365QOD- Day1118

Why is a Dangerous Question

"Why is the most dangerous question?"- my observation

As a parent one of the things that drives most parents nuts is a child that repeatedly asks why.  The child keeps drilling until the parents finally snaps with, "Because I told you so."  Not a great position to be in.

In business the 5-Why technique is actually used to get to a root cause of failure.  I like to refer to the 5-Why technique instead as the n-Why technique and not limit myself to 5 whys.  Although most root causes can be discovered within 5-7 whys. Each time you ask why you want to understand the cause and the data that supports that belief.   BUT be careful not to use it on your boss too many times.  They might not appreciate your search for the root cause and feel threatened.

I believe that the n-Why technique is best applied to our own life.  Life?  Often we do not even question why we do anything in our lives.  For example,

Why did you get up this morning?
Why do I eat what I ate for breakfast, lunch, dinner?
Why do I do the work that I do?
Why do I live where I live?
...

Keep drilling until you feel pain and you feel you have identified the root of why?  The answers you get might surprise you and inform you.

Today's question is:
"What is your favorite Why question?"

365QOD- Day1117

Are You Filling or Fulfilling?

"Are you filling time or fulfilling your time?"- my question

The most precious thing in life is time.  A lot of people fool themselves into believing it is money.  Money can be made, lost, and recovered BUT time can only be lost or spent well.

So what constitutes spending time well?  As I have mentioned many times before, to me the most important driver is creativity.  If I can get creativity into my day then the day feels better spent.  I feel fulfilled.

What about days when I let the grind get in the way of creativity?  Well those days are filled with activities but not necessarily with things that are important to me.  For some days that is OK.  It is a part of working for someone else.

BUT if majority of my days are filled with activities that benefit others then I need to reshuffle them or spread the tasks out so that I can get some of my own creative work inserted.  This allows me to be re-charged while accomplishing tasks for others.  If I was solely focused on others then I eventually become drained.

Remember how on planes they ask you to put your mask on before putting one on a loved one.  This principle for me means fulfilling should come before filling.

Today's question is:
"Are most of your days fulfilling or filling?

365QOD- Day1116

Thinking Outside the Box

"Re-Inventing the Flashlight!"- my surprise reaction

Yesterday I read an article about a 16 year old, Ann Makosinski, that invented a flashlight that uses the heat from her hand to power an LED flashlight.  Impressive!  Not only is she 16 year's old but she figured out how to power a flashlight by using the heat of her hand.

I remember about 18 years ago teaching a introductory circuit analysis course.  After covering direct current techniques I told the class that they knew enough to become millionaires.  They laughed at me.  They did not believe me.

I drew a diagram of the simplest circuit possible which had a power source and a simple load(a resistor).  They laughed again.  I said that this simple circuit could become a key warmer or a baby bottle warmer powered off a car cigarette lighter.  They stopped laughing.  The beauty of the simplicity of the circuit fooled them into believing that it was of no use.  They had placed themselves in a box.

Ann used the same circuit consisting of a bulb, a switch, battery, and battery case.  She simply replaced the battery with a difference between the outside of an aluminum case and peltier tiles on inside of the case.  The difference between the two temperatures creates, the peltier effect, the power needed to power the LEDs.
The reason she was successful is that LEDs require less power that older types of bulbs.

The bigger idea is that she took something whose design has not changed much since it was created and figured out an innovative way to re-design it.  It made me think why no one thought about it before.  Maybe some great ideas are a low hanging fruit that no one is noticing.

Today's question is:
"What else could be powered using this idea?"

365QOD- Day1115

Three Questions

“Question 1: What do I actually do best of all?

 Question 2: What do I care about?

  Question 3: Who needs people like me?”- Andrea Kay, USA TODAY

I read  an article by Andrea Kay in which she poses these questions.  But whether you are looking for a job or not, these questions are important enough to pause and ask yourself.  So I am going to get personal and answer them.

So what do I do best of all?  I have worked in steel, academia, consulting, refining, and chemical plants.  What I have done best in all these arenas is to use my creativity to create products and solve problems for my employers.  I am energized when it involves using creativity to solve a problem.  Immediately I enter a state of flow.

