Far Niente

A couple weeks ago I wrote a post about the fact that no one is ever doing nothing. The post was titled, “Busy Doing Nothing.” Click here to read it.

What I did not mention, in the previous post, is the fact that the phrase, “Doing nothing,” is a contradiction. Perhaps a paradox, I am not completely sure.

At any rate, there exists a winery, in the Napa area, called “Far Niente.” Which, translated from Italian, basically means, “Doing nothing.” I have enjoyed some lovely wine, from Far Niente, and the name inspired this post.

The mind can be a very wild place. As the old saying goes, “An idle mind is the devil's playground.” It is for this reason people love to stay busy. Even if what they are doing is utterly useless. Soon I will post an interesting article titled, “Addicted to Distraction.” Stay tuned.

Being left alone, to our thoughts, can be quite intimidating. Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever tried to meditate? It ain't easy. That said, I am a huge fan of meditation. I think everyone should do it.

I first learned to meditate back in college. I had heard of the idea and it intrigued me. So, I bought a CD from Andrew Weil and gave it a whirl.

Quieting the mind can be a very difficult thing to do. Perhaps that is exactly what makes the practice so valuable. Meditation might be the best way to learn how to focus.

And, the ability to pay attention is the critical first step in improving the quality experience. That is a key takeaway from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's phenomenal book, Flow.

For our purposes, we are not really concerned with improving the quality of experience, per se. If you are an entrepreneur, or a knowledge worker, your work requires some degree of creativity. And, creativity demands that we learn how to integrate information.

For this reason, I believe you need to make time to waste time. Meaning, we need time to reflect. One of the best ways to do this is with a mundane task. Showering would be an example.

That great ideas come to us in the shower has become something of a cliché. It also happens to be true. The reason is that our mind is engaged but it is doing a task that it has mastered.

Newton's First Law tells us that objects in motion tend to stay in motion. This applies to the brain. The recommendation I am making is that you do structured activities. Activities that you know how to do.

Steve Jobs was famous for the walks that he would take. Myself, I like to hike in the hills. Either way, each one of us has certainly “mastered” walking. This engages the mind but leaves plenty of computing power to think of other things.

Lots of people enjoy driving to clear their head. And, if it helps you solve your problems, I say, “Go for a drive.”

All-in-all what I am saying is that we should schedule our ideal time. The time when we do nothing. But, there is a twist.

With all due respect to wine drinkers, for most people, casually enjoying a glass offers no structure or direction. I encourage you to intentionally do easy things that have a beginning and an end.

Walks, hikes, and showering are all great ways to free the mind for integrative thinking. Yard work and doing the dishes might work as well.

I am a believer in the mundane. And, I believe we should not pooh-pooh the ordinary. Properly channeled, mundane tasks can be great opportunities for creative thinking. Provided we pay attention to the times we are far niente.

THE WINNER, AND NEW...!!!

This past weekend was a big one for sports fans. Stick with me, and let me explain, because this post contains a great lesson on effectiveness.

In this post, I will interchangeably use the words effectiveness, success, and achievement. As you might know, the two main things, that impede achievement, are fear and doubt. This post is about doubt.

Have you ever noticed that super-achievers tend to be arrogant? Do not get me wrong, once a person is successful it is smart to feign humility. Warren Buffett is an absolute master at it. But, to achieve high levels of success requires enormous amounts of confidence. Perhaps even arrogance.

The reason is simple. The reason is one word: doubt. On your entrepreneurial journey, doubt will be your ever present companion. And, it is a real pisser because doubt is simultaneously a big thing and a bad. It is a paradox.

Doubt is good when it comes in the form of a healthy skepticism. A healthy does of skepticism will help you sniff out, and avoid, the hucksters. And, let's be honest, there is a lot of snake oil out there.

The bad form of doubt is self-doubt. When things are not working out the way you had planned, doubt will be there to rush in. We euphemistically believe that doubt keeps ego in check. But, the truth is, doubt destroys entrepreneurs.

And, that brings me to this past weekend. Over the weekend, Conor McGregor defeated Jose Aldo to become the UFC featherweight champion. There is a good chance you might have heard about McGregor.

McGregor is obnoxiously confident (to borrow a phrase from Gary Vaynerchuk.) Indeed, many would call Conor cocky. He is. But, is that a problem?

Don't get me wrong, sometimes it seems Conor goes too far. He does talk trash about his opponent. Which is rough. But, the trash talk is meant to gin up controversy, sell more tickets, and make more money. As far as the fight game goes, it can be a smart move.

Aside from the trash talk, is arrogance a problem? Not necessarily. When it comes to effectiveness and entrepreneurship, confidence works much better than doubt. Have you ever heard the saying, "Often wrong, never in doubt"? Pretty wise.

As an aside, I am a big fan of Jim Collins. I think he is a smart dude. But, Collins had led lots of people astray with his notion of “Level 5 Leadership.” If you have not read Good to Great let me summarize and tell you that Level 5 Leadership is about being humble.

