365QOD-Day 28

“Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”- Attributed to many

Last year while reading The Genius in All of Us I came across an interesting passage.  In the passage, the author wondered if parents were given a choice between having a child genius or a successful adult, which one would they chose?

I believe that most parents would chose a successful adult.  It is very rare that a child prodigy becomes a highly successful adult because the skill sets are very different.  They tend to either burn out or are socially ill equipped.

Today’s question is:

“If you would choose the successful adult, what are you doing to transition your child(or yourself) into that person?

Hint: More academic training is not the answer”

365QOD-Day27

"What retirement? I will be working till I die."-Anonymous

That is the sentiment of many people these days.  They do not believe that retirement the way they envision it will be possible for them.

I am currently reading a book by Charles Farrell.  In it he offers the following table that relates capital to income ratio for someone to retire at 65 with 80% of their last income.

He advises to to use home equity in the calculation and that additional 20% will come from social security.

In the past when I went to an investment seminar the speakers used to hold up one finger and state that it takes one million to retire.  Now days they hold up five fingers.  I think that that number is not realistic for most people.  I like Farrell's thinking because it gives a ratio in terms of your current income.


Today's question is:
Are you where you want to be with respect to your capital/income ratio?

365QOD-Day26

"I am the jack of many things and king of 1,2,3,..."-Gwen Calmese-Wright

Many years ago Gwen worked for me.  She was an Administrative Assistant who wisely used her time.  Any free minute she had she was writing poetry or a play.  Many of lunch hours were spent reading her work and giving my opinions.

In her free time she pulled people into her galaxy and one wanted to be a part of it.  She formed an advisory group on which I served to mentor her in creating a successful acting troop.  Gwen starred in many plays and eventually became the director of her own plays.   

I miss Gwen.  She passed away a few years back and I did not learn of it for a few months. She is one of the passionate spirits that have passed a part of their journey alongside of me and have changed me forever.

Today's question is:
What do you feel passionate about that pulls people into your galaxy?

365QOD-Day25

"Things that are easy to do are also easy not to do"- Jim Rohn

During the last year Jim Rohn passed away.   If you take the time to go to Youtube and listen to some of his wisdom, you will be blown away.  Jim Rohn had a way of placing great wisdom into simple to understand statements.  He served as a great influence to many people in the self-help industry.

I admired Jim because if I ever needed a jolt of common sense I can listen to him speak or read one of his books.  Unfortunately, I never saw him live.

When I look at the people around me I see anyone like Jim Rohn.  There are a few successful folks who are very knowledgeable but Jim also was inspirational.  It would be easy to say that because I am where I am there might be no mentors available.  This would be an easy thing to say.  An alternative would be to pick up a book on a subject on which I need to work on and let the writer be my mentor.  There are infinite mentors in my local library.  And the funny thing is if they do not have it they will order it. 

So the easy thing to do is to say I don't have access to them BUT it is just as easy to go and pick up a book. The reverse side of Jim's quote is things that are not easy to do are also as easy to do.  He also said that, "You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight."

Today's question is:
What is the one thing that is easy that you will not do BUT IF you did will make a difference?

365QOD-Day24

"Question: How do you eat an elephant?
  Answer:  One byte at a time"                - Anonymous

Several years ago I listened to an interview show on C-SPAN. In the show Brian Lamb interviewed a prolific author.  The author wrote history books.

The interviewer asked how he wrote so much. I have never forgotten the response.  The author said that he lived in Alabama.  His house was away from the road.  On his property he kept animals.  His favorite thing to do is to tend to his animals.

So everyday the author woke up and before he can do his favorite thing he would sit down on his porch and write five pages.  Until he had written five pages he could not get up and tend to his animals.

WOW!  If he did this 365 days a year that would amount to 1825 pages per year.  No wonder he was a prolific writer.  He forced himself to do the hardest work first before he began his day.

As Brian Tracy would call it ... He ate his frog.  In this little book he advises that we tackle the most difficult task, our frog, first thing before we do anything.  After all we do have the most energy first thing in the morning.

Today's question is:
What is the frog that you will eat today?

365QOD-Day23

“If you can’t be with the one you want, love the one you are with”-lyrics to a song

A very catchy phrase.  If you can love what you have instead of what you want, will it lead to happiness?   Maybe?

