365QOD-Day573

"50% of all high school students go to college"- USA Today story

Wow!  50% seemed so high. I believe that I read somewhere that 25% of working people have a degree.
So why aren't we thriving and economy bouncing of the roof? 

As a group the college educated have done well during the current recession with only 4+% unemployment.  This is half of the general public. 

Education has provided some security in a volatile situation BUT it has not provided financial freedom for most. It is a wonderful ticket to working for someone else but it seldom translates into working for yourself and making a great living.

The opposite of security is insecurity.  Reality is that the higher our ability to handle the uncomfortable feeling of insecurity the higher our financial freedom.  The best way to increase the level of insecurity wr can handle is to force ourselves to stretch everyday outside of our comfort zones.

Today's question is:
"How much insecurity can your wallet handle?"

365QOD-Day572

"Be Somebody" - graffiti on a Houston bridge

I passed this piece of graffiti the other day and it stuck with me.  Aren't we already being somebody?

After thinking about it I realized that we are who we are but to be someone of influence is to Be Somebody.  Someone who moves others in their thinking, feelings, action, etc.

Today's question is:
"Are you BEing Somebody?"

365QOD-Day571

"Major corporations were founded and thrived, providing significant opportunities for a career seeking individuals.  US Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that today about 50 percent of the college- age population attends college, putting them on faster track to corporate opportunities.  "- Carol Roth

The American dream of 100 years ago is for most people a current reality that is quickly fading.  Most of us go to work everyday working for someone else.  We dream their dream.  Their pockets get lined while ours get slightly full.  Our appetite whetted but never quite quenched.

This is a reality for most of us because fear rules us.  The ingrained belief is that a big company provides security.  We are afraid of striking it on our own and testing the true worth of our talents. 

The good news is that the tests do not have to be abrupt.  I put out a book, get a result, make some changes, get another result, put out a different type of product, etc.  Little tests along the path to financial freedom.  You never know which stream will flow in your multiple streams of income strategy.  Mine might consist of books, presentations, apps, etc. 

Today's question is:
"What are your multiple streams of income that will lead you to financial freedom?"

365QOD-Day570

"My first theory is that people like to give and receive uplifting advice.  Let’s face it – our society is built upon blowing smoke up each other’s asses ( in layman’s terms, giving gratuitous or insincere complements or general good feelings)…. However, our collective unwillingness to engage in a reality check has gotten us in lot of deep doo-doo."- Carol Roth

I found this line while reading the Entrepreneur Equation book.  It is the truth.  We always try to be nice and polite and give people the "best" spin.  Then there are others who like to be brutal with their opinions. 

I always say that the truth is somewhere in the middle.  We have to use the sandwich approach.  Give people a  good point, followed by the bad point, and lastly finish with a good point.  This usually helps the person to recognize that they are doing some good things AND something to improve upon. 

The ratio of 2 to 1 is OK.  In a previous post I discussed the suggestion by another author who recommended 6 to 1 ratio for a marriage to succeed.

Again, somewhere between 2 and 6 is the right answer for a particular situation and person you are dealing with.

Today's question is:

"Have you offered someone a sandwich?"

365QOD-Day569

"If you can not get a miracle, be someone's miracle"- Nick Vujicic

I was flipping channels today and noticed on one christian show a guy sitting on a couch without arms and legs.  He uttered this line and I was captivated.

We are always hoping that our problems will miraculously go away and that we would experience nirvana on Earth.  Well, the reality is that we are spiritual beings having a human experience.  We are given senses in order to experience the world and to eventually awaken to being a spiritual being.

With those thoughts in mind, when I heard this man speak those words I could not help but see that he was farther along on that journey than most of us.  Even though he was the one without arms and legs, he wanted to be someone else's miracle.

Wow!  How unselfish!  Miracle does not mean you actually move a mountain.  It could be helping a person get rid of a personal mountain.  It is whatever that person needs.

Today's question is:
"Have you been someone else's miracle ever?"

365QOD-Day568

"As someone who’s quick to buck common conventions, I know that demolition isn’t hard; anyone can say that everything you’ve ever heard is wrong.  The trick is building something better in its place." - The Entrepreneur Equation by Carol Roth

I have a love-hate relationship with negative people.  They are good for finding what is wrong with your idea BUT often can not offer an alternative.