Listen, now is neither the time nor place to get into a thorough discussion on the complexities of human beings. Suffice it to say people can be simultaneously confident and humble. To cut to the chase, I disagree with Collins on his conception of leadership.

Leaders might choose to present themselves as humble. But, believe me, under the surface, a successful leader is very confident. If Level 5 Leadership is so necessary, how do we account for people like Steve Jobs and Donald Trump?

Anyhow, back to Conor McGregor. Saturday night Conor took the belt from Jose Aldo. If you are not familiar with mixed martial arts you need to understand that Aldo had not lost a fight in ten years. Ten years! And, Aldo was widely considered the best fighter in the world, pound-for-pound.

I think we have all heard that quote, attributed to Henry Ford, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can't–you're right.” It is mostly true. But, one thing that is certainly true is that you cannot beat the best fighter in the world if you do not believe you can.

Belief, faith, confidence. These are the antidotes to doubt. And, doubt is an insidious problem. For this reason, I think we can forgive people for going too far with the confidence thing.

Life is not black and white. It is a gradient, not unlike a dimmer switch. We need to concern ourselves with tendencies more than absolutes. I am talking about leaning in certain directions. And, if you ask me, when it comes to entrepreneurship, I think it is wise to err on the side of too much confidence rather than too much humility.

Don't be an ass. But, do believe in yourself. Unapologetically. 

Busy Doing Nothing

If you are an entrepreneur, you are a salesperson. Period. Full stop. How does that feel? If you object, we might need to iron your brain out a little bit.

You see, if you are to build a successful business, you must get attention. Lots and lots of attention. On this point, sales trainer Grant Cardone is spot on. Here is an image I took from Cardone's website:

This is where a lot of people fall down. The reasons people fail to get the necessary attention are numerous. Some people do not know how to get attention. Others do not like the idea that they will be judged. While some do not like interrupting people. It is this last reason I wish to focus on in this post.

Let me make an important and unequivocal statement. When you aim to get people's attention you will always be interrupting. Always. That statement is a tautology.

The first job of a salesperson is prospecting. Prospecting is simply the act of searching for something of value. In the case of an entrepreneur, prospecting means searching for customers and distributors.

Recently, Jeb Blount wrote a book titled Fanatical Prospecting. In the book Blount agrees with me. He says that we must always be interrupting people. Let us expound upon the idea.

One way to get attention is with the cold call. For various reasons, a lot people would sooner die than make a cold call. Many do. And, while I do not agree with everything Grant Cardone teaches, one point we definitely do agree on is the value and importance of making cold calls.

Back to my tautological statement. Whenever you endeavor to get a person's attention you will be interrupting that person. To put it in different terms, nobody is sitting around doing nothing.

Think about it. I can think of a great activity which is meant to do nothing. That activity is meditating. However, even people who are meditating are not doing nothing. What are they doing? They are meditating!

As you might be able to tell, I have spent some time thinking about this concept. Can you think of a person who is doing absolutely nothing? It is harder than you might think.

A person who is "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" would appear to be doing nothing. But, what would they say they are doing. They are watching television, of course.

The best example I could come up with, of a person who is busy doing nothing, is the image of a person sitting on their front porch, sipping on a cold glass of iced tea. Now, is that person doing nothing? No! S/he would tell you that s/he is relaxing!

The irony of the whole thing is, what do most people say when you ask what they are doing. “Nothing,” right? It is so funny.

Fun and games aside, it really is true that everyone is always doing something. So, whenever you try to get a person's attention you are necessarily interrupting that person.

And, here we run into a big problem. Most of us were raised to believe that it is rude to interrupt people. That belief is not necessarily true, but we have all been taught it. The problem occurs if we take the lesson too literally.

The fact of the matter is that sometimes it is completely appropriate to interrupt a person. Let us come up with an example. Imagine that a couple of neighbors are chatting it up on one of their driveways. The conversation gets pretty interesting and they lose track of their small children.

Now let us imagine you come walking by and notice that the child has gotten into imminent danger. To take an extreme example, the child is playing with some downed power lines. I do not know if that ever really happens but I want to drive the point home.

What would you do? Would you not interrupt the parent's conversation to ask if that is their child? Of course you would! And, would the parents be upset with the fact that you interrupted? Quite the contrary, it is much more likely that they would thank you for the interruption.

The fact of the matter is, it is completely appropriate to interrupt people. The key is to have something of great value to say. In sales we speak of the importance of relevance. What we have to say is valuable if it is relevant to the prospect's life.

In fact, the company MarketingSherpa found that 92 percent of B2B buyers are open to cold calls if the salesperson is relevant. I think this finding is not too surprising. But, it is nonetheless important and it bears repeating.

I am always amazed at the number of people who flat out refuse to make a cold call. It is sad, really. As I have mentioned, one of the main problems is a fear of interrupting people. And, I hope this blog has done at least something to help allay that irrational fear.

It is important that we all learn how to make a cold call. Because, as Grant Cardone would say, “Strangers have everything you want.” It is a cute little statement. It is easy to remember and it drives home the point.

