M+Ms

A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.

by Chris Allen on July 5, 2021

I know the word “violently” is off-putting to some, so feel free to substitute “passionately,” “aggressively,” or even “haphazardly” in your mind instead.

A similar quote you might like is, “Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction.” I still prefer General Patton’s, though, because I never see myself as being in a state of inaction.

I can easily convince myself that all my mental plotting and planning is actually taking action, when it’s really not. But I can never convince myself that all the gears turning in my head are anything close to actually “executing a plan,” so General Patton gets my butt in gear — in keeping with his well-deserved reputation.

In Business:

It’s often better to be first and mediocre than second and superior. Remember videotapes? Beta was smaller with better picture-quality, but VHS was there first and won the battle.

Software developers have coined the term MVP, which stands for “Minimum Viable Product.” It goes like this:

Here’s the basic problem we’re solving. Let’s not worry about all the bells and whistles and additional features right now. Let’s get a minimal viable product out there as quickly as possible, so we gain market share quickly before someone else comes along and becomes the de facto standard.

Besides, once it’s in the hands of the users, features we thought were important might not interest them at all. Plus, they’ll provide us with feedback for features that are important to them that we never even considered.

Good enough is good enough! Let’s just get something out there to see if we’re even on the right track. We can always polish it up and add some features in version 2.0.

In Life:

Stop procrastinating and get on with it!

One of my favorite book titles is Ready, Fire, Aim by Michael Masterson. His assertion is that most people think of making a decision — “pulling the trigger” on a decision — as if they were shooting a bullet out of a gun. Once it’s gone, there’s nothing you can do to alter its course. So you better take your time and make absolutely sure you’re doing the right thing before you pull the trigger, because there’s no turning back.

In reality, he points out, most decisions are more like launching a guided missile. Once the missile is the air, it must make many adjustments along the way in order to zero in on its intended target (or goal). The most important thing is that you go ahead and fire the missile. Only then will you be able to make the inevitable course corrections.

There’s no sense in leaving the missile sitting on the launching pad while you go over and over (and over) your initial settings. The fact is, you’re guaranteed to make thousands of adjustments along the way.

So what are you waiting for? Ready, Fire, Aim!

So remember…

A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week.
– Gen. George S. Patton

Achieve your meaning through creativity, not consumption.

by Chris Allen on July 4, 2021

See if you remember this TV ad jingle from the seventies: “I’m a Pepper, he’s a Pepper, she’s a Pepper, we’re a Pepper! If you drink Dr. Pepper, you’re a Pepper, too!”

Hey, if you want to be a Pepper, that’s fine. One of the keys to life, though, is to not just be a Pepper.

By all means, go ahead and drink a certain soda, drive a certain car, don’t let anything come between you and a certain pair of jeans (if you remembered the jingle; you’ll remember the jeans ad), but draw the bulk of your identity and self-worth from what you’re putting out into the world, and not from what you’re taking in.

In Business:

Creativity in business means distinguishing yourself from the others in your market. Creative marketing cuts through the clutter, and rises above the noise.

In the book, Blue Ocean Strategy, the authors compare all the copycat, me-too businesses out there to trying to survive in a red ocean, murky with the blood of all the mediocre businesses vying for a scrap of market share.

They suggest using your creativity to take your business into a blue ocean, where there is no competition. To do this, think about your product or service and ask yourself what can be added or taken away that would give your customers a new experience, and even carve out a new market or niche for your business.

An example they give is Jiffy Lube. Before, if you wanted to get a routine oil change, you had to deal with a full-service garage, drop your car off, or wait for a couple of hours until they could work you in.

Jiffy Lube stripped away all the other services and just focused on oil changes. It made it irresistibly convenient to have this routine maintenance performed on a regular basis with no appointment, thus creating a new sub-niche in the car repair market. They created a blue ocean.

What can you add or take away to enhance the core experience of your customers and create your own blue ocean?

In Life:

Think about the labels you use to describe yourself. Jot down the first ten that come to mind.

Now look over the list and see how many of your labels are consumption-based and how many are creative-based.

For example, “avid reader” is consumption, while “writer” is creative. “Beer drinker” is consumption, and “home-brewer” is creative. You get the idea.

A balanced list equals a balanced life.

So remember…

Achieve your meaning through creativity, not consumption.
– Dan Sullivan

Work on your business, not in your business.

by Chris Allen on June 29, 2021

Major game-changer. This is one of the key takeaways from Michael Gerber’s insightful book, The E-Myth Revisited. If I could only recommend one book to someone starting their own business, it would be that one.

In Business:

The idea behind the quote is that most people start their business because they like doing the technical work involved. But that’s no guarantee of success, and is often a recipe for disaster.

Physically building cabinets and growing a successful cabinet-making business require two completely different skill-sets. When you enjoy the technical work, it’s too easy to lose yourself in the role of technician — “doing it, doing it, doing it” — and completely neglect the roles of manager or creator, which are crucial in guiding your business to profit and long-term sustainability.

Mr. Gerber even goes so far as to suggest the average plumber’s assistant who’s thinking about striking out on his own would likely have more success opening a dog-grooming business. Since he has no knowledge of dog-grooming, he would be forced to work on the business, developing efficient systems and marketing campaigns, instead of loosing himself in the business by grooming dogs all day.