Chip Conley offers a better formula:

                     (Wanting what you have)     Gratitude

Happiness=_____________________=_____________________

                     (Having what you want)       Gratification

Let’s examine the extreme points(on a scale of 1=missing to 100=completely full):

If wanting what you have is 100 but you have very little of what you want (give it a 1)

              Happiness=100/1 = 100% so you are completely satisfied

If having what you want is 100 but you don’t want what you have (give it a 1)

                                              Happiness=1/100 = 1% so you are completely dissatisfied

The math agrees.  I suppose most of us are somewhere between these points.

Today’s question is:

What is your level of happiness and how would you improve it?

365QOD-Day22

“Expect your strategy to be 100% wrong” Fran Johanson

A recent blog talked about taking baby steps. Let consider the idea from another angle.  You have an idea to do something.  The idea seems brilliant.  You expect wild success.  However, it does not happen like you thought and soon enough you feel discouraged and give up on the idea.

Now consider an alternative.  You come up with a brilliant idea.  But after taking a few baby steps you realize that it is a good idea.  Taking the good idea you ask yourself how you can make it a better idea.  Taking a few baby steps in that direction you convince yourself that it is a better idea but it is still not yet a great idea.  Pondering some more, you decide that if you take additional executable steps in a slightly different direction you will get to a great idea.

Note that the final design might not be even close to your initial brilliant idea but a much more refined workable idea in terms of time and resources needed.  Fran illustrates this idea in a 99% conference speech and his book. 

In order to take these small executable steps, baby steps, you must be willing to except the risk that comes with it.  By making these steps small enough it reduces the risk of failing to accomplish it and move towards a better idea.

Today’s question is:

What are the smallest executable steps that could move me from my current level to the next level?

365QOD-Day21

"Every event that befalls me is absolutely the best event that could occur" -Chris Prentiss

From the book The Art of Happiness:
"Imagine that God appeared before you this instant and said:
"I promise you that everything that happens to you from this moment forward will be of the greatest benefit to you and will bring you the utmost good fortune."  
Suppose God went on to say:
"Even though what happens will sometimes appear unfortunate or  hurtful, in the end your life     will be wonderfully blessed and hugely benefited by whatever happens." "

I spend a couple of hours this Sunday reading this wonderful book. This passage appeared on page 7 and I could not get it out of my mind for the rest of the day.  In my opinion it is very powerful.  For me these statements were easy to accept but I believe that for others they could be very difficult.

I sat there and thought through many events in my life and saw the fingerprints of God all over them.  I saw this statement with clarity.  Easily I can chart the valleys and peaks of  my life and see that the low points were used as preparation for the peak to be made possible.  I urge you to get a piece of paper and from your birth(+10 very positive) to a major problem(-10 very negative) list the major events in your life.  Next I urge you to create a graph .

Today's question is:
"Did you see for yourself the fingerprints of God?"

365QOD-Day20

"...in the doing of it once you know how but in coming to know how and then in keeping aware of what you have discovered"- Zen and the Art of Happiness

I started reading this book today and found this statement very powerful.  It was specifically intended on the topic of happiness but after reading it I couldn't stop thinking about how general it is so I dropped the first part of the quote.

In my life I have learned many things BUT only applied a few.  I believe that knowledge is not power.  Application of knowledge is power.   This is how one gets rewarded for learning.  Unfortunately, as kids we are encouraged to continue learning and learning as a way to better ourselves.

Recently I have stopped reading for learning sake.  I have instead started to drive myself to apply what I read.  So, I read the page and the moment the sentence stood out to me I applied it by writing his blog.  A couple of weeks ago I was reading the book KaChing and instead of mindlessly reading it I applied it by creating this blog.  It seems to me that a better cycle would be to learn, to apply, to modify, to apply, to learn, to modify, to... 

Books teach us many lessons.  Unfortunately, after we learn the lesson we store it in our subconscious mind and only remind ourselves that we have already learned it after we had to deal with a situation that required it.  We remind ourselves of it and promise to never forget the lesson in the future.  However, we often repeat and repeat it until it becomes ingrained.  The reason for this is we did not put ourselves in situations where we had to repeat the experience and apply the knowledge until we mastered the lesson.

Today's question is:
"What lesson do you need to apply?"

365QOD-Day19

"As is a tale so is life, it is not how long it is but how good it is"-Seneca


Seneca's wise words urges one to focus on quality instead of quantity.  It is not uncommon to hear of a  young person passing away and being remembered for years.

