Post 322 - Innovation and imagination can be spurred on by many things, including laziness, as in the story of the farmer and his wife sitting by the fire one evening. The wife said, ”Tom, I think it’s raining. Can you go outside and see?” The farmer, who was very comfortable where he was, thought for a second, then replied, “Why don’t we just call the dog in and see if she’s wet?”
Risk taking, however, is a key component of innovation and you can't expect to always be right in your choices. “The better a man is, the more mistakes he will make, for the more new things he will try,” according to Peter Drucker.
Taking risks involves making intelligent mistakes. Occasional failure is the price of improvement. Think of learning as a stabilizer in times of change. It takes a certain amount of counter-evidence to challenge old behaviors, and it takes further efforts to unfreeze these behaviors, delete obsolete theories, and replace them with new ones. Learning and unlearning are complimentary capabilities and people need to use both of them simultaneously, especially in rapidly changing environments. We learn nothing from the things we already know. But we can learn from the mistakes of others - you can never live long enough to make all the mistakes yourself.
I believe there are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is an experimental process of trial and error. The failed experiments are as much a part of the process as those that ultimately work. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you've learned it. And after you've learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson. There's no part of life that doesn’t have its lessons. As long as you’re alive, there are lessons to be learned - the learning never ends. As Karl Popper writes in Conjectures and Refutations, “Our aim must be to make our successive mistakes as quickly as possible.”
Carroll O’Connor, the legendary “Archie Bunker” of TV fame once said, “Professional acting has a kind of tension. The amateur is thrown by it but the professional needs it.” Like a wind-up clock, the professional can't really tick without some tension. When Steve Ross ran MTV, he had a wonderful philosophy - that people got fired for not making mistakes. While solutions reached by rational means may not be the right ones, at least you can backtrack and try to find where you took a wrong turn. Rational thinking doesn’t guarantee wisdom of thought anymore, just transparency.
In most organizations today, knowledge is scattered, hard to find, and prone to disappear without a trace. The Nobel prize winning economist, F. A. Hayek, in an essay on the use of knowledge in society, wrote that, “the knowledge ... we must make use of never exists in concentrated or integrated form, but solely as the dispersed bits of incomplete and frequently contradictory knowledge which all the separate individuals possess.” Traditionally, finding solutions to problems focused on finding the right answer. But, in many cases today, there's no single answer. Rather, there are many often inconsistent and competing answers, none of which has a unique claim to validity. So, risk taking is inevitable in finding the best route forward ... and the most risky route is to try and do it all by yourself.
I'll end this post with a quote from Martin Luther to use as a mantra for moving forward: “Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.”
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
How entrepreneurs foster innovation.
Post 321 - Judging by Federico Faggin's outline for introducing innovation which I posted yesterday, the current confusion over health care reform reflects a process that lacks a clearly crystallized central idea and is thus active in all the stages Fagin mentioned at the same time. Hopefully, the president's address tonight will bring a better focus to the national discussion.
I think it's a pity we don't have more people with entrepreneurial experience in government these days instead of so many full-time political bureaucrats. Why? Because entrepreneurs have energy, vision, selling skills and hustle. They've an innate ability to compartmentalize their fears and doubts. They've the drive to put their imprint on whatever they create and they're comfortable with ambiguity and lack of clarity. More than anything, they want to use their skills and abilities, be independent, have contol over their lives and build for their families. They believe in what they’re doing with a passion that overcomes doubt. They believe that if you want to be successful, don’t make a wish, make a call.
Andy Grove of Intel says that learning to adjust in today’s environment is like driving in a fog behind another car. It’s easy going as long as you have the other car’s tail lights to guide you. But when the leading car turns off the road, you’re suddenly stuck without the confidence that comes from finding your own way. Followers have little future. You mustn’t let your strengths become your weaknesses. Focus on inventing the future rather than sprucing up the past.
If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more. The cost of delay exceeds the cost of mistakes. Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be first overcome. Progress always involves risk. You can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first at the same time. "Some things arrive on their own mysterious hour, on their own terms and not yours, to be seized or relinquished for ever,” according to the writer, Gail Goodwin, who also reminds us that the turtle only wins the race in fairy tales.
Creativity is all about connecting things. Creative people don’t really do something different - rather they see something that just seems simple and obvious to them. That’s because they can connect their experiences and use them to synthesize new points of view. They can do this because they have more experiences or they think more about their experiences than other people. Unfortunately, that’s a rare commodity. People who haven’t had very diverse experiences don’t have enough dots to connect, so they're unable to think systemically. As a result, they end up with very linear solutions because they don’t have a broad perspective on their problems.