What do I care about is a little tougher for me to answer.  If I say I care a lot about lots of things then in my world that is like saying I care about nothing.  The all answer is no answer.  I have noted that this answer changes for me at critical junctions in my life.  When I was leaving steel I asked myself this question and the answer was how people learn.  When I was leaving academia to go back to industry it was to apply my knowledge and presentation skills and see if the results would be different during my second stint in industry.  If I had to answer it now I would honestly have to say that what I care the most is to lead teams that create products and content that change people’s thinking, improve their lives, and solves their problems.

Who needs people like me? I believe that I can walk into a new setting, quickly understand the rules, improve the situation by removing hurdles, provide leadership, and coach the team to a better state.  A company which needs a great leader for a team that will strive to achieve groundbreaking results.  Yes!  That is the company who needs a leader like me.  Notice I did not specify industry or a specific company because my skills are transferable across industries. 

Today’s question is:

“Are you brave enough to pause and ask yourself the three questions?”

365QOD- Day1114

Unexpected

“But Life inevitably throws us curve balls, unexpected circumstances that remind us to expect the unexpected. I’ve come to understand these curve balls are the beautiful unfolding of both karma and current”- Carrie Otis

I am like a kid in a candy store.  I look around and see beautiful candy for the taking.  Often times I walk out with nothing in hand.  That is the problem of having too many choices. 

Recently, I have started posting my blog posts on LinkedIn.  This is an audience that I had not approached with my blog.  I tended to always just post to Facebook and Twitter but because there was no button on blogger to just press and post I never posted to LinkedIn. It is my new candy.

So after posting about my blog for a month or so I am noticing a trend.  On the average I get anywhere from 50-100 views per post at this time.  My goal is to drive this into thousands.  But that is just a number.

What is interesting is that after I advertise a post the number keeps creeping up over time.  This creeping is very unexpected because what it showing me that people are taking the time to scroll down their updates for more than a day.  I expected them not to. 

Unfortunately, LinkedIn does not allow me to look at all of my updates from the beginning to see the true numbers for my oldest posts.  A least I do not know how with a free account. 

Lastly, the most unexpected result out of all of the posts is that the one on Giving Stuff Away only got 29 views and it never grew.  That one boggles my mind.  Why is that topic of absolutely minimal interest to LinkedIn members?  That is the unexpected curve ball.

Today’s question is:

“What unexpected observation have you made recently?”

365QOD- Day1113

The Past, Present, and the Future

"So how do I use nexting and later?"- my question

In a couple of posts I discussed the concepts of nexting and later.  These two concepts in a sense are our way of controlling the near future and predicting the long term future.

For a moment think about a past event.  I bet you will be able to recall it fairly easily.  During your recall even things you can not remember will be filled in.  There will be no black holes in your movie of your past.

How about a future event?  Can you describe it in detail?  Of course you can.  Again no black holes in your movie about your future.

So our brains play a trick on us.  Things that happened long time ago or have not happened at all are completely filled in with details.  The brain is so good at this fill-in game that it is scary.

The reality however is truly different.  According to Daniel Gilbert, our near past and near future are very concrete.  They are the concrete how.  We can recall the details very well of how something played or will play out.

BUT when it comes to distant past or long term future we are dealing with the fuzzy why.  We gave a general idea of what happened and why we want it to happen the way we want it BUT we forget the details and the mind fills in the fuzzy parts with what seems real to us.  We have to become more aware that the brain is filling these details and making it appear real.

Today's question is:
"How do you become more aware of the fuzzy past and future?

365QOD- Day1112

Later

"What differentiates us from other animals?"- a great question

A few posts ago I wrote about the concept called nexting.  Nexting is the brain's way of filling in what it believes will happen next.  BUT monkeys can do nexting.

What humans can do that no other animal can not do is plan for long term future.  We have the capability to plan future beyond the near future.  We can plan our bucket list.  We can plan our lives 1, 5, 10 years in the future.

So combining the near future prediction with the ability to plan long term make us unique.

As we learned in the nexting post, nexting fails us when we are surprised by the completely unexpected.  Because it is in the neat future we can quickly realize when we are wrong.  Predicting the 'later' is a bit more challenging.

Unless we have a specific date when something will happen it is easy to put off whether something will happen or not.  For example, graduating from a college usually happens in four years BUT sometimes it happens in 4.5 or even 5 years.  As long as we graduate the time difference is not that important.  So planning the later gives us general direction for our long term future.

Today's question is:
"How well do you plan your life years in the future?"