As Carol says it is easy to destroy people or ideas but the building up part is difficult.  An alternative can easily be offered BUT a better alternative is often hard to generate.

It is the idea of devil's advocate vs. angel investor I wrote about in the past.  The devil's advocate does a good job of demolition and finding faults.  The angel investor believes that the person is close to a solution and often leads the person to discover the missing ingredients of a better solution for themselves by posing questions.

Today's question is:

"Are you a builder or a demolitionist?"

365QOD-Day567

"You must have a keen understanding of your Brand, Outcome, and Differentiator" - Zen of Social Media Marketing Shamna Hyder Kabani  www.zenofsocialmedia.com

In several branding posts I have spoken of the idea of brand.  I have for the last few years attemped to

re-brand myself from being just an Engineer to a cREATOR (with a small c).  In reality I have always been more than just and Engineer since I have also been a professor.

The point is that I believe that in the long run I want when people think of me to associate creativity and deep contributions in multiple fields as my brand.  So that is the B part.

Since I am trying to establish this Brand I have to evaluate how each Outcome fits with it.  My first book The Result is my first attempt in writing a self-help story.  My second Outcome shows ow I have creatively put together 365 thoughts from over 40 different areas and organized them to be more usable.  Recently I put together and printed copies of a 250 page manual for training new Project Managers.  If you do a search on Amazon you will not find it.  I have not made it available to the public because it is not consistent with the direction of the brand.  It is creative BUT it moves me back to Engineer.

So how do I Differentiate myself?  Well, as a working person I still write daily posts, publish at least one book per year, and future books will be on subjects such as: Teamwork, Finance, Time and Energy management, Poverty of the Mind, etc.

Today's question is:

"What is your BOD?"

365QOD-Day566

 “..My intention in branding folks is always to extract what is truly unique, quirky, interesting, and relevant about them and their businesses and then roll that into the offer and consequently the brand.  What’s hooky about you? – Suzanne Falter-Barns www.getknownnow.com

I recently read majority of Zen of Social Media Marketing book by Shamna Hyder Kabani.  She has a website www.zenofsocialmedia.com.

I used to teach MBA courses and often had to teach my students how to write better papers.  The school chose to use the APA format and they strictly focused on the format and forgot how to write an interesting paper.  At times I had to read 20 page papers that were so boring BUT they followed the format.

In order to help them improve I often emphasized the need to hook me within the first paragraph and ideally the first sentence.  In my blogs the quote is typically my hook.

I agree with Suzanne.  We need to understand what is hooky about us.  If you do not know it then you can not sell others on it.

Today's question is:

"What's hooky about you?"

365QOD-Day565

"56% of people found jobs from their network"- 1974 study as referenced in the Tipping Point

I heard this statement and had to rewind the audio book.  The study learned that the network connection was not a friend BUT an associate. What!

You would think that if you are down and out your friends would be the ones that lead you to your next job.  They are not because they tend to be within a close circle that look at the same opportunities and many of times work together. 

The people who you associate with travel different circles and can expose you to different opportunities and ideas.  They can suggest an opportunity that you would not have even heard of or would normally considered.

Consider that this study was done in 1970s.  Today with Facebook and LinkedIn that percentage has to be higher.  We tend to keep in touch with many more people than in the past because messages and email are so quick to construct and do not require much thought.

The Tipping Point book by Malcolm Gladwell also points out that in the past "tribes" tended to be less than 150 people.  This was because people did not feel as connected to other members and did not feel social responsibility to larger groups.

This fact is still valid.  I feel a connection to the 500+ LinkedIn folks I am linked to BUT unless I maintain a direct communication with them that link will become weaker over time.  It is no different than our brain and the neuron that have not fired in a while.

Today's question is:
"Have you refreshed your 'weak' network links?" recently?"

365QOD-Day564

"SUCCESS!...again" - my words

Last week I managed to get something done.  Before my vacation I had submitted my second book to CreateSpace and the inside and outside got approved.  I reviewed the proof copy while on vacation.  Last week I pulled the trigger and made the book available as a paperback.

The process for getting my second book published has forced me to become a better writer and editor.  When I re-read my posts five times I quickly realized that if I had written them better then the re-writing would have taken less time. 