In Life:

Systems and routines lead to personal success, as well. Just like interest in a savings account, it’s the compound effect of small, daily habits and tiny steps toward your life goals that grow exponentially over time to culminate in high achievement and major advancements.

Another way to step back from living and look objectively at the course of your life is to have “to be” goals.

In his book, Psycho-Cybernetics, Dr. Maxwell Maltz said that most people have plenty of “to do” goals (I want to visit Paris) and “to get” goals (I want to own a yacht), but they rarely have “to be” goals.

If you’d like to own a yacht someday, ask yourself, “What kind of person is able to buy a yacht? What kind of habits and work ethic do they have? What do I need to do to become that type of person?”

This exercise will help you work on your life, instead of just living in your life.

So remember…

Work on your business, not in your business.
– Michael Gerber

The most important story you tell about yourself is the story you tell yourself.

by Chris Allen on June 29, 2021

This is very similar to one of my other favorite quotes by Henry Ford: “Whether you think you can’t or think you can, you’re right.”

I include this one because it specifically references the power of story, which is actually the title of Sports Psychologist Jim Loehr’s book (The Power of Story).

Always remember, people would rather hear a story than a fact. Don’t believe me? Walk around a bookstore and see how much shelf-space is devoted to fiction verses non-fiction. How many of the top-grossing movies this year will be documentaries?

In Business:

What’s the story of your business? It can be the most important relationship-building tool for your customers and the most important motivational tool for yourself.

A powerful business story usually involves a goal larger than you. In the nineties, and based partly on the success of the movie Jerry Maguire, mission statements became a popular way of defining a business’ core principles and values.

What does your business stand for and what ultimate outcome would you like your business to achieve for your customers or clients? Weave the answers into a short, compelling story and you’re off to a great start.

If you ever watched The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, you probably remember the human-interest stories done by correspondent Charles Kuralt. He called his segment On The Road, and he travelled the country in his Winnebago, looking for interesting people.

In the late sixties, one person he encountered in his travels worked at NASA. He was a janitor there, and he kept his section absolutely spotless.

When Kuralt asked him, “What’s your job here at NASA?” he replied without missing a beat, “My job is to put a man on the moon.”

That’s the power of the story we tell ourselves about ourselves.

In Life:

Always be on the lookout for self-limiting stories rattling around in your head, because those tend to be the ones we playback the most. What’s the telltale sign of a self-limiting story? It’s usually one that keeps you from taking action.

Also, just because a story was true once doesn’t mean it’s still true today. Years ago, you may have tried and failed at something due to a legitimate obstacle in your way, but that may not be the case today.

Zig Ziglar used to talk about seeing a huge elephant behind the scenes at the circus. A flimsy piece of rope tied around his leg and fastened to a small, wooden stake was all that kept him from wandering off. He asked the trainer, “How can that little piece of rope hold that big elephant?”

The trainer explained, “When he was a baby we used a big chain, and he tried to pull away but couldn’t. Now, just the rope is enough because he doesn’t try anymore.”

Chains may have held you back earlier in your life, but they might be flimsy pieces of rope now. Take some time to re-examine the stories you tell yourself about yourself and prepare to be surprised!

So remember…

The most important story you tell about yourself is the story you tell yourself.
– Jim Loehr

You make your choices, then your choices make you.

by Chris Allen on June 28, 2021

How’s that for a bucket a cold, harsh reality thrown right in your face? Truer words were never spoken, though.

In Business:

A man decided to open a steak place. His father used to be in the restaurant business, so he asked him for some advice.

The father said, “Here’s the most important choice you have to make: either be the absolute cheapest steak place in town, or be the absolute best. If you’re somewhere in the middle, you’ll get eaten alive from both ends.”

These days, I think you really only have one choice: be the best and never, ever compete on price.

One of my all-time favorite talk-radio personalities is Bruce Williams, now retired. In his book, In Business For Yourself, he said the number one mistake he sees small business owners make is setting their prices too low.

So many entrepreneurs start a business thinking they’ll undercut the competition, and then make it up in volume. When the volume doesn’t materialize, they’re sunk.

You see this on eBay all the time, too. Somebody has a source where they can get widgets for $1 and sell them for $5. Then somebody tracks down the same source and will gladly sell it for $4. Somebody else comes along asking only $3. It’s a race to the bottom, and pretty soon there’s no incentive for anybody to sell the widget because there’s no margin in it.

Small retail businesses are always lamenting having to compete with Wal-Mart. If you ever find yourself in that predicament, make the choice to never compete on price.

As Dan Kennedy advises, pick a battle you can win. You’re never going to beat Wal-Mart on price, so compete in a different arena. What can you offer that Wal-Mart can’t?

Can you provide better, more personalized service? If you’re selling the same physical product as Wal-Mart, can you bundle it with value-added services to make your offering superior?

Get creative and — I’ll say it again just to hammer it home — make the choice to never, ever compete on price.

In Life:

All you have is right now. You can’t do anything to rewrite the past, and the only thing you can do to have any affect on the future is to take some sort of action right here, right now.

I’m sure you’ve seen a giant mosaic hanging on a wall of a museum, or maybe a hotel — thousands of small, colored tiles that, together, form a complete image.

That’s your life — a “mosaic of nows.” The choices you make in the now give each little tile its shape and color. What kind of picture do you want to create?

So remember…

You make your choices, then your choices make you.
— Jim Rohn