Archive for March, 2006

Picture a boat on a lake gliding along. Behind it is an ever increasing wake, spreading out from side to side. Is the wake smooth or is it choppy and rough? Is there a water skier riding the top of the wake smiling and happy or is it so choppy that he falls into the water. For Dr. Henry Cloud, an author, clinical psychologist and corporate consultant, this “wake” is an example of our lives as we sail through our jobs at work. Do we leave a smooth wake of finished tasks on one side and a wake of good personal relationships on the other or is our path leaving something different… something choppy and rough causing others around us pain and agony.

“Integrity” is Dr. Clouds latest book and it is profound. This is a book that will open your eyes with it’s simple premise and let you dig deep into the real meaning of integrity. The French and Latin meanings of the word hint at its origins, “that the whole thing is working well, undivided, integrated, intact and uncorrupted.” According to Cloud, achieving this “wholeness” requires the development of six character traits…

1. Creates trust
2. Unafraid of reality
3. Results-oriented
4. Solves “negative realities”
5. Causes growth
6. Finds meaning in life

I picked up this book in Audio format and have been listening to it as part of my “MBA on the Run” program. This program is like a bottle of Windex, clearing away the cloudy grime and letting you see clearly what true integrity really is. In Audio format the book runs for five hours and my first listen was over 90 minutes. I started listening on my usual two mile evening walk but found it so compelling that I made three loops.

Dr Cloud uses business experiences of his CEO friends and clients and stories like Proctor and Gamble’s success in China to illustrate each character trait. What each of his stories has in common is how success, often great success across multiple fields, is fueled by openness, honesty to one’s self and to others, and a “true trust,” which is truly borne out of someone’s goodness and not dependent on anything.

The book helps you come to grips with adversity, learn from it and reshape life patterns that will help you succeed. Over the next week we’ll take a look a each one of the six traits and explore how we can build on each one to become more successful in our everyday lives.

Over the last two weeks I have been enjoying some new audio books as part of the MBA on the Run program. It has been interesting to listen on my Ipod to the best in the business talk about marketing, advertising, and financial concepts while walking through local business districts. Earlier this week I walked through Old Town Temecula at lunch while listening to Seth Godin’s new book, “All Marketers Are Liars”.

The concept of Seth’s book is that businesses need to tell compelling stories to be successful in the new millennium. No longer are facts and figures enough… businesses must tell authentic stories to their customers. This was profound. Almost all of the shops and businesses in Old Town are unique. Each one should be telling a unique story… but they were not. All I saw was facts and figures strewn out around the landscape.

Many signs said “antiques and collectibles” while others said candy and others said hamburgers. As I was walking I found myself hungry and thirsty. I wanted something different to eat. After all I was in old town and there was no fast food joints to compel me to come in. All I saw was “facts” such as hamburgers, sodas, Mexican food etc. No one was telling me a story. No one was compelling me to come in and have lunch.

If a sign had said “delicious” hamburgers or “hand rolled” tortillas or even “worlds best” pastrami I would have been in there in a minute. There was no story… no reason to even come in. I walked past a Mexican Restaurant that I know has the best Carne Asada in Riverside county.. the only sign outside was one stating it was a cantina. Why don’t they tell everyone driving by that they have “melt in your mouth” carne asada, “warm fresh” tortillas and a “signature” salsa?

I continued walking down the one mile Old Town Strip looking for anybody to compel me to come in. Someone to offer me something that I couldn’t get at McDonalds or Burger King. I reached the other end of town, crossed the street and headed back the other direction. Seth’s words were playing in my ears and I became increasingly aware why most of the businesses were empty on a weekday. This town didn’t have a compelling story… It really didn’t have much of a story at all. It was just different… and different wasn’t necessarily enough to get my business.

Seth’s book really came alive as I continued to walk. The marketing ideas of most of these businesses were as old as the adobe on the buildings. Just like Joe Friday… Just the facts ma’m. I continued to walk and I soon reached the other end of town. I had seen some interesting adjectives in front of business names such as “mad” or “sweet” but nothing as far as the food or drink.

As crazy as it may sound I ended up eating lunch at the new Starbuck’s at the end of town. Many people have told me a compelling story about Starbuck’s sandwiches and I just had to try one. This new Starbucks is in a historic building but their marketing is legendary. Starbucks had a huge crowd and I found it somewhat sad that nobody else in this unique business district was telling much of a story. At least for a visitor walking through town.