365QOD- Day1111

Selection vs. Rejection

“Either you are pregnant or you are not.  There is no such thing as half pregnant.’- words of advice

For most of us worlds are very gray.  We tend to live with compromise positions.  By definition, compromise position is a loose-loose position.  Both sides loose.

Imagine having a choice between going to two vacation spots.  One is Averagonia where everything is average: the beaches, the food, the hotels, the people.  Second one is Extregonia where the beaches are great, the people are not friendly, restaurants food is great BUT hotel rooms are not so clean.  When most people are asked to chose where they would rather go they most often chose Extregonia. 

But now imagine a slightly different situation.  You have tickets for both and you need to cancel one.  Which one would you cancel?  Most people cancelled the Extregonia.

So we are both selecting Extregonia and rejecting it.  Amazing!  Why?

It was determined in experiments that when we select something we base it on positive attributes.  But when we reject, we reject based on negative attributes.  Marriages are perfect examples.  We choose our mates because of their positive traits and if we decide to get divorced we reject them because of the things that we hate about them.

Today’s question is”

“How do you select or reject?”

365QOD- Day1110

Fearcast

“Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.”- William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

I have always loved this line.  It plays off of extremes.  Most of us would not classify our selves as a coward or as a valiant person.  And that is where the problem can be found.

Because we are not at the extreme then our behavior tends to be unpredictable.  We do not fear everything or we do not fear anything.  We fear some things.  Some things is very hard to predict.

So what does our mind do to compensate for fears?  The mind tries to forecast the future.  Unfortunately, because the future is uncertain it uses fear as a part of its forecast.  In other words,

                                Forecast=Fearcast

Even though we so not fear everything, some of the things we fear get enlarged and become the fearcast of our future.  So how do we stop?  We must take each one of our fears, taste it, chip at it, whittle  it down until it has no power over us.  Then move on to your next fear.

Today’s question is:

“Are your forecasts mostly fearcasts?”

365QOD- Day1109

Levels of Poor Service

“Worse than stupidity, ignorance, care-less- ness and lack of respect for your customer -- IS ARROGANCE ! “- Greg Burns

I was doing some search about a LinkedIn issue I was having when I ran across this comment by Greg.  It was so full of energy that immediately I wanted to capture it.  And of course write about it.

We all have customers and bosses.  Some even believe that the customer is truly our boss.  Being human, we all make mistakes in dealing with others.  It makes sense to think about the mistakes in having levels of bad service.

I see this quote as describing these levels of service.  If we are just stupid then the customer will see that and not want to do business with us because we are not able to help them get what they need.  At this level, we do not even get a chance to try.

Next level below is ignorance.  It is not intentional and we simply just do not know how to help them.  At this level we are asked but we decline because we do not know what needs to be done to help the customer.  At this level, we are asked but know that we do not know how.

Below the ignorance level is care-less-ness and lack of respect.  At this point we have been given the opportunity but we fumble it.  We just do not perform up to standard that the customer expects.  At this level, we believe that we know how but we execute it poorly.

The bottom level of service is the arrogance.  You are so full of yourself that you understood what the customer wants that you are going to give it to them.  BUT the customer definitely does not want what you are giving.  At this level, we are certain that we know how but we execute the wrong thing.

Today’s question is:

“What level of service are you providing to your customer?”

365QOD- Day1108

Be Busy, But Not _______

“Feeling like you’re doing busywork is often the result of saying “Yes” to things you are not absolutely excited about. Be sure to say “No” to things that don’t make you say, “Hell yeah!” We all have obligations, but a comfortable pace can only be found by a person willing to say no to most things, and who’s able to say “Yes” to the right things.”- Gregory Ciotti 99U article on 7 Habits of Incredibly Happy People

I tend to say yes to too many requests.  I always try to squeeze the request in.  My motto has always been. “If you want  something done, give it to the busy person.”  A busy person is not looking for a reason not to do it but just to get it done.  They want to efficiently get the job done in order to move on to the next thing on their plate.

Notice that the Be Busy, But not Rushed is the first of the 7 habits.  I always felt that being busy is good.  But only lately have I come to appreciate the dangers of rushing.  People can get hurt easily.  Quality suffers due to rushing.

I never had a rule for saying no.  I love the line, “Be sure to say ‘No’ to things that don’t make you say,  “Hell Yeah!”  It is simple.  I can imagine that it will still not be easy to follow.  But at least it gives me a guideline for saying no.

