your Talent piece I wrote about it.

18) Topgrading

My favorite book on hiring because it’s based on data and provides a detailed framework for how to make better hires.

It inspired the piece I wrote about how A Mis-Hire Costs You 13 Times That Person’s Salary.

19) Radical Honesty

This controversial book by psychotherapist Brad Blanton is best summed up by his opening words about his 30 years of assisting patients:

“We all lie like hell…It is the major source of human stress. Lying kills people.”

While I don’t agree with all of Dr. Blanton’s recommendations, I do believe with the core belief that this world would be much better off if practiced honesty at every turn.

20) Blue Ocean Strategy

This book gave me inspiration on attempting to create something new.

It opens with the unusual story of a strange little businesses that shocked Ringling Brothers & the circus business: Cirque de Soleil.

Honorable Mention Best Business Books Of All Time

21) The 7 Habits Of Highly Successful People

These 7 habits — 1) Be Proactive, 2) Begin With The End In Mind, 3) Put First Things First, 4) Think Win-Win, 5) Seek First To Understand, Then To Be Understood, 6) Synergize and 7) Sharpen The Saw)  – are basic but essential to succeeding in business.

22) Tested Advertising Methods

 

One of the best books about how to write advertising copy: author John Caples inspired my article on 10 Easy Tips On How To Write Better Headlines (Warning: Response Rates May Soar 20X)

23) Who: The A-Method for Hiring

Remember Brad Smart’s Topgrading (my favorite book on hiring)? Well, the book Who was written by Brad Smart’s son Deoff Smart along with Randy Street; and it’s an easier read than the academic Topgrading book that Brad’s father wrote.

It inspired my article on The 6 Easy Steps To Hiring An A-Player.

Final Thoughts On The Best Business Books Of All Time

The books I list are not necessarily the best selling business books out there — but they are all ones I have read and found rewarding.

If you know of other top business books that you think belong in the list, please recommend them by commenting below.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do get paid commissions for your links to Amazon if you end up buying one of these “Best Business Books.” This is typically about 4% of whatever you buy so, for example, if you buy one of the books listed here for $20 I’ll get about $.80. I typically put such income towards the fees it costs me to run RobDKelly.com.

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Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010

Warren Buffett Video Teaching You How To Be A Business Hero

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I found this terrific video (below) in which Buffett teaches students how to become the business hero they want to be (the video is pretty crappy quality but fantastic content!).

I wrote down the basics of the exercise (it starts around Minute 2 of the above video)

As Buffett explains, you don’t have to be a student to benefit from this exercise, but the earlier in life you do it the better!

Ok, grab a piece of paper…this won’t take long:

1) Pick a fellow student/colleague who you’d like to own 10% of for the rest of their lifetime

Question: Is it the person with the:

• Highest IQ (probably not)
• Highest grades (probably not)

Buffett thinks you’ll probably end up looking for qualitative factors such as:

• Honesty
• Leadership
• Generous
• Gave credit to
• Temperament

Write down the qualities of that person you want to own 10% of on the left-hand side of a piece of paper.

and then, to continue the exercise, you then:

2) Pick a person who you would like to “sell short” based on their performance for life.

This would probably not be the person with the lowest IQ or lowest grades — more likely, Buffett says, this person has turned you off with such qualities as:

• Egotism
• Dishonesty
• They cut corners

Write down the qualities of this person you want to “sell short’ on the right-hand side of your sheet of paper.

Buffett suggests that if you focus on emulating the qualities on the left-hand side and avoiding the qualities on the right-hand side, you’ll eventually become the person that you want to own 10% of.

But even better than owning 10% of that person, you’ll own 100% of that person…because it’s yourself!

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Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010

A Simple Way To Increase Your Confidence (Fun Too!)

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Most of us can use a confidence boost once in awhile.  Here’s one exercise I used that works…and it actually feels good and positive as you’re doing it!

I call it the…

“Qualities of Achievement Exercise”

Step 1: Write Down One Achievement In Your Life You’re Really Proud Of

Write down something that you’ve done that you’re really proud of in life — it can be related to business, family, sports or anything.

What’s important about the achievement you select is that it made you feel really good.

Here are examples of achievements I’m proud of:

• Winning the championship at a basketball tournament in Fire Island (pictured above)
• Moving to San Francisco from New York (which I decided spontaneously with my then-girlfriend in a NY cafe)
• Founding a start-up
• Playing guitar onstage with my buddy Larry at his wedding reception (see picture below)

Step 2: Write Down The Qualities You Possessed For The Achievement

To the right of the achievement, write down the qualities you possessed (or conditions you set up) to make that achievement happen.

For example, to win the basketball championship I wrote down things like:

• I practiced 3 times a week (aka ‘created a ritual’)
• I focused on my strengths (aka ‘unique abilities’)
• I was a team player
• I gave it everything I had
• I was in good physical shape

It helps to write these down as “I [fill in the blank]” statements.

You should have at least 5 to 10 of these qualities.



Ok, you should be feeling pretty good about yourself at this point…after all, you’re revisiting some amazing achievement from your life! That was a great day, wasn’t it!?

So, let’s do another achievement (you’ll later see that it’s important to do multiple achievements).

Step 3: Write Down A Second Achievement & List Out The Qualities/Conditions

Step 4: Write Down A Third Achievement & Do The Same

Step 5: Create Your Master List of Qualities Of Achievement

Now that you’ve done 3 achievements, you should have a list of a couple of dozen qualities listed.

Review the list on the right-hand side (the reasons you accomplished these achievements) as this is your master list of “Qualities of Achievement” — some of the many things you possess to do amazing things.

There will be qualities that repeat among achievements too — even though you may use slightly different language for them — those repeat qualities are arguably among the most powerful qualities you possess!

I found it useful to make a separate list (mine is below) of the repeating qualities. Here are some of my own:

I utilized my network of contacts

I was bold

I focused

I bought time

I was positive

I leveraged my unique abilities

I created a plan

I did the “right thing”

I was persistent

I practiced

I created rituals

I was persuasive

Step 6: Whip Out Your Qualities Of Achievement Any Time You Need A Confidence Boost

Now, what’s cool is that any time you are facing some new endeavor, you can look at your ‘Qualities of Achievement List”  to be reminded of the qualities YOU possess to further achieve!

Furthermore, these qualities will give you ideas on how to tackle your new achievement!

After all, you achieved greatness before…and you will surely achieve it again!

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Friday, October 22nd, 2010

3 Simple Steps To Help You Pursue Your Passion

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Steve Jobs told Stanford students that when he wakes up each day he tries asking himself:

“If this were my last day on earth, would I be happy with my to-do list.”

 

And if his answer is “no” for three or four days in a row, he does something about it.

Well, a goal in my life is to help people explore their passions, ideally in a way that helps them make a living.

I thought I’d share three steps that I used to further my own career passions.

Ok, so let’s dig in…

Step 1: Pick a Passion

It starts with picking a passion — your passion may be obvious to you ( politics, sports, medicine, photography religion) and you’re good to go.

If your passions are not obvious to you, ask those closest to you (friends, colleagues, family members) what they think. …

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