Miscellaneous Briefs

How to Fix Your Business in Seven Days

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Your business is struggling. You are not sure what the problem is. Everything you look at is okay, but not great.

You have made suggestions in the past, some of which have been followed, others ignored. There has been some improvement here and there but nothing substantial. You know what it feels like when your business is in a groove. Your business is not in a groove.

What do you do?

Here’s an idea I got from John Forde, the copywriter, with some post-conversation embellishments of my own.

John’s idea is to makeover you business in seven days. John points out that there is genius in limiting the change to 7 days because it forces you to pay close attention to the most important things.

The model for the 7 day business, John suggested, are the reality shows where some expert comes into some situation – a house in need of repair, a love affair gone wrong, a hair saloon in decline – and fixes it.

I thought it would be fun to explain this idea using one such show I’ve seen and enjoy: Hell’s Kitchen – in which Gordon Ramsay, the celebrity chef, spends a week in a troubled restaurant and completely revamps the place in that short amount time. Then do the same thing with your business.

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Miscellaneous Briefs

Boost Your Productivity by Cloning Yourself

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In some way or at some time every business is limited by the limitations of the man who started it.

For many businesses the problem is that the entrepreneur feels that he has to micromanage everything, even when he knows the business has grown too big for him to do it. By making it necessary for all decisions to continue to go through him, he creates a constant bottleneck.

Other businesses are stalled because they are built around the talent or skill of the top man. These businesses stop growing when the boss can’t do any more than he is already doing.

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Miscellaneous Briefs

Descartes and Spinoza

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Descartes was a clever fool who did great damage to the understanding of the human experience.

I am talking about his distinction between mind and body. Spinoza’s view – that the two are the same – was correct. Neurobiologists understand this. But most of the population does not.

Miscellaneous Briefs

Zen Wisdom in 10 Lessons

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(Collected from friends)

1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much leave me the hell alone.

2. It’s always darkest before dawn. So if you’re going to steal your neighbor’s newspaper, that’s the time to do it.

4. Always remember that you are unique. Just like everyone else.

6. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

7. If you think nobody cares if you’re alive, try missing a couple of car payments.

8. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in his shoes.
That way, when you criticize him, you’re already a mile away from him and you have his shoes.

9. If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you.

10. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

Miscellaneous Briefs

Superstars and Thoroughbreds

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There is nothing that will change your business faster than getting a superstar to work for you. A superstar is someone who comes with his own high-powered battery pack fueled by nothing more than the desire to be your best performer.

Finding them takes work. Lots of work. You have to sift through a hundred wannabes to find a true superstar.

Hiring them is easy if you show them that you recognize their potential. Give them base compensation that is slightly better than industry standard and performance compensation that can make them rich. The most important thing a superstar wants in his job is the authority and tools to accomplish his goals.

Make sure, in hiring him, that he has what he needs.

Managing the superstar takes skill and patience. Superstars are like great thoroughbreds. They need to be well fed, shod, and cared for to be at their best. But they also need a lot of exercise and a good, lightweight jockey to steer them now and then.

And finally this: When your thoroughbred fails to win the race, change the jockey… don’t kill the horse.

 

Miscellaneous Briefs

The Three Most Important Numbers

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I don’t know if there is a formal study of the history of numbers and their importance in culture, but if there is there is no doubt that scholars have found that the three most important (and powerful numbers) are one, two and three.

  • One for unity.
  • Two for duality: (two eyes, two ears, two arms, two legs, etc.)
  • Three represents everything else

Religious leaders and some philosophers and scientists like to search for the One. The one god. The one truth. The one unifying theory of whatever.

Naturalists – those who observe nature – have noticed that most things in nature come in twos: two eyes, ears, arms. Two energetic impulses, etc.

Mystics – people who can’t figure out what to make of anything – focus on three – the divinity.

Miscellaneous Briefs

The End of Privacy Is Near.

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John Hurt in "1984"

Communications technology made it inevitable. Human nature – which wants to out the truth – demands it. Charles Bukowsky, Lenny Bruce and Howard Stern prepared us for it. And economics makes it profitable. The public has an insatiable desire to inspect the most intimate details of their fellow creatures. And the media is giving it to them – with the rise of the paparazzi and reality shows, etc. Even when we are outraged by the media’s reach, we cannot stop looking. The Rupert Murdoch fiasco will not stop reporters from using technological tools to invade private lives. The backlash against Murdoch’s papers will only force the media to hide their tactics for a while. Tools that invade privacy are like steroids for news agencies. They will be necessary if you want to compete.

Miscellaneous Briefs

9 Ways to Beat Depression

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  • Count your blessings. Literally. Write them down. Read them aloud.
  • Do NOT complain about your problems.
  • Take a walk, swim or bike ride.
  • Realize what is external and what is internal-write it down and see the reality.
  • Do one thing that is important but not urgent, like play the piano.
  • If tasks overwhelm you, write them down and do one of them. That is important-even if you only spend 15 minutes doing it.
  • Smile 25 times in a mirror
  • Imagine your funeral. Imagine what you want people to be saying about you. Start doing the things you want to be remembered for.
  • Do something kind or beneficial for someone else.
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