365QOD- Day1300

$3000 Per Day

"333 Days of work, 32 days off"- a great formula

What does it take to make a million dollars per year?  
For 250 working days, 50 weeks of work, weekends off
1M/250= $4000/ day

For 365 working days and no time
1M/365= $2740/day

For 333 working days, and about a month off
1M/333= $3000/day

Why am I showing this?  Do I make $3000 per day?  Not yet!  It is my goal to have residual income coming in that equals that amount.  

Notice that I did say residual.  The formulas above are based on working your tail off to get to those amounts.  What I am talking about is developing products that people need that earns the same level of income continuously whether you are working on not.

So what do I believe it takes?  

In my study of others who are successful at that level, I believe that 
1.  Identify the need that you see in others
2.  Create a pipeline of products OR find a pipeline of products. 
3.  Once the pipeline has been determined, you have to put out a minimum product that satisfies the need quickly.  
4.  The product has to be sold and sold and sold.  Selling is the bloodline of any business.   
5.  Learn from customer feedback.  
6.  Modify your offers and improve and put it back on the market.  

Today's question is:
"How will you make your $3000 per day?"

365QOD- Day1299

Failure is R&D

"We need to think of failure as a result."- my words

The other day as I was driving I heard the line, "Failure is R&D" on the Eventual Millionaire show.  It is so cool!  It should be on a T-Shirt.  I would by one if it exists.

The idea behind my first book, The Result, is that often in life we do not get complete failure or success.  But we always get a result.  So we need to think of how that result can be nudged towards a better result.

The idea that failure is R&D fits the message that I am trying to convey.  Do not look at the result as failure but as research that you will use to develop your next strategy.  
Do something.  
Reconstruct it.
Learn something. 
Try something better. 
Repeat

Today's question is:
"Do you see your attempts as R&D?"

365QOD- Day1298

Focus

"Focus is a noun and a verb"- title of a U99.com story

As the article teaches,

"Focus as a Noun. When people speak of focus they usually mean having a single goal. It is a static thing, a thing you have…"

In other words, it is the singular goal that we are reaching towards.  It is the ultimate state we are trying to reach.  One reached, our focus has been reached. 

"Focus as a Verb. Focus is not just something you have it is also something you  do. This type of focus is not static; it is an intense, dynamic, ongoing, iterative  process."

The verb definition teaches us that to reach the goal we must act.  The action must be persistent.  It must intense. It can not end until we reach our goal.  

Notice that the title indicates that we need both by the use of "and".  We must have a goal and take persistent and intense actions towards it.  Otherwise we are not focused.

Which one is more important?

"The answer is to develop and value both types of focus. Professor Henry Mintzberg taught that there are two sources of strategy: deliberate  strategy, where leaders develop a clear vision and map this to long,  medium and short term goals (focus as a noun) and emergent strategy, where people respond to unanticipated problems and opportunities (focus as a verb). It is the disciplined pursuit of both of these approaches that  best enables us to focus on what is essential. We can plot this on a two by two to see what is at stake."

You can visualize this as:

Today's question is:

"Do you have focus and focus?"

365QOD- Day1297

I Will Find Out

"Rather than nodding your head when you don’t know what someone is talking  about, or blindly guessing an answer (only to be proven wrong), give yourself  permission to not know it all. Simply admit that you don’t know the answer, while  adding that you’re happy to find out and tell them the answer later. Not only will 
you save yourself from   potential embarrassment,  you’ll be perceived as more 
reliable and trustworthy."- Hamza Khan article on U99.com website about not knowing the answer by Jason Freedman

I believe that the worst thing we can do when we do not know is to claim knowledge.  This comes naturally to me.  BUT I find that others struggle with this idea.  They would rather pretend that they know the answer and not showing that kink in their armor.

As Khan notes in his article, 

"..up to 70 percent of people have suffered from impostor syndrome at some point in their lives."