A poet must embrace many tasks, not the least of which is making all the parts of the poem fit together. The biggest challenge is not just to create an exquisite turn of phrase but to be true to the essence of the poem as a whole. Systems thinking is an understanding of the connectedness of different parts of an entity to one another and to its environment. System thinking makes the full pattern of change clearer. When you’re deep in a hole, all you can see is the edge. However, the view from the mountain top is very different.
Stanislaw Lec's observation is still true today: “Many of those who were ahead of their time had to wait for it in uncomfortable quarters.”
I think it's a pity we don't have more people with entrepreneurial experience in government these days instead of so many full-time political bureaucrats. Why? Because entrepreneurs have energy, vision, selling skills and hustle. They've an innate ability to compartmentalize their fears and doubts. They've the drive to put their imprint on whatever they create and they're comfortable with ambiguity and lack of clarity. More than anything, they want to use their skills and abilities, be independent, have contol over their lives and build for their families. They believe in what they’re doing with a passion that overcomes doubt. They believe that if you want to be successful, don’t make a wish, make a call.
Andy Grove of Intel says that learning to adjust in today’s environment is like driving in a fog behind another car. It’s easy going as long as you have the other car’s tail lights to guide you. But when the leading car turns off the road, you’re suddenly stuck without the confidence that comes from finding your own way. Followers have little future. You mustn’t let your strengths become your weaknesses. Focus on inventing the future rather than sprucing up the past.
If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more. The cost of delay exceeds the cost of mistakes. Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be first overcome. Progress always involves risk. You can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first at the same time. "Some things arrive on their own mysterious hour, on their own terms and not yours, to be seized or relinquished for ever,” according to the writer, Gail Goodwin, who also reminds us that the turtle only wins the race in fairy tales.
Creativity is all about connecting things. Creative people don’t really do something different - rather they see something that just seems simple and obvious to them. That’s because they can connect their experiences and use them to synthesize new points of view. They can do this because they have more experiences or they think more about their experiences than other people. Unfortunately, that’s a rare commodity. People who haven’t had very diverse experiences don’t have enough dots to connect, so they're unable to think systemically. As a result, they end up with very linear solutions because they don’t have a broad perspective on their problems.
A poet must embrace many tasks, not the least of which is making all the parts of the poem fit together. The biggest challenge is not just to create an exquisite turn of phrase but to be true to the essence of the poem as a whole. Systems thinking is an understanding of the connectedness of different parts of an entity to one another and to its environment. System thinking makes the full pattern of change clearer. When you’re deep in a hole, all you can see is the edge. However, the view from the mountain top is very different.
Stanislaw Lec's observation is still true today: “Many of those who were ahead of their time had to wait for it in uncomfortable quarters.”
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
How to create innovation.
Post 320 - Listening to the arguments over health care reform started me thinking about how little seems to be understood about how to create innovation.
For hundreds of years, people thought that the breaststroke was the fastest way to swim, although the way the swimmer’s arms recovered underwater was really inefficient. Then, in the 1850s, some competitive swimmers noticed that Native Americans and Australian aborigines used a stroke with an out-of-the-water, over-arm recovery and began to experiment with the new stroke - a key innovation. They found they had to find a new kick to go along with this new way of swimming, and about the turn of the century, the flutter kick was perfected - a second important innovation. Since then, there have been a large number of small improvements in the crawl stroke, such as rotating side to side rather than swimming flat in the water. Even today, there’s still room for discovery and improvement. A combination of breakthrough innovation and small, incremental improvements - both were important in the development of modern swimming.
Federico Faggin, who invented the first 4-bit microprocessor at Intel in the early seventies, describes the creative process as follows:
The creative process starts with a soup of ideas made up of our own experiences, what we’ve learned from others we know or work with, and ideas we’ve picked up from the media. The first phase is the crystallization of an idea, the 'aha' phase, where we find the conceptual blueprint for a new product or process.
Next, the essence of the idea emerges. It becomes crisp, clear, and real, and is made to work.
The third stage involves introducing the new idea in the real world. This is the most critical stage because here, reactions are generally hostile. Some opposition comes from those who fail to understand the significance of the innovation, some comes from those who are threatened by changes in the status quo, and some comes from those with competing ideas.
