365QOD- Day999

Bigger Problems

"Don't wish it were easier, wish you were better. Don't wish for fewer problems, wish for more skills. Don't wish for less challenge, wish for more wisdom."-Earl Shoaff

In several previous posts I have talked about the idea of not wishing your problems to go away.  The same thing can be said about complex people in your life.

The quote reminds us that we should strive to be better, more skillful, and wiser than our problems.  I completely agree.  By being more of those our problems will seem smaller and could be managed.

Problems never go away.  They morph into different problems or more difficult version of the same problem.  By being in the now and focusing yourself on solving it you guarantee that you will know how to solve it in the future.  This moves you up to bigger and more challenging problems.  Before you say that you don't want that, remind yourself that bigger problems = bigger $$$.

I wish you bigger problems in your life.

Today's question is:
"What are you truly wishing for at this moment?"

365QOD- Day998

The Start and the End

"Start strong"- my thought

I started doing something this weekend that I have not done in years.  Many years ago I created a time and energy management system that is great.  I followed it for years so I know it works.  But then I stopped.

This weekend I sat down on Sunday night and planned out my whole week.  I placed all of the big pieces that would make the week a success. 

This event made me notice an article on what some CEOs do after work.  They try to cram in a little family time and then go back to working.

Wow! What a lack of balance.  Is doing emails till 12 the best way to recharge for the next day?  I doubt it.

I believe that you should do weekly planning on Sundays, review the plan for the day at the start, and conduct a detailed review at the end of the day.

Today's question is:
"How do you start and end your days?"

365QOD- Day997

My Name is

"HELLO, my name is Scott"-Scott Ginsberg's introduction

Imagine walking around with a paper name tag.  Unless you are in a large meeting, most likely a few people will stop you and tell you that you have a nametag on with the expectation that you remove it.
But what if you want it there by design?

Scott had been doing just that for a few years.  This was a strategic move to make him more approachable.  It helped him land a book deal.

This old story from Success magazine made me think about how approachable we are.  By design, I always have my desk in such a way as not to place a barrier between myself and the person entering my office.  To me, this is critical in being approachable.  People want you see you as approachable before they approach you.  So why crate walls?

In my opinion most people are not aware that they are building walls and that translates into being perceived as not approachable.  If you want to be approachable, tear down the walls.  Be the first to extend your hand.  Smile first and say hello. Our wear a name tag.

Today's question is:
"How approachable are you?"

365QOD- Day996

Learning or Winning

"The great ones treat failure as a necessary part of their journey. It's not win or lose. It's always win or learn," says Eric Lefkofsky, CEO of Groupon

I love the line it is always win or learn.  If you look at experiences as just that then what do we have to worry about.  Either we will win or we will learn.

The win might have taken several learning steps to reach.  It is not guaranteed to occur on our first attempt.  But we should be able to bring it closer in our future attempts by examining each attempt and making intelligent adjustments.  That is the premise of my first book, The Result.

We should always learn from our non-wins as we should not take too much credit for our wins.  Be humble and keep working and learning should always be out motto.

Today's question is:
"Do you always learn if you don't win?" 

365QOD- Day995

Phone Brick
"A lot of people hate changing their phone"-a news story hook
The other day I watched the evening news and heard a story about a young guy who had come up with a way to change the way we update our phones.  His idea was to make the phone modular.
The PC is made up of many sub systems.  If you want a CD drive you put one in.  If you want to add a DVD drive there is a slot for that.  You want to change the video card, take it out and put in a better one.
The story explained his idea by showing that one side of the phone is simply a screen.  Behind the screen was a two sides base into which one side plugged in the screen.  It plugged in pretty much like a Lego  block.
On the other side of the base the user could choose what functions and capabilities were important to them. So you want extra long battery time, plug in two battery blocks. Don't need wifi then take the block out. Don't need a sound card take out that block. Need more memory then add an additional block of memory.
You get the idea.  To this phone block you would add or remove blocks to fit your purpose.  I think that the idea is very interesting but late.  Most of us expect to get a new phone every two years in order to keep up with all of the new changes in capabilities.  We want that new shiny toy. 
I am not convinced that we want to modify our old toy.  Maybe I am wrong? For most of us a phone is a toy, not a tool.  The new and shiny appeals to us.
Today's question is:
"Would you stay with your old phone if you could modify it out do you want a new one?"