This leads us to mistrust the source.  If they are unwilling to admit lack of knowledge than how do we trust anything that they are saying or claiming as expertise.  We simply default to the position of complete mistrust.

So the best strategy to handle this situation is the suggestion that  Jason Freedman of 42 Floors offers:

"Saying I don’t know… turns a question into a homework assignment.  As long as I  follow up with the answer later, they never mind. And it’s 1000x better than  bullshitting a half answer."

I believe that this is better.  The best is to tell the person this and add a date by which you will give them the answer.

Today's question is:

"Do you give yourself homework assignments and due dates?"

365QOD- Day1296

Listening vs. Hearing- Part3

“If it has meaning for me, I will listen."-   foolish belief

In a recent article on U99.com Stephanie Kaptein wrote about Aspen Ideas Festival  podcast series on Creative Listening.  Today is part three of my thoughts and break down of that article.

Part 3 of Creative Listening is Amp up your curiosity

I realize that life is full of learning opportunities.  These opportunities are hidden in messages and are found in different sources.  At times we get comfortable in our knowledge in a particular industry that unless that industry changes drastically we feel safe.  This is also what gets us in trouble and stymies our growth.

To amp up your curiously we have to behave like a small child.  They are thirsting with curiously.  The curiosity muscle is still working inside them.  It is still flexible and open to understanding and hearing.

The podcast recommend that we ask ourselves,
Why is this true?
or even simply keep asking Why? at least 5-7 times(The 5-Why technique) to get to the truth of the message.  

Today's question is:
"How do you amp up your curiosity?"

365QOD- Day1295

Listening vs. Hearing- Part2

“Let me see if I can re-state what I heard?"-   interpreting a message

Part 2 of Creative Listening is To hone your interpretation skills.

At times knowledge is so industry based taht unless we are a part of that industry we can quickly loose interest.  We might not even see the value of how that information is relevant to us.  This we where most people fail.  Knowledge basics are often transferable and a success in one area could produce success in often unrelated field. 

The podcast recommend that we ask ourselves,
What is the essence of the message?
What is the simplest way to restate it?

Note that looking for the essence and simplest way to re-phase it might seem like you are trying to dumb it down to the message sender.  Do not worry about that.  Simply offer that you are trying to truly hear what it is being said.

As Stephanie Kaptain states,
"...Distilling a message down to its essence, into simple, understandable language isn’t  “dumbing it down,” it’s giving it wings. . ."

Today's question is:
"Do you give wings to the messages of others?"

365QOD- Day1294

Listening vs. Hearing

“There’s a lot of difference between listening and hearing.”-  G. K. Chesteron

In a recent article on U99.com Stephanie Kaptein wrote about Aspen Ideas Festival  podcast series on Creative Listening.  I want to take the next three days to take apart the learnings.

Part 1 of Creative Listening is Utilize your intuition.

Often times information tends to come at us as if we were drinking from a fire hose.  It is filling us up too quickly.  It can be at times overwhelming and never ending.

The podcast offers the suggestion that we must ask ourselves
“What’s really important here?” 
“What’s going on behind the surface?",
"What is the unsaid  versus the said?”

These questions allow us to focus on the logic of what is being presented instead of the information that is quickly coming at is.  By focusing on the logic behind the message we might be able to understand the message.  

Today's question is:
"Do you ever listen with tour intuition?"

365QOD- Day1293

Learning by Teaching

"People recall more and learn better when they expect to teach that  information to another person, a new study finds…

The likely reason why this fairly simple trick works is that it tends to automatically activate more successful learning strategies, the kind routinely  used by teachers…"- Jeremy Dean on PsyBlog

I read this line and immediately though to myself, "Isn't this obvious?"  Well, maybe it is obvious to me but not necessarily to others.  Why?