The editing of one's work is also very difficult.  We tend to overlook minor mistakes in our writing so finding those errors is a challenge.  Another thing that adds to the errors is that often we tend to write the way we speak.  I approached the posts with the idea that there are mistakes in them and that I needed to find them before someone else paid and found them.

In the end, I believe that my second baby is just as pretty and smart as the first one. 

What remains to be done is to make it available as a Kindle book.  In order to do this I need to figure out how to separate the book into chapters so that a person reading the book can easily navigate.

... time to celebrate...

Today's question is:
"How do you celebrate repeat success?"

365QOD-Day563

"Man I am proud of them" - my thought

I happen to have two great kids: Stefani and Milan.  They are both gifted academically and athletically. 

This weekend I spend some time with them since my 16 year old daughter is leaving for a year to live in China.  Yes you heard that right.  She left home at 14 to go to a boarding school and now at 16 is leaving the country.

Man! The world is changing and she is embracing the change quickly.  I take my hat off to her.  I do not know of many 16 year old kids that could handle a transition like that.  The amount of change is huge.  For her to thrive in a new environment like that is wonderful.  I am sure she will do well.

Today's question is:
"Could you thrive in a completely new environment(country)?"

365QOD-Day562

"Think BIG" - my advice to myself

In post Day560 I talked about a business man who had a product that he wanted seed money to build a second line.  The offer made to him was for the IP rights.  He did not agree and walked away from the deal.

So I kept wondering how this is related to me?  I have been playing with writing apps recently.  I wrote an app the other week which you can visualize simply as a "glorified" PowerPoint presentation that teaches a person how to solve a particular math problem.  It describes the theory, followed by a couple of completely worked out examples, and lastly it gives a template where you plug in values and it generates the solution.

So what?

Well my idea was to create a few apps and sell them on Google app store.  I kept thinking about my app and this guy's story and could immediately see that a better and bigger idea was to develop a template that would allow people to go from PowerPoint to app.  Cool!

Today's question is:
"Do you think BIG!"

365QOD-Day561

"Can't he see that?" - my reaction

The other day I watched a show called Shark Tank.  It is a show where four venture capitalists have ideas presented to them and if they choose to they invest in an idea that the presenter is selling.  It is an interesting show and often there is no deal.

What make this show interesting to me, that day , was a presenter who had been on the show last year and did not make a deal.  He was offered a sum of $600k for 51% of the intellectual property(IP) rights of his company which produces a cup of wine products.  He has created a method for bottling wine is a glass cup that the big wine companies had not.  So his IP was worth a lot but he was also interested in running his company.

This time around he had generated 5 million in sales and was asking for 300k to install a new line.  The VCs smelled blood again and went after the IP rights so that the technology could be licensed to other companies and he can make more money. 

What was interesting to me was they they offered him money for the IP rights and he chose not to take it.  In my opinion he was stuck on the amount offered and the percent of the IP rights that he was giving away.  What got in his way was that he was in love with running his business and did not want to sell of much for it.  The VCs came from the other side and offered too little for the IP rights.  He should have negotiated better and came to a middle ground.  I would have offered 25% for just the IP rights for a smaller amount that he needed.  The IP rights would have generated more money than he needed for future expansions.  He knew that he will have small future successes and did not want to risk those for the payout with which he was not satisfied. 

Today's question is:
"Are you willing to give up small future successes for a BIG success that is not guaranteed?"

365QOD-Day560

"The greatest friend to change is being discontent"- John Maxwell on Success CD

If you are never truly happy then you have two choices:
1. accept it
2. work to change it

A person who accepts it has "settled".  Besides complaining, a person who has accepted their current state will never do anything to change the situation.

The second type of person looks at change as malleable.  They will try to understand it and if they are bold lead it.  Leading it often results in control. 

The quote above lets me know that John is a driver.  He is not content with his current state and feels that he can do better by doing XYZ. 

Today's question is:
"Do you accept or are you driving your current state?"

365QOD-Day559

"Wow that is cool!" - my reaction

A few days ago I was showing my blog to a co-worker.  I told her the URL and she typed it in.  The blog appeared and I explained to her how I write on over 40 topics. 

While explaining this to her I showed her the label at the bottom of the post.  For the first time, I noticed that the label was clickable.  So I asked her to click it.