365QOD- Day994

Phones are the New Cars

"People used to customize their cars now they customize their phones"-Roland, a barber shop patron

I went to get my haircut today.  This is a once a month event for me.  I always look forward to it because it usually involves having a conversation that dies not fit the mold with another customer.

Roland stated talking about cars of yesterday and how kids in the poorest used to modify them to fit their personalities and show uniqueness.  He said that he felt that today the cell phone is what they modify.

I argued that even though I agree with him on the modifying, it does not fit the same need.  When someone modifies a car they want everyone to notice them.  How do I notice the app you installed that you think is cool.  In my opinion, it is only through purchasing a new phone that you get uniqueness.  But anyone can go out and buy that phone and your uniqueness just disappeared.

Today's question is:
"How do you stand out as being unique?"

365QOD- Day993

Economy for Stupid

"I want to draw a cat for you. I want to draw a cat for you...."-Steve Gadlin

I watched an old segment of Shark Tank season three in which an entrepreneur came on the show, danced for the investors, and asked them to invest 10k for 25% of his company.  He charged about ten dollars to create a drawing and post it on his website so that the person can download it.

When introducing the idea he said, "There is an economy for stupid and I am overflowing with it." I could not resist writing this line down. It made me wonder if he is correct that people want to buy stupid stuff.

If we look back to the seventies we see the pet rock.  Paint a cute look on a rock, put it in a cute box and ship it to people.  Millions later the entrepreneur is laughing all the way to the bank.  Remember the cabbage patch kids? Elmo?

Same types of examples can be found for the eighties, nineties  till today. People are interested in buying things that fit the economy of stupid idea.  The only question is how do we exploit it and make money?

Today's question is:
"What can you contribute to the economy of stupid and make money?

365QOD- Day992

Kicking Your Own

"If we were replaced tomorrow, what would our successors do first?"-Andy Grove question to Gordon Moore

Intel was in the memory business.  They were the industry leader.  But they sensed that the market was changing and that they needed to get out of the memory business.  They debated it for a while.

One day while having a conversation Grove and Moore wondered what would their successors do if they were replaced by the board.  They both looked at each other and said, "Get out of the memory business.  So if they would get out of the memory business, why don't we leave the building, come back in and do the same thing?"

This is an interesting question and deals with how we should all approach our jobs.  If we were to be replaced what would be obvious to our successor to change that maybe we should change.  Maybe we should change it? 

How about on a personal level?  The other day I was listening to am old Shark Tank episode in which Mark Cuban said, "I often ask myself, if I wanted to kick my own a$$ what would I do?"  I thought that this was a personal version of the other question.  We should always be aware of our weaknesses and how someone could use those against us.  Change them,  reduce them , conquer them before they destroy us.

Today's question is:
"How would you kick your own a$$?"

365QOD- Day991

Designing a Life

"Life is meant to be designed- most people just react or fly by the seat of their pants."-Lauren Zander
I believe in destiny.  There have been too many instances in my life where I have seen evidence of the fingerprints of God. With this said, I do believe that Lauren is correct.

We are given a free will to do with our lives what we wish. There will even be instances when we make choices that are self destructive.  I believe that most of us fit the second part of that quote in the we either react or fly by the sit of our pants.

Even with the help of God's fingerprints, we are responsible to design the life that we want.Many years ago I sat for an hour brainstormed a perfect life.  I can tell you that at times portions of that vision were realized but never completely.

A couple of years ago I redid this exercise and what came out was completely different vision of what my life should look like. The life I would design today is different than the life I would have designed in my late twenties or thirties.

Life design could result in a separate blog or book by itself.  In this one post, I want you to think about whether you are the designer of your life or just a spectator.