In order to live the quality life we have to start by managing our energies.  Most people manage time but one quickly learns that all kinds of issues can completely throw one off their "plan".  So how does one find the balance?

The only book I know of that discusses managing one's energy is the book by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.  In it they break life management into managing Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual dimensions of one's life.  To find that balance that everyone is looking for one needs to manage these energies and the time piece will fall into place.  Let me give you an example.

Suppose you have signed up for a class.  The class meets once a week for 4 hours with a 30 min break in the middle.  You put it on your schedule.  You. have been going for a few weeks and enjoy the course.  However, just before class you get in an argument with your significant other.  You come to class all angry.  Mentally you are not ready to learn.  Emotionally you are still dealing with the argument.  Physically you sit there BUT you fidget the whole time.  A few time you think to yourself Oh God this can't be happening to me...

So you made a commitment to be there for four hours.  For the first hour or two you are there but you are not there.  You managed your time because you showed up but your energy was elsewhere.  In reality you were at best only 50% there.

Today's question is:
"How balanced is your life?"

365QOD-Day18

"What are baby steps?"- Stefani's words to me

"Daddy, can you teach me how to shoot a ball?"
These were the words that my daughter spoke to me when she was about three years old. 
"OK, Go get your ball. ", I said. 

While she was doing that, I went to the laundry room and brought back the round laundry basket into the living room. 

"OK honey stand in front of the basket.  Now drop the ball." 
She did and let out a giggle. 
"Now take a baby step back and throw the ball into the basket." 
She did so successfully. 
"Now take another baby step back." 
Success again. 
"And another." 
This time the ball did not go in. 
"OK step forward one step." 
She looked puzzled.  She did and this time hit it. 
"Do it again." 
She did again successfully. 
"Now you are ready to step back."
Pretty soon she was hitting the basket with the ball from across the room. 

Magical! You take a baby step and observe your progress.  If you are successful then take another step in the direction you are successful.  If at any time you do not get a successful result then back up and work on the step you were recently successful to get your confidence back up. 

Interesting idea.  If you can identify the steps required to do a job, and break those down into sub-steps, and break these sub-steps into smaller steps until you get to a level where you can execute the smallest of these steps(baby steps) successfully. 

This is an idea that many top programmers use when writing code.  I used to ask my students to first write their comments first.  Then for each comment break it down into smaller section that could be fulfilled with a few lines of code.  For example, maybe a procedure requires seven steps.  I would ask them to comment the section that describes the next seven steps.  Then provide a sub-comment for each step and then the code in each step.  Why punish them with all that commenting when they needed to write code?  Well, the person most likely to troubleshoot the code years from now is the person who wrote it.  By asking for these baby steps they would be able to understand something that they did many years ago.  If they could explain it to themselves then they can fix it later.  Most often the students/programmers just wanted to start writing code without identifying these baby steps.  It seemed like such a waste to them.  If they were honest with themselves they would recognize it as a method to assure success. 

Today's question is:
"Can you identify the baby steps for something you are working on?"

P.S.  I can not think of a good reference.  If you can, please comment and I will add it.  THANKS

365QOD-Day17

"The quality of your life is the quality of your communication... to others... but mostly to ourselves"-Anthony Robbins

I recently came across a wonderful video on Ted.com by Simon Sinek. 
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

In the video he discussed his idea of a Golden Circle of communication.  He claims that most of us tell people what, some explain the how, and rarely share the why.  His research led him to believe that successful people and companies actually reverse the communication process.  They tell you the why, then the how, and lastly the what.  In the video he provides and examples of how Apple communicates their ideas versus others.

I thought about this blog when I listened to Simon and decided to brainstorm these for myself.  My thoughts are:
- Why:  I believe in improving how people think about the things they are exposed to
- How:  The way I change they way people think is by offering a quote, providing a related discussion, and posing a question to ponder in this blog.
- What: I just happen to share the messages through this blog.  They could be presented as a book, speech, training seminars, etc.

Do you want to subscribe? 

Re-read these in the opposite direction and you will feel a difference.  Then ask yourself if you want to subscribe.

Today's question is:
What are the Why, How, and What for a project you are working on?

365QOD-Day16

“The only constant in life is change”- Anonymous

Recently I have been reflecting on change a lot.  At work there is a restructuring effort and with it there is also a lot of uncertainty.  I have been observing the process and wondering if it being handled properly.  It is being done rather intellectually.