But the main problem with new ideas is that they’re different. When something is new, people wonder how it’s going to fit into the old. They’re bogged down in the metaphors of the old and can’t understand something new that’s outside their current experience. They don’t know how to integrate new messages into familiar patterns of thinking and behavior. It takes tremendous self-confidence and persistence to win acceptance for new ideas. And because some of the inevitable criticism will probably be well founded, it takes honesty and pragmatism to know when an idea should be modified or abandoned.
The next phase is one of endorsement, where champions emerge to help the pioneers by lending their credibility to the new idea and giving it visibility. This acceptance triggers the acknowledgment phase during which the idea is widely adopted and used. The inventor gets public recognition and a star is born. Next comes the stage of invisibility, where the idea is no longer considered new and becomes part of the normal fabric of society.
New ideas are most readily received by those in new situations who have something they want to get done, have few preconceived ideas about the right or normal way to do it, and have little to lose by adopting the new. Victor Hugo said, “There’s nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” Unfortunately, most people begin to realize the time has come only long after it’s arrived.
“The search for static security - in the law and elsewhere – is misguided. The fact is security can only be achieved through constant change, through discarding old ideas that have outlived their usefulness and adapting others to current facts.” - William O.Douglas.
For hundreds of years, people thought that the breaststroke was the fastest way to swim, although the way the swimmer’s arms recovered underwater was really inefficient. Then, in the 1850s, some competitive swimmers noticed that Native Americans and Australian aborigines used a stroke with an out-of-the-water, over-arm recovery and began to experiment with the new stroke - a key innovation. They found they had to find a new kick to go along with this new way of swimming, and about the turn of the century, the flutter kick was perfected - a second important innovation. Since then, there have been a large number of small improvements in the crawl stroke, such as rotating side to side rather than swimming flat in the water. Even today, there’s still room for discovery and improvement. A combination of breakthrough innovation and small, incremental improvements - both were important in the development of modern swimming.
Federico Faggin, who invented the first 4-bit microprocessor at Intel in the early seventies, describes the creative process as follows:
The creative process starts with a soup of ideas made up of our own experiences, what we’ve learned from others we know or work with, and ideas we’ve picked up from the media. The first phase is the crystallization of an idea, the 'aha' phase, where we find the conceptual blueprint for a new product or process.
Next, the essence of the idea emerges. It becomes crisp, clear, and real, and is made to work.
The third stage involves introducing the new idea in the real world. This is the most critical stage because here, reactions are generally hostile. Some opposition comes from those who fail to understand the significance of the innovation, some comes from those who are threatened by changes in the status quo, and some comes from those with competing ideas.
But the main problem with new ideas is that they’re different. When something is new, people wonder how it’s going to fit into the old. They’re bogged down in the metaphors of the old and can’t understand something new that’s outside their current experience. They don’t know how to integrate new messages into familiar patterns of thinking and behavior. It takes tremendous self-confidence and persistence to win acceptance for new ideas. And because some of the inevitable criticism will probably be well founded, it takes honesty and pragmatism to know when an idea should be modified or abandoned.
The next phase is one of endorsement, where champions emerge to help the pioneers by lending their credibility to the new idea and giving it visibility. This acceptance triggers the acknowledgment phase during which the idea is widely adopted and used. The inventor gets public recognition and a star is born. Next comes the stage of invisibility, where the idea is no longer considered new and becomes part of the normal fabric of society.
New ideas are most readily received by those in new situations who have something they want to get done, have few preconceived ideas about the right or normal way to do it, and have little to lose by adopting the new. Victor Hugo said, “There’s nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” Unfortunately, most people begin to realize the time has come only long after it’s arrived.
“The search for static security - in the law and elsewhere – is misguided. The fact is security can only be achieved through constant change, through discarding old ideas that have outlived their usefulness and adapting others to current facts.” - William O.Douglas.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Digging, a poem by Seamus Heaney.
Post 319 - My old college friend, Loman Conway, reminded me the other day that I‘ve neglected to feature Seamus Heaney in my poetry posts – and that’s indeed a significant omission. Robert Lowell called Heaney "the most important Irish poet since Yeats."
Heaney was born and grew up near Castledawson in County Derry, Northern Ireland and now divides his time between Dublin and Glanmore in County Wicklow. He was Professor of Poetry at Oxford and for many years taught at Harvard University. His writings, lectures and readings have made him one of the most popular and admired writers of our time. He’s a member of Aosdana, an association of people in Ireland who have achieved distinction in the arts. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995 "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past."
One of the things that endears him to so many people is that he’s never lost touch with his South Derry roots. Heaney says, "If you have a strong first world and a strong set of relationships, then in some part of you, you’re always free, you can walk the world because you know where you belong, you have some place to come back to."