Today’s question is:

“When is the last time you said ‘Hell Yeah!’?”

365QOD- Day1107

Success Trap

“Failure’s hard, but success is far more dangerous.  If you’re successful at the wrong thing, the mix of praise and money and opportunity can lock you in forever.”- Po Bronson author

I believe that people suffer two types of fears when it comes to success: fear of failure and fear or success.   Both can be crippling and eventually bring you back to where you were before you started the journey. 

And what can happen if you succeed? This is where Po’s quote comes in.  You have succeeded and now fall in love with the money.  The success is providing you with an opportunity that can lock you in forever.  You are being praised by all around you as a genius.  You feel as if this job is meant to be yours forever.

But what if you are successful at the wrong thing?  Are you judging success by the money or how your success fulfills you?  If you are judging it by money alone, then this can become dangerous.  Money is easy, and fulfillment and life-rewarding are difficult. 

Today’s question is:

“Are you successful at the wrong thing?”

365QOD- Day1106

Obligatory Picture Taking

"No thanks."- an unusual refusal to take a picture by someone I know

When I see a couple taking pictures of each other, I love to step in and to offer to take a picture of the couple.  I believe it be kind.  People these days tend to take their pictures with a cell phone camera.  They do not have a tripod type of phone holder so they tend to take turns taking pictures of each other.  I sometimes joke that if I do not take a picture they will never know that they were together.

Amazingly, almost 100% of the time when I offer to take a picture the couple pleasantly is surprised and very grateful.   They realize that the person is giving them a gift.  In is not uncommon that they offer to take your picture in return.

So the other extreme of not wanting to take a picture was a shocker for me the other day.  Especially from someone I know.  I did not even have an ulterior motive of wanting a picture in return.  It made me wonder why anyone would turn down a picture to be taken of them and their wife.  I am still scratching my head.

Today's question is:
"Why would you turn down a picture request?"

365QOD- Day1105

Channels of Communication

"Who needs to know?"- my question to myself

While managing projects it is very easy to overlook a critical stakeholder.  A stakeholder is someone that can positively or negatively affect the projects.  So not communication with stakeholders could be disastrous.

Let us consider the number of communications between people.  Suppose two people are talking between each other.  There exists only one channel of communication.  This channel has both back and forth direction but it is still only one channel.

By definition, there exist

                          n*(n-1)/2 

channels between people.  For two people, n=2, it is 2*(2-1)/2=1.  If we consider three people, n=3, then 3*(3-1)/2=3*2/2=3.

Most teams that I work with have ten people or more that are stakeholders.  For n=10, then the number of channels is 10*9/2=45.  I have to be aware that there are 45 potential channels that are taking place that I might not be informing, managing, or controlling.  This is very critical to a team's success and needs to be carefully managed.

Today's question is:
"How many people are stakeholders on your project?"

365QOD- Day1104

Reviews

“There are 600+ reviews 4star reviews”- an observation in Yelp

Today I went to breakfast in Austin.  Before going there, I wanted to see what great French bakery restaurants there were.  So I turned to Yelp.

While looking through the reviews I noticed this one restaurant that had an enormous number of reviews.  My thought was 600+ reviewers can not be wrong.  To me these reviews are no different than passing a restaurant that is overflowing with people.   All those people can not be wrong.  Well, I have to say that my breakfast was just slightly better than average.  The coffee was great but the food was not the best.  So should I take the time to write an average review.  I won’t. 

Maybe that is the problem.?  People that have great or extremely poor experiences feel compelled to comment.  The rest of us that have an average experience do not.  This seriously skews the ratings. 

We can probably assume that 20% of the reviewers had a bad experience and 80% a great one. 

If we do the math for a 100 reviewers: (on scale 1-bad 5-great) and 100 average reviewers that did not comment.

NewAverage100= (20*1+80*5+100*3)/200=3.4  in other words slightly above the average score of 3.

Similarly for 600 users, 120(20% negative), 480 positive(80%), with 600 average no comments.

   NewAverage600= (120*1+480*5+600*3)/1200=3.6  in other words  above the average score of 3.

So with 600 reviews the numbers show that I should have a better than average experience.  This was the case: slightly better than average.

I believe that we should take the time to provide average reviews.  This way we will get a better feeling for the reality before we experience it. 

Today’s question is:

“Have you ever taken the time to turn in an average review?”