But does change succeed if it is only done at the intelligence level?  To answer that question one only need to find a doctor that smokes, an overweight nurse, etc.

It quickly becomes obvious that it is not all in the brain when one or an organization needs to make a change.  So what else does it involve?

In their second book Switch, Chip and Dan Heath offer a glimse at what they think is needed.  They propose that it takes three pieces:

I. Direct the Rider:
- Find the bright spots
- Script the critical moves
- Point to the destination

II. Motivate the Elephant:
- Find the feeling
- Shrink the Change;
- Grow your people

                                III. Shape the Path:
                                 - Tweak the environment
                                 - Build habits
                                 - Rally the herd

One can quickly see that the rider of an elephant wants to provide direction.  The elephant will most often follow BUT at times will chose to go in a direction that the rider does not choose(i.e. overeating, not exercising, etc.). 

The path is an interesting idea.  In an example they talk about a Subway experiment in which the customers were given two different types of reward cards: one with eight holes to punch before a reward, or one with 10 holes to punch but two of the holes were pre-punched.  Who do you think succeeded more often?  The ones with the two pre-punched holes.

Without all three pieces being in place a change can not occur successfully.

Today’s question is:

In your own life, how do you line up the three pieces to assure success with something you want to change?

365QOD-Day15

"...look at Enron now...it was at $80 and now it is at $60..it is a buy..(a while later) look at Enron now it is at $40, it is 2 for the price of one...BUY BUY BUY... (a while later)look at Enron now..it is a real bargain at $0"-Ananomous TV financial adviser

In last blog we talked about loss aversion.  So, how much of a loss should you stand?  Consider the chart below:

Loss %	% Gain to Recover
1	1.0
2	2.0
3	3.1
4	4.2
5	5.3
6	6.4		using	=100*(1/(100-loss%)*100-1)
7	7.5
8	8.7
9	9.9
10	11.1
15	17.6
20	25.0
30	42.9
40	66.7
50	100.0
60	150.0
70	233.3
80	400.0
90	900.0
99	9900.0

Notice that up to 10% loss it takes a 11% gain to recover to your previous level.  At 20% it takes 25%.  At 50% it takes 100% gain to get back to normal and above that it gets ridiculous.  So where do you draw the line? 

A good rule is 8%.  It is rule that I learned from William O'Neil's book .  At about 8% I look at the investment and conclude that I am wrong.  I need to kill this investment in order to preserve my cash and be able to invest in the future.

How well will this idea have worked out for the investor's at Enron?  Suppose it was at about $80 at its peak, so a 8% loss would have been a drop of about $6.4.  At the value of $73.60, the investors that sold would have looked like a genius to the ones that rode it down all the way to $0.

Today's question is:
What exist strategy(rule) do you follow to get out of a situation?

365QOD-Day14

"A coward dies a thousand deaths, but the valiant taste death but once" This is from Act 1 Scene 2 Line 32 of "Julius Cesear", written by William Shakespeare.

What are you afraid of? All of us are afraid of something. Fears that seem small or even laughable to us are deadly serious to their owner.

Often times when people invest money they are irrationally exuberant that the investment will continue going up and up and up and never stop.  They want to make a killing. What happens when the investment goes down and down and down.  Loss aversion comes into play.

In a wonderful book called Sway, Ori and Rom Brafman tell a story of a founder of a company which trades at $45.  He sells his company but retains the value in shares.  His accountant urges him to sell.  He finally agrees to sell 10% of the shares.   The stock starts to drop. It comes to a rest at $42.  His accountant urges the owner to sell but he refuses.  He knows his baby is worth $45 and will wait until it bounces back to that level before selling.  Well, he waited and waited until the stock dropped to almost nothing.  For all his troubles he managed to hold onto the 10% that the accountant advised him to sell initially.

Today’s question is:

What are you afraid of losing so much that you are willing to hang onto until it is worth nothing?

365QOD-Day13

"To be a great leader, learn to be a great follower"- Anonymous

Today I saw an incredible video.  It was presented by Derek Silver at a TED conference called, "How to start a movement."  It is worth watching at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V74AxCqOTvg&feature=relmfu

In the video a person at an event starts to dance in an unusual way.  Most people are observing him.  A second person comes to his side and starts to mimic the first.  First person welcomes the second as an equal and they continue dancing.  The follower having joined the quirky originator now attracts new followers who start an avalanche.  Pretty soon you can see people running to join this unusual dancing group.  Their fear is to be left out of the new "in" thing.  The key to this movement was the first follower.  The originator is given credit as being the first BUT the movement does not occur without the second person.