As someone who has instructed close to 70 different courses in my life, I always felt that I just needed to be ahead of the students in the subject in order to teach it.  I never felt that I had to be an expert to profess my knowledge BUT rather I needed to be willing to figure out how to most effectively transfer the knowledge and provide examples of how to apply it.  

Teaching for me served as a way of taking knowledge and organizing it for others.  As the quote advises, we activate more successful learning strategies by forcing ourselves to teach others.  This is exactly what happened with each course I instructed.  I forced myself to quickly learn, organize the subject, think of strategy on how to present it, and how to demonstrate how to apply it.  

Interestingly enough I find that there is a lack of teaching in the work place.  Why?  Most people feel that by teaching they are taking something away from themselves.  I do not believe this.  I believe that they do not know the subject material enough to organize their thoughts and present it well enough for the other person to learn it.  

Today's question is:

"Do you teach your co-workers?

365QOD- Day1292

Your Potential

"You are Mr. Potential."- sarcastic words 

I have used those words to be a smart guy.  People love to believe that they can do anything.  And as adults I believe we can do anything.  But we often we don't.

The other day I was listening to an Eventual Millionaire podcast with Grant Cordone when he gave an interesting formula for success:

Success= MyPotential-MyReality

What is interesting about the equation is that often we tend to believe in our selves and we simply judge ourselves on the potential we have.  Therefore, our potential, MyPotential, is very high.

The second part of that equation is MyReality is where the magic occurs.  A truthful examination of all aspects of one's life has to be conducted to evaluate what is the true reality.  You only know what are the different dimensions along which you want to evaluate your life.  SOme might be physical, emotional, metal, spiritual, relationships, financial, etc.

Now imagine that you believe that, on a scale 0-100, your potential at teh moment is 80 but your reality is only 60.  The difference is 20.  In a different example, is your potential is 80 and your reality is 80 then the difference is 0.

Which is better?

I believe that the second example means that you are living up to your potential and that you would be better off.  The equation really should be:

MySuccess= 1/(MyPotential-MyReality)    

with the difference between MyPotential an MyReality never being equal(bottom can not equal 0)

The closer the reality is to reaching my potential then the larger my success.

Today's question is:
"How close are your potential and reality?"

365QOD- Day1291

90-90-1 Rule

"For the next 90 days, devote the first 90 minutes of your work day to the one best opportunity in your life. Nothing else. Zero distractions. Just get that  project done. Period."- Robin Sharma

One of the excuses that most of us use is lack of time.  I believe that today it is easier to execute an idea.  The cost of executing an idea has also dropped dramatically in the last twenty years.  Time is the last frontier that people have not conquered.

One of the ideas from financial world is to pay yourself first if you want to be financially free.  The 90-90-1 rule is an application of pay yourself first rule to execution.  It is a game changer.

Brian Tracy often urges to eat your frog first thing in the morning. Frog signifies something that you are scared to do and might be a game changer.  So he urges to do the most intimidating thing first.

Robin Sharma offers a slightly different variation on the do it first theme.  He says to give yourself 90 minutes for 90 days to the number one opportunity in your life.  Will it work?  I believe it will because most people can not stick to a routine for 90 days.  They quit too soon.  Or even better believe that skipping a day doesn't matter.

The advice is to do it for 90 minutes for 90 days.  It does not say star and stop.  So my interpretation is that if you stop then you must start again at day 1.

Today's question is:

"Could you apply yourself using teh 90-90-1 rule to your number one opportunity?"

365QOD- Day1290

BrainStorming vs. BrainWriting

"1. In a typical six- or eight-person group, three people do  70 percent  of the  talking.
 2. Early ideas tend to have disproportionate influence over the rest of the  conversation. "- Kellogg School of Management Research

Many of us have been taught that when there is a need to solve a problem, the best strategy is to get everyone involved.  Get them involved and pull out ideas by using brainstorming.  Usually the process is one in which a facilitator tries to engage everyone.