Personally, I prefer the way sales trainer Mike Bosworth puts it. Bosworth says we need to be searching for latent pain. This is especially true of entrepreneurs. True entrepreneurs solve new problems, or fix existing problems in new ways. Either way you will need to get attention. You will need to interrupt people.

The Surprising Difference Between Careerism and Leadership

Coming off of our weeks long discussion about Stephen Covey's effectiveness I thought I would mix it up. This week I want to give you a guest post. The rest of this post was written by Bill George who is a professor at the Harvard Business School.

In my new book, Discover Your True North, I challenge readers to ask themselves this key question: Are you leading with purpose or just trying to get ahead?

Do you actually believe in something larger than your compensation, your career trajectory or your next success?

I often tell young leaders, if their work has no meaning or satisfaction, they are better off quitting and sitting on the beach until they decide what they want to do.

Many people's work is completely disconnected from their values and their purpose. This lack of purpose isn't something to deal with by working with a nonprofit in your spare time. If you don't take action to address this disconnect, it can become like an insidious cancer that eats at your soul. Long-run, a lack of purpose can lead to burnout, poor decision-making and even moral derailment.

Understanding Your Purpose

Your purpose is the genuine deeper meaning in your work. It reflects why you do what you do.

Understanding your purpose is essential to becoming a better leader. People who lead with a sense of purpose that is aligned with their company's purpose make better long-term decisions and are more authentic.

But this is not as easy as it sounds. Discerning your purpose takes a combination of introspection and real-world experiences before you can determine where you want to devote your energies.

The first step to knowing your purpose is to understand your life story. We all face times of crisis, pain or rejection in our lives. Reflecting on the life you've lived helps you to discover your True North - the beliefs, values and principles most important to you.

Before you take on a leadership role, ask yourself: "What motivates me to lead this organization?" If the honest answers are simply power, prestige and money, you are at risk of being trapped by external gratification as your source of fulfillment.

This never works. Why? Simply, you can never have enough money, fame or recognition. When you give someone else the power to decide if you're successful (whether it's the Forbes 400 list or an invitation to Davos), you lose. If you allow some external force to define your success, you have essentially abdicated your soul.

There is a deep voice inside you that yearns to bring your unique gifts to this world. If you neglect that voice, you create deep misalignments that eventually will surface.

Purpose at Work

Ken Frazier traveled a unique road en route to becoming CEO of Merck, the leading pharmaceutical research company. Born before the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, Frazier's grandfather was a slave in South Carolina. He sent his son, Frazier's father, to live in Philadelphia. With no formal education, Frazier's father became a janitor, yet taught himself to read, reading two newspapers a day. In spite of his limited opportunities, he had a profound influence on Frazier's life.

After his mother died when he was 12, Frazier and his sisters had to fend for themselves after school, avoiding the gangs that dominated the streets outside his house. "I learned very early from my father that one has to be one's own person and not go along with the crowd," Frazier says. His father asked him, "Kenny, how are you going to carry on your grandfather's narrative of being free and your own person? You better do what you know is right, and not be fixated on what other people think of you.”

While studying at on Penn State scholarship, Frazier decided he wanted "to become a great lawyer like Thurgood Marshall, affecting social change." At Harvard Law School, he was acutely aware he wasn't from the same social class as his classmates. He wryly notes, "Lloyd Blankfein [CEO of Goldman Sachs] and I were the only students who 'were not of the manor born.”

Shortly after he joined Merck, Frazier took on the extremely difficult task of defending Merck from over 40,000 lawsuits filed after the pain drug Vioxx was withdrawn from the market due to alleged cardiovascular problems. Frazier did so successfully, catapulting him into the CEO's chair where he faced a greater challenge: short-term shareholders pressured him to cut back Merck's research as several of its competitors were doing. Frazier stayed the course, committing to spend a minimum of $8 billion per year on research in order to pursue cures for devastating diseases like cancer and Alzheimer's.

Reflecting on his sense of purpose, Frazier explains, "Merck's purpose is aligned with my personal sense of who I want to be and what I hope to contribute to the world. At Merck, you have the opportunity to make tangible contributions to humanity. There's a yearning in all of us to leave something meaningful behind, because we know we have a short time on earth. Merck gives me the chance to leave something to people 20, 50 or even 100 years from now because we did the right things today.”

Asked what his father would say about his remarkable success, Frazier says modestly, "He'd say, 'The boy did what he was supposed to do.'”

Turning Purpose Into Action

Your leadership purpose is not meaningful until it is applied to solving problems you encounter in the real world. When you align your personal purpose with an organization's mission, you unlock the full potential of people in the organization.

That's what I tried to do at Medtronic where we connected employees' True North with the company mission of "restoring health, alleviating pain and extending life." My successors, especially current CEO Omar Ishrak, have pursued this mission with vigor, contributing to the 100 times increase in the company's market value over the past 26 years. More importantly, the number of people each year restored to full health has grown from 300,000 to 15 million.

As long as you focus on your True North, understand your purpose and use it to make a difference in the world, you can leave a legacy that inspires those who follow.