365QOD- Day1103

Ordering From the Right Side of the Menu

“I always order the same thing I had last time when I go to that restaurant”- anonymous

I was having a conversation with a friend about food.  She told me that she often goes to the same restaurants and orders the same thing.  Her husband on the other hand orders something else that she fancies and takes samples of it.  I immediately saw a post idea.

I believe that most of us order from the right side of the menu.  What is the right side of the menu?  The price list.  We make financial decisions instead of taste decisions.  We choose the chicken because it is priced at 7.99 instead of the shrimp at 13.99.  Why?  Because our belief is that we should not overspend and it was ‘good enough’ last time.

My challenge to my friend was next time she goes out is not to look at the menu at all.  Let everyone else decide what they want.  Talk with them while they are deciding and when it comes down to choosing simply point to one of the people at the table and say, “I will have the same thing.”

I believe by doing this it will allow her to try something new.  It will get her out of the pattern of same food every time.  Hell, she might just get to start looking at the left side of the menu.    Not that money is not important, but maybe the choice will become less about the money and more about what she really would enjoy.

Today’s question is:

“Do you order from the right or the left side of the menu?”

365QOD- Day1102

Pavlov’s Phone

“…and then he would ring the bell and the dogs would salivate without the meat.”- my recall of the story

Ivan Pavlov was a 19^th century physiologist who worked with dogs to demonstrate the effects of classical conditioning.  In his experiments he would present dogs with a food while ringing a buzzer at the same time initiated the dogs to salivate.  The dog, over time, starts associating the food with the buzzer.  Eventually when the buzzer is sounded the dog starts to salivate whether there is food or not because the dog expects it to show up.

What made me think about this story is how we have become like Pavlov’s dogs when it comes to our phones.  It is hard not to notice the similarities.  I believe that most of us associate the incoming call or text with some pleasurable response that we find hard to ignore.  If a phone buzzes we go into a state of anxiety that we come out of once we know who is trying to communicate with us and we answer.  What is very interesting is the feeling that we must immediately respond to the buzzing.

Test yourself next time your phone buzzes.  Observe how your body reacts and try to ignore the call.  I promise you that the world will be OK if you are not available 24/7 (24 hours seven days a week).    How does it feel?  Are you stressed that you did not answer it?  Worried that you are missing out on something?  I believe that most people feel that way.

I believe that by responding on your own terms you will break the conditioning pattern.  The loop consists of the buzzer(stimulus), the repeated pattern(you rushing to answer  the noise), and reward(you feel connected).  Create another loop such as: if buzzer rings(stimulus), you start counting till 100, take and release 10 deep breaths, and when it is convenient answer the phone.

Can you do that?

Today’s question is:

“How addicted are you to the buzzer?”

365QOD- Day1101

Nexting

“It was a cold and dark avocado”- paraphrase of Daniel Gilbert line in Stumbling on Happiness

This morning I started listening to  a book called Stumbling on Happiness.  So far the first CD has got me captivated.  He is the guy that does the commercials about financial planning. I am sure you have seen the Age Stickers commercial.

The line above is something that he uses in his book to prove a concept.  The brain is used to predicting what will happen in the near future-nexting.  This prediction is shattered by the word avocado.  You were expecting night and then you got hit by avocado.

Interestingly, nexting is not only common to humans but also found in other animals.  At this point you are thinking, “So what?”  Well, just knowing that we are nexting allows us to experience surprises.  Surprises are the unpredictable avocado.  And we either enjoy the avocado or we do not.

The reason for this post is to make you stop and think for a moment how powerful this urge is for us to predict the near future.  It brings us the feeling of certainty.  This is one of our fundamental needs.  But guess what?  Uncertainty is also one of our needs.  Who said God did not have a sense of humor?

Today’s question is:

“Do you notice when you are nexting?”  

365QOD- Day1100

Giving Stuff Away

“Get rid of one thing each day for a month.”- advice in a story about TheMinimalists.com site

The other day I wrote a post about starting a habit of drinking one liter of water per day.  I explained how tough it is to add a new great habit because it has no emotional connection.  You can intellectually know that it is a great thing to do.  BUT to get emotional about it is tough and thus it is hard to set up a path to success.

How about the reverse side?  Getting rid of stuff we own is just as tough.  You can intellectually decide that to get rid of or give away something that you are not using is a great thing to do.  The mind can see that you are not using it and that someone else could benefit from it. 