       Based on the research findings, a small sub-group dominates the conversation.  SO we tend to believe that everyone contributes BUT in reality three people dominate the conversation.  That is a complete opposite of the commonly accepted belief.

        The second finding is even more dangerous.  Unless the initial ideas are perfect the solutions will often be poor.  

        The researchers offer a three step improvement that is based on brainwriting instead of brainstorming:

       "Step 1: Write just one sentence each. For the first five or 10 minutes of your  next idea-generation meeting, every team member writes down  one good  idea or one proposed  solution on, say, each of a small stack of index cards.

Step 2: Consider the idea, not the source. When the timer goes off, all cards are submitted anonymously and taped or thumb-tacked to a wall for the whole team’s consideration.

Step 3: Put it to a blind vote. Team members signal their interest in an idea by marking it  with a sticker or a Post-it note. Everyone gets a limited  number of  stickers and, if done right,  the best  ideas emerge quickly."

I happen to use this technique with a senior design project group and I can tell you that it does work.  Ideas are presented and voted on without anyone controlling the conversation or quality of idea.

Today's question is:

"Have you ever tried BrainWriting?"

365QOD- Day1289

Video Money

"Who is making money on YouTube?"- My question 

Lately I have read several stories about YouTube.  The one I read today was about the top 20 earners on YouTube.  It peaked my curiosity.

As I read the article I tried to understand how each earner was making money.  It was obvious very quickly.  I would have never guessed it before reading the article.

Majority of the top 20 earned their money by reviewing video games, reviewing toys, and a couple performing comedy.  Reviewing games? Yup, people are clicking on ads and following other people playing and reviewing games.

To me, maybe I am old, makes no sense.  Maybe it does?

I remember when I was in high school.  Video game arcades were very popular and pretty new.  I can not remember ever beating a game.  I got better as I put more quarters in but I can not claim that I ever completed a game by being the top scorer.

So why would anyone want to want someone else playing and giving them insight into how to beat the game?  Well, they want the shortcut to beat the game.  But they are not beating the game but simply mimicking the play of another person.  It is cheating and based on the millions of subscribers people want the solution and do not enjoy the journey to discover the solution for themselves.

Today's question is:
"What would people pay to get a shortcut?"

365QOD- Day1288

Three Questions of New Team Members

"1. Will you admire this person?

2. Will this person raise the average level of effectiveness of the group they're entering?

3. Along what dimensions might this person be a superstar?"- Jeff Bezos' criteria for Amazon's hiring

I was reading an article today and came across these three questions.  As a person who has interviewed many and hired few, I immediately wanted to drill down into them.  So let us do so.

The first question is really asking if this person is worth admiring.  Will this be a person that others will respect and want to be more like.  If they can be admired then they can become a leader.  This question strictly focuses on leadership potential.

Second question evaluates the person ability to improve the team.  You can be a superstar but the team sucks.  If you can not improve the team than you are never going to win the championship.

Last question evaluates the uniqueness of the person.  A team that is made up of many divergent talents is stronger at solving problems than a team whose strengths are along a single dimension.  I have seen this and written about it in a post story in which a team made up of different skill sets solves a problem that no single individual could by themselves. Amazon is looking for that outlier that brings a unique point of view to solving its problems.

So Amazon is really asking our question of the day.

Today's question is:

"Are you a unique team improving leader?"

365QOD- Day1287

The Why, How, and What

"Sunny Bonnell, co-founder and creative director of Motto, explains: Figure out what you stand for and what you believe in, and use that as your point of difference. In a crowd of designers, how will you stand apart? If you’re guilty of leading with what you do, start with why you do it and articulate that on your materials, website and social channels. Find out where your talents and values meet, and use that to leverage the power of your purpose."- U99 article, Follow Your Why Not Your What

It is known that often times the reason that we fail is that the Why is not bigger than our How.  I have written a few posts discussing this idea.  In a recent post  I even examined that beliefs are what the Why is truly based on.  In order for the Why to be truly bigger than the How we must spend time evaluating our beliefs. 