Sharpen the Saw

This week is the last of Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. If you recall, from earlier, the first three habits were characterized as “Private Victories.” And, the second three habits Covey called “Public Victories.” As one might expect, the private victories come before the public victories.

This final habit is all-encompassing and universal. The idea comes from that old anecdote which says, if you have five hours to chop down a tree, four of those hours should be spent sharpening your saw.

We all know that without effort it is virtually impossible to stay sharp. Covey writes, “As soon as we leave the external discipline of school, many of us let our minds atrophy.” I believe this is a rather unfortunate mistake. To counter this natural tendency to atrophy I like a quote I once heard. The quote said, “The only time you can coast is when you are going downhill.”

For most of us, it takes a crisis for us to work on improving ourselves. Knowing this, Thomas Jefferson is quoted as saying, “Every generation needs a revolution.” But, Jefferson was being overzealous.

I agree with Peter Drucker who said, “We now know that 'revolution' is a delusion...It results from senile decay, from the bankruptcy of ideas and institutions, from failure of self-renewal.” Alexis de Tocqueville pointed out that revolutions do not demolish the prisons of the old regime; they enlarge them.

To my way of thinking, staying sharp, self-renewal, entrepreneurship, and growth are all virtually synonymous. Entrepreneurship is fundamentally about renewal. It is about constant, never-ending improvement. It is about growth, which I believe is life's imperative.

I talk a lot about my love for Peter Drucker. But, if I had to pick one book, as my favorite of all time, it would probably be Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. As it turns out, Csikszentmihalyi used to teach at the same school as Drucker. Actually, Mihaly is still there though Peter has passed.

There are so many important lessons to take away from the book Flow. However, for our purposes today, I wish to point out one lesson in particular. If you really understand what Csikszentmihalyi is saying, you realize that growth is the imperative of life.

If you will allow me to get nerdy for a minute, I would like to make a quick reference to physics. The Second Law of Thermodynamics is a governing principle of the cosmos. Without getting too deep into it, just understand that the second law has to do with a concept known as entropy.

To put it in lay terms, entropy is practically synonymous with the words decay and death. If you truly understand entropy, you realize that life exists because it can. And, life is completely dependent on growth. It is like what the character Andy said in the move The Shawshank Redemption. We need to either, “Get busy living, or get busy dying.”

Sharpening the saw is the living part. It is growth. You may know the name Ray Kroc from McDonald's fame. Kroc put it this way, “As long as you are green, you are growing. As soon as you are ripe, you start to rot.” In slightly different terms, Steve Jobs said, “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”

However you wish to think of it, growth is the imperative and we must always sharpen our saw. Covey states, “I commend to you the simple practice of spending one hour a day every day doing it – one hour a day for the rest of your life.” Sounds good to me.

Synergize

Have you been following me over the last few week? I sure hope so. I have been running through each of Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Today, we discuss the sixth habit. Which is the third, and final, of what Covey calls “Public Victories.”

This blog is about effectiveness and entrepreneurship. It is meant to link the two ideas together. For the most part, entrepreneurship requires the building of organizations. Drucker said we live in a society of organizations. And, synergy is all about organizations.

There are many important functions in a large and successful business. And, no one person can be good at all of them. So, we must hire, or partner with, people who can do the jobs we are not good at. Thus, as you can imagine, we need self-awareness and the ability to identify our strengths.

Drucker recommends we always ask ourselves the question, “What should my contribution be?” In order to answer that question we must identify the mission of the organization, the necessary tasks, and our particular strengths. Then, we can match strengths to tasks. This is harder than it first appears.

An example would be the entrepreneur who prides him/herself on being an “Idea person.” That person is basically saying they are not good at execution. In turn, an idea person needs to partner/synergize with an execution person. A good example would be the partnership between Charles Kettering and Alfred Sloan.

Even if you are good at both ideas and execution, the world is much too vast and complicated to know it all. Most people believe they are objective and see the world the way it is. The problem is that we tend to see the world, not as it is, but as we are. For this reason, it is wise to value differences of opinion.

Covey would say, “The essence of synergy is to value differences. Synergy means two heads are better than one. It is the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. One plus one equals three, or six, or sixty.”

If Sloan had to come up with the ideas, he might not have gone far. Conversely, had Kettering needed to be an executive he would have struggled. So, in some ways, we could say that synergy is similar to teamwork. The only problem is that synergy is much more than teamwork.

Teamwork can often involve an element of uniformity. I think we have all heard that funny quote of Henry Ford saying, “You can have whatever Model-T you want. As long as it is black.” Additionally, John Wooden was one of the best college basketball coaches of all time. And, one thing was for certain, on Wooden's team, you did it his way.

As I have mentioned, synergy is different. With synergy we value the differences. You could have uniformity, with the Model-T, because it was the only show in town. And, uniformity also applies to basketball because it is a pretty simple game.

The great game of business is different. Basketball has not changed much in one hundred, or so, years it has been around. But, business changes constantly. Remember MySpace?