But again the emotions get in the way.  The shirt that you want to give away is the same shirt that you have a memory attached to it.  You can clearly see the day that you did X while wearing the shirt.  Man giving the shirt away is like wanting to eliminate the memory out of your past.  So of course you hang it back in the closet.

I believe that this exercise is very tough but worthwhile.  Adding good things and subtracting things we have outgrown should be automatic.  The lesson in my opinion is that we should always adapt to change.  This way when change is forced upon us it is easier to adapt and survive.

The clutter in our lives is not just physical.  That type of clutter is the most visible because our closets and space can visually be seen bulging and needing to be cleaned.  Mental clutter is easy to not so easy to notice until we feel overwhelmed by the stress overload.  So maybe we need to get rid of one of each?

Today’s question is:

“What is the last and the next thing you will give away?”

365QOD- Day1099

Modular Design

"Project Christine is a computer that can be assembled and upgraded quickly, without technical knowledge, by plugging a series of plastic modules containing its components into a central dock"- Razer company's idea

Many years ago I used to teach an A+ certification course.  In this course we would teach the student hardware and software concepts in the design of computers.  It was a cool class that I wish I had taken when I was starting college.

On the first day of the course I would describe how a computer was designed internally.  I would sketch the internals and tell a story of how the modular design can be thought through from power supply to drives.  Shortly after walking through it, I would ask several volunteers to repeat the story.

After the lecture part, one to one and a half hours, I would walk the students to a lab and had each one of them completely disassemble a computer down to empty case.  The students were instructed that they could not leave  to go home until the computer was put together and running. Amazingly, 100% of the students succeeded.

What is neat about Razer's computer design is that it is even more modular than most computers.  But Project Christine takes this concept to an extreme.  The plastic modules simply snap into a back plane that has a power and communication bus. Wow!  You do not even have to take the computer apart.

Today's question is:
"What you work on that can be reduced into modules?"

365QOD- Day1098

Credit

"Credit is dead.  Long live credit"- my take

I believe what is going on with regards to credit cards in this country is pretty scary.  If you have not noticed, there have been several break-ins into major retailer's customer data.  Millions of people's sensitive data have been captured by hackers.

So why is this important?  Our economy in the US is a credit based economy.  Most people use credit cards to make purchases and delay pay for them later.  This process creates profit for the credit card people and provides access to credit for most people.

But what happens when that access is no longer desirable?  What if people become panicked that their information will be attacked and sold?  In my opinion, people will go back to using cash.  But most Americans do not even have 2000-3000 in savings available to handle most emergencies.  So this leads me to believe that they will reduce their purchases.  If people reduce their purchases then the merchants make less money, credit card companies make less, and the economy starts to stall.

This is easy to understand but hard to predict as to when it could occur.  I believe that early adapters have already started to not use credit cards.  For the large majority to switch it will take a few more major break ins that get publicized.  A break in Best Buy, Target(already done), Walmart, Apple, and several other key large stores would bring the system to a halt.

I am hoping that this will not happen.  But I do believe that we are under attack from internal and external hackers that eventually will lead to the breakdown.  I hope governments make it very painful for the hackers in order to deter this from happening.

Today's question is:
"What would make you stop using your credit card?"

365QOD- Day1097

Useful Advice

“Now I want you to remember this.”- a parent’s urging to a child

My blog is my way of fulfilling my creativity.  It allows me to capture ideas, thoughts, and stories.  I freely share those with the world.  However, my ultimate desire is for my own kids to read and learn from the blog posts.  Selfishly, they are the ones that I want to help the most.  I often ask myself if what I am writing would be helpful to them. 

The other day I read an article by Dharmesh Shah which struck a note with me.  It is titled, 12 Things I want to Teach My Toddler About Work.  I think that his 12 ideas are great and will add a label ‘for my kids’ with which I specifically will identify as advice that I want to pass on to them.

The first advice that Mr. Shah offers is

“1. Gather knowledge... but also gather knowledgeable people - You can't know everything. But you can know enough smart people that together collectively know most of what you need to know. Work hard on getting smarter. Work harder on getting smart people on your side. Together, you will be able to do almost anything.”

I believe that we often focus on and tell our kids to gather knowledge too much in their lives.  It is the old ingrained belief that by simply going to school we will land that impressive job that will be our security blanket for the next 40 years before we retire. 