This quote adds to the right side of the equation.  Since Why has to be bigger than the How then we can have one of two possibilities the How is greater than the what, How>What, or the What is greater than the how, What>How.  The reason I believe that it must be the How>What version is that usually supervisor will know how to best do a job and an employee will be told what needs to be done. 

To be a complete winner, work on your beliefs which will confirm your Why.  Once you know Why you want to achieve something, get into the details of the process and completely understand how to complete the goal.  The What is the actual quality of the How work that you complete.

So mane sure your beliefs align so your Why is greater than your How which will make it easy to do the What.

Today's question is:

"Are your beliefs aligned to benefit from the Why>How>What equation?" 

365QOD- Day1287

The One Time Rule

"A recent study found that the average worker loses approximately 80 hours per years as a result of disorganization. That’s nearly two weeks of vacation! When invoices, receipts, contracts. and drafts are piled up everywhere, you’re likely to waste hours shuffling papers from one pile to another."  - U99 article Hamza Khan

Many people claim that they do not have enough time in their day to achieve the goals that they have set for themselves.  It is one reason along with money.  But that is an excuse that can easily be removed by following a simple rule.

"Ann Gomez of Clear Concept Inc. emphasizes the touch it once principle:  Process each task the first time you touch it."

This simple rule needs to be applied to many aspects of our lives.  It is not simply for paper.  It can be applied to emails, calls, bill paying, etc.  The secret is to simply batch your work. 

Batching your work means that you handle like tasks together.  SO if you decide to do email you go in and do it until your mailbox is empty.  If you are going to call people then call everyone that you need to do so within a block of time.   This simple rule of doing it once will end up in increasing the amount of time you have to do the things that lead to your goal.

Today's question is:

"Do you follow the one time rule?"

365QOD- Day1286

Improving YouTube

I read a long Fast Company story on YouTube.  It was suppose to be a great piece taht touts the attempts of the new leader to improve relationships with creators.  Like I said it was a puff piece.

That is what pissed me off.  I love YouTube.  You can always find a great video to learn how to do something.  It is like have thousands of video libraries sitting on my desk.  But how they compensate the talent is horrible.

Ever since Google bought YouTube they have been looking for ways to monetize it.  It seems like before I can see a video I am forced to always look at an ad.  I do not have a problem with that.  What I have a problem with is the number of ads that I have to view.  It seems like after every two or three videos they run an ad.  Not cool!

In the article it talked about the compensation for some of the stars.  If you average 25 million views per month you might make $450,00- 900, 000 per year.  Think about that.  25M times twelve is 30 million views per year.  So you are getting paid less than 3 cents per view.  That is for original content.  Not for just posting a video that someone created.

My problem with the system is that if you could drive that level of an audience you deserve more than 3 cents on a dollar.  For creating books and posting them on Amazon you can get a 70 percent profit.  If you create an app you get a 70% share of the profit.  So why does YouTube not adapt that model?  A great question.

Today's question is:

"Would you create more videos if you could get a 70% profit from YouTube?

365QOD- Day1285

Team Meeting Effectiveness-Process

“Before the meeting please read and get ready to discuss X.”- My instructions

Continuing with our three post team meeting improvement series.

Before a Purpose can be stated out load, the Outcomes clearly stated at beginning and end of meeting, the team needs to be given instructions(the Process) what is expected before the meeting.  What!  Any meeting that needs to solve a problem will require preparation  from team members OR additional time during the meeting.

I like the additional time during meeting technique.  Jeff Bezos uses this technique with  his teams.  He asks for a paper of what will be discussed.  The team starts the meeting by  reading the paper and when all people are done, the discussion begins.  This allows people to read and understand the information before they have to contribute to the meeting.  It eliminates people from having to lie that they did their homework.

