Be better, be different or be cheaper.

   Read this on Seth Godin's blog today: "be better, be different or be cheaper." This is it in a nutshell. People complain about how they can't find a good paying job or why people don't buy their products. The reason is the people aren't finding a way to be either of the first two and the store/manufacturer isn't finding a way to be any of the three. Or you can choose to blame the government or the economy or China if you prefer. However that is just thinking about your perceived cause of your problem rather than moving forward to the solution. As I've said before: the world has changed. Deal with it.

Profound Idea About "Tomorrow"

     Thought provoking quote from Seth Godin: “If you could do tomorrow over again, would you?”

     If the answer is no I think you really need to think about that concept. If you know already that you are not going to enjoy your day and that you wouldn't want to repeat it why live that life? I know it's easy to explain all the reasons why you're trapped but I also have come to realize you can have fun doing almost anything if you have the right attitude. There isn't anything really remarkable about my job but I can tell you that day in and day out I have fun at work. It's about the people, the situations, the passion and most of all finding things to smile and laugh about.  

The World Has Changed-Deal With It

     Staying in a nice hotel for a Conference this weekend. Hotel was nice enough to provide a bottle of water on the night stand. But wait! Sign on it says if I drink it there will be a $5.95 charge on my hotel bill. The world has changed. People expect more and they don't want to be nickel and dimed to death. In my opinion the hotel would be better off not providing the water. I still remember renting a car from National in Albany, New York and being given two free cold bottles of water and the woman coming to the vehicle to explain all the little features that change on cars that those of us who rent cars all the time have to take a moment to figure out (radio controls, headlights, trunk release, adjusting seats etc.). Other things being equal I will rent again from National.
     Unfortunately it looks like this hotel belongs with our school system that still thinks teaching our children to memorize things they can look up in 30 seconds on their phone and the US Postal Service that lost $8.5 billion this year providing the same six day  a week delivery that they did when the world depended on snail mail and used it in great volume.
     The world has changed. Deal with it. You and your business need to evolve or die.

This Is Awesome

     A passage from Dumblittleman.com about complaining:

• Have a plan.
  I find it quite irritating when people complain about their job or people they work with or how they're bored with whatever it is they're doing at the moment. I find it even more irritating when people have no answer to the question "and what are you doing about it?" Some people have given it some thought and others just stare blankly as if to say "There's something I can do?" If you're unhappy with any situation make a plan on how you can change it. How are you going to take control and make your situation better?

Time

     One quick way to get me irritated is to say: "I wish I had time to do that" in response to someone's story about their interests or how they spend their time. We all have 24 hours in the day. Don't sleep nine hours a day. Don't run a farm that doesn't make you a nickel. Don't push your kids into hobbies that barely interest them and then consume both of your lives. You choose how to use up your time.
     I saw a great speech by Gary Vaynerchuk today on Youtube. It was all about chasing your passions in life. The gist of what he said is if you have to work nine to five then you do this in your other hours. Work nine to five,  come home, spend a couple of hours with the family and then seven to two are prime hours. Don't argue about the semantics of the time. Nine to two, ten to two, whatever. We all have time. He accentuated the point with an awesome quote: "You have time. Stop watching fucking Lost!"

Link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhqZ0RU95d4

Simplicity.

     I've been making a real effort of late to spend time with the people I know who are intelligent, who have new ideas, who add value. I'm a big believer in the concept that who you become and how you much you grow is based on who you spend your time with. The common denominator I notice among these people is the ability and desire to relentlessly simplify. A great ability to understand what they are being told and frame it back to the source in much simpler terms that make it clearer. Here's a quote I found tonight: “The great artist and thinker are the simplifiers.” — Henri Frederic Amiel. Next time you are faced with a problem make it simpler. Then make it simpler. Then make it simpler. Next time you are sending an e-mail find a portion that doesn't matter and remove it or find a way to rephrase it with less and shorter words. Simplicity. Try it. I think you'll like it.

Make It Easy For Me.....

    Yet another simple concept......You need to make the thing you want people to do, the easiest thing for them to do. I got a piece of paper from my childen's school that said: "Go Green, Go Paperless". The school was asking me to opt out of receiving the paper copy of the school's monthly newsletter.I was initially interested as I thought they were finally going to start e-mail communication. However that wasn't the case. They were suggesting that I could go every month to the website and look at the monthly newsletter. Asking me to move from having the newsletter pushed to me to having to pull the newsletter from the website is not going to entice many people. It isn't that difficult to create an e-mail group or even better to have me go to the website and sign up to receive the newsletter. Then there was a deadline I had to respond by if I wanted to do it. If you're committed to doing this to "save paper" (and the school money) you can probably deal with the few people that will submit their form after the artificial deadline.
     The point is......walk a mile in your customer's shoes. Yes I am a customer of the school. I pay for a service. In this situation you are trying to change my behavior to suit your needs. Fair enough but it needs to be a win/win. Think about what would make it easiest for me and offer me a compromise. Expecting me to embrace a concept that adds work to my side of the equation is not going to be widely accepted and probably will not result in you meeting your target, unless you set it very low.