To stay ahead, in business, requires great talent and diversity. Which is very difficult. Most of us seek out people who are similar. Differences often create friction. The great organization builder knew how to lubrication that friction so they were able to utilize the concept of synergy.

A great example of an organization builder would be Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln is, arguably, the greatest President in United States history. And, one thing Lincoln was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, was a great organization builder.

If you have never done so, I encourage you to read the great book Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. The book explains the political genius of Abe Lincoln. And how, one man cobbled together a team that saved, and reinvented, America.

Lincoln's success was the very essence of synergy. Difficult but worth it. As Covey wrote, “When properly understood, synergy is the highest activity in all life.”

Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood

We are now on to Habit #5 of Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I think this habit is extremely straightforward. At least it is on an intellectual level. However, when it comes to execution, when it comes to implementing this habit, it is one of the hardest. In fact, in this post (click here) I suggest that Habit #5 is the second most difficult of the habits.

I actually could not think of a lot to say about this habit. Seeking to understand before we try to be understood is a pretty simple idea. Simple in theory but difficult in practice. So, let me quote Covey. Central to the habit of “Seek first to understand, then to be understood,” is the idea of empathic listening.

Covey writes, “When I say empathic listening, I mean listening with intent to understand.” He continues, “Next to physical survival, the greatest need of a human being is psychological survival – to be understood, to be affirmed, to be validated, to be appreciated.”

Obviously, this habit is all about listening. And, as Peter Drucker would say, listening is not a skill. Listening is a discipline. To seek first to understand, requires that we listen, which requires discipline. And, that is a lot of what makes this habit so difficult.

So often we think that we do not have time to listen. We all have a lot on our plates and time is of the essence. Covey says, “There are people who protest that empathic listening takes too much time. It may take a little more time initially but it saves so much time downstream.”

Miscommunication is a very real problem in this day and age. We are all extremely busy. Or, at least we convince ourselves that we are. We are always in a hurry. And, being in such a rush causes us to be much more likely to fool up our communication. Often times this miscommunication causes more problems than it solves. As paradoxical as it may sound, being in a hurry can waste a lot of time. Sometimes we need to slow down to speed up.

As it applies to entrepreneurship, this habit is at the very heart of selling. When it comes to selling our goods we are well advised to behave like doctors. That is to say, we need to diagnose before we prescribe.

Entrepreneurs are problem solvers. In this way, entrepreneurs are a lot like doctors. The essence of economic value derives from the solving of real problems. As it turns out, there are any number of people out there trying to solve false problems. Meaning, they bring a product or service to the market that solves a problem people do not really care about.

So, a fundamental question is, “What do people really care about?” That is a diagnostic question. Again, we want to diagnose before we prescribe. And, diagnosing before we prescribe is simply another way of saying, understand before you solve. If you want to sell somebody your solution, you are well-advised to first understand their problem. As the name of the book suggests, this all about becoming more effective.

One word of caution, do not assume you know people's problems. I think we all know that cliche about what happens when we assume. Rather than assuming we need to ask questions and listen.

Think Win/Win

This post marks a turning point in our discussion about The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Today is about Habit #4 which means we are now transitioning from independence to interdependence. From private victories to public victories.

Independence must come before interdependence. Stephen Covey writes, “Interdependence is a choice only independent people can make.” One of the main problems is that independent people often look at the world from the perspective of Win/Lose.

In this blog I apply effectiveness to the realm of entrepreneurship. Obviously, entrepreneurship is conducted in a capitalist economy. And, the fact of the matter is, capitalism is based upon competition.

For most people, competition necessarily means a Win/Lose mindset. What's more, we are raised playing games that reinforce the Win/Lose mentality. Sports being the most prominent example. And, a lot of people get frustrated with the current trend towards giving trophies to all participants. So steeped are we in the tradition of winners and losers that we sometimes have a hard time thinking Win/Win.

Don't get me wrong, sports were created to have winners and losers. And, giving trophies to the teams that do not win is pretty silly. That said, some people approach every aspect of life from a competitive perspective. In order for a competitive person to win, someone else is expected to lose.

The problem is that life in general, and business in particular, are different in rather significant ways. I will not discussion life in general. Let us only talk about business. Business contains elements of both competition and cooperation.

As a matter of fact, several years ago a couple of business professors, Barry Nalebuff and Adam Brandenburger, teamed up to write a book about the paradoxical nature of business. The book was titled Co-opetition and it applied the mathematical model of game theory to the realities of business.

As the name of the book suggests, business is part competition and part cooperation. And, the two parts exist simultaneously. In turn, being overly competitive can backfire because it keeps us from being able to cooperate.

Of course, we want to compete against our "competitors." Ford battles with Chevy and Coke tried to destroy Pepsi. But, we need to be careful to not do battle when we should be cooperating.

The most obvious example is our customers. I think most people understand the importance of not fighting with your customers. We should be serving our customers, not battling them. Even as obvious as that should be, many people use war metaphors and almost view their relationship with their customers as a military campaign.

Those of us who are enlightened enough to think Win/Win with our customers often happily go to battle with our suppliers. Which is most unfortunate. After all, are we not our suppliers customers?