Don’t get me wrong.  I do believe that school is important but not for that reason.  It is important if you focus on learning how to learn.  By learning how to learn you will become very secure in your future.

The advice in the quote is to also focus on the people part.  I completely agree with him.  Working with people who are smarter than you will force you to raise your level and improve the problems that you together can solve.  Never be afraid of having people around you who are smarter than you.  As a matter of fact, join new groups if the people around you are not smarter than you. 

The words of caution I want to raise is not to ignore practical people.  Practical people are often execution driven and might not seem as ‘smart’.  Their smartness is in being able to take theoretical ideas and make them practical so that they can be executed.  I would modify the quote into, ‘gather knowledgeable people- both smart and practical’.

Today’s question is:

“Do you gather knowledgeable people around you?”

365QOD- Day1096

Before I start the post today I want to say THANKS…THANKS…THANKS for supporting me for three years in my writing endeavors. 

Three Years of Focus

“Focus”- word my wife wrote in pencil on a wall next to my side of the bed

Three years ago on February 1, 2011 I started writing this blog.  My wife’s word was a spark.  Another spark was reading Ka-Ching and wanting to apply it.  These sparks have led me to continuously write a daily blog for each of the 1095=365*3 days.

Each year I try to reflect as to why I continue to write the posts.  The funny thing is that my wife is now one of my biggest non-supporters.  She thinks it is a waste of my time.  I completely disagree.

My blog serves as a database of experiences, stories, and  my thoughts on many subjects.  It is me without too much being held back.  I write about whatever catches my eye, makes me pause for a moment, or simply excites me.  You can look at the topics and clearly see where my thoughts are directed towards:

acceptance, action, balance, belief,ben, brand, branding, business, celebrating, change, communicating, communication, communications, connections, creativity,            decision making, demanding,  Direction,  doing, entrepreneur, exceeding, fear,  

feelings, financial, flow, focus, Franklin,giving, grit, happiness, I am, influence,       integrity, leadership, learning, learning about others, learning from others, life mission, making mistakes, mastery, memorable, 

momentum, motivation, passion,persistence, PMP,    procrastination, receiving,       result, routine, sources, spiritual, strategy, stretching,  success, success intelligence, teamwork, transitions, zen

Most of all, the blog allows me to fulfill my deepest need- to be creative each day.  It is my drug of choice.  I get a natural high from just stopping and writing a few paragraphs.  Sometimes I will read an older post and immediately see the beauty that I tried to express.

The blog is also one of my biggest challenges.   I am not a natural writer or editor.  Most often I write quickly and do not do enough proof reading.  When I sit down at the end of the year to put the book together I find it so frustrating that I did not catch 90+ percent of the mistakes. 

However, I do believe that overall the quality and length are getting better.  I do read the post most of the time before I hit publish.  And naturally over time I have increased the length in order to improve the quality of the content.  The numbers of readers are up so maybe I am succeeding.

Again, THANKS for your support and hopefully year four will be better than the first three combined.  I will be working to make it worth your while to invest the time in reading it.

Today’s question is:

“How do you make yourself to keep going for extended amount of time?”

365QOD- Day1095

Designing an App

“What should I build an app for?”- a good question

According to Gary Vaynerchuk, a social media expert, most people’s cell phones contain three types of apps:”

1.    Social Networking, which tells you that people are interested in other people

2.    Entertainment, including games and music apps, which tells you that people want to escape

3.    Utility, including maps, notepads, organizers, and weight loss management systems, which tells you that people value service.”

So lets take the three ideas: Social Networking, Entertainment, and Utility and play with them.  Suppose we would create an app that combines Social Networking and Entertainment.  In other words it could be a game that we learn about other people in a small friends circle by posing a statement that is true about someone in the group that people would figure out who it is.

How about combining Social Networking and Utility?  A group weight loss program that allows you to see what everyone is doing would fit that niche. 

Suppose we chose Entertainment and Utility.  We could have a map of all of the stars in a particular city at one time by using their social presence information.  For those who love to track their stars this will allow them to try to meet their stars if they are interested.

The point of this exercise is to show you that one can generate many new ideas by combining features of what people already use.  You can see quickly how one can come up with several app ideas that might just take off.  The app might be the next Facebook.  You don’t think so!  Who would have thought that 10 years ago Facebook would take off? 

Today’s question is:

“What app would you design?”