Take Your Life For A Test Drive

I was reading the post Marketing Tips Videos from “Get Altitude” on AlexG’s blog at Daily Cup of Tea. I took few notes as AlexG suggested. These are my favorite:

• How to get a dollar from 1,000,000 people? - Give a value of 100 dollar to 1,000,000 people and ask for a dollar.
• Wealth is a mindset. 
• Don’t keep your best ideas secret. This one resonates a lot with what Gerry M. Weinberg writes in his Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving and Getting Advice Successfully.
• Move the free line. Give away more value to attract more customers.
• How to name things? - Use phonological loop. “Coca-Cola”, “Robert De Niro”, “Motorola”, “Palm Pilot”, “Blackberry”, “Windows Vista”.

Hey! Look what I found - Eben Pagan’s Marketing Tips Takeaway Points

Putting it in practice

• Create new name for your product. Use phonological loop. It must be catchy. Make it sticky.
• Think of something very cool you practiced for years and it gave you results. Something value packed. Give it away. Free.
• Ask for one dollar. A million times.

Worked?

Why is it so hard to quit? How do I know when to quit and when to stick? If I decide to quit, would I look back with guilt or anger?

J.D. pointed me to Seth’s book - The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick). Now I got few answers to my questions now. I also have few more questions too…

by zone41

Why It Is So Hard To Quit?

Seth writes:

Most People Are Afraid To Quit

     It’s better to be mediocre than it is to confront  reality  and quit.

     Quitting is difficult. Quitting requires you to acknowledge that you’re never going to be #1 in the world. At least not at this. So it’s easier to put it off, not admit it, settle for mediocre.

     What a waste.

Say, Quit What?

• If you cannot be #1 smoker then quit smoking?
• If you cannot be #1 blogger then quit blogging?
• If you cannot be #1 swimmer then quit swimming?
• If you cannot be #1 consultant then quit consultancy?
• If you cannot be #1 developer then quit developing?
• If you cannot be #1 dad then quit parenting?
• If you cannot be #1 husband then quit marriage?
• If you cannot be #1 lover then quit making love?
• If you cannot be #1 driver then quit driving?
• If you cannot be #1 dog owner then quit owning a dog?
• If you cannot be #1 citizen then quit citizenship?
• If you cannot be #1 problem solver then quit problem solving?
• If you cannot be #1 team player then quit the team?
• If you cannot be #1 employee then quit the company?
• If you cannot be #1 freelancer then quit freelancing?
• If you cannot be #1 achiever then quit achieving?
• If you cannot be #1 gamer then quit playing games?
• If you cannot be #1 son then quit the family circle?
• If you cannot be #1 brother then quit brotherhood?
• …

Is It That Hard To Become #1?

My take is “No”. Create your own niche and declare yourself as #1 there. And stick. And do not quit.

What’s your niche? Are you going to stick or quit?

How do you survive recession? - You improve yourself and offer more value.
How do you improve yourself? - You get better results by focusing on improving your process.
How do you improve your process? - You focus on 6 critical areas according to Kaizen: Discipline. Time Management. Skill Development. Participation and Involvement. Morale. Communication.

by kalandrakas

Improving Process - Kaizen Way

In order to improve your results Masaaki Imai, the author of Kaizen: The Key To Japan’s Competitive Success, recommends improving your process. To improve your process you focus on the following:

• Discipline.
• Time Management.
• Skill Development.
• Participation and Involvement.
• Morale.
• Communication.

Taking The Kaizen Way Of Process Improvement

This is my take on personal improvement mapped to the above focus areas:

• Discipline.
• The Power Of Saying “No”
• Keep Your Inbox Clean , Stay Focused And Productive – My 4 Simple Rules
• Emotional Intelligence - Core Skills
• Time Management.
• Time Is Not Money. Time Is Budget.
• Prioritize What You Do – Steven Covey Way [The Way That Works]
• Effective Time Management With Vista Sidebar
• Skill Development.
• Grow Quality - Not Quantity
• Microsoft vs. Google - Competing For GTD
• Learning Capability Is Your Core Competitive Advantage
• Participation and Involvement.
• TechEd 2007 Barcelona - Web Application Security Session Sum Up
• Do Not Kiss Corporate Life Goodbye
• Morale.
• Meet My Mentors - Bruce Lee, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, and Thomas Edison
• Practical Advice By Lt. Col. Frank Slade For Tango And Life
• My Values And Their Salary
• Communication.
• Basic Skills For Effective Public Speaking
• Dale Carnegie’s Recipe For Effective Public Speaking
• Manage Your Manager For Fun And For Profit

Am I on track? Are you?

When you do your work, are you:

• Task oriented? Or…
• Result oriented? Or…
• Process oriented?

Why it is important? It is important since different orientations get you different results.

by ogimogi

As part of my quest to become more effective and efficient (read - competitive) I was reading a book by Masaaki Imai, Kaizen: The Key To Japan’s Competitive Success. Masaaki Imai shares in his book the difference between Process Orientation and Result Orientation:

"KAIZEN generates process-oriented thinking, since processes must be improved before we get improved results. Further, KAIZEN is people-oriented and is directed at people’s efforts. This contrasts sharply with the result-oriented thinking of most Western managers."

Process Orientation

Seems wrong to me comparing process orientation vs. task orientation vs. results orientation. The process consists of tasks that must be completed in order to achieve results. If there is no process chances there are tasks that might be redundant or unnecessary, if the process is overcomplicated then the results won’t be justified by the investment. If the process is wrong then no results will be achieved. The simplest way I found to achieve results is:

• Define how a good result looks like.
• Model the path to the result.
• Break the path into small tasks with its own results.
• Identify what needed to perform the tasks.
• Prioritize the tasks.
• Allocate the time for each task.
• Act. Now.
• Compare the time allocated to time invested.
• Adjust the allocated time.
• On track?

Got better idea?

“The value of an idea lies in the using of it. “ - Thomas A. Edison

Self Test

• Are you doing or achieving?
• Do you have a feeling of "if I only had a little more time…."?
• Do you practice Rituals For Results?

My good friend and colleague, Jimmy May, shared with me his favorites quotes lately (Thanks, Jimmy!). This made me scratch my head and think about quotes I like the most. What I came up with is four quotes from Bruce Lee, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, and Thomas Edison.

I clearly realized these are not just a quotes, these are my guiding lights, my mentors.

Bruce Lee and Abraham Lincoln Help Me Focus

"Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, add what is specifically your own." -Bruce Lee

I adopted this Bruce Lee’s quote from JD and it really helps me stay away from time wasters. To me it is short version of Covey’s prioritization discipline.

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe" - Abraham Lincoln

Does not it resonate with Covey’s Habit 7 - Sharpen the saw?

Mark Twain and Thomas Edison Help Me Grow

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect” - Mark Twain

This is great quote directs me to the places that are less crowded, with more potential to do something new, something interesting, something no one did before.

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." - Thomas Alva Edison

The last but not the least, the quote by Thomas Edison, keeps me on the surface. It keeps me from not losing faith in better me. It helps me get up and fight when I am knocked off my horse.

Got quote?