Covey says, “There are three character traits essential to the Win/Win paradigm: integrity, maturity, and abundance mentality.” I think the preceding statements is self-explanatory. The real key to implementing the Win/Win mindset is “No Deal.” Whenever we go into a negotiation, or agreement, we need the option of choosing no deal. If we do not believe we are being properly served, we can call the whole thing off.

This much might seem straightforward. If we think we are being mistreated, we always have the option of walking away. Much more difficult is pulling the plug when it seems our negotiating partner is getting a raw deal. Covey writes, “It's twice as tough as Win/Lose. To go for Win/Win, you not only have to be nice, you have to be courageous. You not only have to be empathic, you have to be confident.”

The old saying says that business is war. And, to a point, I agree. As stated, there exists a profound and permanent tension in the cola wars. Car companies would sooner shoot themselves in the foot than give up even one iota of market share. That said, most of business is actually about cooperation. As a general rule you want to cooperate with your employees, co-workers, suppliers, and customers.

Being competitive can be adaptive, it can be the source of much needed drive and energy. But, being competitive can also be destructive and backfire. It is your job to decide when to compete and when to cooperate. As a suggestion, most of the time, you want to be thinking Win/Win. It is the very essence of interdependence, and it makes both sides stronger.

First Things First

Today is Habit #3. A few weeks ago I turned the conversation towards effectiveness. Then, I started tackling Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, one at a time.

My discussion of the first habit was pretty good (Click here to read it.) The second habit was more difficult because it deals with fear and doubt (Click here.) Subjects that can take up entire books.

Speaking of taking up entire books, this third habit did! Covey once wrote a book titled First Things First. Obviously, the idea is rather important.

In order to understand first things first we need to consider two ideas: importance and urgency. We need to think about what is urgent. A fairly straightforward task. And, we think about what is important. A much more difficult task, which is the subject of the second habit.

His book, First Things First, is meant to be a time management book. Because this third habit is largely about time management. A lot of people think that the key to time management is getting more stuff done. And, while that is partially true, we must first consider what that “stuff” is. Covey wrote, “Daily planning often misses important things that can only be seen from a larger perspective.”

For example, Covey gives the analogy of efficiently stacking the chairs on the deck of the Titanic. If you are a efficient worker, you could stack a lot of chairs. But, of course, it is a complete waste of time. In fact, Peter Drucker once said, there is nothing so useless as efficiently doing the wrong things.

It should be clear that we need to identify what the right things are. To Covey's way of thinking we need to create mission statements. We need to begin with the end in mind.

Drucker might say it slightly different. He would ask, “What do you want to be remembered for?” A question he borrowed from Saint Augustine. Regardless of how you wish to conceptualize the idea, it is vitally important that we all identify what is important to us. Warning! This task is quite a bit harder than it sounds.

Covey wrote, “If we don't have a clear idea of what is important, of the results we desire in our lives, we are easily diverted into responding to the urgent.” And, he created a matrix, a quadrant, to help visualize his teachings. Here is Covey's quadrant:

All of Covey's Habits live in Quadrant II. The problem is that the Habits are not urgent activities. For example, I would say reading is very important. And, reading is most definitely a Quadrant II activity. Unless you are currently in school, reading can always be put off until tomorrow. And, it usually is.

Because we have a tendency to neglect Quadrant II, we need to make a concerted effort and focus on doing the things that are important but not urgent. Otherwise, we will constantly get distracted responding to things urgent.

We must identify what is important to us. You can do this utilizing what Saint Augustine said. Or, if you do not think it is too negative, you can write your own eulogy.

If you are reading this blog you are either an entrepreneur or you would like to be an entrepreneur. So, let me take a guess. If you want to be an entrepreneur, freedom is one of your main value. Freedom is very important to you.

So, let's talk entrepreneurship. As it applies to entrepreneurship, for the most part, the first thing is get attention. Good ideas are ten-a-penny. The real key is execution.

Have you ever watched the television show Shark Tank? Have you noticed how Mark Cuban loves entrepreneurs that are willing to go door-to-door to sell their products? What is Cuban saying?

While it is true that Cuban used to sell trash bags, door-to-door, he is not waxing nostalgic. What Mark understands is the vital importance of getting attention and selling things. Hence, the subtitle of this blog.

Because I am so loyal to Drucker, let me put it in his words. Peter Drucker said that a business exists for one reason. To create a customer. That is pretty powerful. He did not say businesses exist for three reasons. He said one reason.

When we translate Drucker into the parlance of Covey we arrive at this third habit. The “first thing” of a business is to create a customer. Creating a customer involves two deceptively simple steps. Have a valuable product or service, and sell it to people. It is extremely simple and very difficult.

To get to real freedom, you are probably going to need to build some sort of organization. That will take some time. Just remember what Drucker said. A business exists for one reason. If the customer is your focal point, sales and marketing come first. Keep first things first.

Begin With the End in Mind

I recently began a series of posts, about Stephen Covey's magnificent book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I think the discussion has proven to be somewhat timely in light of the current Republican, presidential, nominating process.