Today's question is:
"Are you a spectator or an active designer of your life"

365QOD- Day990

Meaningful Life

"It is very difficult to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life.  And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work, or to have meaningful work without all the legs of the triangle."-Jim Collins

In post i described the legs of the triangle: Success, Growth, and Service.  This quote comes from the same article on Jim's teaching at West Pointe and leadership. 

The easy way to visualize this quote is:
Success   => Meaningful=>Meaningful => Great
Growth        Work                Life                   Life
Service

Maybe I am wrong but I do not self identify with the work that I currently do.  It is meaningful work But it is not my life.  Don't get me wrong, I care about being successful, growing, and being of service to others.  I even enjoy it but it is not leading me to a meaningful life.

There have been times when I felt that my work at that time, teaching at a major university, was leading me to a meaningful life.  And maybe if I had stayed on that path it would have led to a great life.  Maybe?  The difficulty was making a living at which you can thrive instead of just survive.

Currently, writing and creating gives me the meaningful work and meaningful life.  I believe that it will eventually lead to a great life.  A life where I spend most of my time creatively.

Today's question is:
"Do you believe that your current work could lead to a great life?"

365QOD- Day989

The Triangle

"Leaders need to know when to become followers and followers need to know when to become leaders."- Jim Collins business guru

While reading the latest issue of Inc. I noticed an article about Jim Collins and his teaching at West Point.  While at West Point he noticed that leadership model that they follow can be thought of as a triangle.  One point of the triangle is made up of Success, second point is Growth, and the last one Service.

A leader has to want Success.  You have to believe that it is achievable.  And you have to want to do your personal best to reach success.

While you are reaching for Success you will taste failure.  Failure is inevitable.  But learning from it is optional.  However, it is learning from it that will lead to Growth.

The last piece is Service.  Without wanting to pull people along on the journey towards success, the journey is not as fulfilling.  Wanting success for them is just as important as wanting success for yourself.

Today's question is:
"Do you believe in the triangle leadership model?"

365QOD- Day988

Overchallenging

"Do I need to go down and get my certificate that says I am the CEO of this company to Get you to stop challenging me in this?"-Jeff Bezos being a jerk

While reading a story in an online issue of Entrepreneur I came across a story that talked about how Bezos like Jobs is a jerk sometimes to his employees.  So why did this catch my attention?

I happen to have a boss with whom I differ on strategy very often.  We even disagree publicly.  I don't disagree without being respectful.  He is the boss.

I might disagree and challenge my boss but the winner is our company.  If ideas are challenged and the best ones implemented then the winner is our company. As long as the company wins then there is no such thing as too much challenging.  If a boss has to pull out his certificate then that speaks of their weakness in persuading others that their idea is the best.

Today's question is:
"Do you overchallenge?"

365QOD- Day987

"Me and my shadow"-words to a song

I was reading an online version of Inc. magazine and came across a story about Jeff Bezos.  In the story it tells how Jeff has a person who is assigned to shadow him and serve as his sounding board.

Some of his shadows held that position for a few years and then became a CEO of a division.  This is a brilliant way to develop the shadow in the way you feel well set them up for success.

In the story Jeff tells that shadow success is defined by each person getting to know the other and then developing trust.  This is very risky since the shadow can then find an executive position elsewhere.

I love this idea but unless you are the CEO how do you apply this idea? I believe that a younger coworker might be interested in becoming a shadow of a more senior employee.  The senior takes the shadow to meetings and then asks them for feedback.  What went good and what went bad?

If both agree to get to know each other and trust each others opinion then both will grow.  It does not have to be full time either.  I say 20% of time overlap is ideal.

Today's question is:
"Would a shadow be beneficial to your development?"

365QOD- Day986

Success Vs. Confidence

"Competence leads to confidence, but not vice versa."-Thomas Chamorro Premusic article Confidence Does not Lead to Success

One of the self help bits of advice that you get is to "fake it until you make it".  If you don't know what to do then simply ask yourself, "What would I do if I knew what to do?" But this article completely disproves this idea.

According to the article there is only a 30% correlation between success and career confidence.  In other words we would only be 20% more accurate than if we just guessed(50/50).  So what does this mean?

