Observe the Greats

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One of the most valuable things we can do is to observe the greats. This is especially true in any artistic or creative endeavor, but it also applies to athletics, business, and virtually anything else.

For example, if you want to be a great filmmaker. Don’t start by going to film school. Start by watching the best 100 movies of all time. Sure, this won’t tell you how to hold a camera, write a screenplay, or direct a scene. But it will show you what a great movie is. And that’s the most important point of all.

Jack of All Trades?

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Our culture has an obsession with the division of labor – this idea that we separate tasks and projects into specific duties. We believe there are people who should spend their lives cooking, other people selling, other people making things, other people doing counseling, etc. The idea is that if each person is good at just one thing, they’ll get really good at it, and we’ll be using people and resources in the most productive manner.

By and large, this is a good thing. Much of our current civilization is based upon this idea. The problem occurs when we tell people (usually starting as kids), that they can only do 1-2 things in life really well. That’s simply not true. We can learn to do a lot of things well (if we learn to learn…which is a whole other blog post). We aren’t limited to doing one or two things well. Most of us will get 70+ years. To only learn 1-2 things well seems like quite a waste.

There’s a phenomenon called the 80/20 principle. When learning a language, we can communicate about 80% of what we want with only 20% of the language. It’s the same in most other areas. 80% of the points in athletic events are scored with the same 20% of moves. To get good at a lot of things, find the 20% that matters and learn that really well.

Plus, we aren’t robots. We are human. We aren’t designed to sit on an assembly line all day and do the same thing. We are meant to have variety. When we specialize to the extreme, we are often fighting against our very nature.

So learn to do a lot of things well. Chances are you already do 3-4 things pretty well. What is one more you can add to that list this year?

Asking Good Questions

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As a rule, we don’t ask very good questions. This is true in relationships. It’s true in business. It’s true in reporting. The way we ask the first few questions of any conversation can drive the conversation forward or kill it in its tracks. I’d never heard anyway address these issues quite so thoroughly as Tim Ferriss and Cal Fussman in this interview. It’s over 3 hours long. But it will be worth every minute. When I listened to it, it only seemed like 20 minutes.

Listen to the interview and you’ll learn to ask better questions. I promise.

Apple vs. FBI

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If you read the news lately, reporters talk about how Apple is now feeling “the pressure”. In case you’re not caught up on the conversation, the FBI put pressure on Apple to unlock an iPhone. Apple said no. FBI took Apple to court. Meanwhile, the FBI figured out how to unlock the phone themselves and dropped the case.

This is actually to be expected. Apple has only recently began to really increase their security in a dramatic way. Plus, you have a team of some of the most talented hackers in the world trying to break into a device for months on end. They were almost sure to find a flaw somewhere.

At some point in the near future, Apple will find and patch this hole. Then we’ll begin the conversation all over again. In a year or two the FBI will find another hole. A few months later Apple will patch it. Etc.

Regardless, I’m proud of Apple for taking a stand. For making the statement that your information actually belongs to you. Few other major tech companies are doing that. Instead of criticizing, let’s be glad they are making a stand. And let’s continue to understand the cat and mouse game that is cryptography. The game that started in earnest in the 70s and is going on today.

Why Travel the World?

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This past Easter a group of us hiked to the top Horsetooth rock. Nearly everyone else who went was from the area. And about half the people there hadn’t done the hike and another third hadn’t done it in the past years.

We all talk about how we want to travel the world, see new things, go new places, and find grand adventures. But we often miss the adventures that are right in front of us.

Before you go on a missions trip, meet the needs of people in your town. Before you spend thousands of dollars on a plane ticket to travel the world, do a staycation and tackle adventures in your area.

Simply make a difference where you are. Then go somewhere else.

Most Oceans are Purple

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If you’re a little lost by the title, there’s a classic business idea of the “blue ocean”. If you’re in a competitive industry (read: sharks), you’re in a red ocean. There’s blood in the water. If you’re in an industry with no competition, you’re in a blue ocean. There’s lots of space. And no blood.

The reality is most oceans are purple. Very rarely can you jump into a completely blue ocean. There’s always someone competing – or there will be very quickly.

But great companies come up with ways to add a blue ocean element to their services. Uber didn’t invent the taxi or the private driver. But they figured out how to add a blue ocean component to it. Nobody was doing the app well. That means they had a new opportunity.

In business, almost all oceans are purple. There’s fierce competition, but there are also ways where people aren’t competing. Finding and locking onto those blue areas is what makes a business different.

 

Lazy Thinking

Business, Life Lessons, Nonprofits, Spirituality, Start Ups 0 Comments

It’s OK to be wrong, but lazy thinking isn’t OK. In politics, in spirituality, in life, and in relationships, it’s easy to not process things intelligently. When we discuss ideas, we want to get to the root of those ideas. We need to understand how and why things work. We need to ask good questions.

In the things that matter, we can’t afford lazy thinking. Yet this is most often what we get. Churches are full of lazy thinking preachers. News agencies are full of lazy thinking reporters. Businesses are full of lazy thinking employers.

Often, it’s not their fault. Active thinking requires effort and training. Most people never take the time to get out of lazy thinking patterns.

If you want to break out of lazy thinking, here’s some questions that might help:

  • What has already been written on this topic? – Find it and read it.
  • Why is this the case? – When you discover why, ask “why” again. Go deep.
  • How can I make this better?
  • How do the principles I believe apply to this situation?
  • What do I believe that almost everyone else believes?
  • What do I believe that almost no one else believes?
  • What does the data say?

If you ask those questions of any problem you have, you’ll be well on your way to finding a meaningful answer. Let’s stop being lazy with our thinking.

The Main Thing

Business, Life Lessons, Making a Difference, Marketing, Nonprofits, Relationships, Spirituality 0 Comments

It’s easy to lose the main thing. When you are giving a talk, do you have a main thing you’d like to communicate? Does your business have a main goal? Do you have one big thing you want to accomplish each day?

We miss the main thing because it’s hard to focus on the main thing. It can be hard because:

  • If we set a goal, there’s accountability
  • With ideas and concepts, it takes work and thought to get to the main thing
  • Focusing on the main thing requires discipline of thought and action
  • It’s easier to do what we feel like than focus on the main thing

If you’re not getting the results you want in any area of your life, chances are you’ve missed the main thing. Try and find it, focus on it, build strategy around it, and then get moving.

Business vs. Freelance

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The difference between a business and a freelancer is: Who does the work?

In a business, you build systems and processes to use the lowest talent possible (not to say you don’t want talented people, but you don’t want to need them to function). With a business, you create systems and processes to help make everything run without you.

As a freelancer, the client depends on you. As a business, you depend on your systems and your team.

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