Donald Trump might be the world's greatest self-promoter. He recently claimed that his book, The Art of the Deal, is the best selling business book of all time. Click here to see the interview.

I do not mean to split hairs but that claim is false. Most people would put Covey's book in the category of business books. And, The 7 Habits has certainly sold much better than Trump's book. Covey's masterpiece has sold somewhere in the range of twenty million copies. But, I digress.

Last week I talked about the first of Covey's 7 Habits. The first habit is, “Be proactive.” If you have not read that post, click here. Today, let's talk about Covey's second habit. The second habit is, “Begin with the end in mind.”

While I have no empirical data to support this claim, I think habit number five is the second most difficult of the habits. The most difficult, if I were to guess, is this second habit. Which is quite perplexing because it sounds so simple to begin with the end in mind.

Think about it. If we were to go on a trip, we would start by deciding on our destination. We would begin with where we would end (up.) Do we want to go to Rome, or Paris, or the Bahamas? Maybe Japan or Australia. Where would we like to go? That would be the first question.

Once we know our destination it is pretty easy to find our way. It is only after we choose our destination that we consider, and plan, everything else. Things such as, what clothes to pack, will we fly or drive, and who will take care of the dog.

I guess our traveling is not that different from making a simple phone call. Have you ever just picked up the phone, and started dialing random numbers, to see where it takes you? I very seriously doubt it.

When we pick up the phone we know exactly where we are headed. Perhaps we intend to call our attorney to discuss a business or insurance matter. Knowing the end game allows us to cobble together the necessary documentation.

Back to the traveling analogy. I once heard it said that people spend more time planning a vacation than they do planning their life. At first glance, it sounded like something of a stretch. More and more I am coming to believe that it might be true.

Surely our lives are much more important than our vacations. How could it be that we spend more time planning our vacations? I think the answer to that question is one word: fear.

When we can do anything, the question of what to do can become overwhelming. What if we chose the wrong thing? This conundrum reminds me of The Omnivore's Dilemma. Have you ever read Michael Pollan's fabulous book?

The omnivore's dilemma is as follows: When we can eat just about anything, the choice of what to eat becomes very difficult. Have you ever had a hard time deciding where to go for dinner? Essentially, we are dealing with The Paradox of Choice. The more choices we have, the harder it becomes to make a choice.

The United States is the very embodiment of freedom. In America, we are free to do just about anything we want. Which sounds really great. And, it is. The problem is the opportunity costs. The problem is the paradox of choice.

When it comes to the end-game, the number of options available to us is virtually unlimited. But, again, the problem is, what if we make a mistake? What if we pursue the wrong path? What if we find out that we do not like the path we have chosen? Or, what if we discover we have little chance of success?

To cope with this existential anxiety many people avoid the question of where they hope to end up. What a lot of people do is stay extremely busy. And, they use that whirlwind of activity as a proxy for feelings of being valuable and important.

Covey said, "It's incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the busy-ness of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover it's leaning against the wrong wall." As intimidating as it may be, it is vitally important that we step back to properly place our ladders.

There is an interesting question that asks, "What would you do if you knew you could not fail?" Without explicitly saying it, that question is meant as a device to deal with fear. Right? When we plan a vacation, we do not waste time worrying about failure. However, when we plan our lives we do.

Covey recommends that we all write personal mission statements. What is your mission in life? What do you want to be remembered for? Pretty intimidating stuff, isn't it? All the more reason to start working on your answers today.

The great thing about entrepreneurship is that we get to have mulligans. We get do-overs. While, we only get to one life, we can build many businesses.

When deciding to start a business it is critically important to being with the end in mind. Where do you want to drive your ship? What is your vision? The good news is, at least in America, you can completely screw up, and you still get the chance to try again.  

If you wish to hit the bull's eye you must see the target. This is a huge part of what effectiveness is all about. As Peter Drucker said, efficiency is doing things right, it is the busy-ness part of the equation. Effectiveness, is doing the right things.

Please do not allow yourself to confuse activity/efficiency with effectiveness. Just because you are busy does not mean you are making progress towards your goals. You might be off-track. But, you will never know that until you are certain about your destination.

Begin with the end in mind. Start today. And, always remember what George Bernard Shaw said, “If you take too long in deciding what to do with your life, you'll find you've done it.”

Be Proactive

Last week I mentioned that I want to start talking about Stephen Covey and his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

Oddly enough, in a twist on the second habit, I will start with the last habit. The seventh, and final, habit is all-encompassing. Namely, sharpen the saw.

Covey took the phrase, “Sharpen the saw,” from the old anecdote reminding us that we should not become overly occupied with the job we are doing. Meaning, you should not continue, in the act of bringing down a tree, if your saw has become dull.

Without effort, we humans can become quite dull as well. We need to remember to take time for renewal. Renewal can take many forms, the most common might be learning. Effective people take the time to sharpen their saw.

Obviously, if you take the time to read a blog post, you are already on-board with the importance of staying sharp. I encourage you to remain committed to your saw.