Digging by Seamus Heaney
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; as snug as a gun.
Under my window a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down
Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.
The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.
By God, the old man could handle a spade,
Just like his old man.
My grandfather could cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner's bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, digging down and down
For the good turf. Digging.
The cold smell of potato mold, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I've no spade to follow men like them.
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I'll dig with it.
Heaney was born and grew up near Castledawson in County Derry, Northern Ireland and now divides his time between Dublin and Glanmore in County Wicklow. He was Professor of Poetry at Oxford and for many years taught at Harvard University. His writings, lectures and readings have made him one of the most popular and admired writers of our time. He’s a member of Aosdana, an association of people in Ireland who have achieved distinction in the arts. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995 "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past."
One of the things that endears him to so many people is that he’s never lost touch with his South Derry roots. Heaney says, "If you have a strong first world and a strong set of relationships, then in some part of you, you’re always free, you can walk the world because you know where you belong, you have some place to come back to."
Digging by Seamus Heaney
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; as snug as a gun.
Under my window a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down
Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.
The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.
By God, the old man could handle a spade,
Just like his old man.
My grandfather could cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner's bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, digging down and down
For the good turf. Digging.
The cold smell of potato mold, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I've no spade to follow men like them.
Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I'll dig with it.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
How excellent managers deal with change.
Post 318
As a follow-up to yesterday's post, here's some of the things I've found excellent managers do to deal with change:
• They're clear and focused on the change they want to make happen
• They make sure everyone involved knows why it's necessary to change, and the consequences of success or failure
• They talk about change in terms of specific outcomes to be achieved by a certain date, not in terms of the processes that will be used to get there
• They quantify these outcomes, then measure and share actual progress being made on a constant basis
• They make corrections quickly when change efforts start to go off-course
• They're excellent communicators and great listeners
• When they get feedback, they don't shoot the messengers
• They stay in close touch with all their constituencies and stakeholders
• They meet face-to-face with them regularly and ask for their input
• They know what other people are listening for
• They don't hesitate to do what needs to be done, even when it's uncertain or uncomfortable to do so
• They're decisive and make quick, unambiguous decisions
• They're clear about what to decide themselves and what to delegate to others
• They involve others in contributing ideas about how changes should be implemented
• They're tough taskmasters, who are firm but fair and insist on accountability
• They're not afraid of confrontation
• They're honest, open and consistent in their dealings with others
• They're insistent and impatient about moving forward into new territory
• They're not afraid of failure and view it as an opportunity to learn and start over more intelligently
• They see change as the normal state of the world and view stability as an exception
• They view change as a way to get a competitive advantage over competitors
• They're always on the lookout for new ideas and better ways to doing business, yet they're humble enough to know they don't always have all the answers themselves.
As a follow-up to yesterday's post, here's some of the things I've found excellent managers do to deal with change:
• They're clear and focused on the change they want to make happen
• They make sure everyone involved knows why it's necessary to change, and the consequences of success or failure
• They talk about change in terms of specific outcomes to be achieved by a certain date, not in terms of the processes that will be used to get there
• They quantify these outcomes, then measure and share actual progress being made on a constant basis
• They make corrections quickly when change efforts start to go off-course
• They're excellent communicators and great listeners
• When they get feedback, they don't shoot the messengers
• They stay in close touch with all their constituencies and stakeholders
• They meet face-to-face with them regularly and ask for their input
• They know what other people are listening for
• They don't hesitate to do what needs to be done, even when it's uncertain or uncomfortable to do so
• They're decisive and make quick, unambiguous decisions
• They're clear about what to decide themselves and what to delegate to others
• They involve others in contributing ideas about how changes should be implemented
• They're tough taskmasters, who are firm but fair and insist on accountability
• They're not afraid of confrontation
• They're honest, open and consistent in their dealings with others
• They're insistent and impatient about moving forward into new territory
• They're not afraid of failure and view it as an opportunity to learn and start over more intelligently
• They see change as the normal state of the world and view stability as an exception
• They view change as a way to get a competitive advantage over competitors
• They're always on the lookout for new ideas and better ways to doing business, yet they're humble enough to know they don't always have all the answers themselves.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
How not to manage change.
Post 317.