Most of us would say that confident people are more successful.  But that does not hold as a truth.  According to the article, being talented makes you more competent which in turn leads to make you more confident and successful.
In other words,
Talent =>competence= >confidence =>success
(TCCS)

The path is one directional.  You can't fake the success hoping to build your confidence which will lead to competence and ultimately result in a talent. It does nit work in that direction.

So how important is talent?  I do believe that we often find some things are easier for us and they appear as talent.  In my life I have taken things that were NOT talents and worked on them until they become easier.  In other words I became competent.  To get to confidence I needed to be passionate about improving and continuing to learn and improve. Doing all this lead to success.  Maybe not as big success as if i started with a talent.

Today's question is:
"What is an example of TCCS in your life?"

365QOD- Day985

Nurture vs. Nature

" The old debate."- my thought

On post 984 I talked about two different ways of presenting information.  My conclusion was that they were both correct.

So what about this question.  In another post I talked about my three books.  I have created what I believe are three wonderful books.  That is the nature part.

But I seriously lack the nurturing part.  I do minimal social media marketing.  After I publish I post them on my Facebook and twitter pages.  But that is it.  And barf on the sales, it us not enough.

My advice yesterday was that we need to train ourselves in one type of presentation and then expand to the second type in order to become more complete.  The same advice follows fire me, now that I have learned how to create and publish, Nurture, I need to spend some time learning and doing the Nurturing.

Today's question is:
"How do you know it is time to move away from Nature and move into Nurture of an idea?"

365QOD- Day984

Six Minutes FortySeconds

"How bad can it be to listen to someone for six minutes and forty seconds?" -my question

This morning before I got my day started I read a couple of stories in Inc. magazine.  They approached public presentations from two completely opposite angles.  What helped me note this was that they were right next to each other but they did not reference each other.

The Pacha-Kucha presentation format consists of forcing yourself to only 20 slides with each one lasting 20 seconds.  So in 6:40 you are done talking.  You stop. This forces the presenter to cut their slides down and to cut to the chase quickly.  I can see this turning into just the facts not a lot of fluff presentation.

Second story talked about Moth storytelling.  In this format you personalize the story to pull the listener in.  So this format is more about taking your time and connecting to the audience.

In other words dry facts vs. touchy moving speeches.  So which one is the right format? Both are ways but you need to determine what your audience needa.

I do feel that we all need to train ourselves on being able to do the 6:40.  This will teach us to focus.  But then go out and also learn how to tell that great story that hooks the audience.  So as I said, both are correct.

Today's question is:
"Can you give a great speech in 6:40?"

365QOD- Day983

Intellectual Risk

"I am smarter than that."- self encouragement

I believe that our intelligence can grow over time.  If we choose to expose ourselves to continuous learning then our whole life will make us smarter.

As you might have noticed, our world is moving at an incredible pace.  If you are not drowning in email then you have not checked it yet.  There are so many channels on TV that you can easily just keep flipping without stopping to see a while show.  How about the number of new books that are published each day?

The world around us provides us with a ton of new data.  It is so much data that we seldom have time to convert it into information.  But we must.  That data can then become knowledge and over time lead to wisdom.

It all starts with exposing ourselves to new information.  Noticed that I said information and not data.  Information is processed data.  It is one step above.

This is where intellectual risk comes into play.  What if we are not smart enough to absorb the information?  Or even better, not smart enough to find the information we need?

365QOD- Day982

Financial Risk

"Money, I got to have it..."-song lyric

I think of each dollar as 100 soldiers.  Ever one of these soldiers deserves our attention and respect.  Without the attention and respect we are exposing ourselves to greater financial risk.

Most of us will easily earn more than a million dollars in our life.  But most of us will never become millionaires.  Why?  It is our exposure to risk.

I believe that our mindsets are not set up to become millionaires.  We tend to expose ourselves daily to poor financial decisions.  Decisions that just take money out of our pocket.  $5 Latte anyone?

We are letting or soldiers go into fights and get wasted.  Even better, we give then away to others by making questionable purchases that have use in only the short term.  This does not allow us to grow our army. We put ourselves in a position where we are constantly trading our time soldiers, seconds, for money soldiers, pennies. In other words, we work to spend.