Meetings should only be held to solve a problem.  If you want to just “share information”  then send it to people and require that they signal back that they read it and accept  responsibility for having it read.   Do not waste time by sharing info with everyone  together.

I also like standing meetings.  If you want something done, then make everyone stand  during the whole time that a meeting is taking place. This eliminates any unnecessary chit chat and forces the team to focus on the topic at hand.

Today’s question is:

“How well do you prepare your team for success ahead of the meeting time?”

365QOD- Day1284

Team Meeting Effectiveness-Outcomes

“Anything we get, we will take.”- Acceptance of bad results

Continuing with our three post team meeting improvement series.

After a Purpose has been stated out load, the team needs to know why this meeting is  important.  The best way to get this information to the team is to clearly specify what is  the desired Outcome of the team meeting.  This is the O in the POP technique.

The clarify of the desired outcome needs to be obvious.  If we do this meeting then we will produce this desired outcome.  And more importantly, at the end of the meeting, restate  the desired outcome and whether it was achieved.

In my opinion anytime you need multiple outcomes you need to schedule multiple meetings.  Cramming outcomes in one meeting makes the meeting too long and often times  ineffective.  The team burns out and it jeopardizes whether anything will get concluded.

Today’s question is:

“Do you state the desired Outcome at the beginning AND confirm achievement at end of  the meeting?”

365QOD- Day1283

Team Meeting Effectiveness-Purpose

“If you do not know where you are going then any road will lead you there”- An old adage

Meetings are a necessary evil.  Often times it requires more than two people to agree to a  path forward and to discuss results.  So the concept of meeting is an important part of the workplace.

Unfortunately, most meetings are not effective.  Most teams dread having meetings and  only attend because they believe they have to.  Is that really true?

So how do you improve a meeting?  

In next three posts I want to share the POP technique.  The first P is for Purpose.  Without a purpose a meeting is just a get together during which people just have conversation.   With a purpose the team can be unified and can help solve a problem.

I recommend that the start of any meeting needs to begin with the leader of the meeting  stating out loud what the purpose of the meeting is.  This is the key.  And it is especially  important for regular meetings.  Over time people tend to forget why a meeting is  important.

People also forget the ground rules for the meeting.  These also need to be re-stated 

periodically if not every time.  It never hurts to remind people to ask constructive 

questions instead of lobbing bombs ate the presenter.

Today’s question is:

“Do you loudly state the Purpose of a meeting at the beginning of the meeting?”

365QOD- Day1282

Living the Best Life Possible

“Life is best lived from inside out”- Wisdom

I believe that any effort worthwhile has to starts with an internal want to make it  happen.  Sometimes the effort needs to be repeated because as my first book, The Result, teaches that  you might not get quite what you want in the long term.

I heard this quote while driving the other day and immediately knew I had to use  it.  You have to be working on the inside in order to improve your life on the  outside.  The funny thing is the inside is the only thing we have control of.  We  can decide to change something about ourselves and then start.  Others can tell  you you should not and even shun you BUT they can not stop you from changing you.

If you want a better physical life, you can define it and start slowly towards that  physical goal.  You want to run a marathon then start by walking a mile then  jogging a half mile then running a quarter mile, and lastly sprinting a hundred  meter dash. Then increase it a little.  

If you want better spiritual life, start by making a decision to be grateful.   Randomly each hour start noticing what you are doing and what you could be  grateful for.  If you are stuck in traffic, be grateful that you have a car to be stuck in traffic.

If you want better emotional life, consider which relationship if improved could lead to the most drastic improvement in your life.  Start keeping a gratitude journal on that person and what they mean to you and how you could appreciate them  better.

If you want to improve your mental abilities, start by deciding what you want to be an expert in a coupel of years and then each day take a step towards that goal by reading and working with the subject for 30-60 minutes each day. 

It all starts with an internal decision that no one needs to know BUT you have to  follow through with some action.

Today's question is:

"What decision did you make today on the inside?"