After 30-years experience as an executive coach and consultant, here's a summary of how I've seen weak managers deal (or not deal) with change:
• They don’t set specific change goals and measure toward them for success
• They're reactive, not proactive, wait until they're forced to change
• They don’t get out in front of change
• They see change as the exception, not the rule
• They procrastinate – put it off 'till tomorrow
• They like to tell people what to do, they're bad listeners
• They try to “order it in”
• They think they can do it all by themselves
• They don’t involve others or ask for input and feedback
• They don’t trust others
• They're reluctant to confront long-term employees
• They dislike confrontation – see everything in win/lose terms
• They argue with others when they get feedback
• They don’t tell employees why change is needed
• They're impatient – want 'better' results right away
• They're not always clear exactly what 'better' means
• They try to change too many things at the same time
• They don’t realize how different change elements are interconnected
• They don’t use pilot programs to learn and make corrections
After 30-years experience as an executive coach and consultant, here's a summary of how I've seen weak managers deal (or not deal) with change:
• They don’t set specific change goals and measure toward them for success
• They're reactive, not proactive, wait until they're forced to change
• They don’t get out in front of change
• They see change as the exception, not the rule
• They procrastinate – put it off 'till tomorrow
• They like to tell people what to do, they're bad listeners
• They try to “order it in”
• They think they can do it all by themselves
• They don’t involve others or ask for input and feedback
• They don’t trust others
• They're reluctant to confront long-term employees
• They dislike confrontation – see everything in win/lose terms
• They argue with others when they get feedback
• They don’t tell employees why change is needed
• They're impatient – want 'better' results right away
• They're not always clear exactly what 'better' means
• They try to change too many things at the same time
• They don’t realize how different change elements are interconnected
• They don’t use pilot programs to learn and make corrections
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Thoughts on how to create the life you want.
Post 316 deals with taking the initiative to create the life you want.
"Every man, wherever he goes," wrote Bertrand Russell, "is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions that move with him like flies on a summer's day."
"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy
“The inhabitants of every civilized country are menaced; all desire to be saved from impending disaster; yet the overwhelming majority refuse to change their habits of thought, feeling and action which are directly responsible for their present plight.” - Aldous Huxley.
Steve Jobs says, “When you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much, try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money ... But that's a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you, and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use, and the minute that you understand that, you can poke life and ... if you push in, something will pop out the other side. You can change it, you can mold it. That's maybe the most important thing, to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you're just going to live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark on it. I think that's very important, and however you learn that, once you learn it, you'll want to change life and make it better, because it's kind of messed up in a lot of ways. Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again ... When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: ‘If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right.’ It made an impression on me, and since then, I’ve looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I’m about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."
"Putting off an easy thing makes it hard. Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible." - George Lorimer
Take the time to ask yourself, what “lever” do you pull in your life to create wealth and well-being over time? What’s the “Hot-Button” in your life?
Once you’re clear about that:
* If that’s the “game-breaker,” is that what you spend most of your time working on?
* Specifically, what percentage of your time, effort and energy goes into it?
* Everything else you do then is just an activity. So why do you do it if it doesn't contribute to pulling the “lever,” pushing the “Hot-Button?”
* And if you believe it’s still a necessary activity, should do it yourself or get someone else to do it for you or with you?
"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult." – Seneca
"Every man, wherever he goes," wrote Bertrand Russell, "is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions that move with him like flies on a summer's day."
"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy
“The inhabitants of every civilized country are menaced; all desire to be saved from impending disaster; yet the overwhelming majority refuse to change their habits of thought, feeling and action which are directly responsible for their present plight.” - Aldous Huxley.
Steve Jobs says, “When you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much, try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money ... But that's a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you, and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use, and the minute that you understand that, you can poke life and ... if you push in, something will pop out the other side. You can change it, you can mold it. That's maybe the most important thing, to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you're just going to live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark on it. I think that's very important, and however you learn that, once you learn it, you'll want to change life and make it better, because it's kind of messed up in a lot of ways. Once you learn that, you'll never be the same again ... When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: ‘If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right.’ It made an impression on me, and since then, I’ve looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I’m about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."
"Putting off an easy thing makes it hard. Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible." - George Lorimer
Take the time to ask yourself, what “lever” do you pull in your life to create wealth and well-being over time? What’s the “Hot-Button” in your life?
Once you’re clear about that:
* If that’s the “game-breaker,” is that what you spend most of your time working on?
* Specifically, what percentage of your time, effort and energy goes into it?
* Everything else you do then is just an activity. So why do you do it if it doesn't contribute to pulling the “lever,” pushing the “Hot-Button?”
* And if you believe it’s still a necessary activity, should do it yourself or get someone else to do it for you or with you?
"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult." – Seneca
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