Today's question is:
"Are you giving away your soldiers?"

365QOD- Day981

Emotional Risk

"This is going to make me cry"-men's ultimate weakness

Many years ago I sat on a beach and read The Power of Full Engagement.  I doubt that a week has passed since that I have not referenced it in conversations.  The book teaches us about four energies we all share: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.

I believe that most of us guys tend to ignore the emotional dimension to our lives.  This choice exposes us to a lot of emotional risk. How?

Suppose your spouse needs one hour per day of your undivided attention.  This might not be a solid hour but split over many smaller chunks of time.  That is what she expects but suppose you only give her 30 minutes for an extended amount of time.  Eventually this creates tension and you will have to spend hours trying to get back on track. These hours are usually spent arguing.

It is the classic pay me now our pay me later.  If you were to average out the time spend connecting with arguing and the approach that uses  daily emotional connection, I bet it will average it to the one hour need.

The difference is in spreading out your emotional risk vs. concentrating it during arguments.  Which one is better?  I believe that setting time aside every day is a better choice.  This way you exercise your emotional muscles ever day and they get stronger.

Today's question is:
"What emotional risk did you expose yourself to today?"

365QOD- Day980

Social Risk

"To be social or not be social, that is the question now."- RT

Remember starting a new job.  You were the new kid on the block.  The one everyone is curious about.

In that one and many other social situations people want to get to know you better.  So how much of you do you reveal?  You want to be social but you also want to be guarded is my advice.  There should be a bit of mystery to you and your life.

I believe that the more people know about us the more social risk we expose ourselves.  With this, I am not saying not to share a portion of your life but sharing everything exposes to many weaknesses.

So what is the right amount?  I believe that 20% of your life is a good guideline.  It is the 80/20 rule.  This leaves a lot of mystery for people to wasn't to find out over time. 

The number will grow over time towards 80 but it should not ever get to100. I believe that this also holds true in relationships as well as marriage.  It keeps the relationship fresh.

Today's question is:
"How much of yourself do yo reveal?"

365QOD- Day979

Risk Profile

"I get a knot in my stomach"-Anonymous

In an article by Jocelyn Glei I learned of five primary types of risks.  I would like to explore these in
next five posts.

First type of risk is physical.  I am sure you have heard the quoted expression.  Physically you feel that what you are about to do will put your body in danger.  You might not get the knot but your hands might get sweaty.  Your ears might get red.  The response is very unique to you as a person.

I mentioned in another post that I do not like to handle snakes.  So I do not.  The risk is a physical
fear.  What if I get bitten?  The reality is that if I handled a snake that the probability of getting bitten is so small.  So my conclusion is to get over this fear next time I am around a snake.  This is my way of using logic to convince myself that the physical risk is not worth fearing.

How about bungee jumping? I also don't care for extreme heights.  So jumping over is a physical risk that the rubber band would break.In reality it is not the fear of heights but fear of jumping into the unknown.

 I better start with the snakes.

Today's question its:
"what do you consider a physical risk?"

365QOD- Day978

Write Badly

"Have the Courage to Write Badly"- title by Herbert Lui

I have to admit that I write badly most of the time.  This should not be a surprise to you.  Since I write with passion I tend to write quickly in order to capture my thoughts and my blogger will substitute words on my cell phone Swype keyboard that I did not intend.

This is an excuse.  When I do take the time to read the posts after creating them i will often find several mistakes easily.  So I can edit my work but due to my rushing I choose not to. At the end of the year I take the time to rewrite the stories before they make it in my boois.  My books are, in my opinion, well written because I have debugged them.

So I find the time to do it properly the second or third time but not the first time.  This is nuts and a waste of time.  So since this is silly I have decided to drop rewriting the story and instead focusing on reading the poorly written pieces out loud before I hit publish.

Today's question us:
"Do you have the courage to write badly?"

365QOD- Day977

Scared of What

"Give no mercy to your FEARS ."- anonymous

Long time ago I read somewhere that we can look at most of our decisions and note why we made them.  How?  Imagine a circle with a line inside it supplying it in half vertically. Write the word faith in the left semicircle.  Inside the right semicircle write the word fear.