The amazing part is that this took only 3 minutes for this movement to develop.  Incredible!  So what can we do with this information?

The best book on leadership that I have ever read is John Maxwell's 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. 
I warn you though.  After reading it you will never see your leaders in the same light.  You will yearn for great leaders and will be angry at being led by lesser leaders.  Many leaders are positional leaders.  They are placed in positions and have a difficult time earning the trust of their followers.  Eventually they move on and the vacuum is filled by a leader that is capable of leading. 

I saw this firsthand at Bethlehem Steel.  Original CEO during my tenure was an engineer Walter Williams.  On a one to ten scale he was probably an 8.  He retired and replaced himself with a lawyer Hank Barnett.  He was at best a five on that same scale.  He retired and the loser he appointed was a two.  The two realized that he was over his head.  He demoted himself and brought an outside consultant/CEO to run the show who was a nine.  The nine promptly fired the two.  It was too late at that point and the company filed for bankruptcy.

 Today's question is:
What person do you know or an idea that is worthy of you being a first follower? 

365QOD- Day12

"...if you want to be an expert at something? Pick a subject, read and work with it everyday for about 30-60 minutes, for two years without stopping"- Coach Homer Drew during a business presentation at Bethlehem Steel

Sitting in an auditorium I heard this message.  Being in my early 20s, I quickly ignored it.  However, when I went back to my office and taught about some more I realized the brilliance of it.
This is what I learned:
        10 pages per hour  *  365 hours per year * 2 years= 7300 pages

Note: if you stop for even one day then reset the clock to day one.


Then I asked myself, "What are you an expert in?"  I had instructed Circuit Analysis three times in my life and I knew that I could teach it better than anyone on the planet.  Using that as a reference I calculated that I had read three books on the subject(1 while in school and 2 when I started teaching the subject).  Overall I had read about 3*900 pages=2700 pages.   Using the 900 pages per book average I then figured out that Coach Drew was telling me that I needed to read eight books to be an expert. 

When I share this story with my students they often disagree with my conclusion.  Their logic is that reading will not lead to expert level because a person can keep reading and still not understand.  I offer the following logic: after first book you might understand just 10%, after the second you build on that 10%, and so on.  By fifth book you will be at 100% if you stick with it.

But remember that coach Drew said eight books.  So what happens with those three books?  You already know 100% of the subject and with those books you develop mastery that leads to expert status.

A wonderful book that offer a similar deduction is Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers.  In it he sites a 10000 hour rule.  I think that 10000 hours includes the additional work that includes the accumulation of experience to go along with your developing knowledge.

Today's question is:
"What subject are you willing to put in two years worth of reading and work to become an expert?"

365QOD- Day11

"I will win the lottery"- a typical response to the question, "How will you become rich?"

Most people think that winning the lottery is the only way to become rich.  It is a way BUT not a realistic way to become rich. 

Instead of thinking about being rich I think in terms of what it takes to become financially free.  So how would I define financially free?

My definition:  financially free  is the amount needed to fulfill your obligations generated perpetually without you having to work. 

For example, if my total bills are 5k per month and I figure out a way to generate this amount without having to work then I am financially free and can pursue whatever I want within my current level of income.

A couple of good resources that I offer in this blog are books by David Bach and Loral Langemeier.  The Automatic Millionaire book by David Bach teaches how to set up your life on automatic in order to get out of your way.  Sometimes we are our own enemy and need to get out of the way of our own success.

Loral Lingemeier offers more of a creative way of thinking about what you do that could be turned into a money making cash machine.  It will open your eyes to your routines and how to develop a plan.  In it she showcases a few individuals and shows how they converted their interests into additional or full-time income. 

Today's question is:
"What is your financial freedom number?"

365QOD- Day10

"70% of people who leave a job on their own terms make more money.  70% of the ones that are let go make less"  - Source Unknown

I used this quote in the last post.  I would like to add to it.  In my opinion, often times people feel stuck with their plan A because of two things:

          1.  F U diploma    (pardon the French usage)
and    2.  F U money


A lot of people that have money BUT do not have a diploma and possibly could not land a job doing exactly what they are doing for even anything close to their current pay.  So they are stuck.

College grads often have a wonderful education BUT lack the money to be able to walk away from a situation. So they are also stuck.