The other six of Covey's habits are divided into two groups. The first three habits are what Covey calls “Private victories.” And, the second three are “Public victories.”

It is Covey's contention that we must win the private battles before we engage with the public. Covey's first habit is “Be Proactive.” Most people operate reactively. Meaning, we respond to event that have already happened.

Being reactive is sometimes necessary. However, you do not react to your goals and mission. In order to truly effective, you need to be proactive.

This is a concept that directly applies to entrepreneurship. As I constantly repeat, successful entrepreneurs are salespeople. And, a salesperson has three main jobs: prospect, present, and close.

Prospecting for gold requires a river and a pan. But, prospecting for new business means getting attention. And, getting attention is nothing if it is not proactive.

Getting attention, prospecting, whatever you want to call it, we are talking about self-promotion. Grant Cardone is a gentleman who doing a pretty good job of promoting self-promotion. Specifically, Cardone recommends cold-calling and I agree. Grant says that strangers have everything you want.

Cardone comes out of the car business which, I believe, has strongly influenced his approach. The car business is very tough, and you must work extremely hard, a message Grant promotes.

Cardone is also full of in-your-face bravado. If you are willing to cope with his machismo, Grant is spreading a good and important word. But, make no mistake about it, self-promotion is for every entrepreneur.

Donald Trump has dominated the news coverage, of the primary process, with his ability to get attention. One trick, used by Trump, was to give away Senator Lindsey Graham's cell phone number. In turn, Graham tried to leverage the spotlight by producing this video.

Forget politics, let's say you run a not-for-profit. One thing I promise is, if you wish to achieve your mission, you will need to self-promote. Spreading the good word, about your cause, is the essence of self-promotion.

Another example I like is AG Lafley. Lafley had a very successful tenure, as CEO of Procter & Gamble, that lasted about a decade. AG is one smart dude. And, he met another very smart dude, Peter Drucker, by cold-calling him.

What am I saying? I am saying that the cold-call, far from being obsolete, is for every astute businessperson and entrepreneur. I mean, let's keep it real, if you are reading this post, there is a good chance that I cold-called YOU. Let me give you one last example.

Though they have struggled in recent years, Xerox has been known for its world-class training program. Back in the late 1970s a guy by the name of Howard Schultz worked for Xerox.

Schultz would knock on fifty doors, per day, in midtown Manhattan. And, Howard once said, “Cold-calling was great training for business.” Of course, we all know Schultz as the man who brought us Starbucks coffee.

I really want to beat on the drum of this idea of being proactive. It is, of course, Covey's first habit. Beyond that, it is vitally important. In fact, I believe that it is impossible to be a successful entrepreneur without being proactive.

By definition the entrepreneurs are the change agents of society. As we all know, the only constant is change. Instead of apathy, instead of waiting, entrepreneurs go out and make change happen. Entrepreneurs are the very embodiment of proactivity. Because, just as Drucker has told us, the only way to predict the future is to create it.

The Power of Effectiveness

This blog is titled, “On Effectiveness and Entrepreneurship,” two long and important words. These are two words that I am constantly reflecting on. Effectiveness may not be the most sexy word in the world. But, its byproducts are super sexy.

We are a country that is obsessed with success. Which is not a terrible idea. However, I believe a focus on success misses the point.

The difference between success and effectiveness is very subtle. Indeed, drawing such a distinction may seem artificial. It may seem to make no difference. But, there is a difference.

Success is a subjective, value-laden idea. What you define as success may be very different from what the next person thinks. In turn, it is very hard to have a discussion when people do not even agree on definitions.

For all of is lack of sex appeal, the word effectiveness is something we can agree on. Merriam-Webster defines effectiveness as, “The power to produce a desired result.”

Effectiveness is value-neutral. Meaning, the result you desire is completely up to you. And, whatever that result is, I support you in achieving it.

To produce/achieve your desired result, effectiveness is how you will get there. I strongly believe effectiveness is a sexy and important word.

The other day I pulled out my copy of Stephen Covey's seminal book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I first read Covey's work about ten years ago and it had a profound effect on me.

Any reader of this blog must know that I am a huge fan of Peter Drucker. What you may, or may not, know is that Covey himself was a loyal disciple of Drucker. So, not surprisingly, The 7 Habits forever changed the way I look at things.

Going forward I want to spend some time discussing Covey's seven habits. For obvious reasons, I will connect effectiveness to entrepreneurship. As we hopefully agree, entrepreneurship is not the end-all-be-all. But, it does provide the opportunity to give useful examples.

In my next post, I will discuss Covey's first habit. To Covey's way of thinking we must first win private victories before we can win public victories. Stated differently, the first three habits are private/personal. And, the second three habits are public, meaning they involve other people. In case you are a stickler, the seventh habit is universal.

Stephen Covey's first habit is, “Be Proactive,” an idea that sounds so simple as to be mundane. However, the more I reflect on the idea of being proactive, the more I realize how far it is from the mundane.

I will get into it next time. For now, I would encourage you to contemplate what it means to be proactive.