Faith is a belief that you can on your own or that you will through some external help from another person or God prevail.  There is no doubt about the end result.  So you move towards it.

The fear side is more complicated.  It is the belief that you can not on your own nor with the help of another person or God prevail.  But more than a belief, you are held into place or pushed back by an invincible force that you will not even try it.  That is the force of fear.

As the quote advises, give no mercy to your fears.  Once they have an inch they will demand a yard.  Push back and say that despite your fear you will push forward.  As Churchill wisely advised, "Never. Never. Never ever give up. Never." Push forward.

Today's question is:
"Is your belief on an issue based on faith or fear?"

365QOD- Day976

Scary

"Despite campaigns aimed at educating both clinicians and patients, studies show that hospital staff comply with hand washing periodicals only 50% of the time"-WSJ article

I was reading a Wall Street Journal article about SwipeSense when this statistic cough my attention. Immediately it make me wonder.

Why would people that know that "since 1880s that hand hygiene decreases the risk for infection and transmission from person to person" not follow the requirement. It is a classical gap between knowing and doing.

SwipeSense is providing sensors and gel dispensers designed to analyze and provide an incentive for the staff to follow the protocol.  But why is the knowledge not enough.

I believe that in this instance doctors feel that they know more than the rest of us and see themselves as above the rest of us. Even thigh their oath emphasizes that they do no harm they are doing harm.  It is their ego that is driving their decision making. 

Today's question is:
"How do you prevent your ego from driving your decisions?"

365QOD- Day975

The Man with Two Watches

"So why do you wear two watches all of the time?"-my question to a friend

Many years ago I worked with a friend of mine whose name is Ivy.  He is a very interesting person with whom I have had many conversations over the years.

The quote above was the start of one such conversation.  I was curious as to why he always wore two watches, one on each hand, at all times.  So I asked the question.

Ivy told me that he has a young wife and that he also has two watches.  Everyday he makes a choice to wear both watches in order for them to be worn.  He said that every night he also makes love with his wife as if it was his last time.

I could not resist asking why?  His answer was that he did not want to die and for some guy to come in and find brand new watches and a wife that had not been loved.  So he lived his every day trying to use to the fullest what made up his world in order for their value to be zero to anyone else.

Today's question is:
"Do you appreciate and use everything in your world?"

365QOD- Day974

Both Sides are Idiots

"I hate both political parties equally."-my words

I am saddened that the two parties are full of politicians that are holding our country hostage.  This is not what our founding fathers intended. Consider a few issues.

The country needs a basic health plan.  I do not think it should take 2000 pages that no one has read to formulate it. There is no western country without basic health care plan.  Why are we different?  Because medical lobbyists write the laws and politicians get paid by them. 

Our medical system is broken.  When someone without insurance goes to an emergency room for basic care then all of our costs go up.  Do young people need the same coverage as elderly or middle age folks? No.  So a plan needs to be formulated for 20-30 year old and older people that is different and cheep.

The other issue is spending.  It is amazing to me that when either party is in power that they do not decide to control spending.  Fir example, the Republicans like their wars and police actions around the world.  We have gone from the most admitted nation to the most hated in the last 30 years. 

The Democrats like their social programs.  This is their way of employing more people that will vote for them next election.  By spending on programs that do not work, they prevent the creation of programs that will work.

Neither party cares about the little working guy.They give lip service.  What they care about it getting reelected.  If they do not follow their own party line they will get kicked out by their own.  They serve the party not us.  Thus is why an Obama white house member said that "they are winning" on this government shutdown.  They care about getting reacted more than fixing the problems.  Sad.

Our forefathers wanted statesmen who would argue the issues and do what is best for the country.  They were intending for people to go to Washington for a few years and dedicate themselves for the best of the country. 

This is not what we got now.  We have a group of people that only care to last long enough to get their pension and lifelong medical.  This is because they see it as a job instead of service to the country.  We deserve better.

Today's question is:
"Would you be willing to vote out every currently elected official?"