I received an interesting comment on my last post, “Never Blog Alone“. It was from fellow blogger Phi and it related to his experiments with polyphasic sleeping. Phi states that he has had great results with a core three hour sleep period followed by three strategically placed 20 minute naps throughout the day. This relates well to my experiments with “Qudraphasic sleeping“, where the day is broken down into 4 quadrants and includes a long sleep period and two naps. The difference can be seen in the 24 hour graphs below where green is sleep time.

I really like Phi’s modified schedule. It provides the 3 hour core sleep containing two 90 minute REM sleep cycles along with only three naps. The great thing is you will only need to take one nap during the average 8 hour workday which can be done at lunch. This schedule would work for the average worker whereas the traditional polyphasic schedule would have you napping two or three times during an average 8 hour workday.

As you can see from the graph it is identical to a quadraphasic pattern with the addition of 3 to 4 hours of productive “awake” time. I have tested this in the past when I have had a big project due and it works for me in the short term. It will be interesting to keep up with Phi and see how it works for him long term. He has reached his 30 day milestone with no ill effects so it sounds promising.

Phi mentions that to make this work he has dropped caffeine from his diet and is eating healthier meals. In my experience I have found that “low glycemic” meals of 500 calories or less along with similar snacks are the best when following a modified sleep schedule since they will keep blood sugar levels constant.

Check out Phi’s post here.

I picked up the book “Never Eat Alone”, by Keith Ferrazzi a while back on a recommendation by Dwayne Melancon over at Genuine Curiosity. The book’s premise is to build a lifelong community of colleagues, contacts, friends and mentors. The author gives many examples of building relationships that can have a great impact on your job, business, and personal life. This will be a great addition to my “MBA on the Run” program over the coming months as it gives an interesting perspective on networking.

One of the sections that stood out I think can apply to many areas of life. The following excerpt is profound…

Make a list of the things you are most passionate about. Use you passions as a guide to which activities and events you should be seeking out. Use them to engage new and old contacts. If you love baseball, for example, take potential and current clients to a ballgame. It doesn’t matter what you do, only that it is something you love doing.

This is great advice and it plays especially well with blogging. I’ve met so many interesting people through blogs that share many of my own interests. The blogs often complement my own views and sometimes challenge them. I have found that when posting an article it is a great practice to link to other blogs with similar themes and ideas. This way the reader can get a broader viewpoint and find additional content that will make the subject come alive.

I would like to share a few of my favorite blogs and the subjects they cover.

Great Attitude: I think one of the keys to enjoying life and building relationships with others is to have a positive and proactive attitude. This is so important in business where the proper outlook can make all the difference. Two blogs come to mind that exemplify a great attitude. They are Phil Gerbyshak’s, “Make it Great” and Troy Worman’s, “Orbit Now“. If you are looking for a daily motivator, link up to a feed from these sites. As Troy states, “Don’t wait for permission to succeed!”

Management: Working with people on the job can be one of the greatest challenges of life. Especially if you find yourself playing a management role. The following blogs can make all the difference in helping you craft a positive and nurturing relationship with co-workers. Rosa Say and Lisa Haneburg both have exemplary blogs about the subject of management and business leadership. Rosa adds the Hawaiian Spirit of Aloha while Lisa adds High Impact to her presentations. Great stuff!

Life Administration: Are you looking for the latest tip to make your life easier? Check out Merlin Mann’s, “43 Folders“. His Getting Things Done focus is helpful and his writing style adds humor and interest. Lifehacker and Lifehack.org offer a daily assortment of tips and tricks on everything from computer maintenance to movie reviews. Always interesting and entertaining!

Sleep Hacks: I’ve been doing some personal experiments with napping and diet and have had some interesting results. I have been keeping up with Steve Pavlina and Jacob Cazzell as they write about their experiences with different sleep hacks. Steve’s polyphasic sleeping adventures have been amazing and I realize that I could never follow the routine. Jacob’s route has been interesting as he has written about what works and what doesn’t on a daily basis. Interesting stuff.

Creative Stuff: Looking for some great ideas to get you fired up for the week? Check out Genuine Curiosity and Slacker Manager. Dwayne and Bren always have new and interesting posts about a wide variety of subjects. Dwayne has a great post today about putting goals on your computer screen. I’m going to take his idea and put the habits from my 12 habits program up on the screen. Great reminders. Bren’s post today about the “Digital Hierarchy of Needs” is a must read.

There are many other sites that I visit for inspiration on a regular basis. Blogs offer a great interactive conversation without leaving the comfort of your computer chair.

Just remember..

When posting… Never Blog Alone!

Have you ever been in a long line waiting to get someplace only to find out at the end you were in the wrong line? I had that experience over the weekend. My wife and I attended the NASCAR race over the weekend at LV Motor Speedway. There were over 175,000 people in attendance and everyone wanted to get out when the race was over. We knew it would take a while exit since we had been to the Busch race on Saturday, which took about 90 minutes to get to the freeway.