What appeared in front of me was all of the posts sorted by that label.  Cool!  While writing my second book this took forever to sort by label the posts.  This little discovery will save me tons of time when I write my next book based on my blog posts.\

Today's question is:
"What little discovery did you make today that changed your world?"

365QOD-Day558

"A morning is a terrible thing to waste" - Laura Venderkam

I have never classified myself as a morning or an evening person.  I can get up at 4 a.m. and start a run just as I used to do midnight runs in college.

For me the lark vs. owl debate is a made up.  You are what you set your mind to be.  If you chose to become a morning person and start getting up early eventually you will become a lark.  Similarly, if you chose to stay up later and later eventually you will become a night person.

Don't believe me? Take a look at kids during summer breaks.  They typically stay up to 1-2 in the morning and get up after noon.  But when school starts they shift into getting up early.  They don't like it but they still manage the change.

Today's question is:
"Do you believe that you can become the opposite type from what you currently are?

365QOD- Day557

"Fair fight is overrated.  I can lose a fair fight!  Give me an unfair fights and the upper hand.  I'll take those odds any day.  " - Real Truth About Success book

This paragraph caught my eye when I was reading this book.  I quickly asked myself why this was not conventional wisdom.  Why do we always want a fair fight?

Is it a cultural thing that we want everyone to have the same odds of winning?  Maybe not?  BUT I do agree that if it is a fight I have to fight then I do not want a fair fight.  I want the odds in my favors so much that the obstacle is minuscule. 

I want to win the fight.  If I can prevent the fight even better.  Even odds might place the win in jeopardy. 

In order to make the fight in my favor I need to marshall resources in my favor.  In my word, resources could be people that support me, tools (weapons) that are useful, and control the location where the fight takes place( I want sun in my opponent's eye).

Today's question is:
"Do you want to win more than it being a fair fight?"

365QOD-Day556

"I don't have the energy to do that" - a lazy person's response

The fourth type of a team member identified in the Real Truth About Success book is:
"The lazy one:"I see it and here's the easiest way to do it.""

Man I love lazy people! They often try to minimize the level of work needed to do the task.  Often times people just want to dive in and start working.  They do not consider the best approach.

This is where a lazy team member could save you a lot of work.  Hell they don't even want to do the work.  They are looking to get out of doing it so if they are forced they will trim he work down to bare essentials.

Today's question is:
"Are you a minimalist?"

365QOD-Day555

"Nope... we can't do that because of XYZ..." - a negative person's response

The third type of a team member identified in the Real Truth About Success book is:
"The negative thinker:"I see it, and I see every problem we'll have along the way."

There is need for negativity in everyone's life.  A healthy dose of pessimism prevents us from following every crazy idea that others offer to us.

BUT when you are in love with the current state and "never" want anything to change then you can be become a negative person.  Even though life through example teaches us that nothing stay permanent, as people we try to find that equilibrium and stay there.

Unfortunately when we are nudged from that equilibrium it takes a significant force to do it.  I believe that we have to approach life from the perspective that we must change our state before life changes it for us.  Then we can control the direction at least.

Negative thinkers are great at identifying the stumbling blocks.  They are usually not good at figuring ways to get over them.   Combining the negative thinking with a little vision would contribute greatly to the team.

Today's question is:
"Do yo find yourself fighting change most often?"

365QOD-Day554

"I agree with that" - a person's response

The second type of a team member identified in the Real Truth About Success book is:
The butt kisser: " I see whatever you see, and it looks fantastic."

Many years ago I was an Engineering Manager and had to attend a weekly 2 hour staff meeting.  The Manager I reported to liked to use the meeting for brainstorming.  Brainstorming meant that he talked and talked and at the end asked his staff for their opinions.  I was one of about 10 people that attended.  It was sickening to listen to the smooch sound around the table. 

Most of the time I was the only dissenting voice or provided an alternative point of view.  So I stopped going to his meetings for a year.  He came into my office one day and told me that I was to attend his meetings.  I said fine.

Next week I attended, complimented him on his new one hour format, and never returned to another meeting.  His butt was kissed.

The only good reason for butt kissers is for moral support.  They can be a great first follower (see post Day13) and help nurture an idea for which many team members might be unsure of.