365QOD- Day973

Too Many Questions

"Life is to short to be wasted in finding answers.  Enjoy the questions!"-Paulo Coelho

One of these days I am going to take all of the questions from my blog and put them in one document and reread them out loud.  I believe it will be hard to just read them.

By now you should know that I enjoy posing questions to think about.  Rarely do I get upset if the answer does not pop out immediately.  I do not expect it.  If it is a worthwhile question then the answer will also take time to arrive.

So how does one enjoy the question?  I believe that by letting go and not expecting the answer is the way to enjoy the question. I also think that this also places the question in our subconscious.  So your brain is really working on the question when you do not think you are working on it.

Unfortunately we are often to eager to ask or next question that we might not even hear the answer. It is the pause that allows the answer to come up.

Today's question is:
"Can you enjoy the delay to the answer?"

365QOD- Day972

Start or Stop Talking

"When you approach two peorple talking, you will be acknowledged in one of two ways.  If the feet of their torsos stay in place and they twist only their upper torsos in your direction, they don't really want you to join the conversation.  But if their feet move to include you then you know that you are truly invited to participate."-Carol Kinsley Goman

 I saw this line on the Behance web page and immediately recognized the feelings.  There have been times when I felt uncomfortable stepping into a situation between two petiole.  And there have been times when I got smiles and was warmly welcomed.

I believe that the secret is your smile. If you approach the situation with a great attitude then you are most likely will be welcomed.  If internally you are judging yourself not  worthy of being there then your vibe will keep you out.

The author adds that this is also true for when conversations are over.  A coworker who seems to be paying attention with their upper body angled toward you but their legs and feet are towards the door, is signaling that the conversation is over.

So start paying attention to peoples upper and use body positioning as a way of telling how people feel.

Today's question is:
"How do you know that you are welcomed or done with?"

365QOD- Day971

Of Service

"We know we need to listen, but that is not enough.  More impotently we need to execute and give or customers what they have been asking for- and fast"- Alison Johnson Marketing VP at Apple

When I was young I remember my mom telling me that when someone asks me to do something that they mean right now.  According to my mom, doing what they ask you to do tomorrow has less of an impact.

As adults we tend to delay our execution.  Alison reminds us that we need to give the customer what
they want and it must be done quickly.  So if we fail to execute then we definitely fail at fast execution.

I believe that we live in an ADD world.  We are all running around trying to do too much at once.
We do not know how to say no.  This is why we over commit and under perform.  By saying no we could reduce the over comer portion and improve our performance.

We need a pull system instead of a push system.  In this system we pull a job when we are done with one.  Not just simply adding jobs without finishing one.

Today's question is:
"Have you ever used a pull system?"

365QOD- Day970

My Brand

"Your app is your brand now"-Peter Coffee article title

Earlier this year I published an app called Business Academy.  It was my first app and it allowed me to figure out how to go from an idea, through design, to formatting it for publishing, to getting it published.

The title of this story caught my attention.  The app that I designed was not intended to be my brand but a simple experiment.  It does fit the cREATOR with a small c brand that I am trying to build for myself. So maybe the title fits me?

I mentioned in another post that before creating a new product and putting it out I always ask myself if the product fits my brand.  If it does not then I need to consider producing and publishing it under a creative name in order not to dilute my brand.

Today's question is:
"What do you stand for?"

365QOD- Day969

What are you chasing?

"If money is your hope for independence you will never have it.  The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability."-Henry Ford

I am chasing financial freedom.  What this means to me is being able to stop having to go to work everyday and work on my creative projects full time while earning more than I earn now.  According to Mr. Ford, the road has three requirements.

I need to have the knowledge(K)to create the products that the world needs. This knowledge could be how to write, how to edit, how to market, how to sell, etc.

Second requirement is experience(E).  I still do not have marketing experience.  I can produce my products but I have no clute on marketing the products to mass audience. Selling is also a weak spot.  I have improvers my writing and editing.

The third piece is ability(A). Just because I know what to do, experience doing it in the past, I still need ability to do the work at an exceptional level.  Some could be Good given and most needs to be developed.

Today's question is:
"Do you see how KEA plays a role in your independence?"