From these examples it is obvious that one must have both in order to feel like they have the ability to walk away from an unhealthy stressful situation.  Having both enables one to feel free and to be able to say F U to a situation if it comes to that. 

Today's question is:
"Which one are you missing and what is your plan to get it?"

P.S the KaChing book is where I got the idea for starting this blog.

365QOD- Day9

"The most successful people I know are good at plan B"-James Yorke(1941-)

Often times people get lulled into believing that their plan A has no chance of failure. Usually when it comes to a career, their plan A is their primary job in which they earn most of their income.  Most people never consider the sudden loss of plan A and when it occurs they are surprised.

After being burned by the loss of plan A, I decided that I need to have a plan B, plan C, plan D, etc.  This is why I even went back to industry I decided to never stop teaching.  This is why I am currently working on several books, dabbling in investing, recently started a blog, and etc.

Long time ago before I left industry my employer went through a restructuring effort.  I read an interesting statistic, "70% of people who leave a job on their own terms make more money.  70% of the ones that are let go make less"  I spent time thinking about that quote and concluded that one needs to control their destiny instead of it being thrust upon them.  Most people accept the change and after a few months of unemployment end up settling for the first job that comes along.  They settle with the idea that something better will come along and they will change.  Often times this results in being stuck for a while doing something that you have no passion for BUT need to do in order to make ends meet.

Today's question is:
                        "What are your plan B, C, D, ...?"

365QOD-Day8

"Creative ideas are free, the execution of a great idea is worth gold"-Anonymous


Many years I read the book  Successful Intelligence: How Practical and Creative Intelligence Determine Success in Life by Robert J. Sternberg.  The first half of the book discusses the failures of standardized tests to properly determine success.  This is OK BUT the second half of the book is where the real value can be found.  Successful Intelligence defines success along three dimension: Analytical/Memory(A/M), Creativity(C), and Practical/Execution(P/E) and the author argues that in order to be successful you need all of these.

Over the years I have thought about these concepts and many times presented them.  I believe that a successful person(100%) would consist of 20% Analytical/Memory, 20% Creative, and 60% Practical /Execution blend. 

Why these? Well, a person has to understand the problem(Analytical) with which they are faced, then come up with a solution(Creative) and lastly implement the solution(Practical).  the book illustrates that if any one of these pieces are missing then success is unlikely. 

Most people easily agree with the 20% for A/M and 20% for C but I often get asked "But why 60% for P/E?"  This is my number based on the 80/20 rule. I argue that 20% goes to Analytical/Memory.  Out of the 80 left over, 80% is the Practical/Execution or about 64% and the other 16% is left over for Creative.  I just simply rounded them down and up to be 20/20/60. 

Without putting emphasis on the Practical/Execution application of ideas a person looses themselves in the analysis and creative solution of problems.  This is OK in and academic world but for the rest of us this is not enough.

In my life I have had many ideas that could have earned me millions.  So I was able to analyze the problem, come up with a creative solution(s) BUT did not have the guts to execute it.  It is no different than you having an idea for a product and six months later walking in a store seeing that idea on a store shelf.  Did you lack the A/M? Did you lack the C? No!  Like me, your P/E mindset was not high enough.

Today's questions are:
What are your  current A/M, C, and P/E intelligence scores and how do you increase your P/E score?

365QOD- Day7

"The way to succeed is to double your error rate."  Thomas J.  Watson

Your boss might  not be thrilled with this statement because you are being paid not to make mistakes.  It is interesting to note that the quote came from the founder of IBM.  It seems that he understood that making mistakes is important to success.  However, I would add that making adjustments to the strategy and technique, before making another attempt, is just as important as the willingness to make another attempt.   

Pick an area in which you want to experience greater success.  Examine your current effort and strategy.  Be brutal with your honesty.  Then ask yourself:
                              "How do we make better mistakes today?"

365QOD- Day6

"... number your days...." a line in Joel Osteen's sermon on September 12, 2010

I was on vacation in Florida on September 12.  I heard his sermon and spend the rest of the day thinking about what this meant to me.  I quickly realized that most days were not distinguishble after a while.

Most people start the day by eating the same foods everyday.  They use the same route to work. The rest of the day follows the same pattern... much of the same.  So how do you expect different results if you do the same thing over and over?    The key is to make each day memorable.