The 15 Freeway is the major artery for entry and exit to the track and this section of road is only two lanes. Add 175,000 people and you have a standstill. On Sunday we lined up a different way to get out of the track. We were in a line that was headed North out of the parking lot and you could see it led right up to the freeway. The line was three cars wide and moved slowly along.

When we finally got up to the exit of the track the line curved to the right along a frontage road. All of a sudden we were circling back around the track. The line crept along at a snails pace but we finally made it to the exit on the other side of the track. We could see the main street ahead but a strange thing happened. Instead of being able to turn right and head back to town, all of the exiting traffic had to turn left.

Here we were in the middle of the desert heading in a line that went on forever. It turns out that the access road went for six miles North and finally ended up on the 15 freeway, six miles above the track. We now had to go six miles south to just get back where we started. This was unbelievable! It took over 5 hours to get back to our hotel which was less than 10 miles from the track!

A precept of Steven Covey came to mind as we started and stopped in the middle of nowhere. “Begin with the end in mind”, played over and over in my head. How could I be so blind as to end up in this crazy line? After all, all these thousands of people were doing the same thing! How could so many people be so blind? If I had just asked somebody where the line went I would have never got in it. I would have exited out the south entrance just like we did on Saturday.

Following the crowd can be a dangerous thing. Unless you know the destination, the crowd can lead you places that you would never go on your own. When we examine the life roads that we are on we really need to know where we are going. We need a roadmap, directions, and a guide.

Do you have a roadmap for your life?

Have you sat down and planned out your destination?

Do you have written goals or are you just following the crowd???

Endlessly into the darkness…

Something to think about…

I spent this last weekend in Las Vegas, the home of glitz, glamour, and gambling. My wife and I came up for the NASCAR race and I was amazed at the dichotomy of the city. We stayed in North Las Vegas so we would be closer to the Speedway. All around our very nice Hotel/Casino was abject poverty. How could this be, I wondered? As we drove out of the driveway the shining lights quickly dimmed and graffitti and decrepit buildings surrounded us.

As the hotel became a distant speck in the rear view mirror a huge billboard anounced “Strike it Rich”. The next billboard announced “paycheck advance” and I noticed a congregation of homeless people underneath. How could this town that rakes in billions of dollars have so much poverty? We drove down the strip later that night and the lights and glitz were unbelievable. It seemed that the rich were getting richer and the poor were getting poorer.

When we arrived back at our hotel later that night we walked through the casino. The noise of the machines and the blue haze of the smoke made a somewhat eerie sight. Here was the largest congregation of people on Oxygen I had ever seen… many of them still smoking. The flashing lights declared large sums of money up for grabs… just put some pennies, nickels, and dimes in the machines. There was something new this visit… service charges on everything. There was a $4.95 daily service fee for the hotel. If you wanted money from the instant teller the service charge was $3.50. There was a city tax on the meals… this wasn’t the low cost town it used to be.

I sat down at a penny machine for the fun of it and put in five dollars. I was able to play for about 15 minutes but soon the money was gone. The couple down the aisle were arguing over a small payoff and it seemed to get pretty serious over 5 or 10 dollars. Here right in front of me was the promise of big riches. Just put in another five dollars… or better yet how about a twenty? The lights flashed and the progressive payout sign declared I could win $150,000 on the very machine I was just playing… I reached into my wallet and grabbed a twenty. I was just getting ready to put it in when the fighting couple got really loud.

I decided to move and I realized that what was entertainment to me was awful serious business for others. It was obvious that this fighting couple’s payout was the last money they had. One person wanted to keep playing and the other wanted dinner… I’m not sure who won out. After seeing this little spectacle play out in front of my eyes the thought of “investing” more money quickly diminished. It was obvious that behind the glitz and glamour, this town had some serious problems.

When I got home I opened my home page and the daily scripture verse caught my attention. It was Proverbs 11:24 and 25

24. Some people give much but get back even more. Others don’t give what they should and end up poor.

25. Whoever gives to others will get richer; those who help others will themselves be helped.

I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if many of the regulars you find in Las Vegas would take the no-return route. Instead of putting money in a machine… what if they gave money to the poor and needy? What if they gave this “recreational” money to others without expecting anything back?

What would happen?

What if they wrote a check for job training for a needy person?

What if they provided a hot meal for a homeless person?

What if they bought a computer for a poor student who couldn’t afford one?

Many people set a limit of $20, $100, or even $500 on each trip to Vegas…

What would happen if they took the no-return path?

 What would the payoff be?