I am sure that every one of us at one time or another has had to kiss some butt.  That is normal.  But it you have a permanent brown nose then you are doing it too often.

Today's question is:
"Do you agree with most things that your leader suggests?"

365QOD-Day553

"I can see that" - a visual person's response

The first type of a team member identified in the Real Truth About Success book is:
"The vision person: "I see it. I see everything.  I see the future."

The vision person is usually the big idea person.  They can think outside of that box and at times you have to tell them to get back in the box.

Their usefulness comes from idea generation.  They are able to visualize a new future state clearly.  At times that idea excites them more than the current reality so much that they do not understand why the rest of the team does not see their vision as the only way to get there.

Companies often try to get their employees to "brainstorm".  Not everyone can do this easily like the vision people on a team.  So it is important to nurture their ability by allowing them to pursue some of their "visions".  Great examples of companies that do this well is Google and 3M where a certain percentage of each employee's time is spent working on personal pet projects.

Today's question is:
"Can you see the future clearly?"

365QOD-Day552

"Never hire people just like you.  You will double your strengths and double your weaknesses"- unconventional wisdom

I believe that personality plays a bigger role in team effectiveness then anyone gives it credit.  As a leader or a team member you have spend some time looking at the people around you and identify their personality traits.  One example of personality test that many companies use is the DISC profile.  If you look on the net you can find many resources that would help you.

But then what do you do? In the book The Real Truth About Success the author mentions the make up of a team.  Some team member descriptions are very unusual.

A great team
"The vision person: ...
The butt kisser: ...
The negative thinker:...
The lazy one:...
Even though some of these labels have a negative connotation, the usefulness of the type contributes to the effectiveness of the team.  Their points of views differ and the whole is better than each individual.  That is the ultimate sign of a great team.

I will explore these four types in more detail in next four posts.
Today's question is:
"What type of person are you?"

365QOD-Day551

"Doing something you are good at puts the odds of success in your favor.  It is almost impossible to achieve something that is worthwhile without having enjoyed doing it.  Almost all of the most successful people today enjoy doing what they do.  The ones that don't are wasting a lot of their life" Achieve More With Pareto's Law

A while back I wrote a post about an African runner who is the only person to have run 2 miles in sub 8 minutes.  The original story made it sound like as if he simply did it for the money and to provide for his family.  So it is possible to achieve something worthwhile without enjoying it.

I do believe that enjoying it would make it more likely for one to be successful at it BUT it is not sufficient or necessary. 

Today's question is:
"Do you believe that you must enjoy an activity to be successful at it?"

365QOD-Day550

"Your goal is to wake up in the morning, get dressed, put on your shoes and tap dance to work!"- Achieve more with Pareto's Law

This is not reality for most folks.  However, if you go back and read the four posts (Day486-489) about people who live to be over 100 you will note that one of the four characteristics is that they had a reason to get up in the morning. Usually for most people this is related to work. 

This quote does allow us to visualize the joy that someone can have if their life is aligned with their work.   Unfortunately, for most folks their work is simply a job and not aligned with what moves them.  It takes time and effort for people to examine themselves and determine their true passion(s).

Today's question is:
"Is your work aligned with your life mission?"

365QOD-Day549

"What are the few inputs that lead to the many successes?" - a great question

Again, it is hard for most people to answer this question.  You might be one of those folks.

Allow yourself to accept it.  You might philosophicaly want to fight against it being just.  

It is hard BUT realize that you or I might not wish for things to be so for them to be so.

Today's question is:
"Can you allow a belief which you feel is wrong to become your new reality?"

365QOD-Day548

"80/20 is a catch all title"- Achieve more with Pareto's law book

What we are looking for when using the 80/20 principle are patterns where large imbalances occur within a set.  In a previous post I discussed the quote that 20% of the population controls 80% of the wealth. 

Another example could be that 20% of my projects will lead to 80% of the perception other people have about my performance.  Which ones?  You have to spend time and think about the effect and the people affected by the project.  Not all customers are equal.

The point of this imbalance is that it exists.  Be aware and keep asking yourself which few affect the many.
Note that most people do not believe this effect.  They believe that all things are important.  So it will be difficult for them to differentiate.  Reality is that they are wrong.