One way I came up with is to number my days.  What days?  The number of the days remaining in my life.  Since I plan to live to at least 101 , I used the formula:

                                         Number of Days= (101-MyCurrentAge)*365 

For me this number came out to be around 21000(rounding it up).  September 12,2010 became day1 or as a wrote it 1/21000.  Since that day I have continued to increase the number on the left side.  Today is day 148/21000.  I write this number on my daily planner every day.  I will one day buy a vase and in it put marbles to represent my days.  I plan to take out a marble a day and if someone makes my day memorable give the marble to them or at the end of the day throw the marble away to signify the loss of that day.

Today's question is:
                              "What is your number of days?"

365QOD- Day5

"Money is a result, wealth is a result, health is a result, illness is a result, your weight is a result.  We live in a world of cause and effect"
                                                            -Harv Eker from the book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

Money is a great lubricator.  Anyone who believes that money is not important is not living in the real world.  Life is not perfect when money is available BUT everything is made easier.  Interestingly, there is a limit to how much is needed to make one feel fulfilled.  Many studies have shown that above a certain income(usually around 75k) that happiness is not changed.

I like to offer a mathematical way of looking at the financial piece.  Your earning potential  is the ratio of your salary to your age.
                  Your Earning Potential=Salary/Age                               -

As an example, if you are a 20 year old making 40k your ratio would be 40k/20=2.  This would not be as good as a 20 year old making 60k or 60k/20=3.

The second ratio is the retention ratio of your total net worth to your age.  Total net worth would be all of your savings and value of investments if they were sold.
 
                   Your Retention Potential=Total Net Worth/Age

If you are a 40 year old and your net worth is 200k then the ratio2=200k/40=5.

There is no perfect ratios.  The obvious answer is the higher both are the better off you are.

Today's question to ponder(and calculate) is:
                               What are your two ratios?

365QOD- Day4

"So... what do you do?" - the most often asked question when meeting someone

Have you ever been at a party and met someone new?  Almost without thought we ask the person, "So,...what do you do?"  Admit it.  Even if you consider yourself the most non-judgmental person you have asked the question.  Why?  Often it is used to establish social status(read income level). 

I recently ran across a question that I would like to offer as a replacement.  A question that would allow the person to open up and give you a more complete picture about themselves than their job. 


Today's question is:
         "Tell me your story?"  (What story would you offer?)

365QOD- Day3

Based on Dan Pink's video and the question from Day 2

 "What is my sentence?" 

Today's question is:

"Was I better today than I was yesterday?" 

365QOD- Day2

"A great man is a sentence"- Clare Boothe Luce

(This was the advice that she gave to JFK in order to focus him.  Being a young president JFK wanted to accomplish many great things. )

 

Recently I became interested in the work of Dan Pink.  While on vacation an executive coach mentioned to me that he uses Dan Pink's work as the basis for his coaching.  Based on this information, I went to Dan Pink's website  

www.danpink.com 

and sampled some of the materials that are available there.  One of the items, a short video titled "Two Questions That Can Change Your Life",

 http://www.danpink.com/video

caught my attention.  It talks about two questions to pose to yourself.  I would like to pose the first of these questions to you.

 

Today's question is:

"What is your sentence?" 

365QOD- Day1

"The key to immortality is to live a life worth remembering"- Bruce Lee


One human wish is to live a long and healthy life.  The ultimate extension of this idea would be to become immortal and never die.  But does dying have anything to do with immortality?  Can one live forever through their work?  Can a short life become immortal?  The answer is yes.  

The name of Isaac Newton will forever be linked with Calculus and Physics.  Albert Einstein will always be linked with E=mc^2.  You get the idea.


The question I would like to pose today is:


What have you done today to become immortal? 

Introduction to 365QOD (Question Of The Day)

"You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created. "
                                                                                                         Albert Einstein

I believe that there are many levels of thinkers.  For our purpose lets assume ten levels.  If Einstein is correct, then a level three problem can not be solved by a level three thinker.  In my opinion, at that level one only becomes aware of its existence.  In order to solve the problem one needs to increase their level of thinking.  Therefore, do not ask for your problems to get smaller BUT work on increasing your level of thinking.

This blog is intended to raise mine and hopefully your level of thinking.  I will achieve this by posting a daily quote and/or a discussion on a topic of interest to me and follow that with a question.  The intent of the question is to inspire you to think about how to apply it or how it already applies to your life.

Hopefully, the daily questions will lead to a healthy discussion and exchange.

Let us begin...

Robert  Trajkovski

February 1, 2011