By learning to differentiate you will learn to control the output and your success.

Today's question is:
"What few inputs will affect your output the most?"

365QOD-Day547

"What?" - my initial thought

This morning I turned the TV on and could not stop watching the gold match between Federer and Murray.  I figured Federer was a given to win.  Someone did not let Murray know that.

So how does a guy who a month ago lost the Wimbledon final come back and on the same court beat the same guy that beat him a month ago?  I figured that he wanted it more than Federer.

I am sure that at that level of play the physical difference between the top players is not great.  I do believe that it does exist but as today proved anyone can beat anyone on a given day if they want it bad enough.

Unfortunately most of time we do not want to win bad enough and find ourselves on the losing side.  Wanting it bad enough requires alignment between mental and emotional dimensions. 

You must create the state by
1. physically train yourself for the battle
2. but also pump yourself to believe that you can win
3. and visualize yourself to truly believe that you can win.

Today's question is:
"How do you connect your physical, mental, and emotional dimensions into a winning state?"

365QOD-Day546

"No matter what country Pareto looked at or what time frame he used, the pattern was always the same: 80% of a nation's wealth was held by 20% of the population"- from Achieve More with Pareto's Law book

Interesting!  So what do you do about it?  If you are one the 99% you get pissed off and protest.  Little will that do to change this ratio.  Just because it is not what you like the ratio to be protesting it will not change it. 

A better question is to ask yourself what are these people doing that I am not doing.  By understanding the thinking of the 20% and their actions you will be in a better position to become one of the 1%.  What do they know and what are they doing that is different from you?  If you say that they inherited their wealth then you are wrong.  Wealth in America seldom a multi-generational.  One generation makes it and another pisses it away. 

Today's question is:
"Do you take action consistent with the top 20%?"

365QOD-Day545

"If we focus on solving a problem, there is no physical connection between the intention to accomplish the goal, the mental effort that follows, and the ultimate solution.  What allows us to go from problem to analysis to solution is the insistence of the mind.  This is what must be understood- what must be realized.  This is the explanation, for all of it: there is no physical continuity anywhere, and everything stems from insistence of the mind" - Deepak Malhotra I Moved Your Cheese

I found this quote while reading the book I Moved Your Cheese.  I didn't care for the book too much but I thought this quote was worthwhile.  (The book negates the original Who Moved My Cheese but I did not see what it proposes as a better solution for change.)

The way I understand the quote is that we can have the physical intention BUT the mental intention is what is necessary to solve a problem.  Nice... BUT how do you create a mental intention?

I believe that whatever we think about most often is our mental intention or as the author phrases it "insistence of the mind".   So if I think consciously about something for a major portion of the day it will most likely make its place into my sleep and unconscious mind.  Often I find that after a good night rest the solution to a problem is in front of me and it is easier to see it.

Today's question is:
"What is your technique to force the mental intention?" 

365QOD-Day544

"Is it possible to pursue happiness if the pursuit itself does not make you happy?"- from the book I moved Your Cheese

This question is very difficult to answer.  If it was about the pursuit of anything else then one would simply stop pursuing the goal.  BUT there is something very different about happiness.

I believe that many people go through life unhappy.  It is not the place they live, the place they work, or the million other pieces of their lives.  They are just unhappy.  They do not appreciate what they have and no matter what they get will still be unhappy.

For someone to pursue happiness then they must have decided that 1. it was missing or 2. they were not happy enough and need more of it.  In either case you would not be unhappy about the pursuit.

Using this logic then the quote above has to be false.  I do believe that we can always improve our level of happiness. If I am having an average "happiness" day then all I have to do is write a blog post or two and it improves.  Although it is not a continuous happiness pursuit for me, I am able to nudge it towards a higher level of happiness. 

Today's question is:
"Are you happy with your life or do you need a nudge?"

365QOD-Day543

"Focus more of who you are becoming rather then where you are going" - advice from an Olympian on CNN morning show

I heard this quote and it immediately made me appreciate the wisdom.  Here was a young woman who is wise enough to know that the destination is important BUT your evolution is critical.

If you achieve your goal BUT despise the person you become then the goal is meaningless. By focusing on your development then any goal that you reach will be consistent with your state.

Today's question is:
"Who are you becoming?"